George Lazenby Movies
Poor George Lazenby achieved a negative fame for most of his career as The Man Who Would Be James Bond. The son of an Australian railway worker, Lazenby's first paying job was as an auto mechanic. He worked his way up to car salesman before exploiting his good looks as a male model in England. When Sean Connery briefly left the James Bond film series in 1967, producers Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli decided to invent a "new" Connery, and Lazenby was selected to portray 007 in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). Although his performance was by no means as bad as some critics have claimed -- in fact, time has been kind to his no-nonsense interpretation of the character -- Lazenby invited reams of bad press when he spoke ill of his highly respected leading lady Diana Rigg. While Secret Service earned nine million dollars (less than its predecessors, but still a success), Lazenby's future career as James Bond was scuttled when Sean Connery agreed to return to the fold in Diamonds Are Forever in 1970. Lazenby has continued to appear in films ever since, albeit often in a campy manner alluding to his failure to capitalize on his brief Bond fame. From 1984 to 1985, Lazenby was a regular on the American syndicated TV soap opera Rituals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2008
- R
- Add Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation to QueueAdd Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation to top of Queue
Filmmaker Mark Hartley explores Australia's hidden genre in this documentary that casually casts aside "official" film history to celebrate the demented genius of director Brian Trenchard-Smith, and the exciting wave of little-known but supremely entertaining films that entertained adventurous Australian filmgoers throughout the 1970s and '80s. Every film student worth his or her weight in celluloid has seen Breaker Morant and Picnic at Hanging Rock, but what about the lesser-known gems that didn't make the film-school textbooks? In his forward to Tim Lucas' book Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark, director Martin Scorsese states, "We have to keep resisting the idea of official film history, a stately procession of 'important works' that leaves some of the most exciting films and filmmakers tucked away in the shadows." In this documentary, director Hartley explores the films forgotten by "official film history" with the comprehensive eye of a true film buff. As a child watching such films as Snapshot and The Man from Hong Kong, Hartley immediately recognized how wildly disparate they were in tone and execution from the films that comprised Australia's traditional film library. Appearing like American genre films that just happened to be shot in Australia and cast with Australian actors, these so-called "Ozploitation" flicks flourished in the wake of relaxed censorship laws down under. Yet despite constant chatter about the "new wave" of Australian cinema, financially successful films like The Man from Hong Kong and Patrick that were popular both at home and abroad were never mentioned, sneeringly dismissed as "genre" films rather than Australian films. Perhaps in the wake of such successful Australian films as Wolf Creek and Undead -- and looking ahead to such films as the slasher shocker Storm Warning and the eagerly anticipated remake of Long Weekend -- curious filmgoers are finally prepared to discover what they've been missing all these years. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Paul Levine directs the straight-to-video crime thriller Spider's Web. Clay Harding (Stephen Baldwin) engages in a steamy affair with Lauren Bishop (Kari Wuhrer), an executive who works at his father's company. They come up with a scheme to steal his father's money, leading to many softcore sex scenes and betrayal for all parties involved. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Founder of the Slamdance Film Festival Paul Rachman makes his feature-length debut with this tale of dishonor among thieves, solidly in the vein of 1994's Shallow Grave. When four friends (Olivia Williams, Balthazar Getty, Daniel London, and Stacy Edwards) travel to Buenos Aires to crash a wedding reception, they have more on their mind than just a lively evening of free drinks and the Chicken Dance. With the aid of ace thief Felix (Tim Curry), they steal a precious Degas statuette from the mansion owner hosting the shindig and abscond to L.A. Unfortunately, the objet d'art is nowhere to be found, and the covert dealer (Forest Whitaker) who's expecting it is none too pleased. He demands that they come up with the piece or $1,000,000 immediately. To solve their problem, the four compadres take out life insurance policies on each another and plot out which friend is going to die in order to proffer the heist money. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olivia Williams, Balthazar Getty, (more)
- 2000
In this suspense thriller, a private detective is investigating a murder when he stumbles upon shocking evidence that an enclave of terrorists has stockpiled a number of biological weapons that they intend to use on the city of New York. Star of Jaipur stars George Lazenby, Linda Gray, and Michael Horse.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Gray, George Lazenby, (more)
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara becomes this sprawling historical epic. As in Shaara's novel, director Ronald Maxwell focuses on a handful of major players to dramatize the events of July 1863, when the armies of the Union and Confederacy clash at the small Pennsylvania town of the title. Among them are Martin Sheen as General Robert E. Lee, who disagrees with his top advisor, General James Longstreet (Tom Berenger) over battle strategy, and Jeff Daniels as Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a college professor whose unorthodox techniques save the day (and possibly the war) for his beleaguered army. Other cast standouts include Richard Jordan in his final film appearance as the ill-fated General Lewis Armistead, and cameo roles for Civil War buff Ken Burns and media mogul producer Ted Turner. Filmed on-location at Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg was shot as a television miniseries for Turner's TNT cable channel, but earned a limited theatrical release. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Sheen, Jeff Daniels, (more)
- 1992
- R
Institutionalized serial killer Janice Bickle (Lenny Von Dohlen) volunteers to undergo a radical medical experiment. If the operation is successful, he will be cured of his homicidal tendencies. Instead, the surgery goes horribly awry, turning him into a worse basket case than before. And then he escapes, heading straight to the home of the doctor who masterminded the experiment. It's Desperate Hours redux, and pretty good at that. The cast of Eyes of the Beholder includes one-time "James Bond" George Lazenby and veteran heavy Charles Napier. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
This collection of coming attractions is from the James Bond films. Includes some rare, behind the scenes footage. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1987
Documentary filmmaker Mel Stuart, whose previous subjects have ranged from JFK to Mao Tse-Tung, focuses his attention on everyone's favorite dinner-jacketed spy in Happy Anniversary 007: 25 Years of James Bond. Roger Moore, who'd played Bond from 1973 through 1985, hosts this roundup of filmclips and interviews. Scriptwriter Richard Schickel calls upon his film-history expertise to place Bond in context with his fellow cinematic secret agents. The best moments include a montage of 007 gadgetry and a pageant of such Bond girls as Ursula Andress, Honor Blackman and Barbara Bach. Happy Anniversary 007 closes with preview clips for the then-latest Bond flick The Living Daylights (1987), starring Timothy Dalton as the indomitable Bond...James Bond. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
- R
In this James Bond parody, the evil villain is also an evil villainess, Velvet Von Ragner (Gene Simmons), an androgynous, leather-bound cross-dressing criminal genius out to finish off all of L.A. by contaminating the city's water supply. Standing in the way of his/her success is undercover agent Drew Stargrove (George Lazenby), but he does not stand for long. Once he has been slain, his son Lance (John Stamos) takes up the fight assisted by Danja Deering (Vanity) who has the requisite sex appeal for her job. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Stamos, Vanity, (more)
- 1986
Stewart Granger plays a Joseph Mengele type in the grim Hell Hunters. Hiding out in jungles of South America, Granger plans to poison the population of Los Angeles as revenge for the toppling of the Third Reich. Nazi hunters Maud Adams and George Lazenby race against time to foil the old Nazi's scheme. They find themselves with an unexpected ally in the form of Candice Daly, whose mother died in a concentration camp at Granger's hands. If nothing else, Hell Hunters clues us in on what George Lazenby has been doing since On Her Majesty's Secret Service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stewart Granger, George Lazenby, (more)
- 1984
This compilation of clips starring agent 007 includes From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Man With The Golden Gun and others. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1983
- Add The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. to QueueAdd The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. to top of Queue
Fifteen years after the cancellation of the tongue-in-cheek spy series The Man From U.N.C.L.E., stars Robert Vaughn and David McCallum were reunited in this made-for-TV movie. It all begins when Janus (Geoffrey Lewis), a former agent for the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement (aka U.N.C.L.E.) joins forces with the evil rival agency T.H.R.U.S.H. Stealing the new H975 atomic bomb, Janus threatens to detonate the device unless a 350-million-dollar ransom is paid. But there is another condition: The ransom money must be delivered in person by Janus' old enemy, retitled U.N.C.L.E. operative Napoleon Solo (Vaughn), now a big-business executive. Despite never having heard of Napoleon Solo, U.N.C.L.E.'s new top agent, Benjamin Kowalski (Tom Mason), offers Solo the job, which he accepts, if only because he needs some quick cash. Deciding that the combined forces of Janus and ex-T.H.R.U.S.H. leader Justin Sepheran (Anthony Zerbe) may be a bit much for him -- after all, he is 15 years older -- Solo asks for, and receives, the assistance of his former partner, Illya Kuryakin (McCallum), now a prominent dress designer. Also figuring into the plot is Andrea Markovich (Gayle Hunnicutt), a Russian ballerina who may or may not be one of the villains. Despite some cute in-jokes and bantering byplay, this TV movie bears less resemblance to Man From U.N.C.L.E. than it does to the James Bond films, perhaps because writer/executive producer Michael Sloan reportedly only watched a handful of the original series' episodes before embarking on this project. One nice touch is the casting of former Avengers star Patrick Macnee as Solo and Illya's new superior, Sir John Raleigh. Originally telecast April 5, 1983, on CBS, The Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E. (subtitled "The 15 Years Later Affair") failed to deliver sufficient ratings to warrant the planned revival of the series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1980
In this chop-socky adventure two spies on different missions must team up when both are threatened by the murderous and mysterious Dr. Sinn. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Angela Mao Ying
After a couple of major studio flops, Peter Bogdanovich returned to his 1960s filmmaking roots with this Roger Corman-produced low budget film. Easygoing expatriate Jack Flowers (Ben Gazzara) makes his living in early-1970s Singapore legally and illegally looking after the needs of American and British businessmen, such as the mild-mannered William Leigh (Denholm Elliott). With his gift for putting clients and girls at ease, Jack opens a successful brothel, but pressure from local mobsters soon puts him out of business. Ever the survivor, he starts working for the shady, Cuban-cigar-smoking Eddie Schuman (Bogdanovich) as a pimp for GIs on breaks from Vietnam. But Jack's conscience starts to dog him when Schuman hires him to take compromising pictures of a visiting Senator (George Lazenby). Adapted by Bogdanovich, Howard O. Sackler, and Paul Theroux from Theroux's novel, Saint Jack offers a pimp with a heart of gold, who is less an ugly colonial American abroad than an outsider trying to make the best of a bad situation. Shooting on location in Singapore, cinematographer Robby Müller lends an appropriately gritty look to the matter-of-fact narrative. With restrained and forceful performances by Gazzara and Elliott, Saint Jack was something of a succès d'estime for the embattled Bogdanovich, winning the Italian Journalist Award for Best Film at the 1979 Venice Film Festival. While not a box-office success, it remains an affecting and unsung character study of a man's desire to forge a reasonably honorable life in a dishonorable profession. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Gazzara, Denholm Elliott, (more)
- 1978
A piece of made-for-television hack work that suddenly became sort of topical 23 years later, with the attacks on the New York World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, Evening in Byzantium was a two-part made-for-TV feature based very loosely on Irwin Shaw's best-seller. The book involved intrigue and romance at the Cannes Film Festival, but the television producers evidently thought that this did not justify a two-night prime time movie event, so they added a story about Middle Eastern terrorists using the Cannes Film Festival as part of a larger plot to attack the West. Glenn Ford plays Jesse Craig, a down-on-his-luck producer with a film project in mind involving terrorists, who goes to Cannes to raise money and finds himself dealing with his ex-wife (Shirley Jones) and romancing Erin Gray. But before too long, he uncovers a plot by real terrorists to replace commercial airliners in flight (blowing them out of the sky and taking over their authorized flight paths) with specially converted airliners and bomb targets in the United States. Also on hand is Vince Edwards, playing an actor with a radical political agenda, who is alarmed that Ford's proposed film parallels his own terrorist plans; Michael Cole as Ford's associate; Eddie Albert and Gloria De Haven as a couple with ties to the movie business; Harry Guardino as a skeptical American security officer; and Marcel Hillaire as the French police inspector trying to unravel the terrorists plans. It's all very silly, though played very sincerely by most of the cast, and none of the plot described is less plausible than the notion that Glenn Ford and Erin Gray could ignore the 36-year difference in their ages. Evening in Byzantium was originally shown in August of 1978 as part of the syndicated Operation Prime Time programming series, intended to compete with the three networks. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Kill Factor was originally released as Death Dimension. Either way, the audience was hep to the fact that it wasn't a Disney picture. The presence of onetime James Bond George Lazenby and Harold "Oddjob" Sakata in the cast was enough to give this one away as a spy picture. And a spy picture it was, with the extra added dimension of kung-fu and karate, courtesy of top-billed Jim Kelly. Veteran Hollywoodites Terry Moore and Aldo Ray also appear in the film, which has something to do with a deadly "Freeze Bomb" (which happened to be the working title of this film when it was lensed in 1978). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
In this in mystery, an former police officer and his girlfriend begin investigating the suicide of a friend. The soon find themselves involved in a blackmail ring connected to underground porno movies. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Comedy writers David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams of Airplane and The Naked Gun fame got their start at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, when they formed a theatrical group known as The Kentucky Fried Theater. The Kentucky Fried Movie is based on the KFT's gag-filled theatrical skits. Including well-known stars such as Bill Bixby, Donald Sutherland, Tony Dow, George Lazenby and Henry Gibson, the film has over 22 different segments of varying lengths. Some are seconds long. Longer segments include such highlights as: "Zinc Oxide," which spoofs school educational films; "Cleopatra Schwartz," a spoof of female blaxploitation action films, whose heroine is married to a rabbi; "Sex Record," which depicts a couple who are attempting to follow the step-by-step instructions of a how-to-do-it record; "Catholic High School Girls In Trouble," and "A Fistful of Yen," (the longest episode), which is an elaborate spoof of martial-arts films. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Sutherland, George Lazenby, (more)
- 1977
Cover Girls isn't really a Charlie's Angels rip-off. Honest! Look: there are three girls in Charlie's Angels and only two girls (Jayne Kennedy and Cornelia Sharpe) in Cover Girls. Besides, the Angels are private eyes, working on behalf of boss John Forsythe; the Cover Girls are fashion models, doubling as secret agents on behalf of boss Don Galloway. Just because Cover Girls premiered on May 18, 1977, six months into Charlie's Angels' fabulous first season, doesn't mean that there was any conscious copycatting. Does it? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jayne Kennedy, Cornelia Sharpe, (more)
- 1976
In this crime drama, the sister of a Hong Kong gangster is cooperating with the police in investigating the rumored plan of her brother's gang to assassinate the Queen. While that chase is on, the gang is simultaneously attempting to profit from the visit of a refugee Cambodian princess who has brought along a lot of gold. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jimmy Wang Yu, Ko Chung-hsiung, (more)
- 1975
The Far East and the Land Down Under are about to have a head-on collision in this action drama. Fang (Jimmy Wang Yu) is an undercover detective from Hong Kong sent to Australia to crack open the operation of a Sydney mob boss named Wilton (George Lazenby). Fang puts his skills as a hang glider pilot and martial arts master to work as he sets up Wilton for a literally explosive finale. Samo Hung (aka Kim Po Hung), later to become a major martial arts star in his own right, appears in a supporting role and has an impressive battle with an Australian cop. The film also features the song "Sky High" by Jigsaw, which would go on to become a Top 40 hit. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jimmy Wang Yu, George Lazenby, (more)
- 1975
Two women attempt to survive the stalking of a killer in an apartment building. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1972
- R
When the story begins a young girl who has wandered away from her nanny at a French ski resort is abducted, killed, and buried in the snow. Later, in Venice, the young daughter of Franco (George Lazenby), a popular sculptor, is stalked by a woman in a black veil. Finally, after several near-chances, the girl is grabbed, only to be found later floating in a canal. The police are as arrogant as they are stumped, so Franco, accompanied by his estranged wife, Elizabeth (Anita Strindberg), investigates. As Franco begins uncovering clues, the people he talks to about the case begin to die gruesome deaths. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
- 1971
George Lazenby (of On Her Majesty's Secret Service and The Kentucky Fried Movie) stars in Universal Soldier. Lazenby plays an adventurer for hire who returns to London after several years of excitement. He tries to settle down to a "respectable" existence, but discovers he can't shake his past. Eventually he is overwhelmed by echoes (both real and imaginary) of his previous exploits. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
