For those who don't know or need reminding, Lazenby starred in the sixth James Bond film adventure, 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Based on one of Ian Fleming's strongest Bond books and sticking closely to it, the film has recently grown in popularity. What was once the most obscure 007 film - it was the last one, pre-Brosnan, that I saw - has, with the availability of the film on DVD, has come to be seen as an overlooked gem.
That is entirely deserved. Eschewing the cartoony aspects of (the still very enjoyable) predecessor You Only Live Twice, OHMSS is an excellent thriller with a tragic and hard-hitting ending, and an emotional story unique to the franchise until 2006's Casino Royale. But what struck me most upon viewing it recently is how well poor ol' Lazenby's performance holds up.
He was cast as an unknown based on his part in a TV advert. The producers liked his looks and his physicality - he proved adept at hand-to-hand stunt combat, which explains the regularity of them in the film. This (notably Australian) non-actor was given the unenviable task of filling Sean Connery's shoes. As has been said elsewhere, at the time replacing Connery would have seemed like someone other than Harrison Ford playing Indiana Jones. Basically, just wrong. Predictably, critics were lukewarm.
I would like to suggest, however, that it has ultimately proven to be a good thing that Connery didn't star in this film. Originally, it was meant to be the fifth Bond, but outside factors led the producers to make the Japan-set You Only Live Twice instead. Although an entertaining action extravaganza, Connery was by this point clearly bored with the role and just coasting along for the paycheque. An uninterested performance of this sort would have absolutely not worked for the powerful and emotional story of OHMSS.
Lazenby is called upon to deliver some heavyweight scenes in the film, not least the reaction to his new wife's sudden and brutal murder. His simple but heartfelt acting here and elsewhere in the film really gets across the tragedy of the scene, and you really believe that Bond was in love. Conversely, I believe it would have been hard to believe Connery's Bond would really fall in love with anyone. Perhaps circa 1963's From Russia With Love it would have been plausible, but by 1967 Connery's Bond had become more of a wisecracking caricature - not purely through the fault of the actor, I have to add, but nonetheless undeniable.
The only part of the film which I feel doesn't work is the portion in which Bond infiltrates Blofeld's mountaintop lair posing as genealogist Sir Hilary Bray. That's mainly because for this sequence Lazenby is dubbed - which is not only distracting, but also disguises the quality of Lazenby's acting. Apparently he had honed a posh British accent for the sequence but the powers that be elected to dub him with the voice of the actor playing the real Sir Hilary. It's a rare misstep in the film, and thankfully is not a major problem.
It's a true shame that Lazenby didn't return for another outing. We ended up getting the risible Diamonds Are Forever, a campy, ludicrous farce that undid all of this film's good work. It's not true that Lazenby was fired, however - despite a decline in box office from the mid-60s heights, OHMSS was still a hit. It was entirely the actor's choice not to return - he believed in the wake of the new wave of American films, including the likes of Easy Rider and Bonnie and Clyde, that Bond would soon be outdated and would not last. He also thought that having done the film he would get plenty of other acting offers. He was, of course, wrong on both counts.
Ultimately, his legacy as Bond is a unique one, and the film he headlined has proven to be one of the best in the 46-year-old series.
