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7/23/2025, 1:12:13 PM
>Are you too young to remember how audiences received On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1969? I saw it several times with crowds that were enthusiastic, even though they sorely missed Sean Connery. They laughed at the line, "this never happened to the other guy" but showed disapproval of the unconvincing stunt where Bond jumps twelve feet sideways from the cable to the cable car. They were uncomfortable when Bond and Tracy imitate a Clairol commercial in a montage backed by Louis Armstrong singing "We Have All the Time in the World." The shot of Lazenby shooting a machine gun while sliding on slick ice evoked derisive laughter as well, as if the action were too undignified for our 007. Yet they roared with approval at Blofeld's line, "We'll head them off at the precipice!", which seemed an intentional joke at the old Western cliché, "Head them off at the pass". The most egregious of all glib one-liner overdubs, "He had lots of guts!" was met with both laughs and groans.
>But the audience was enthralled in a way not seen very often in the 'cynical' 1960s, what with action pictures pushing into nihilistic determinism -- The Dirty Dozen, The Professionals. James Bond is first and foremost a fantasy, and Lazenby's Bond recovers some of the chivalry of an earlier time -- back when heroines could be just as formidable as heroes. Diana Rigg was already established as the intelligent, ultra-cool action character Emma Peel in her TV show The Avengers. Audiences were on her side when her Tracy cleverly patronizes Blofeld's megalomania as a 'master of the world'. When she fights back, swinging a broken bottle in the chaos of the big battle, the audience went wild. The old formula worked: Bond and Draco appear like the 7th cavalry, come to the rescue with a real Dawn Raid at the top of the world, and we were all thrilled.
https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s4017serv.html
>But the audience was enthralled in a way not seen very often in the 'cynical' 1960s, what with action pictures pushing into nihilistic determinism -- The Dirty Dozen, The Professionals. James Bond is first and foremost a fantasy, and Lazenby's Bond recovers some of the chivalry of an earlier time -- back when heroines could be just as formidable as heroes. Diana Rigg was already established as the intelligent, ultra-cool action character Emma Peel in her TV show The Avengers. Audiences were on her side when her Tracy cleverly patronizes Blofeld's megalomania as a 'master of the world'. When she fights back, swinging a broken bottle in the chaos of the big battle, the audience went wild. The old formula worked: Bond and Draco appear like the 7th cavalry, come to the rescue with a real Dawn Raid at the top of the world, and we were all thrilled.
https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s4017serv.html
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