NEW YORK The trailer for the new James Bond movie No Time To Die has been released.<\/p>\n
And it seems timely to ask: Which is the best 007 film?<\/p>\n
The odds are on Goldfinger, a 1964 entry that set the big-screen Bond pattern for outsized plots, lavish sets, beautiful women, clever gadgets and frequent laughs.<\/p>\n
But among Bond purists, the winner is the often overlooked On Her Majesty's Secret Service, released 50 years ago this month.<\/p>\n
OHMSS, as it is commonly known among hardcore fans, starred George Lazenby, a first-time actor, in his only appearance as 007.<\/p>\n
Every other Bond actor, in an official franchise overseen by Eon Productions, has played the role at least twice.<\/p>\n
What sets OHMSS apart, too, is its faithfulness to the original Ian Fleming novel, virtual absence of fancy gadgets and emotional depth.<\/p>\n
Bond falls in love and marries, only to see his bride, Teresa Draco (played by Diana Rigg), murdered by organisation Spectre.<\/p>\n
Not widely appreciated at first, OHMSS has won increasing respect over five decades.<\/p>\n
Devotees hail its action-packed direction by Peter Hunt, smart script by Richard Maibaum, music - both dynamic and romantic - by John Barry and a mastermind criminal scheme involving brainwashed young women unwittingly conducting germ warfare.<\/p>\n
\"Shot to shot, this movie is beautiful in a way none of the other Bond films is,\" director Steven Soderbergh blogged in 2013. Moreover, it is \"the only Bond film with a female character that isn't a cartoon\".<\/p>\n
In The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia, author Steven Jay Rubin called it \"a truly epic James Bond film with a story to match\".<\/p>\n
Yet, to general film fans, OHMSS is an outlier, even an aberration.<\/p>\n
Much of the explanation lies with the casting of Lazenby, an Australian actor. A former model and car salesman, he assumed the role that Sean Connery made famous after the first five Bond movies.<\/p>\n
Connery quit the part after You Only Live Twice in 1967. But he returned after OHMSS for Diamonds Are Forever in 1971 - and for the non-Eon production Never Say Never Again in 1983.<\/p>\n
Indeed, there was so much uncertainty about how to present Lazenby to a curious and even sceptical public that in some advertisements, his face was deliberately obscured. Maibaum even suggested a scene in which 007 has cosmetic surgery to confuse his enemies.<\/p>\n
\"I'm told that mine was the biggest screen test in history,\" Lazenby, 80, said in a telephone interview from his home in Santa Monica, California.<\/p>\n
\"I think there were 800 applicants and 300 screen tests. They tested me for four months. They tested me every which way - fights, horseback-riding and swimming.\"<\/p>\n
Lazenby had big shoes to fill and some critics thought he filled them well enough. Other voices were harsher. His \"acting is non-committal to the point of being minus\", wrote The New York Post.<\/p>\n
Hunt chose Rigg, who had recently come off The Avengers, as the chief Bond Girl.<\/p>\n
\"I know why he called me,\" Rigg said in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n
\"George was an inexperienced actor, so they decided to pair him with an experienced actress. I hope I did help him. For someone who had never done a movie before, he was quite good.\"<\/p>\n
But the production was fraught with on-set troubles. \"Hunt never spoke to me again after the first day of shooting,\" Lazenby recalled. \"He wouldn't even talk to me after the movie.\"<\/p>\n
Hunt, who died in 2002, said his hands-off approach was deliberate. \"I wanted that feeling of isolation,\" he told Rubin. \"That is Bond. He's a loner. George wasn't experienced enough to interpret this feeling of utter emptiness.\"<\/p>\n
It has been widely reported that OHMSS was a box-office failure, largely because of Lazenby's performance. The movie did substantially underperform You Only Live Twice.<\/p>\n
But OHMSS was still one of the highest-grossing films of the year.<\/p>\n
Bond producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli were prepared to sign Lazenby to a multi-picture contract.<\/p>\n
Instead, even before the movie was released, Lazenby announced he would not resume the role.<\/p>\n
It has been said he was advised to drop it by Mr Ronan O'Rahilly, who created offshore station Radio Caroline.<\/p>\n
The anti-establishment Mr O'Rahilly apparently convinced Lazenby that Bond was an anachronism who would not survive in the age of Woodstock and Easy Rider.<\/p>\n
\"I'm glad I didn't do another one,\" Lazenby said. \"I didn't want to be known as Bond. The only time I had regrets was when I was broke.\"<\/p>\n
In the 50 years since his brief moment in the Bond sun, he has continued to act, but only in minor roles.<\/p>\n
Rigg said: \"I could never understand why George behaved as he did because he was given such a glorious opportunity and he threw it all away. I'm sorry for him, if you want to know. At some stage, it just went to his head.\"<\/p>\n
Lazenby and Rigg said they have not kept in touch. \"I don't think one way or the other about Diana,\" Lazenby said.<\/p>\n
Rigg said: \"Oh goodness, no, he wouldn't come near me.\"<\/p>\n
NYTIMES<\/p>\n
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The best Bond movie of all time, Entertainment News & Top Stories - The Straits Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NEW YORK The trailer for the new James Bond movie No Time To Die has been released. And it seems timely to ask: Which is the best 007 film Continue reading