Plot
James Bond edges closer to locating Blofeld, with the help of Draco – the head of a European Crime Syndicate. Many of Draco’s men have deflected to SPECTRE and Bond and Draco form a union; Draco will give Bond the whereabouts to Blofeld, if Bond marries his troublesome daughter Tracy.
Bond reluctantly agrees, and goes undercover at a research facility under the identity of Sir Hilary Bray to find him. Soon he discovers Blofeld’s next plan and vows to stop him.
Meanwhile he has fallen in love for the first time to Tracy.. but will this have a happy ending???
Direction
Directed by Peter R Hunt, who previously acted as an editor on previous installments in the franchise.
There are some exciting sequences within such as the sky-rail sequence and several skiing moments, but I found the “speed” up of the fight sequences dizzying and oddly edited.
Cast/Characters
George Lazenby takes over the role of Bond from Sean Connery who sat this film out due to contract disputes. A full 9 years younger than his predecessor does give him the edge on some of the more physical aspects of the role.
Dianna Rigg plays Tracy/Theresa. More on her in a moment.
Telly Savalas takes over the role of Blofeld from Donald Pleasence who played the character in the previous film.
Long time cast members Bernard Lee, Desmond Llewellyn and Lois Maxwelll all appear once again. Lee and Maxwell get way more to do here, with Llewellyn only really getting a handful of lines.
Breakdown
This would be George Lazenby’s only outing as Bond. I quite enjoyed his charisma in the role, which the film does several things right. It takes some time before we see his full profile during the opening car chase which ends with 4th wall (this never happened to the other fellow).
It also implies heavily that this is indeed the same person as we’ve been watching previously, Bond reminiscing in his office of past events/objects.
There are some good action sequences, such as the opening car chase, the sky rail sequence and the skiing scenes. Some of these could have been edited down, considering the film is one of the longest in the franchise.
There is also a lyricless opening song which flashes back to the first five films – depicting the villains and the Bond girls.
I was hopeful that the misogyny would have been lessened with a new actor playing Bond, but alas it still was over done. Draco wanting to marry off his daughter felt distasteful, and then Bond’s treatment of her, and then the ladies at the research facility just amped it up.
Despite that, Dianna Rigg as Tracy is to date the best bond girl (and even sits at #1 in a couple of websites for best bond girls). She is cool, calm and collected – matching his energy. The fact that Rigg would go on to have such a glorious career ahead of her (and being one of the best characters in Game of Thrones!) helps too. She deserved so much better than what she got!
I was quite happy they had more screen-time dedicated to Bond and Blofeld. Then the final shoot out at his facility had similar feels to the attacks on previous entries (the Fort Knox attack in Goldfinger and the volcano lair in You Only Live Twice).
Overall
A big improvement on the previous entry, and one of the better films of the franchise to date. Connery would return for his last outing in the next film Diamonds are Forever.
4/5
Please also check out my Podcast on Youtube, where we review a new movie every week! Please subscribe!
Ryan's Movie Reviews 