On Her Majesty's Secret Service

I've always enjoyed taking in some of the James Bond marathons that run around the holidays. On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a unique Bond film in many respects. It's George Lazenby's only time in the main role, Bond gets married, and it takes place around Christmas. When the film was released on DVD in 2000, it seemed to really surge in popularity, as people were giving it another chance, or experiencing it for the first time. Among the online crowds I hang around, it has become one the best ranked films of the series, and Lazenby's performance is cited as one of the closest to Ian Fleming's character from the novels. The film was directed by Peter Hunt, who was the editor on previous Bond films. Hunt felt that all he needed to do to make a solid film was to stick to as close as possible to Fleming's story. It was the last film to so closely follow one of the novels until 2006's Casino Royale.

You Only Live Twice, the previous film, was big on spectacle, enormous sets, and plenty of gadgets and technology. Some say it was the first film to really get away from MI6 spy character that Fleming wrote about. I still really enjoy You Only Live Twice, but Hunt decided to stick to the story for OHMSS, which is strong, and put an emphasis on the character over the adventure. The way the story develops is quite interesting. Bond saves Diana Rigg's character, Tracy, from committing suicide, and after an altercation with some henchman, Bond is intrigued by this woman and worms is way into her life. One thing leads to another and Bond has accepted an offer, from Tracy's father, to court her in return for information regarding Blofeld, the man who Bond has been battling with since Dr. No. Lazenby is his own Bond, and does his best to stick to Fleming's character and not try to draw comparisons to Connery. This was Hunt's first time directing, and he set out to make a glamorous film, and drew inspiration from his favorite directors.

All aspects of the film seem to have been done with great care. The action scenes are very well done, and unique to Hunt, who had a career as an editor. The film has a terrific score from composer John Barry, who also got Louis Armstrong to sing the song We Have All The Time In The World, which makes a perfect love song for Bond and Tracy. Diana  Rigg was the right choice for the lead, because you really believe Bond would fall in love with her. There love story is interrupted while Bond goes undercover at Blofeld's new hideout at Piz Gloria, on a mountain in Switzerland. Piz Gloria proved to be a gorgeous location that was an inspired choice to shoot the film. Hunt also shot a few Hitchcockian suspense scenes that really bring back the espionage feel of a spy thriller. These sequences go largely without any dialogue, which is refreshing for a James Bond film. Don't worry, there are plenty of well shot, dangerous, and exciting action sequences as well. The running time is 140 minutes, which is second longest for the series. I find it to be a well paced 140 minutes. It's a good story and Hunt made sure it was well told.

If you're not all familiar with this entry, I'd strongly suggest you check it out. It's in the least, an interesting entry. Whether Lazenby has become one of the more well liked actors, that's hard to say. The Bond devotees I know certainly put him near the top of the list, and they put this film near the top, too. For me it's easy to see why. It's got all the ingredients that make Bond, the character, great, even though it may look and feel quite different from any of the Connery films, or any of the films to follow. It's one of my Christmas films, I watch it every year around this time. Time seems to have treated it favorably, and I only hope it continues to find its audience.

The Shop Around The Corner

During the PBS series that analyzed the evolution of primetime television, America In Primetime, Sopranos creator David Chase seemed to think that the novelistic quality of television isn't always a positive narrative tactic. Chase said, "Five years of a bunch of characters is better than two and a half hours, why? We say that television is more novelistic and let's us get into those characters in a deep way, but you know, Mildred Pierce, you weren't deep in that character? Of course, you were. I mean, we used to be deep into movies all the time, and movies at two hours or two hours and a half told us everything we needed to know about every character in it. We didn't ask for Casablanca 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, you know, we knew about Rick, we knew about Ilsa. End of story."

Dan Harmon, creator of Community, said in one interview, while describing his story circle, that the trick to television, is that you don't really have your characters change all that much. In television you want to sustain a character throughout the lifetime of series, maintaining a familial comfort with the characters. I enjoy my share of sitcoms, and while I consider most of them to be stage plays, one of television's strengths is to present the same characters week in and week out, and making the audience comfortable with continually tuning in. It's an odd balance these days. A show like Dexter is trying not to keep its protagonist from staying the same in its sixth season, and a lot of people are quite resistant to that idea. Breaking Bad, particularly in its first three seasons, was constantly changing the dynamics of the characters every few episodes. Sitcoms will have characters learn a lesson each week, rarely revisiting them, and a procedural show's only concern is solving the case week to week.

A film's strength is the ability to fully develop a character's arc. As Chase points out, timeless films give us everything we need to understand the characters and how they evolve. This finally brings me to the topic of the Christmas film The Shop Around The Corner. The film takes place in a little shop called Matuschek and Co., located in Budapest. The shop owner is the Wizard of Oz himself, Frank Morgan, who delivers an incredible and layered performance. The employees are an eclectic group, led by Jimmy Stewart. This film was the basis for You've Got Mail, of course, that starred Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Unlike You've Got Mail, The Shop Around The Corner, is essentially a bottle film, with a vast majority of the action taking place within the Matuschek shop. This film was directed by Billy Wilder idol, Ersnt Lubitsch, who doesn't do anything fancy, but let's the actors drive the picture. The film doesn't have a trace of fat on it. There are only a dozen credited parts in the picture, and each character serves a specific purpose, and fits into the puzzle perfectly. Jimmy Stewart is the central figure, and spends most of his time dealing with his boss Frank Morgan, or the new girl, and unlikely pen pal, Margaret Sullavan. Both the relationships are quite different, and it really allows great insight into the character Stewart is playing.

The film spends the first half establishing relationships, and how the shop operates, while always revealing character and advancing the plot, so that nothing ever feels like exposition. The dialogue is fantastic, and one truly gets the sense that Billy Wilder studied a picture like over and over again. The eclectic cast of characters all have distinct personalities and play off each other in often comical manner. This is a Christmas story, but once we fall in the love with the characters, things get a little dark for the them, and they all get thrown new forms of conflict. The new conflicts and revelations really allow the characters to grow in a meaningful way throughout the picture, especially Jimmy Stewart's character. As Chase said about Mildred Pierce and Casablanca, Lubitsch and writer Samson Raphaelson really bring Miklos Laszlo's play to life and dig deep into the characters.

The Shop Around The Corner is a funny and character driven romantic comedy that ends up thriving on Hitchcock's favorite spice, suspense. The audience is revealed certain information at various times, and it shifts the story ever so slightly, always keeping it fresh. As they characters grow, the younger they are, the more proactive they become. In the case of Morgan's character, he becomes less proactive, which sort of brings all of them together in a equal space towards the end. One reason why I think this has become my favorite Christmas film is because the replay of the film is so high. There's a lot bubbling beneath the surface, and there are plenty of secrets brewing among the characters. When you re-watch, the first half, in particular, you really find yourself deep into the character's heads. Thinking what they're thinking, and feeling what they're feeling. The dialogue then works on another level too. The setting is warm and cozy, despite being artificial, and as the film crescendos, you really get into the Christmas spirit and you get anxious and excited for the inevitable conclusion.