Something of a Must With Me ~ OHMSS Appreciation

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  • edited September 2014 Posts: 11,425
    OHMSS is in my top 5. Loved it since first watching it. It's not without it's flaws, but overall one of the most enjoyable and rewatchable in the series. Laz did a good job for a rookie, and it's a shame he didn't stay on for more. The direction the series took after he left was not great. The next three films are not amongst my favourites. Not until Spy, IMO, did they hit on a truly successful formula again, but by then the films had morphed into something quite different - almost self parody.
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    Posts: 9,117
    RC7 wrote: »
    Stumbled across this earlier. This guy calls himself a 'huge' Bond fan. Cue laughter...

    http://filmgeekcentral.com/2012/10/22/james-bond-retrospective-review-of-on-her-majestys-secret-service/

    In his clueless flailing way this retard does raise one mildly interesting point that has never struck me before - namely that Bond was playing Sir Hilary as a homosexual. What do we think of this? Certainly the line 'but I think you do not like girls Sir Hilary' implies the girls are under the impression he might be. Is Bond playing a gay Sir Hilary or merely a bit of a swot who is more absorbed by his books than a bevy of Bond beauties?
  • edited September 2014 Posts: 11,425
    I think it was hard back then to play an character as overtly gay because audiences would not take well to it. I think Laz would have thought someone like Sir Hillary was probably gay, or at least that he'd seen his fair share of homosexuality at boarding school. So at the very least Sir Hillary is portrayed as being of ambiguous sexuality. I think the line you quote shows this was intentional.
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    Posts: 4,417
    You know what dear @Wiz? I think it was honestly the latter. Hilary was so caught up in his genealogy bumpf, in that wide eye naive way, that he didn't "notice" the Angels of Death.
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    Posts: 9,117
    royale65 wrote: »
    You know what dear @Wiz? I think it was honestly the latter. Hilary was so caught up in his genealogy bumpf, in that wide eye naive way, that he didn't "notice" the Angels of Death.

    I agree. I feel that had it been intentional on the part of the filmmakers it would've been too overt and could've strayed into Carry On territory. It's either so subtle as to be deliberately ambiguous or in an altogether more sheltered age just not something anyone ever thought of.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,727
    royale65 wrote: »
    You know what dear @Wiz? I think it was honestly the latter. Hilary was so caught up in his genealogy bumpf, in that wide eye naive way, that he didn't "notice" the Angels of Death.

    I agree. I feel that had it been intentional on the part of the filmmakers it would've been too overt and could've strayed into Carry On territory. It's either so subtle as to be deliberately ambiguous or in an altogether more sheltered age just not something anyone ever thought of.

    Yes, agreed. I never got any gay overtones probably as they're not there! Sir Hilary was portrayed as a swot too interested in his books and study to notice the beautiful young women who surrounded him, but of course this was not possible for James Bond and so his deviating from the part as the cad he was contributed to Blofeld and Bunt unmasking him as a British spy called James Bond.
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    edited September 2014 Posts: 4,417
    But he's got his glasses on! A foolproof to disguise one's self!! ;-)
  • RC7RC7
    edited September 2014 Posts: 10,512
    RC7 wrote: »
    Stumbled across this earlier. This guy calls himself a 'huge' Bond fan. Cue laughter...

    http://filmgeekcentral.com/2012/10/22/james-bond-retrospective-review-of-on-her-majestys-secret-service/

    In his clueless flailing way this retard does raise one mildly interesting point that has never struck me before - namely that Bond was playing Sir Hilary as a homosexual. What do we think of this? Certainly the line 'but I think you do not like girls Sir Hilary' implies the girls are under the impression he might be. Is Bond playing a gay Sir Hilary or merely a bit of a swot who is more absorbed by his books than a bevy of Bond beauties?

    I'll be honest, It always struck me that the girls initially assume he may be gay. Precisely because of his relentless attention to work, while surrounded by a bevy of beauties. That's the way I've always read it. It's subtle and left pretty ambiguous, though.
  • Posts: 3,336
    Great Great Great movie. I would love it if they released all they had on that rooftop chase. They must have something, am i right?
  • Posts: 3,336
    "In OHMSS a scene was cut which involved 007 finding one of Blofeld's men spying on his meeting with Sir Hilary Bray. Bond then chases the man across the rooftops of London. Due to the film's excessive running time, the scene was cut"

    Sounds a bit like they cut it in post-production. Anybody knows?
  • Posts: 1,098
    "In OHMSS a scene was cut which involved 007 finding one of Blofeld's men spying on his meeting with Sir Hilary Bray. Bond then chases the man across the rooftops of London. Due to the film's excessive running time, the scene was cut"

    Sounds a bit like they cut it in post-production. Anybody knows?

    I believe the sequence was in the original editors cut, but as the film was so long at that point, something had to go, and that rooftop scene was deleted.

  • Posts: 3,333
    For what it's worth, @Crazysoul95, I know that the missing OHMSS scene exists and has been fully restored with John Barry's score accompanying it, and we will be seeing the London fooftop chase sometime in the not-too-distant future.
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    Posts: 9,117
    bondsum wrote: »
    For what it's worth, @Crazysoul95, I know that the missing OHMSS scene exists and has been fully restored with John Barry's score accompanying it, and we will be seeing the London fooftop chase sometime in the not-too-distant future.

    What is your source for that? Because I'm pretty sure in Charles Helfenstein's definitive book he says only some stills footage exists.

  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    bondsum wrote: »
    For what it's worth, @Crazysoul95, I know that the missing OHMSS scene exists and has been fully restored with John Barry's score accompanying it, and we will be seeing the London fooftop chase sometime in the not-too-distant future.

    What is your source for that? Because I'm pretty sure in Charles Helfenstein's definitive book he says only some stills footage exists.

    Correct. @bondsum has either bought a flux capacitor and returned to 1969 armed with the necessary budget to shoot the scene, or he's talking out of his...
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    Posts: 9,117
    RC7 wrote: »
    bondsum wrote: »
    For what it's worth, @Crazysoul95, I know that the missing OHMSS scene exists and has been fully restored with John Barry's score accompanying it, and we will be seeing the London fooftop chase sometime in the not-too-distant future.

    What is your source for that? Because I'm pretty sure in Charles Helfenstein's definitive book he says only some stills footage exists.

    Correct. @bondsum has either bought a flux capacitor and returned to 1969 armed with the necessary budget to shoot the scene, or he's talking out of his...

    Well you may think that I couldn't possibly comment.

    But I think if someone had a gun to my head I would probably choose Helfenstein over @bondsum.
  • Posts: 11,189
    @bondsum seems fairly credible to me.
  • ForYourEyesOnlyForYourEyesOnly In the untained cradle of the heavens
    Posts: 1,984
    OHMSS excels in so many areas and Lazenby is actually pretty good for somebody who hasn't acted before (he's still the worst Bond, though), but it's just the pacing issues of the film which make it feel so long. And it drags. Otherwise, the action is great, the acting is great, the final scene is great, the score is great, etc.
  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    @bondsum seems fairly credible to me.

    The only part of the scene they shot was Bond chasing Phidian from the rooftops down onto the street heading towards St. Paul's. There was his subsequent death at St. Pancras and a
    train crash that weren't staged at all. As for what they did shoot, as Wiz says, I don't recall there being any salvageable footage, mainly a selection of stills ranging from half decent, to very poor quality. So to conclude this whole scene exists seems unlikely to me.

    I would've thought such a revelation would have necessitated it's own thread, not just a casual aside in a recently resurrected thread.
  • Posts: 3,333
    Sorry, guys, I can't reveal my source to you. You'll just have to be proven wrong when you eventually get to see it. Though @RC7 raises a good point about this "exclusive" maybe deserving its own thread rather than a tagged-on aside - though there might be more obvious reasons as to why I don't want to draw too much unwanted attention from certain quarters by making such a big deal out of it. I haven't seen it myself but my source has. That's all you need to know for now.
  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    bondsum wrote: »
    Sorry, guys, I can't reveal my source to you. You'll just have to be proven wrong when you eventually get to see it. Though @RC7 raises a good point about this "exclusive" maybe deserving its own thread rather than a tagged-on aside - though there might be more obvious reasons as to why I don't want to draw too much unwanted attention from certain quarters by making such a big deal out of it. I haven't seen it myself but my source has. That's all you need to know for now.

    And it includes the St. Pancras/train scene?
  • Posts: 3,333
    That I don't honestly know, @RC7. All I know is the rooftop and street chase exists in its finished form with Barry's music. The scene might just end with Lazenby simply staring off into the distance as the spy he's chasing escapes, rather than the final intended fight on the UK post office's underground railway where the villain falls to his death. It seems even though the street chase was shot, edited and scored, Hunt and co must have altered the sequence as he filmed it and ended it differently to the story boards. What I do know is we will get to see it when the new dvd distributors release their newer Bond versions, but it'll be after the Spectre dvd release.
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 5,921
    bondsum wrote: »
    For what it's worth, @Crazysoul95, I know that the missing OHMSS scene exists and has been fully restored with John Barry's score accompanying it, and we will be seeing the London fooftop chase sometime in the not-too-distant future.

    Don't joke. Who will pay?
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    edited January 2016 Posts: 5,921
    echo wrote:

    Well, that's just stupid. White is such a great character who hasn't been used enough. They had better scrap it and give him a lot of scenes in future a Bond/s before killing him off.

    Points for prescience!
    RC7 wrote: »
    Stumbled across this earlier. This guy calls himself a 'huge' Bond fan. Cue laughter...

    http://filmgeekcentral.com/2012/10/22/james-bond-retrospective-review-of-on-her-majestys-secret-service/

    In his clueless flailing way this retard does raise one mildly interesting point that has never struck me before - namely that Bond was playing Sir Hilary as a homosexual. What do we think of this? Certainly the line 'but I think you do not like girls Sir Hilary' implies the girls are under the impression he might be. Is Bond playing a gay Sir Hilary or merely a bit of a swot who is more absorbed by his books than a bevy of Bond beauties?

    Bond is playing gay. Ruby: "You are funny, pretending not to like girls." Nancy: "I think you do not like girls, Hilly." It's not even subtext; it's text.

    It's an ironic--and funny--cover since Bond is the ultimate lady's man. As a gay man, Hunt understood this and surely meant it intentionally, as much as he did the African woman salivating over the banana (which is also funny).
  • I have Helfenstein's book and it indicates that the rooftop chase scene was story boarded but never shot-- the book even has some stills they took when laying out the scene. I would guess that anyone who says the sequence was shot in full is full of something else.
  • My favorite Bond film. An absolute triumph, in my opinion.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,328
    To show my appreciation for OHMSS I made this remix last summer. :D
  • Bless you, Murdock!
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,328
    Thank you. :)
  • A damn good Bond film, my current favorite of the bunch, and it deserves the re-appraisal it is getting.

    Damn you, George, you could have spared us flapping Jaws, sitting tigers, gorilla and clown suits, double-take pidgeons and slide whistles, but thanks ever so much for this one.
  • Posts: 3,336
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