Bond’s Only Christmas Adventure: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Deck the halls with danger: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is Bond’s lone Christmas mission—a snowy, high-stakes classic overdue for a comeback.

I have always filed James Bond next to tinsel and eggnog. New 007 movies used to drop in November or December, cable channels marathoned them nonstop over the holidays, and in the UK they are basically festive wallpaper. Funny thing, though: only one Bond adventure is actually set at Christmas. And it is the oddest, most underloved, maybe straight-up best of the bunch - On Her Majesty's Secret Service, starring the famously not-Connery, not-Moore, not-Craig Bond: George Lazenby, in his one and only turn as 007.

The black sheep that EON tried not to talk about

For years, On Her Majesty's Secret Service was the series outcast. Lazenby either quit or was fired depending on whose story you buy, and EON Productions did not exactly lead with this one when selling the franchise. Diamonds Are Forever basically acts like it never happened. Only later in the Roger Moore run did they even nod at its biggest development - this is the film where Bond gets married and becomes a widower.

The Daniel Craig era changed the vibe. Barbara Broccoli and some directors - Cary Fukunaga in particular - pulled it into the spotlight, and Louis Armstrong's We Have All the Time in the World showed up in No Time to Die as a very deliberate hat tip.

Why it still gets shrugged off (and why that is wrong)

Because it stars George Lazenby, not a name that turned into an institution, the movie still gets underestimated. It shouldn't. It is one of the best Bonds, and the Christmas setting gives it a flavor the others don't have.

The story: love, snow, and a doomsday allergy clinic

This one plays more like an epic - 140 minutes, long for 1969 - and it is far more personal than the typical single-mission Bond. Off duty and running out of patience with M, Bond crosses paths with Tracy di Vincenzo, a brilliant and broken high-roller played by Diana Rigg (already a TV icon as Emma Peel in The Avengers). Her father is Marc-Ange Draco, boss of the Union Corse syndicate, a man with SPECTRE ties who claims he can deliver Blofeld. His price: marry Tracy, because he thinks Bond is the one person who might genuinely make her happy.

Tracy is not having it. In a refreshingly modern move, she forces Draco to hand over Blofeld's location without trading her away. That - not the bargain - is when Bond actually falls for her.

Following the lead, 007 heads to Switzerland and slides into an Alpine allergy clinic as a fake genealogist. Surprise: Blofeld is running the place and filling it with glamorous patients he plans to use as global carriers for a nasty bioweapon designed to make the world's livestock infertile.

What follows is a holiday sprint: a Christmas Eve pursuit through the snow where Tracy literally saves Bond's life, a Christmas proposal, and then a New Year's Eve rescue blast that sets the bar for the series. The movie also delivers the franchise's gut punch: this is the one where Bond marries Tracy and is widowed almost immediately afterward.

The head-scratcher the movie never solves

There is a big logic hole. Bond goes undercover as Hilary Bray, yet Blofeld does not recognize him - even though they faced off in You Only Live Twice. The best explanation is production baggage: at one point, a script draft reportedly used plastic surgery to explain switching actors. They ditched that idea but kept the disguise plotline, and you can feel the seams.

"This never happened to the other fellow."

Lazenby breaks the fourth wall with that line early on. Later films pretend the face change is not a thing.

How Lazenby became Bond

Sean Connery had had it by the end of You Only Live Twice in 1967. After a money dispute with producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli, he walked. The solution: no more star headaches. They opened casting to basically everyone - actors, models, athletes, military types. George Lazenby, a model with a chip on his shoulder and legit physical presence, talked his way in and fought his way to the top. The result is arguably the most hands-on, bruising Bond we got until the Pierce Brosnan era.

Cast, crew, and a killer score

Diana Rigg is the marquee name here, and she elevates everything she touches. Telly Savalas steps in for Donald Pleasence as a distinctly American Blofeld and makes the role his own. Peter Hunt, the franchise's longtime editor whose cutting-room sensibility shaped Bond action, takes the director's chair and shoots the Alps like a postcard from danger - much of it at the real Piz Gloria in Switzerland.

John Barry returns with one of his lushest scores. He even tries to add a holiday earworm - Nina van Pallandt's Do You Know How Santa Gets Around - which never became a standard but works beautifully during Bond's Christmas Eve escape from SPECTRE's thugs.

It actually feels like Christmas

Most Bond movies chase sun, surf, and bikinis. This one is all crisp air, cozy interiors, and ski chases carved across white-on-white horizons. You get some skiing in other entries, sure, but rarely is the whole movie steeped in winter like this.

The numbers and the myth

The legend says Lazenby flopped and got fired. Not true. Critics were more positive than you might expect, many noting the impossible task of replacing Connery. And it was not a bomb: it was the 11th-highest grosser in the U.S. that year, the top-grossing film in England, and it pulled in over $82 million worldwide in 1969 dollars - roughly half a billion today. The money and reviews were solid enough that EON would have kept him if he wanted to stay.

Why Lazenby really left

The set was tense. Lazenby's ego blew up during the shoot, and there is a story everyone tells about a party Cubby Broccoli threw for the crew at Piz Gloria. Lazenby sulked, showed up late, and claimed he had not been invited. Cubby pointed out the notice that invited everyone. Lazenby fired back:

"Yes, but I’m the STAR."

"You’re not a star because you say you’re a star - you’re a star when the public says you’re a star, and they haven’t yet."

By the premiere, Lazenby had basically decided he was done. His agent told him the franchise was over the hill, and he refused to cut his hair or shave his hippie beard for the international press tour, so he got sidelined. EON would have kept him if he had shown a little humility, but the moment passed. The big offers evaporated. He did some Italian exploitation films and a couple of Hong Kong action titles. A planned team-up with Bruce Lee on Game of Death died when Lee did.

The reputation rebound

Lazenby has leaned into being "The Man Who Would Be Bond," and around the series' 40th anniversary he was welcomed back into the official fold. The movie's reputation has climbed steadily. Steven Soderbergh is such a fan that he once posted his own re-edit on his site, and Christopher Nolan has said for years this is his favorite Bond. You can see the influence on Inception - those snowy action beats and Hans Zimmer's score that feels like a love letter to Barry.

Why it belongs in your holiday rotation

• It is the only Bond that is truly set at Christmas - with a New Year's Eve blowout to boot.
• Diana Rigg and George Lazenby give Bond one of its few genuine love stories, and its most heartbreaking ending.
• Peter Hunt's action and John Barry's music are top-tier, with Piz Gloria serving as an all-time-great villain lair.
• It is foundational to later Bonds, especially the Craig films, and it quietly shaped directors like Nolan and Soderbergh.

So after you burn through Die Hard 1 and 2, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Lethal Weapon, and the usual holiday-adjacent suspects, throw on On Her Majesty's Secret Service. It is snowy, romantic, brutal, and way better than the old gossip would have you believe.

One last bit of context

If Bond feels Christmassy to you too, you are not imagining it. New installments often landed in late fall or early winter, holiday TV used to run marathons (shoutout to TBS), and in the UK the films are a seasonal staple. On Her Majesty's Secret Service just happens to be the rare one that actually drapes tinsel over the plot.