After appearing in the first five James Bond movies, Sean Connery had grown tired of the part and decided not to return.  On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the first Bond movie to feature someone else as Bond.  It also has elements that end up being more personal for Bond.

James Bond has a chance encounter with a beautiful woman that he saves before she takes off.  Not long after that, they meet again and James learns that her name is Tracy Di Vicenzo and sees that she seems troubled.  James also meets her father, Marc Ange Draco, who is a possible lead to Blofeld.  Tracy believes that James is only interested in her because he needs information from her father.  Once that is cleared up, they start spending time together and develop a relationship while James is still focused on finding Blofeld.

There was no real indication of how much time had passed since You Only Live Twice ended and when On Her Majesty's Secret Service started.  At one point, M mentions that James has been trying to catch Blofeld for two years.  The only real connection to the previous movies besides James was Blofeld.  Nothing specific that happened in the previous movies was mentioned, which has been normal with these movies.  At one point, there were a few minor references to the earlier movies that involved James looking at a few of the gadgets he'd used in prior missions.  The movie can mostly stand alone, though a few things will make more sense if the previous movies are watched first.

The plot for On Her Majesty's Secret Service works for the most part, though I did feel like it had a few problems.  James is still determined to catch Blofeld.  His determination is so strong that it almost seems like an obsession.  James eventually ends up tracking down Blofeld in the Alps where he has set up a research institute.  James is pretending to be someone else and has a disguise, but it wasn't that strong of a disguise.  James isn't concerned that Blofeld might recognize him since the two men had met face to face previously.  The movies were made in a different order than the books they were based on had been published.  I think that James and Blofeld first meet face to face in the book version of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but that was no longer the case for the movies.  It seems like the director just decided to ignore that, which just didn't work for me.  I also didn't think that the confrontation between James and Blofeld didn't work as well either.

Overall, I think that On Her Majesty's Secret Service has a slower pace.  The opening is a bit different, though it does still have some action.  Time was taken to set up the relationship between James and Tracy before he took off to deal with Blofeld again.  There are a few things connected to Tracy that aren't fully explained, which makes that aspect of the movie weaker in my opinion.  There are some action scenes, including several fights that do help to pick the pace up a bit.  I think Blofeld escaping in a bobsled is ridiculous and that just didn't work for me.  Some of the scenes had a lot of quick shots that I didn't care for either.  That did make it harder to tell who was who at times.  At one point there was a huge shootout and many people were hurt.  Even with that shootout, the violence was rather mild and shouldn't offend anyone.

It has been well established in the first Bond movies that James has a way with women.  James spotted Tracy very early in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.  He steps in to deal with a situation even though he has no idea who she is.  Soon after that, they meet again and end up spending the night together.  Their relationship developed very quickly, with only a few bits of it actually shown and it just wasn't that believable to me.  James is still willing to jump into bed with different women after his relationship with Tracy had started.  He even has sex with two different women in one night while at the institute.  Not long after that, he and Tracy are together again and James is professing his love for her and proposing.  It just didn't seem believable that James, a womanizer, would fall in love that fast and even propose.  It didn't seem right that he would still jump into bed with the other women when he was supposed to be developing feelings for Tracy.  I didn't care for how everything with their relationship worked out either.

James is almost obsessed with catching Blofeld, though he still manages to find time for romance.  On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the first of the Bond movies to feature someone other than Sean Connery as Bond.  George Lazenby was fine in the part, though I wasn't impressed with his performance either.  He wasn't horrible, but I just don't think he was right for the part.  M, Q, and Miss Moneypenny all show up briefly without having much of anything to do.

Tracy is the main female character and love interest for James.  She has her own issues that really aren't fully dealt with by the end of the movie.  She seems to enjoy dangerous situations and frequently rushes into things without fully thinking.  Diana Rigg handled the part well.  Tracy's father is only around in a few scenes, so he is a rather flat character.  James does spend time with the women at the institute, but none of them were really developed even though they were going to play an important part in Blofeld's plan.

Blofeld is once again plotting to control the world and causing trouble for James.  This time, Blofeld is planning to use a biological weapon and has many beautiful women to help implement his plan.  He is also trying to get a title and that seems to be very important to him.  Telly Savalas was fine in the part, though I don't think he was as effective in the part.  

Main Cast

Gabriele Ferzetti - Marc Ange Draco
George Lazenby - James Bond
Bernard Lee - M
Desmond Llewelyn - Q
Lois Maxwell - Miss Moneypenny
Diana Rigg - Tracy
Telly Savalas - Blofeld

Peter R. Hunt - Director

DVD Information

On Her Majesty's Secret Service has been released on DVD a few times.  I have the two disc version that is part of the Ultimate James Bond Collection DVD set.  Most of the extras are on the second disc.  There is a short booklet that has some information about the movie.  

Casting On Her Majesty's Secret Service has a voice over of one of the producers talking about finding a replacement for Sean Connery while footage was shown.  The producer mentions meeting a young Timothy Dalton during the casting process.  He also briefly mentions Diana Rigg being cast as Tracy.  Press Day in Portugal has the director of marketing talking about the day the press visited the set of the movie.  George Lazenby in His Own Words has bits of different interviews with Lazenby over the years.  Some footage from the filming of the movie was shown.

Shot on Ice is a Ford promotional movie from 1969.  It focuses on a car chase in the movie and how it was filmed.  Tracy drove a Ford and that is the car that was involved in the car chase.  Some of the filming of the scene is shown, along with footage of the chase from the movie.  Swiss Movement is a 1969 featurette on the filming done in Switzerland.  The filming of the movie in general as well has the fact that there was a new actor playing Bond was also mentioned.  It wasn't very long, but it was sort of interesting.  The Interactive Guide Into the World of On Her Majesty's Secret Service has menus that cause clips from the movie to play like the previous DVDs have had.       

Inside On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a featurette on the making of the movie.  The book was popular when it came out, but the movie didn't share the same popularity.  Some of the cast and crew talked about the making of the movie.  It was a bit longer than the other featurettes and it was interesting.  Inside Q's Lab talked about Q in general and covered several of the movies.  There was an interview with Desmond Llewelyn as well and the featurette was dedicated to him.  Above it All showed how some of the filming was done in the Alps.  The second disc also includes the original trailers and television spots for the movie.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service is an entertaining movie overall though it isn't one of my favorite Bond movies.  There are some issues with the plot, though it is still a good movie and is worth seeing.  Fans of the series should see it at least once since it does deal with such an important personal event for James.

James Bond Movie Reviews
Dr. No ~ From Russia With Love ~ Goldfinger ~ Thunderball ~ You Only Live Twice ~ On Her Majesty’s Secret Service ~ Diamonds are Forever ~ Live and Let Die ~ The Man With the Golden Gun ~ The Spy Who Loved Me ~ Moonraker ~ For Your Eyes Only ~ Octopussy ~ A View to a Kill ~ The Living Daylights ~ Licence to Kill ~ Goldeneye ~ Tomorrow Never Dies ~ The World is Not Enough ~ Die Another Day ~ Casino Royale ~ Quantum of Solace ~ James Bond: The Secret Life of 007 ~ Never Say Never Again ~

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD