On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Not many people remember George Lazenby's only performance as James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. However, since the film's release in 1969, it has grown to be one of the definitive representations of the Bond series, thanks to its diehard fans, stylish cinematography and bare bones espionage structure.

The film follows Agent 007's continued pursuit of evil genius Ernst Stavro Blofeld, last seen blasting his way out of his hideout in 1967's You Only Live Twice. After failing to make any further progress in finding the SPECTRE mastermind, Bond is granted a leave from MI6 to pursue Blofeld on his own terms. In his pursuit, he acquires the affection of a woman named Tracy Di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg), as well as partnering with her father Marc-Ange Draco, head of a European crime syndicate.

The notoriety that precedes this classic Bond film lies in the less-than-stellar performance by Lazenby as Bond, attributed to his lack of prior acting jobs. Still, Lazenby's Bond achieves what Connery's Bond never accomplished. With all his acclaim as the best James Bond ever, Connery's wry sense of humor and penchant for womanizing never could have allowed him to fall in love the way that Lazenby does. It is perhaps because of this that Lazenby could never be the persona of James Bond general audiences know and love.

After being a second unit director for the Bond franchise for so long, Peter Hunt's directorial effort in OHMSS is cinematic bliss. While his first unit work compiles a great love story and an in-depth '60s spy thriller, his help on second unit work, mainly Bond's visit to Blofeld's lair Piz Gloria, is amazing, providing sweeping panoramic views of the Swiss Alps. Outside of The Spy Who Loved Me's opening sequence, OHMSS has the best ski battle out of the series thanks to the handheld camera shots.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service, unlike other spy films, could easily be a Greek tragedy. It combines the best elements of theater, including humor, suspense, romance and tragic fate. Had Lazenby had more acting chops, he could have become one of the best James Bonds. However, history has decided otherwise. Instead, he will just have to settle for being background noise to one of the greatest spy thrillers of all time.