The Making of On Her Majesty's Secret Service

by Charles Helfenstein

Step back in time to the late 1960s, when Sean Connery resigned from playing James Bond, producers Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli decided to gamble and doubled down with an untested director and an unknown star and came up with the crown jewels: On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Based on years of research, hundreds of interviews, and exclusive access to the archives of author Ian Fleming, screenwriter Richard Maibaum, and director Peter Hunt, this inside look features never-before-published script details, storyboards, production documents, interviews, memos, marketing material, call sheets, and hundreds of rare, behind-the-scenes photographs of the cast and crew, including sequences and entire sets not seen in the film. From novel to script to screen, this book details the incredible journey of making the most unique entry in the James Bond film series, the longest running, most successful film franchise in history. This is not the white-washed "authorized" story, but the real story.

Genres: Nonfiction

290 pages, Paperback

First published December 18, 2009

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been a James Bond fan for over forty years & this is still my favourite 007 film. I've watched & read so much about the film that I wondered if author Charles Helfstein could tell me anything I didn't already know.....well he succeeded in many ways.
There's a huge amount of background information on the writing of the novel, as well as details on numerous scripts that were written before the cameras even turned. Helfstein not only does an incredible job on telling us how the film was made in imense detail, he also fills the book with an absolutely brilliant selection of rare photographs.
If you are a fan of OHMSS then this is a must read. The book can pretty much be summed up by using the tagline from the film itself.....
Far Up! Far Out! Far More!

[Thomas Stroemquist · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, the book suffers from a bit of poor proof-reading, reference control and editing, leading to quite a lot of grammatical and spelling errors, naming a Danish movie poster Swedish and paragraphs cut in mid-sentence by multiple pages of photographs, often with extensive legend text, or even lengthy interviews throughout the entire book.

Disregarding this, it is a work of love but even so quite objectively presenting the bad with the good. A great collection of facts and also pictures not seen anywhere else.

[R · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the Making of The Living Daylights first, but I know this was the first book he did and that it's the author's favorite. Despite that, it's still a straight forward factual account. Like the other book, this is for serious fans only as it's exhaustive, but it's still a treasure to have a record like this available. I hope he does more.

[Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative, fun, makes a great gift. I can absolutely vouch for the third clause as this was gifted to me by my wonderful wife.

Helfenstein is not a dazzling prose stylist but he got the goods and he shares them with generosity.

[Jack Lugo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I decided to read Charles Helfenstein's book on the making of OHMSS because I had used its initial chapter on the Fleming novel in a blog piece I wrote about the Fleming book (which you could find here:https://jackl0073.wordpress.com/2015/...) . I found the information he obtained to be so fascinating that I decided to go ahead and read the rest of the book, which is the most detailed and expansive resource on the 1969 James Bond film available. With interviews and extensive research, Helfenstein created the definitive document covering every aspect of On Her Majesty's Secret Service from Fleming's conception and inspirations behind the novel to every step of pre-production and screen treatments dating back to 1964 (5 years before the film debuted) to the casting, production, marketing, and release of the 1969 film. Everything a Bond fan could possibly want to investigate regarding OHMSS is here. Both the novel and the 1969 film of OHMSS represent some of the highest level of excellence and brilliance within the Bond franchise. Peter Hunt, who directed the film, wanted to not only make "the best Bond film ever," he also wanted to be faithful to Fleming's novel and conception of the Bond character. With George Lazenby making his acting debut as James Bond replacing Sean Connery, Peter Hunt had an enormous challenge ahead of him. Though many Bond fans are divided about this film, I think Peter Hunt's adaptation stands as one of the best film adaptations of Fleming's work on the big screen.

[Martyn Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started to read this book WAAAAAAY back in February 2013, got up to about page 40, then put it down to gather dust for well over a year before I decided to clear down my "currently reading" list and pick it back up again.

Rather than try and pick up where I left off, I jumped back to the start and really started to rattle through the pages in the limited spare time I have to read. What surprised me was just how enjoyable and interesting it is. Whilst the simplistic design and the heavy handed plot changes/descriptions between drafts take some getting into, once you're used to the style, it really is a very enjoyable read.

Helfenstein's writing style is very conversational and easy to read, he's loaded the books with quotes, comments, anecdotes, facts and figures and has somehow managed to achieve the seemingly impossible, create a unique and niche book about James Bond.

That's right. Not one decent 'making of' book exists about the Lazenby starring Bond flick, OHMSS and this book fills that void as an absolute gem of information, behind the scenes pictures and interviews.

Charles Helfenstein has created such an in depth and enjoyable book based on one of the lesser known and lesser celebrated James Bond adventures and it has really come up trumps. Recommended for all fans of the Bond movies.

[Two Envelopes And A Phone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Because of where my birthdate is on the timeline, Roger Moore was the first James Bond I was aware of. Even so, I know that I did not become a Bond fan by going to movie theatres; I discovered Bond incarnations as I watched the films on TV. It would also be fair to say that I might not always have watched Bond movies all the way through, thanks to commercials slowing things down. Nevertheless, I am fairly certain that the very first Bond films I watched all the way through on TV were The Spy Who Loved Me, The Man with the Golden Gun, You Only Live Twice, and Live and Let Die. I know I was a big fan of You Only Live Twice and watched it many times…but I must have been into my early teens before doing this, because I remember playing Trivial Pursuit when I was, oh, maybe thirteen years old, and being stumped by the question “Who is James Bond’s arch enemy?”. When the name Ernst Stavro Blofeld was read to me as the answer, I knew that I was not much of a Bond fan for guessing Jaws.

I remember looking at the TV guide and discovering that a movie coming on that night was a James Bond movie called On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. I looked at who starred in it, and saw the name George Lazenby. I didn’t understand what was going on. I didn’t understand what I was looking at. I did not get how someone I had never heard of was playing James Bond in an old James Bond movie.

I fell in love with the pre-credits sequence for OHMSS, an intense beach fight, but I know I did not stick with the movie for very long, the first few times I tried to watch it. Then, at some point, I joined it in progress, right around when Bond is captured by Blofeld - a very scary version of Blofeld that I took to immediately - and has to escape The Lair and save the world; in other words, the film’s pace gets adrenalized in the second half and I could not abandon the film. I didn’t want to. I loved what I was watching.

Then the film’s finale was unfolding. I was puzzled; again, I was very confused about what was going on. Bond was about to get married, the ceremony was suddenly taking place. “Bond is married!? I don’t get it…what did they do with this character…?”

The next time OHMSS was on TV, I watched it all the way through, and many times after that. Many times.

I got on to this film when it was kind of buried. It might have been just on the cusp of garnering new respect, and getting views by Bond fans who had not watched it because the rumour was it was not that good. But I don’t think that flip in perspective was happening yet - 1980-82?…no, I think the film was still in a weird non-Connery, non-Moore limbo that had been created for it. So I kind of consider myself ahead of the curve. I came out of my first full viewing of this film in a funky shock. My teenaged thoughts: “That is the best Bond movie I have ever seen. I was not prepared for this. This has come out of nowhere, I never heard of this film when anyone mentions James Bond…and I just saw the only Bond movie that makes you care, on a personal level! I just watched a tragic love story with some action-adventure stuff in it. Why…why are the other ones so shallow? I can’t go back to the way it was. Don’t flash Bond’s humanity at me, and then take it away again…”.

So, yah. I love this book because I love the film. OHMSS is my favourite Bond movie, my second favourite spy movie (and I have seen many - trust me), and my tenth favourite film of all time (well…things change, never say never). And this book is an OHMSS addict’s dream. I mean, you could even scream Overkill…the author not only lists the alternate locations that were considered for the Piz Gloria villain lair/lab, but you get photos of tourist material for those unused locations - St. Moritz, Pilatus, etc.. A frigging photo montage of tourist posters for locations that were considered for filming, but not used! Photos of the relatively unknown actresses who were considered for the role of Bond’s true love, before the filmmakers decided they needed a veteran actress to balance out Lazenby’s inexperience and hired Diana Rigg.

Extensive photo display, and storyboards, for a complex action sequence most of which was never filmed, due to time constraints attached to the rationalization that it was too much palaver just to kill off one of the minor villains. Photos of gorgeous cars that never quite made it into the film. A photo of the very rare novelty phonograph record that Ilse Steppat made, singing - as evil Fraulein Bunt - about all the ways she would like to kill James Bond. No matter how rare the moment, or the collectible, it is discussed, and a photo is provided. Script revisions that could be sorted into (a) which versions featured a monkey (scriptwriter Maibaum seemed to have a lifelong “simian in each script” fetish), and (b) which versions featured Goldfinger’s evil brother as the villain (plus extended discussion of the other Bond films where they almost did this…oh, they wanted to, that’s for sure).

I love the photo of Connery, looking thoroughly miserable, on set for the previous film. It’s gold. Meanwhile, loads of gorgeous photos of George Lazenby and Diana Rigg. Plus photos of anyone who did something for this movie. Louis Armstrong, Simon Raven (I made a point of reading his vampire novel, because he contributed to this script), a dude who was fired because he wouldn’t rehearse…

A photo of my favourite actor, Max von Sydow, because someone casually mentioned him as how a Blofeld should look…although this seemingly offhand remark back around 1968 actually has a bit of irony to it.

Anyway, if I’ve highlighted the photo treasure-trove at the expense of emphasizing how detailed the text becomes, I’m just sort of assuming that you get how complete the story of this film is presented, in this book. Lazenby’s odyssey, director Peter Hunt’s ceaseless effort to create a great, unique Bond film throughout every step of the process, what they did when things went wrong, the aftermath - this must be all there is.

[Frank Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only for those obsessed by this movie, it contains a wealth of information and an amazing collection of stills, posters, and memorabilia.

[Steve Aldous · Rating 5 out of 5]

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is unique in many ways in the James Bond movie canon. It was the first film in which the part of Bond was recast – Sean Connery having bowed out after five films with Australian model George Lazenby taking over; it would prove to be Lazenby’s one and only performance as Bond; it would be Peter Hunt’s one and only film as director; it would be the only film in which Bond has a serious relationship and gets married. Released at the very end of the 1960s, there were rumblings that Bond may no longer be in vogue as the late 60s cultural revolution pushed cinema audiences to young and hip movies like Easy Rider. These factors led to the film getting a mixed reaction from critics and audiences. Another factor was that the Connery Bonds had become bigger and bigger and more outlandish and OHMSS was a back to basics approach, eschewing the gadgets and became the closest adaptation of one of Ian Fleming’s source novels in the series (director Hunt would always have a copy of the book with him during filming). The film, as well as Lazenby’s performance, has been re-assessed over the years and is now regarded as one of the very best in the series. Charles Helfenstein’s account of the making of OHMSS is an outstanding piece of research taking us from the novel to the scripting process to pre-production to casting to production to post-production and marketing to release and critical reception. It makes for a fascinating journey and tells the story of a director with a determined vision, a new star who was something of a maverick and a production team that put itself on the line to produce the best possible output. Helfenstein has drawn on his own interviews with cast and crew as well as archived information. The book is also packed with production photographs, trade ads, posters, lobby cards and details of marketing products. There is some detailed analysis of the various screenplays developed over a period of five years, including false starts. There is also detail of initial outlines for Diamonds Are Forever, written before Lazenby decided to withdraw from future Bonds. The result is a book that is a must for Bond fans and any movie scholar.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Bond fan who puts O.H.M.S.S in his top 24 James Bond films, this was a fantastic read with great insights into the making of the film from script to screen and beyond. With some photos and facts new to me, I devoured it contents in a couple of sittings. Helfenstien certainly knows his subject and the research and passion that's gone into this book makes it a must read for all Bond fans. I am now going to look out for Helfenstein's follow up publication 'The Making of The Living Daylights'.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic, well researched book into the making of the second-best Bond film ever (best of course is From Russia With Love). Full of interesting detail and images, taking one though the whole process from pre-production to post-production and beyond. This book is a life's work from Mr Helfenstein (good name for a Bond villain!), and he's put in an enormous amount of effort. Reading how the film is made from script re-writes to casting and then shooting, you sometimes wonder how any feature film actually gets made.
This is a brilliant insight into the making of film and should interest not only Bond fans but anyone interested in modern cinema.