The movie came out when I was living in London. The British entertainment press destroyed Lazenby. They accused him of “Acting With His ‘L’ Plates On.” I thought he was horrible as well.
An L Plate was a British license plate that signified a student driver, or “Learner” behind the wheel. Don’t know if they still use them.
I don’t think anyone was going to be acceptable in the press or public’s eye following Connery (I do feel it unfortunate Connery passed up doing arguably the best script in the franchise). Lazenby did about as well as could be expected in my opinion, given the shoes he had to fill. It would’ve been interesting to see how he would’ve grown into the part over time. My opinion, too, was that when Connery came back to do DAF, it was a serious letdown. He looked too tired, too old (even though he was just 40 when he filmed it, he seemed a decade older), and too out of shape. Contrast that with Rog Moore when he was 46 when he took over the part in ‘73, three years older than Connery (and 5-6 years older when he filmed it), but looked like he was in his mid 30s.