Post by ant-mac on Nov 8, 2018 9:28:54 GMT
OHMSS is one of my favourite Ian Fleming novels, along with FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.
However, George Lazenby nearly ruined the film for me, along with Telly Savalas, another actor I like but who was miscast as Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
Thankfully the rest of the cast pretty much saved the day, especially Gabriele Ferzetti as Marc-Ange Draco, Diana Rigg as Countess Tracy di Vicenzo and Ilse Steppat as Irma Bunt.
Dr. No and OHMSS was a double feature that my parents took us too around 75'. Lazenby had big shoes to fill, but I also feel he was able to project a vulnerability that wasn't present in other Bonds. I loved the setting in Switzerland and until I saw it again years later, all I could recall about it was that I had a little boy man crush on him, the scene when he was dressed in a Kilt with the pretty ladies; when he was trapped in the cable car mechanics room and when his wife got killed at the end. I was just devastated.
I often wonder how OHMSS would have turned out if Connery had returned. I wonder if he regrets it, because in spite of the flack that Lazenby gets, it is still considered one of the more solid and better 007's.
The fact that it managed to survive the miscasting of both the main hero and the main villain is a testament to just how good the original story was, not to mention the talent and effort put in by everyone else involved in the project.
And I expect the filmmakers missed Sean Connery's presence a lot more than he missed them.