On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1967): Restored US Master

[The Aluminum Falcon]

Project Info
Despite receiving a 4K restoration from its original camera negative, On Her Majesty's Secret Service looks fairly problematic on Blu-Ray - pushed to magenta with far too cool a color temperature, desaturated, and with highlights radically blown out. Still, with some color correction, the 4K restoration was more than salvageable.

This preservation removes the magenta cast and aims for a warmer, more saturated look. More importantly, the blown out areas have been mostly recovered. Overall, the color-corrected image is a lot more balanced, allowing one to really appreciate the detail of the 4K restoration. The old pre-restoration US DVD and LD were used as rough references, but, as we've seen from 007 Dossier's 35mm trailer transfers, those transfers also were not exactly representative of how the film looked in theaters. The opening beach sequence, singled out in particular for color correction, no longer has a blanket blue tint and looks more like dawn, as it had before.

Aurally, this uses the LD audio track, which is much better than both the revisionist, badly balanced 5.1 DTS-HD remix and the highly compressed and noise reduced mono available on the Blu-Ray.

Specific attention has also been given to both the opening credits and closing credits. The opening is no longer squeezed to be windowboxed and can be seen in the same aspect ratio as the rest of the film. The closing credits, tinted a complete blanket blue tint, on the Blu-Ray, has had its colors restored using the chroma of an earlier master.

*Note that a new 4K restoration may have screened in select theaters and even aired a few times on MGM HD. This preservation still uses the old 4K restoration available on BD as its basis.*

Video

• US BD - color-corrected to remove magenta/blue bias, highlights recovered
   
  

Audio

• 2.0 LPCM English Mono Audio (from US Laserdisc)
  
• 2.0 AC3 Commentary
   
  

Screenshots
US BD

Restored US Master


US BD

Restored US Master


US BD

Restored US Master


US BD

Restored US Master


US BD

Restored US Master


US BD

Restored US Master


US BD

Restored US Master


US BD

Restored US Master


US BD

Restored US Master


US BD

Restored US Master


US BD

Restored US Master


US BD

Restored US Master


US BD

Restored US Master


Project Status
Thirteenth project completed and released!

Also released alongside it is a treat for you 007 Connery fans. 

Final Product
1080p BD50

[nirbateman]

Brilliant! If only for the inclusion of the original mix, but salvaging the video as well...that's dedication, sir! Loved your "Umbrellas of Cherbourg" as well.

Despite Lazenby, this is one of my top 5 Bonds, and had it been made with Connery in 1965 (Instead of Thunderball, as originally planned, while he was still interested in the role, and provided everything else would be the same), this would have been the absolute best Bond.

Side note, I would recommend the Docu-Comedy, "Becoming Bond", which details Lazenby's life up to Bond. It's LOL funny and really captures the feel of the times.

[nafroe]

Awesome!! These colors look fabulous! Really looking forward to hearing the LD audio!

[00shevin]

its too bad there isn't a plugin for kodi that can apply those changes , similar to adding an SRT file

[Chewtobacca]

its too bad there isn't a plugin for kodi that can apply those changes , similar to adding an SRT file

Some have experimented with using MadVR in just such a fashion. The concept is sound, but it doesn't seem to have caught on, perhaps partly because people like to have a disc that they can watch on stand-alone players.

Splendid work on this, Falcon! Fixing all the Bonds is going to be a long haul, but we can tick this one off for now.

[whatchitfoool]

Great stuff. Thanks

[Stamper]

Awesome, Falcon I have the french mono DVD track which is missing a couple of lines, but is very rare apart from that. I will sync it to this release and restore the missing bits.

[captainsolo]

Excellent work! For now this is the best that can be done, and thankfully there are a few in the series like this that only needed massaging into acceptable shape. OHMSS has several scenes that are hard to nail down for color timing-most notably the predawn opening and the final helicopter raid. IIRC the LD audio has a pop or two in the transfer, did yours have that or did you find a way to tidy those up?

[Stamper]

A french repack has been reported using hopefully the same sync as yours (synced to the BD?) with the original french LD mono so all anyone's need know is a remux for the french original mono LD track.

[Chewtobacca]

I've just finished watching the BD.  The colors are vivid and nicely saturated, pushing the edge of what's broadcast safe but without (as far as I can see) shooting beyond it.  The PCM is very clear, especially the dialog.  All in all, a great disc!