Tuesday, May 20, 2008

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

In the movie and book, James Bond saves a woman (Teresa di Vicenzo, played by Diana Rigg) who tries to drown herself in the ocean and later gambles with money that she does not have. Her father, Marc Ange Draco, (Gabriele Ferzetti) the head of a Corsican mafia family, thinking that Bond can help with his daughters emotional instability, proposes that if James Bond marries his daughter, Bond will receive one million dollars on their wedding day. Bond refuses, but agrees to see her again as part of an agreement that Draco will provide Bond with information about the location of Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas), the head of the crime organization S.P.E.C.T.R.E..

Draco eventually complies and informs Bond that several men from Draco's organization have been recruited by Blofeld, via an attorney in Bern, Switzerland. A search of the attorney's office reveals correspondence between Blofeld and the Royal College of Arms. Blofeld is attempting to lay claim to the title 'Compte Balthazar de Bleuchamp'. His correspondence is with Sir Hillary Bray, a geneologist at the College. Bond proposes posing as Bray so that he may visit Blofeld, on the pretense of verifying a physical attribute of the Bleuchamps - a lack of earlobes.

Blofeld has established a research institute, Piz Gloria, on top of a mountain in Switzerland (filmed at a restaurant on top of the Schilthorn in the Bernese Oberland). Bond, undercover as the foppish Bray, meets ten beautiful women from around the world. The women are at the institute undergoing an unorthodox treatment for their allergies. In reality, the young women are unknowingly being trained to distribute biological warfare agents throughout the world.

Bond's lasciviousness exposes his true identity. He escapes by skiing down the mountain, while being chased by Blofeld and his henchmen. He ends up in a village during a winter festival. Now it is Tracy’s turn to save James. Tracy is in Switzerland undergoing therapy, and has found out James' location from her father. James and Tracy meet unexpectedly while Bond is being pursued. They escape in her car, but she is captured by Blofeld. With Draco, Bond returns by helicopter to destroy the institute, save Tracy and to stop Blofeld from carrying out his plans to blackmail the worlds governments under the threat of bacteriological warfare.

After their raid on Piz Gloria, Bond and Tracy marry, but Tracy is shot and killed by Irma Bunt, Blofeld's right hand woman, while Bond's car was on the side of the road, stopped to remove the flowers decorating it from their wedding reception. Bond would eventually avenge Tracy Bond in an confrontation with Blofield in the pre-credits sequence of For Your Eyes Only (1981).

The film closely follows the plot of the book but adds a few sequences, such as Tracy' capture and rescue. In the books both Blofeld and Irma Bunt meet their deaths in You Only Live Twice (which follows On Her Majesty's Secret Service, unlike in the movie series where it precedes it).

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