The Draco/Bond raid of Piz Gloria at the end of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) is definitely a highlight of the movie. Lazenby’s Bond is dressed in a tactical navy jumpsuit in what many would say is his best outfit (no puffy shirts or kilts here) and the surprising use of the original Monty Norman James Bond theme sets the tone of the action sequence. Yes, you can enhance any James Bond movie scene by playing the original theme, but the addition of it here was a pleasant surprise and added just enough nostalgia to, in my opinion, truly cement George Lazenby as the character James Bond in his first and only appearance as 007.
Over the last 30 years, I’d also say that OHMSS has made the most stunning turnaround (at least for fans in my generation – I’m a late 90’s James Bond) in best-of lists – from a forgotten write-off of a James Bond movie to one of the most revered. It only gets better with each viewing.
Moore’s Bond at his most ruthless in For Your Eyes Only (1981).
This all=time one-liner at the end of The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) gets me every time. As Bond (Roger Moore) and Triple X (Barbara Bach) are caught in the act in an escape pod, a stunned General Gogol (Triple X’s boss), M (Bond’s boss) and Sir Frederick Gray (Bond’s boss’s boss) can’t believe their eyes.
The exchange is legendary: “Bond!” “Tri-PULL X!” “Bond! What do you think you’re doing?” make the men sound more like disappointed parental figures rather than government intelligence. A speechless Q can only watch in awe, almost jaw-dropped.
And then 007 quickly quips a legendary James Bond line of lore. It ends with a celebratory-sounding chorus line version of the movie’s theme, declaring “nobody does it better” in a hilarious double entendre. HA! So awesome!
Zoomed in, cropped and rotated:
WTF…haha.
At the start of For Your Eyes Only (1981), we see James Bond (Roger Moore) visit the grave of his late wife, Teresa Bond:
The inscription reads:
TERESA BOND
1943 – 1969
Beloved wife of
JAMES BONDWe have all the
time in the World
Although I like the fact that they finally acknowledged the death of Bond’s wife, it’s puzzling that it took a full 12 years (an entire six Bond movies) since On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) when she was murdered, to do so. Surely such a traumatic death would have affected Bond greatly, and I’d say Diamonds Are Forever (1971) (the follow-up to OHMSS) is flawed at the outset for at least not referencing it while Bond traipse around Las Vegas.
Maybe they decided to put it on the backburner because it’s obviously a sad event, and nobody wants to be sad watching a James Bond movie (ahem, NTTD). Or maybe the death was such a big event in the series they decided to avoid acknowledging (or forgot?) it until a lot of time had passed…was this Bond’s first visit to the grave?
Kind of a missed opportunity in my eyes, regardless. They could’ve worked a graveside visit later into the movie (who wants to see Bond graveside visit in a movie’s opening sequence anyway? ahem, again, NTTD!) or weaved it into a joint revenge plot with Melina Havelock’s revenge of her parents’ death. All in all, I’m glad they made the reference to Tracy’s death but the method could’ve been better. And a pity it was rather forgotten after this scene until NTTD really.
