I was this on the big screen finally at the Hayden Orpheum with a Lazenby Q and A in October 2012 - a terrific night because he was in great form, helped by an affectionate crowd, a good MC in Gary Maddox, and a hot girl from Die Another Day next to him which seemed to tickle his fancy. He played up being the old Aussie dinosaur, into birds and booze, and got great laughs.
I've seen this movie countless times but never on the big screen. It's such an awesome movie, with emotion, suspense and action. Some random thoughts:
* It's surprisingly New Wave direction - way out sound, jump cut editing, sped up action sequences. The influence of the late 60s, I guess: also in the garish decor during the opening hotel sequence and some of Bond's suits (that purple!).
* It's a really good script - perhaps Richard Maibaum's best (he always paid tribute to Ian Fleming's excellent source novel - he's the sole credited writer, although I understand some guy was brought int to do a little polish). It spanks along, has a first rate story - logical, clever - plus strong character development (Tracey and Blofeld are very well rounded), some funny lines. Occasionally it goes over board (e.g. "he had lots of guts") but it's extremely well done.
* Diana Rigg's Tracey is one of the all time best Bond girls - beautiful, heaving cleavage, spirited, a fast driver and top skier, she loves Bond. She actually has a decent back story - a wild child desperate for love - but never becomes a door mat. She's sexy, brave, smart and classy, plus dramatically interesting; very few Bond girls matched her. Indeed I'm not sure I can think of any who do. Also because she dies she's kind of perfect for him. I never get sick of that moment at the ice rink where Bond is surrounded and he doesn't know what to do and Rigg turns up on ice skates - it's terrific.
* Gabrielle Ferzetti's Draco is my favourite Bond sidekick/ally - firm, sexist, loving, in over his head. A dream father in law, who asks you to root his hot daughter, will pay you a million bucks to marry her, and can organise a helicopter raid on an alpine hideaway. I try to forget he's a member of the Mafia. Still, he's a professional (I love the moment in the attack on Piz Gloria when Draco's henchman is setting the explosives and asks his boss about the Englishman. Draco simply replies that he knows the schedule. What a cool dude!)
* Blofeld's plan is very clever and believable - a virus he plans on unleashing via hot girls around the world... in exchange for amnesty and cash and recognition for his title, which was a nice change. Telly Savalas' Blofeld is the most virile and tough of them all - he gets out there on his skis himself, not just sitting on a chair patting a cat, and he is also oddly human (a snob who falls for Tracey, attracted by her title as her looks).
* Some of the support Bond girls are seriously hot - Catherine Schell in particular. Not so much Angela Scoular, but she's a very good comic actress, which is important for that role.
*Ilse Steppat is an all time great Bond villain hench-woman - she ranks up with Lotte Lenya in From Russia with Love. She's brilliant - fat, dour, deadly.
* I always forget there's another Aussie in this movie: Anouska Hempel, who plays one of the angels of death.
* George Lazenby's performance has been much discussed. I will say this - he's excellent in fight scenes, is very good looking and masculine, has a great voice, is inexperienced and isn't as good an actor as Sean Connery but I find him a very effective Bond. He is helped greatly by having Rigg, Ferzetti and Savalas to play scenes against - and by having his voice dubbed by George Baker as Hilary Bray.
*The time when I most felt Connery's absence was in the scenes between Bond, Q and Moneypenny - especially the ending when Bond gets married but also the beginning when he resigns. Having an actor who had more of an on air history with Bernard Miles, Desmond Llewellyn and Lois Maxwell for these scenes would have helped give them more resonance.
* I love the care chosen in the smaller parts: the sandy haired agent who is killed on the mountain; Ferzetti's men (the pocked-marked guy who seems to be Draco's main henchman and the black dude); Blofeld's agents; Draco's young lover.
*John Barry's music was never better - with wonderful lush scores to go with the alps and the romance. There's a moving theme song, 'We've Got all the Time in the World' which is re-used well. Louis Armstrong helped too (even if it's used in a falling in love montage that feels very late 60s).
*The alpine setting is gorgeous and results in some brilliant action sequences. Bond's escape from Piz Gloria in particular is a smorgasboard of non-stop action - there is some cable car tension, then a night ski chase, a fight in a bell factory, ice skating, a car chase that involves participating in a car race, a romantic interlude in a barn, a day time ski chase, then an avalanche! It's real Indiana Jones stuff.
*There are some flaws in the story - I believed (just) that Blofeld wouldn't kill Bond straight away once he knew who he was but would he have him put away in a poorly locked storage room near the cable car engine?
For me this is the greatest Bond film. The first half is slow build, setting up character and plot, a little bit of action, some suspense, lots of impersonation and sex... then the second half is non stop action. A masterpiece. And it's a damn shame Peter Hunt never made any more Bonds or Lazenby never made any more Hollywood movies as a star.
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