Sean Connery had fallen out with the producers, so the role of James Bond was to be fulfilled by a new person: A rookie actor called George Lazenby.
This new, vaguely Australian Bond finds himself repeatedly saving the girl of the week: a depressed Countess, Teresa 'Tracy' di Vincenzo, played by Diana Rigg. After multiple encounters with her, Bond is soon brought before her father Marc-Ange Draco, the leader of the Corsican Mafia. Draco hopes that Bond can wed Tracy so she will have a reason to live, offering Bond information about SPECTRE, as Ernst Stavro Blofeld has disappeared. Eventually, Bond is required to pose as a genealogist after learning that Blofeld is seeking a noble title, gaining him access to an allergy research lab in the Swiss Alps where several young women are being treated. Being Bond, he blows his cover when he can't keep his weapon holstered, and learns that Blofeld is brainwashing the women to release a deadly virus that will destroy the world's agriculture, demanding amnesty for his past crimes and recognition of the noble title.
I have to say that the first part of the film isn't that great. The fight scenes aren't shot very well and difficult to see, and most of it is a montage of Bond courting Tracy. However, it does improve later on, with the humour of Bond trying to maintain his cover while...stretching his legs. But the best part is the second half, when Bond escapes from the facility. There's a ski chase followed by Bond being rescued by Tracy and eluding SPECTRE's goons through a stock car race. Overall, Tracy is actually a pretty good Bond girl. She saves Bond's skin, and when she gets captured she devises her own escape.
Not only did we have a new Bond, but a new Blofeld too. Telly Savalas is more charming compared to the unstable Donald Pleasance in the previous film. I preferred Pleasance myself, but I have no problem with Savalas. In fact, I think Savalas might be closer to the unseen Blofeld of the earlier films.
Overall, I think the film has a weak start, but truly delivers once the bullets start flying. And the final scene might be one of the most poignant in the franchise.
Oh yeah, and I really love that music they use.
Oh yeah, and I really love that music they use.
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