20 Things You Didn’t Know About On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

16. “Thy Dawn, O Master Of The World, Thy Dawn...”

George Lazenby Bond OHMSS
MGM/UA

Ian Fleming left Tracy out of the explosive final battle at Piz Gloria in his 1963 novel, so the filmmakers emphasised the emotional stakes in the plot by having Blofeld hold her hostage at his mountaintop lair in the film adaptation.

However, Peter Hunt was dissatisfied with Richard Maibaum’s script for Diana Rigg’s scenes with Telly Savalas, so he hired screenwriter, Simon Raven to produce “sharper, better, and more intellectual” "additional dialogue" for them.

Memorably, Tracy quotes an amended stanza from James Elroy Flecker’s play Hassan: The Story of Hassan of Baghdad and How he Came to Make the Golden Journey to Samarkand (1922) as she lures Blofeld out into the open for the attack coordinated by James Bond and Draco.

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I started writing for WhatCulture in July 2020. I have always enjoyed reading and writing. I have contributed to several short story competitions and I have occasionally been fortunate enough to have my work published. During the COVID-19 lockdown, I also started reviewing films on my Facebook page. Numerous friends and contacts suggested that I should start my own website for reviewing films, but I wanted something a bit more diverse - and so here I am! My interests focus on film and television mainly, but I also occasionally produce articles that venture into other areas as well. In particular, I am a fan of the under appreciated sequel (of which there are many), but I also like the classics and the mainstream too.