James Bond Almost Had Plastic Surgery To Explain New Actor In Role For On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
At the end of the pre-title sequence in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, George Lazenby utters: “This never happened to the other fella.”
This line was a last-minute change that made its way into the shooting script. Previous versions had him say: “This didn’t happen to Sean Connery.”
The line was too on the nose, and changed. But it wasn’t the only change to the opening of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
In 1967, Sean Connery announced his retirement from the part just as filming commenced on You Only Live Twice. Meanwhile, Bond screenwriter Richard Maibaum had been working on the story for the next Bond film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Maibaum never dreamed of writing the part for anyone else, but after Connery’s announcement, he devised an introduction to the film that would explain the appearance of a new actor as Bond.
In a short 17-page script treatment dated April 27 1967, Maibaum begins with the standard Gunbarrel logo. In the margins, he specifies: “Hopefully we will get a glimpse of Sean as Bond.” The idea was that audiences would see Connery in the gunbarrel expecting him as Bond, only for a sudden and shocking event to occur in the pre-credits sequence which leads to Bond undergoing plastic surgery and emerging in the guise of a new actor after the opening credits.
The pre-credits sequence opens with M enquiring with Miss Moneypenny about 007’s whereabouts. She responds that Bond is “on a hot lead towards the target.” Then the scene cuts to Bond’s Aston Martin parked outside a villa. Bond is kissing a woman on a porch, and doesn’t see the white cat or the two SPECTRE agents sneaking up behind him. They knock him out and throw him into the back seat of his Aston Martin.
One thug drives, while the other sits in the back seat with his gun on Bond. Bond is gagged, unable to speak. (“A good way to hide most of his face and prevent him from speaking,”‘ Miabaum wrote.) Suddenly, Bond flips open an armrest and pushes a button. He is ejected through the car roof and lands in the water below a bridge. But his escape ends in disaster.
The surprised SPECTRE thugs have their eyes on Bond and not the truck heading towards them. The driver drifts into the truck’s path. The truck slams into the car and pushes the Aston Martin’s burning wreckage off the bridge and on top of Bond below. Bond needs plastic surgery, and the result is shown after the credits.
Bond, fully recovered flirts with Moneypenny before meeting M in his office. Maibaum describes the new actor’s first encounter with his superior, M. “When Bond asks why his face was changed so drastically [M tells him] he thought a new face would prolong his life and be particularly useful in tracking down Blofeld who is certainly familiar with his old appearance”.
Bond’s new face would have at least explained why Blofeld doesn’t recognize Bond when they meet later in the film. (This is their second encounter after the events of You Only Live Twice). Nonetheless, Eon wisely decided against using the idea.
