"This Never Happened To The Other Feller" - best sly line of all-time!

45th Anniversary edition!!!

I admit it:
It took me a long, long time to discover that ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE was the greatest James Bond film ever made (in great part due to the absence of either Sean Connery or Roger Moore - but also because, ironically enough, of all the qualities of this film: the simply stupendous title sequence by master Maurice Binder (the best such sequence ever made), the awesome action sequences, their realism, the stunning soundtrack by John Barry, the masterful directorial debut of one Peter Hunt, the better use of the locales chosen to shoot in, the flair and panache that dastardingly captures the true essence of the Ian Fleming beast throughout this film and, of course, the casting of Diana Rigg, Emma Peel herself, as the first and only Mrs. Bond!)

It took me quite long to give the film a chance, alas; prior to 1980, I had considered this to be a film "that didn't count" - it wasn't "the real Bond" in any case, just an impostor! The real Bond was, to me, The Saint! Roger Moore - in other words, Lord Brett Sinclair, Simon Templar and James Bond were all one and the same to me! Sean Connery was himself a mere replacement in my mind, as he had been Bond before I started to watch - so what did George Lazenby hope to be rated as, when young filmgoers such as me had this kind of "backwards logical thinking" going - eh? If anything, this film was too good to be a ''regular adventure of James Bond'' - subconsciously I could tell, but I was far too young to properly assess it otherwise...

The pleasant surprise that "OHMSS" is born in the luminous year of 1969 was a factor, I cannot deny it either (plus, one of the locations it was shot in was Portugal - wow!) - but the film itself, in my more mature eyes, proved to be far superior on all technical levels that matter - once I finally gave it a chance, sat down and saw it, in 1980! And this is truly the way a 007 film should be! I was stunned - this was waaaaaaaaay better than any Connery conk out on celluloid or any Moore merriment caught on film...! (And please spare me any Dalton or Brosnan talk - and that other guy now...! There is not a single doubt to have about this! Lazenby, though not the perfect thespian, is so well-surrounded -and I do not mean the Bond Girls- that his becomes the ultimate James Bond 007 - no question!)

The present is a little *clin d'oeil* to the pre-credits in-joke Lazenby so cleverly delivers in this one...! ;)

THIS, my friends, is the true James Bond - yes!

And this is the ultimate Bond Girl - 

the only one he married!

 DIANA RIGG is the ultimate Bond Girl - no question about it! She is above and beyond what a ''BG'' is supposed to be!
And most fully-capable critics will agree with me on that too!

Many kudos and thanks to the Propellerheads for resuscitating that unforgettable and unmistakably unique theme music concocted for Bond exclusively for this film
(the finer music, the meticulous approach to every detail, both in scriptwriting, cinematography and plain plausibility - it was all attributable to the casting of a neophyte 007 in this one! It was the nicest side-effect of all, in the end: in over-compensating for their apparent weakness -their leading man- the 007 team made this the best Bond film of all! More stills from it can be seen here.)