Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) and House of Wax (1953)

I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I have never been to a wax museum. The thought of viewing wax reproductions of celebrities like Michael Jackson or Humphrey Bogart or historical figures like Abraham Lincoln or Winston Churchill has never excited me. Just because I never saw them in person doesn't mean I'm excited to look at them recreated in wax. Having said that, I would love to visit a wax museum that contains wax reproductions of Jack the Ripper or Rasputin or Dracula or Donald Trump. I'm much more fascinated by nightmares than real life people.

Setting a horror film in a wax museum is absolute genius. People are creeped out by wax mannequins that look life like. Throw in a disfigured stalker cloaked in black, stealing bodies from the morgue to turn into wax replicas of Napoleon or Marie Antoinette or Voltaire, those are the hallmarks of a great horror film. Warner Bros. did just that with MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933) and then remade it twenty years later with HOUSE OF WAX (1953). Interestingly, both films used color in groundbreaking ways. MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM was made during the beginning of talkie films. 99% of films were black and white but MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM was shot in two strip Technicolor giving it a lurid nightmarish quality. HOUSE OF WAX was made in 1953 when color was becoming the norm but it was an early color film shot in 3-D.

One of my favorite directors Michael Curtiz directed MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM from a screenplay by Don Mullaly and Carl Erickson based on a three act play by Charles Belden. Curtiz is best known for THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938) and CASABLANCA (1942) but he cut his teeth early with horror films like 1932's DOCTOR X (which also has a scary deformed murderer known as the Moon Killer) and MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM. Andre De Toth directed HOUSE OF WAX, a remake of MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM with a screenplay by Crane Wilbur based on the original film. De Toth and Wilbur deviate at times from the original but keep the basic story and characters intact. Interestingly, both directors Curtiz and De Toth were born in Hungary. What that has to do with a movie about murders at a Wax Museum I have no idea.

In classic horror film style, MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM opens on a stormy night in London in 1921. Sculptor Ivan Igor (Lionel Atwill) puts the finishing touches on his wax subjects when he's visited by Dr. Rasmussen (Holmes Herbert) and Mr. Gallatin (Claude King). Gallatin is so impressed with Igor's craftsmanship that he pledges to submit Igor's work to the Royal Academy. But Igor's next visitor, his wax museum partner Joe Worth (Edwin Maxwell), is unhappy with Igor. The wax museum is losing money. Worth wants to burn down the museum and Igor's dreams and collect the insurance money. Igor and Worth tussle. Worth starts a fire, burning and melting Igor's waxworks. Worth makes it out alive but does Igor?

We jump ahead twelve years to New Year's Eve 1933 in New York. The police arrive at a hotel where socialite Joan Gale (Monica Bannister) has apparently committed suicide. Watching from one of the hotel room windows is a white haired Ivan Igor, very much alive after the earlier horrific fire. Gale's boyfriend George Winton (Gavin Gordon) is arrested for Gale's murder. Spunky Express reporter Florence Dempsey (Glenda Farrell) is pressured by her editor Jim (Frank McHugh) to break a sensational story. The police hint to Florence that Gale may have been murdered. When Gale's body is stolen from the morgue by a mangled stalker dressed in black, Florence dives headfirst to solve the mystery.

Sculptor Igor has relocated to New York to open yet another London Wax Museum and to extract revenge on his ex-partner Worth (now a bootlegger) living in New York. We learn that Igor survived the terrible fire in London but he's now wheelchair bound with deformed hands, damaged by the fire. His assistants Professor Darcy (Arthur Edmond Carewe), the mute Hugo (Matthew Betz), and young, naïve Ralph Burton (Allen Vincent) perform his sculpting. But Florence's investigation reveals that Darcy and Hugo along with the disfigured man in black are stealing corpses from the morgue (like Joan Gale's body) to dip in wax and reproduce as wax figures of Joan of Arc (Gale's body) and Voltaire (a murdered judge who resembled the philosopher) among others.

Igor meets Ralph's pretty girlfriend Charlotte Duncan (KING KONG's Fay Wray) during the new museum's opening. Charlotte reminds Igor of his favorite wax figure Marie Antoinette. When Charlotte returns another day to see Ralph, Igor tricks her into looking for Ralph down in the work basement (complete with boiling cauldron of wax). When Charlotte can't find Ralph, Igor appears, revealing he can walk. He plans on murdering Charlotte and dipping her in wax so she can be his second Marie Antoinette figure. Charlotte claws at Igor's face, exposing it's a wax mask. Igor is the damaged monster stealing bodies from the morgue. Florence, Ralph, and the police arrive. They discover Worth's body in a crate. Igor and the police fight on a catwalk where Igor is shot and falls into the pool of hot wax.

Director Curtiz makes MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM one part horror film, one part screwball comedy, and one part mystery. The wisecracking banter between reporter Florence and her editor Jim is right out of THE FRONT PAGE (1931). When Florence asks Jim, "Have you ever heard of such a thing as a death mask?" Jim sarcastically replies, "I used to be married to one." The identity of the crippled body snatcher in black is kept secret much better in MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM than HOUSE OF WAX. The use of color, even two strip Technicolor is perfect for a film full of colorful wax mannequins and shots of bubbling wax in the finale. WAX MUSEUM was made before the Production Code (created to cut down on unsavory story elements) was enforced which is why Igor's assistant Darcy was allowed to be a drug junkie in the original. In HOUSE OF WAX, the same character now known as Leon is changed to an alcoholic.

Curtiz pulls out the Grand Guignol giving us classic horror set pieces like a mysterious scarred killer stealing corpses from the morgue or a lady in distress walking through a cavalcade of creepy wax figures, one with a pair of human eyes following her every step. The photography and set design are influenced by German Expressionism films like THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920). Curtiz's attempt to film some of the actors as the wax figures (like Fay Wray as Marie Antoinette) doesn't work (she moves ever so slightly). I thought Curtiz might be trying to imply that from Igor's perspective, his wax creations are alive. In reality, the film lights were so hot, the real wax figures would melt so the filmmakers had to use real actors for some of the close ups of wax figures.

Lionel Atwill's performance as Igor may be one of the best of his career. He transitions from a compassionate artist at the top of his craft to a crippled madman bent on revenge. We feel his pain when his unscrupulous partner Joe Worth torches his life work, forever altering his world. Atwill's Igor plays God in his wax museum.  He's the creator of all the waxworks, creating not in the image of himself but from people he has murdered. He promises Charlotte immortality once he's turned her into a wax siren. Atwill would appear in other horror films including THE VAMPIRE BAT (also 1933) and SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939) but MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM is his chance to shine as an actor.

Horror scream queen Fay Wray, forever famous as King Kong's heartthrob in KING KONG (also 1933), is fetching as Charlotte Duncan, the living embodiment of Igor's vision of Marie Antoinette. No actress could scream better than Fay Wray. Wray had an incredible streak in the early 1930's starring in several hits including DOCTOR X (1932) also directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Lionel Atwill, THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (1932), and KING KONG.  Rounding out the cast are Glenda Farrell as spunky reporter Florence Dempsey. Farrell would make a career playing fast talking reporters including the adventurous blonde Torchy Blane in a series of Warner Bros films. And Frank McHugh as Dempsey's newspaper editor Jim was another Warner Bros contract player who appeared in over 90 films during his first dozen years with the studio.

Which brings us to Andre De Toth's HOUSE OF WAX twenty years after the original MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM was released. De Toth and screenwriter Wilbur place the remake in New York in at turn of the century 1900 and dispense with the wisecracking newspaper characters, focusing entirely on sculptor Dr. Henry Jarrod and his fall from artist to deranged madman. Once again, Jarrod is visited by wealthy admirers including art critic Sidney Wallace (Paul Cavanagh) who marvel at his wax museum. But Jarrod's partner Matthew Burke (Roy Roberts) is unhappy with the profits from the wax museum. He torches the museum for the insurance money, turning on the gas as well. Burke and Jarrod scuffle as flaming timbers fall all around in glorious 3D. Burke escapes but Jarrod is presumed dead as the museum explodes.

Worth collects the $25,000 insurance money, taking his blonde girlfriend Cathy Gray (Carolyn Jones) out to dinner. When Worth returns to his apartment, he's attacked by a disfigured man in black who hangs him by throwing Worth down the elevator, a rope tied around his neck. Later, the man in black murders Cathy and then steals her body from the morgue. Cathy's roommate Sue Allen (Phyllis Kirk) finds the killer in her room but scares him away. She reports the incident to Lieutenant Tom Brennan (Frank Lovejoy) and Sgt. Jim Shane (Dabs Greer) who begin to investigate these macabre incidents.

Jarrod resurfaces, seemingly back from the dead, reaching out to Wallace to invest in his second wax museum, this time a House of Horrors. Wallace agrees. Wheelchair bound and unable to sculpt, Jarrod enlists the help of assistants Leon Averill (Nedrick Young) and the muscular but mute Igor (a young Charles Bronson using his real last name Buchinsky). This time, Jarrod exhibits themes of violence, guillotines and the electric chair among the attractions. He opens up his second wax museum calling it House of Wax.

Wallace visits on opening night and introduces a young protégé Scott Andews (Paul Picerni) to Jarrod. Jarrod offers Scott some work but he's more interested in Scott's friend Sue Allen who looks incredibly like his original Marie Antoinette figure. Sue is intrigued by the Joan of Arc wax figure who eerily resembles her murdered friend Cathy. Brennan and Shane begin to also look closely at Jarrod's wax exhibits, suspecting other stolen corpses may be part of Jarrod's exhibition. When Scott tells Jarrod that Sue is coming by to see him, Jarrod sends Scott on an errand. Sue enters the empty wax museum, confirming the Joan of Arc figure is her dead friend Cathy. Jarrod appears, confessing that some of the wax mannequins are his dead enemies. He wants to turn Sue into Marie Antoinette. Sue tries to fight off Jarrod, tearing his wax mask apart to reveal Jarrod is the hideous maniac. Brennan, Shane, and Scott arrive to arrest Jarrod. Igor almost decapitates Scott at the guillotine exhibition. Jarrod scuffles with Brennan and perishes into the vat of hot wax.

HOUSE OF WAX runs eleven minutes longer than MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM. HOUSE OF WAX maintains much of the plot and characters from the original but changes up the storyline too. The opening fight scene is longer and more dramatic between Jarrod and his crooked partner Worth. HOUSE OF WAX drops the newspaper reporter storyline and sets the entire film in New York in the late 19th century (utilizing Warner Bros New York street sets). MYSTERY was set in the 20th Century. I felt HOUSE OF WAX explains better which stolen corpses are transformed into which historical waxworks. MYSTERY'S wax museum was mostly French themed. Jarrod's first wax museum in HOUSE OF WAX has more historical events like Lincoln's assassination or Antony and Cleopatra's romance. But Jarrod's second wax museum House of Wax is the archetypal wax museum we expect for a horror film with a House of Horrors and more violent recreations. Both films incorporate creepy close ups of the heads of the wax figures, observing the horror and intrigue from their stationary positions.

HOUSE OF WAX struggles at times on whether it wants to be a good old fashioned horror film in glorious color or a gimmicky 3D film. Certain shots and scenes are played at the camera for intentional purposes such as Can-Can girls kicking their legs at the camera or an annoying barker (Reggie Rymal) hitting a paddle ball at the screen and breaking the fourth wall by talking to the audience.  I've not seen HOUSE OF WAX in 3D but I can imagine the burning wax museum with its flames or the foggy atmospheric New York streets or the House of Horror with all its wax exhibits must have looked fantastic in 3D.

Whereas Lionel Atwill's sculptor Igor played God with his wax creations in MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM,  Vincent Price's Professor Jarrod comes off more like Pinocchio's father Geppetto. Jarrod talks to his creations as if they're alive, scolding and chiding them like a parent to his young children. Both Igor and Jarrod remind me of another tormented artist Erique Claudin aka the Phantom of the Opera. Like Igor and Jarrod, Erique (played by Claude Rains in 1943's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA) starts out as a sympathetic artist (a violinist) who is wronged by a music publisher, driving him to murder. He's also disfigured when the publisher's maid throws acid on his face. Erique returns as the Opera Phantom, scaring the Opera house into showcasing his young singing protégé. Even Vincent Price's makeup in HOUSE OF WAX as the scarred killer resembles some versions of the Phantom both on stage and screen with clumps of hair springing from his ghastly burnt bald head. Like Atwill, Professor Jarrod is one of Price's finest performances, playing pathos and horror with equal aplomb.

Vincent Price as I remember him was always the epitome of the horror film actor but HOUSE OF WAX is really the film that kicked off Price's horror film career. He had played bad guys and cads in films like LAURA (1944) and THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1948) but his only previous appearance in horror was in 1939's THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS (if you can consider that an appearance since he's invisible through a good portion of the film). After HOUSE, Price would be a horror regular in films like THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) and a series of Edgar Allen Poe films with American Pictures International including THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1961).

HOUSE OF WAX is filled with some familiar supporting actors. My new dearest friend Paul Cavanagh (I just came across Mr. Cavanagh in 1934's TARZAN AND HIS MATE recently) with his distinctive voice  plays a good guy this time as Jarrod's benefactor Sidney Wallace. Phyllis Kirk as the damsel in distress  Sue Allen won't make anyone forget Fay Wray. Fans of THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963) and DEATH WISH (1974) will recognize a young Charles Bronson (using his real last name Buchinsky for this film) as Jarrod's muscular mute henchman Igor. Frank Lovejoy who plays Lt. Brennan would play many cops in other films but I recently saw him in the desert film noir THE HITCH HIKER (also 1953). Carolyn Jones as the ditsy blonde Cathy Gray (later to become the wax Joan of Arc) would make her name later as Morticia Addams in TV's THE ADDAMS FAMILY (1964-66). And fans of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE will recognize Dabbs Greer who plays Detective Shane in HOUSE OF WAX. Greer would play Reverend Alden on LITTLE HOUSE from 1974 to 1983.

Some final trivia on MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM and HOUSE OF WAX. The two strip Technicolor print of MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM was thought to be lost forever until it was discovered in Warner Bros President Jack Warner's private collection in the late 60s, giving movie fans another chance to see this classic horror film in color (supposedly there's a black and white version of the 1933 film too). Warner Bros would make another HOUSE OF WAX in 2006. But, except for the same title, this new version bears no resemblance to either MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM or the 1953 HOUSE OF WAX. The filmmakers go with the now standard group of lost horny college students who stumble upon a House of Wax museum in an abandoned town where they're pursued by a creepy killer. The only gimmick in this modern version doesn't involve color or 3D. The gimmick is casting Paris Hilton (the original Kim Kardashian) as one of the terrorized students.

The film historian William K. Everson in his book Classics of the Horror Film which I bought in my youth sums up perfectly my perspective between MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM and HOUSE OF WAX.  "The original film had seemed far subtler in its contrasting of the Old and New. It created an unreal nightmare world of wax amid modern New York, so that merely stepping from Broadway through the doors of the Museum was like stepping into a whole new world of unseen terrors...Furthermore, the original's retrained and limited use of the Monster made it less apparent that he and the sculptor (Lionel Atwill in the original, Vincent Price in the remake) were one and the same, and thus the final classic unmasking had surprise, as well as shock, in the first version. Somehow it was all handled much too abruptly and casually in the remake." Everson does express it better than I ever could.

HOUSE OF WAX has its merits and scares but it reminds us what a novel and thrilling film MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM was and is when it first came out in 1933. MYSTERY goes for the jugular, having fun with the mayhem. HOUSE OF WAX has a breakout performance by Vincent Price and some nice atmospheric horror scenes. The disfigured killer in WAX MUSEUM and HOUSE OF WAX would be the predecessor to the modern horror stalker Freddie Krueger who would first appear in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET in 1984 and subsequent sequels. Ultimately, MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM and its remake HOUSE OF WAX give us two great horror staples: a horrifying monster and an equally scary setting.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

All good things must come to an end. The Beatles. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor's marriage (twice!). Sean Connery as James Bond. Bond producers Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli had to face this realization when Connery chose not to return as James Bond for ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE (1969), the sixth film in the Bond series. So hello relatively unknown Australian actor George Lazenby to inherit the role made internationally famous by Sean Connery.

Because Connery was so imprinted in my head as the only real James Bond, I never wanted to see ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE.  I tried to watch it maybe 3 or 4 years ago and fell asleep half way through it (not because it was dull but because I tried to watch late at night on a work week). But I finally watched it from beginning to end. Based on Ian Fleming's Bond novel of the same title, it's a decent story with a bit of a strange premise (beautiful women brainwashed into spreading a virus to make plants and animals infertile).  Lazenby was chosen because he resembled Connery with his jet black hair and accent.  But throughout ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, the ghost of Sean Connery permeates the film. If only Connery had said that line or kissed that girl or punched that bad guy or wore a Scottish kilt for part of the film. Lazenby cannot make us forget whose patent black leather shoes he's filling. It would be Lazenby's only appearance as 007.

Not only is Sean Connery missing from ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, other familiar elements are missing or not as first rate. Maurice Binder's title sequence is one of the weakest in the series. There's not even a theme song to go along with the opening credits (granted ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE is a tough title to come up with a theme song for). John Barry returns as the composer but most of the film uses over and over again one main musical refrain in the movie. Production designer Ken Adam's ingenious set designs are absent as Syd Cain takes over for him. Telly Savalas steps into the role of the villainous Ernst Stavro Blofeld that Donald Pleasence played in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967). Yes, Savalas is bald but he, like Lazenby, seems like a second choice for the role (at least they didn't have to dub Savalas's voice like some of the previous Bond villains like Gert Frobe in GOLDFINGER or Adolfo Celi in THUNDERBALL).

But there are a couple of constants. Screenwriter Richard Maibaum who would end up penning twelve of the Bond films wrote this one. And Bond film editor Peter Hunt gets his first crack at directing this Bond film. ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE begins with a sense of mystery. While on vacation, James Bond (George Lazenby) rescues a beautiful woman (Diana Rigg) from committing suicide by drowning herself in the ocean. After rescuing her, two assailants try to kill him as the woman speeds away in Bond's car. Bond runs into her later at a casino. She is Contessa Tracy Draco, the daughter of crime boss Draco (Gabriela Ferzetti). Bond pays her debt much to the chagrin of Tracy. Soon, Draco's men grab Bond and bring him to meet Draco in person. Draco wants Bond to marry Tracy. She's a wild child and Draco wants a man that can handle and control his daughter. Bond considers the offer.

Meanwhile, M (Bernard Lee) pulls Bond from Operation Bedlam, a mission to find and catch SPECTRE's greatest mastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas). Bond is obsessed with catching Blofeld who narrowly escaped him in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. Bond resigns but Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) convinces M to give Bond two weeks leave instead. Bond travels to Portugal to begin a courtship with the Contessa. Bond uses Draco's contacts to locate Blofeld and discovers that Blofeld has set up an allergy clinic in an alpine fortress at the top of the Swiss Alps.

Bond also learns that Blofeld has been communicating with genealogist Sir Hilary Bray (George Baker) regarding taking on a count title. Bond assumes Sir Hilary's identity (which doesn't make sense as Blofeld already knows what Bond looks like from YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE) to meet with Blofeld at his snowy hideout and uncover his diabolical plot. Blofeld's Nazi den mother Frau Irma Bunt (Ilse Steppat) picks up Bond from the nearby ski village. To his surprise, Bond discovers a dozen beautiful women from all over the world staying at the compound. Bond learns that Blofeld plans to ignite biological warfare by brainwashing these women to disperse a virus to all corners of the world to make plants and animals infertile unless his ransom demands are met.

Blofeld sends his angels of death off to their respective hometowns with a  nice compact filled with the deadly germs. Bond escapes from Blofeld's hideout, skiing down the Alps pursued by Blofeld's soldiers. Bond runs into Tracy who's in Switzerland for a ski vacation. Bond and Tracy flee Bunt, sneaking into a snowy stock car race to avoid Bunt before hiding out in an isolated barn. Bond asks  Tracy to marry him. An avalanche nearly kills the two of them. Blofeld grabs Tracy, taking her back to his icy lair. Bond enlists Draco and his manpower on a final assault of Blofeld's fortress. Afterward, Bond and Tracy marry. But tragedy befalls the honeymooners. An injured Blofeld with Frau Bunt as his side pull up next to the honeymooners vehicle and shoot and kill Tracy.

Besides the elephant in the room that George Lazenby not Sean Connery plays 007 in ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, the Bond filmmakers try to change things up from the previous Bond films. The films begins not with an opening set piece like GOLDFINGER or THUNDERBALL (1965) but with a sense of mystery. We're not sure where Bond is or what he's doing (turns out he's on vacation). He encounters a mysterious woman (Contessa Draco) who races past him on a road. He finds her on a beach where she runs into the water, trying to kill herself. He rescues her but she takes off as he fights off a couple of thugs. Then, M nearly fires Bond. The Bond universe is out of kilter.

We also get to see  Bond's coworkers M and Miss Moneypenny in a new light. Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) goes out of her way to keep Bond from quitting, saving his job by convincing M to let Bond take a leave of absence instead of resigning. It's nice to see Moneypenny have something more to do than just flirt with Bond. We also see a gentler side of M (Bernard Lee). M attends Bond's wedding to Tracy, even conversing with crime boss Draco. If only knew what M got Bond and his bride from the wedding registry. Perhaps M and Q went in together on his and her flame throwing pens.

The previous two Bond films had introduced sexy red-headed femme fatales to dispatch Bond (actresses Luciana Paluzzi and Karin Dor respectively) but the matronly Germanic Frau Bunt (Ilse Steppat) plays the tough second villain in SECRET SERVICE. Bunt hearkens back to Lotta Lenya (she with knife blades in her shoes) in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963). Bunt is an older but just as lethal adversary (and still a ginger). And scary too. If you don't believe me, check out the scene when Bond sneaks into Ruby's (Angela Scoular) room. Instead of finding the cute allergy patient, it's Frau Bunt waiting for him under the covers. Bond's relationship with crime boss Draco is the first time we see the English agent working with a less than reputable partner. It's a trade. Draco wants Bond to wed his daughter. Bond needs Draco and his contacts to find Blofeld. In most Bond films, 007 teamed up with American CIA agent Felix Leiter. But as they say in the spy business, you sometimes have to sleep with the enemy or marry the enemy's daughter. Draco isn't after world domination like Blofeld. Bond would team up with another unsavory character Columbo in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (1981).

ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE is the first Bond film to introduce skiing to the series, not surprising since half the film takes place in the Swiss Alps. When I started going to the theater to watch Bond films in the 70s and 80s, Bond was always skiing for his life pursued by bad guys on skis with machine guns in films like THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977) or FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. It's surprising it took so long to put Bond on skis but by 1969 filmmakers were going on location and pushing the envelope with stunts. SECRET SERVICE has some excellent ski action sequences.

I'm sure George Lazenby is a nice person and a decent actor but there's no way he could win over the public (or me) as James Bond having to follow Sean Connery. Connery exuded a confidence and sexual power that Lazenby can only dream of. Lazenby handles some of the humorous scenes in SECRET SERVICE with aplomb but watching him is like watching a television version of James Bond. He looks and has some of the same mannerisms as Connery but it's not the same thing. Lazenby had never acted in a film before taking on the role. His previous experience was only commercials and print ads as a model.  Kudos to Lazenby as he doesn't fall flat on his face as the most famous British agent in the world.

Diana Rigg as Contessa Draco is a change of pace for the Bond filmmakers who chose former beauty queens for previous Bond girls. Rigg was the star of the successful TV series THE AVENGERS (1965-68) where she played a female version of Bond along with co-star Patrick Macnee. Rigg brings sophistication and class to the role as the future Mrs. James Bond. Rigg's distinguished career has continued all the way to the present. She recently finished a nice run on HBOs worldwide hit GAME OF THRONES.

Telly Savalas, at first look, seems like an excellent choice to play the nefarious Blofeld (check out Savalas's creepy turn in the 1967 war film THE DIRTY DOZEN). But Savalas doesn't seem sinister enough in the role except at the film's tragic finale. It might be I kept expecting Savalas to whip out a lollipop as detective Kojak from his KOJAK TV series (1973 -1978). Savalas's American accent is surprisingly uninteresting. It didn't help that Savalas had to follow Donald Pleasence's fantastic portrayal of Blofeld in the earlier Bond film YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. Fans of Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1969) will recognize Gabriele Ferzetti as the crime boss Draco. Ferzetti is fine in the role but it's not very believable that he and Tracy are father and daughter (they look to be the same age).

On the other hand, German born actress Ilse Steppat is perfect as Blofeld's tough lieutenant/mother figure Frau Irma Bunt. She's part mother hen, responsible for the twelve beautiful women at the allergy institute. But she's part Gestapo, pursuing Bond as he escapes Blofeld's fortress, guns blazing. There's an interesting mother/son dynamic between Bunt and Blofeld. Interestingly, neither Blofeld nor Bunt dies at the end of the film although we know Blofeld has a broken neck after his bobsled crash while fleeing Bond. Our last image of the two is Bunt aiding the neck-braced Blofeld as he shoots Tracy right after the wedding. It's not a very nice wedding present to the newlyweds. Sadly, actress Steppat would die a week after filming ended and never saw her fine work ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. Of the twelve actresses who play the allergy patients, only Catherine Schell (then Catherine von Schell) did anything else that I recognized. Schell starred in a British Science Fiction TV show called SPACE 1999 from 1975 to 1977.

Believe it or not, the goofy plot of ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE with twelve beautiful women brainwashed by Blofeld to deliver a virus to make sterile the world's plants and livestock is actually from the Ian Fleming book. Yes, Bond is a ladies man but a dozen gorgeous women from around the world invited to hang out with a megalomaniac seems more apropos for Dean Martin in the comedic Bond ripoff MATT HELM films than the Bond series.  SECRET SERVICE also began a trend where the filmmakers borrowed what was happening either in modern culture or movies at the time. SECRET SERVICE exudes the London Mod scene of the late 60s with women in mini skirts and boots and  Bond wearing an ascot. DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER incorporates the car chase fad of the early 70s. LIVE AND LET DIE (1973) gives us the urban Blaxploitation SHAFT feel and MOONRAKER (1979) capitalizes on the STAR WARS phenomenon.

Peter Hunt started out as an editor on three Bond films including GOLDFINGER (1964). ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE would be the only Bond film he would get to direct. With his editing background, Hunt keeps MAJESTY moving at a good pace as it's one of the longer Bond films. The fight scenes are realistic, primal and savage. Other fine set pieces include the stock car race sequence in the snow and several skiing action scenes. Ironically, Hunt's editor on this film John Glen would go on to direct five Bond films including FOR YOUR EYES ONLY and the worst film in the Bond series A VIEW TO A KILL (1985).

Although ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE does not rate high on my canon of Bond films, it's surprising how much it has influenced other filmmakers and films. The snowy fortress from Christopher Nolan's INCEPTION (2010) is inspired by the Piz Gloria compound in SECRET SERVICE. And there's no mistaking that the wardrobe that Bond wears impersonating genealogist Sir Hilary (with ascot) was the inspiration for Mike Myers Austin Powers attire in the AUSTIN POWERS series. Myers borrows heavily from the Bond films for most of the plots and characters in his films. Even the relationship between Dr. Evil and Frau Farbissina seems a homage to Blofeld and Frau Bunt in SECRET SERVICE.

One last tidbit on SECRET SERVICE. I actually visited Blofeld's snowy hideout location in the Swiss Alps in 1987 when I backpacked through Europe. The building sits on the top of Mt. Schilthorn. It's still called Piz Gloria and it's a revolving restaurant, the first of its kind at the time. I rode up the same gondola to the top of the Alps like Bond did. Unfortunately, the weather was horrible the day I went and clouds and fog obscured the panoramic view of the majestic Swiss Alps.

But do not sulk James Bond fans. George Lazenby would only last for one movie. Sean Connery would return for his final swan song (not counting his remake of THUNDERBALL called NEVER SAY NEVER in 1983) for DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (1971). DIAMONDS would usher Bond into a new decade bringing back Blofeld (this time appearing as he was described in Fleming's novels with white hair). ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE is the black sheep of the Bond series, the outcast with more misfires than bullseyes. It's an interesting addition to the series and by no means the worst film of the Bond franchise.