Bond and Tracy

You’ve got it. Tracy and Bond met their match in each other. Tracy was a strong woman, her own woman, despite her fathers’s efforts to make her otherwise (“She needs a man to DOMINATE her!”). In Dame Diana Rigg, they cast the perfect actress for the role. Dame Diana is NO shrinking violet, and her photo is next to the word “class” in the dictionary. The novel expands on their relationship more than the movie can, but the movie gives the gist of it. Bond loves her so much that he goes into denial when she dies. “She’s tired. She’s just having a rest. We have all the time in the world.” It’s easily the most poignant moment in any Bond film, and will probably remain so.

This is why this will always be my favourite of the series. There’s such an overwhelming sadness to it, a poignancy that later Bonds seldom if ever aimed for. And while Lazenby’s inexperience shows at times, Diana Rigg gives far and away the richest performance by one of Bond’s leading ladies.