O.H.M.S.S. is a welcome addition to the 101 Action Movies list. I still stand by my belief that if this one had starred Sean Connery as Ian Fleming’s James Bond, then this 007 adventure would have been his best. It has Bond falling in love, and was brave enough to end on an incredibly tragic note.

It did prove that the series could survive another actor taking over the role.

This time around, the role of James Bond (offered to both Roger Moore, and a very young Timothy Dalton) went to Australian model/actor George Lazenby.

Lazenby’s Bond is a little different from Connery. The rough edge is gone, but there is a toughness under the frilly tuxedo shirts, and he’s a little self-effacing, his line in the pre-credits adventure, “This never happened to the other fellow,” is a classic. He also did a large portion of his own stunts!

The film also reveals a little bit of Bond history, with the family motto, to be used later as a film title, The World Is Not Enough.

The plot is decidely 60s super-spy fare, the notorious Blofeld (played this time around by Telly Savalas – though Donald Pleasance in You Only Live Twice was my favorite), posing as a lord, has hypnotized lovely ladies from all over the globe, who, upon receipt of the activation signal, will unleash a deadly poison on the world!

Bond posing as Sir Hillary Bray, travels to Blofeld’s hideaway under the guise of investigating the villain’s genealogical claims.

As always trouble find Bond, and he has to survive on his wits, as there are almost no gadgets in the film at all.

The first half of the film, sees the introduction of Bond’s love interest, Tracey (The Avenger’s Diana Rigg), and the film actually takes it’s time, or as much as you can in an action movie, to allow the romance to develop. It’s fun to see a different side to Bond, the vulnerable man under the edge, something Daniel Craig’s Bond has broght back with his incarnation.

Tracey, is the daughter of a mafioso, Draco (Gabriele Ferzetti), who supplies Bond with Blofeld’s location, and 007 drops everything to race off after him, returning to his wooing ways as he bed-hops from lady to lady in the Alps hideaway.

The story really kicks into high gear with Tracy’s return to the film, rescuing 007 in a car chase, and then a ski chase, racing before an oncoming avalanche! When Tracey is captured, Bond and her father, lead an all-out assault on the mountain-top, racing to stop Blofeld’s angels from activating, and rescue the girl.

The final battle is fantastic, the stunts are intense, everything looks fantastic, and the mountainous backdrop makes it all look fantastic. It just keeps ratcheting up and up, until a final bobsled chase between Bond and Blofeld.

The heroes win, but as we see with the final frames of the film, only for so long…

Lazenby as Bond is ok, it would have been interesting to see what he would have done in a second or third feature, but as it was his only outing we’ll be left to wonder that.

Diana Rigg on the other hand, is wonderful as Tracey, a combination of fiery and vulnerable. She is the perfect match for Bond in this film, and she does a great job with what could very well have been a somple part.

O.H.M.S.S. is a big sprawling film that continues to make James Bond larger than life, and the only film, until Casino Royale to really let a different side to 007 come onscreen for any length of time (but for a moment in The Spy Who Loved Me).

For me, it’s actually in my top 10 Bonds, and is always fun to watch! John Barry’s score, and title music is wonderful, and Louis Armstrong’s “We Have All The Time In The World,” is completely at home sharing the more emotional side of 007.

What do you think of it?