ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE (1969) **1/2 George Lazenby was far from the worst James Bond. He's particularly good in the fight scenes, he has a street hood presence and he can punch. It doesn't hurt that Peter Hunt so effectively speeds up those scenes, and darkens them for sensory constriction. Unfortunately George doesn't have the requisite elegance required for the role, and while he doesn't butcher his lines he doesn't get as much mileage out of the best ones (all double entendres) as he should. Still, it looks like a Bond movie should. It would be easy enough to look at virtually any frame of the film and know what it is, The curse of the playboy (other than the obvious physical maladies) is to either be unable to attain the women who have what he most truly wants (or needs), or to become too jaded to tell the difference. Even here Bond is exemplary and beyond all rules, so while some might be tempted to linger on Catherine Schell, Bond doesn't fight his natural instinct to tighten his orbit around Diana Rigg. Diana demonstrates that talent, wit and charisma don't preclude one from being a most effective Bond girl-as might be suspected from most of the other entries-so long as the more obvious requirements aren't lacking. I wonder whose idea it was to have her drive a Mercury Cougar. So it's one of the better Bond films-of those not featuring Sean Connery at least-it looks right, it acts right, and there are worse disasters in cinema than the love interest outclassing the star. In a way, actually, all the more to his credit, isn't it?
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