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From: Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-01-04 (Saturday)
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2025 19:38:17 -0800
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On 1/6/2025 2:51 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
> Dimensional Traveler  <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
> 
>> The "let's let Connery cool down" Bond movie, "On Her Majesty's Secret
>> Service".  Part of the 2012 box set for the Bond 50th Anniversary.  Lots
>> of extras, including one on why Lazenby only did one Bond movie.  The
>> bits of the interview with him sounded like he knows he screwed up but
>> other make it clear there was a lot else going on as well.
> 
> Connery had a rotten time making You Only Live Twice, didn't like being
> mobbed by fans, and was dead tired. This movie had problems, but the
> cinematography is absolutely gorgeous, and Blofeld's lair, the volcano
> interior, was the single largest set constructed up to that time.
> 
> Saltzman and Broccoli cast Lazenby for On Her Majesty's Secret Service
> hoping to strike gold twice with a relative unknown, except Connery was
> a real actor and had an extraordinary screen presence; Lazenby not so
> much. He was a model.
> 
> Lazenby had a 7 picture deal, so no, Saltzman and Broccoli weren't
> waiting for Connery. A couple of things happened: Charles K. Feldman had
> also released Casino Royale in 1967, which is said to have hurt the box
> office of OHMSS, but that's doubtful as Lazenby's movie attracted almost
> as large as audience as the top Bond movies had. Feldman's movie
> production was a huge mess given multiple directors and a feuding Orson
> Welles and Peter Sellers but the women were absolutely gorgeous, Feldman
> wouldn't pay Connery's fee and would regret it.
> 
> For whatever reason, Saltzman and Broccoli didn't interfere with
> production of OHMSS and, for once, we got an entirely straight
> adaptation of Fleming's novel and they finally honored their promise to
> Peter R. Hunt to let him direct.
> 
> YOLT and OHMSS were filmed out of sequence due to bad weather in
> Switzerland.
> 
> I say that if Connery had starred in OHMSS, we'd have gotten another
> Goldfinger and not the straight adaptation 

Why?  Was Connery pulling strings to prevent straight adaptations?

(although the movie plot was
> a great improvement on Fleming's plot).
> 
> Dianna Rigg was glorious.
> 
> Lazenby apparently had Jeffrey Hunter's girlfriend, who talked him out
> of being typecast as James Bond and talked him out of a career.
> 
> Dude: You already had Dianna Rigg (even though she was assasinated). You
> could have gotten any girl in the world as James Bond. Typecast as James
> Bond? THere are worse fates.
> 
> Lazenby became The Man Who Would Not Show Up to Work. He was going to
> star in Diamnds Are Forever. Saltzman even insisted that he'd honor his
> contract and held up the start of production for a time.
> 
> Finally, S&B did what CKK should have done: They backed up the
> trailerfull of cash to Connery's front door and he came back for one
> more picture, and then would do the remake of Thunderball for Kevin
> McClory.
> 
> Lazenby has never reclaimed his man card.

Interesting.  Thanks for the info.