Of the six (not counting David Niven in Casino Royale), I would rate Lazenby as number 4, behind Craig, Connery, and Brosnan.
As for the 1969 movie....the evil Telly Savalis, and the Swiss scenes made it a great movie, and toss in Diana Rigg...it was a fairly decent Bond-movie. The negative is the last five minutes where Bond marries ‘Tracey’ and then she gets killed off by Spectre. I think the ending plot really screwed up public reaction, and caused the movie to be regarded as a ‘loser’.
Casino Royale is the forgotten Bond film. I mean Woody Allen as a villian? I’d be more scared of a 2 year old!
Tracy being killed was straight from the novel, and she had to be killed for the film to be top notch. I personally consider OHMSS as the best of the entire franchise. Lazenby was much preferable to Pirs Bonbons and Ice Queen Craig. Other than for Timothy Dalton, who was also excellent in his two outings, I think he was the only one who could believably (emotionally) deal with her murder. It would’ve been bizarre seeing Connery in such a scene, but it’s also a surprise he decided not to be in the best-written Bond film (but he was burned out by then after his bad experience filming YOLT in Japan).
Connery once said his favorite was From Russia With Love as it was the only one with a realistic plot.
An interesting fact: In Japan, some foreign (non-Japanese) movies use voice overs and some use subtitles. Connery’s are always subtitled because people generally loved the sound of his voice.
I don't think the ending caused any problems for the movie. For one, it is exactly out of Fleming's novel (In fact, the entire film followed the novel fairly closely). With a character like Bond, it is a given that if he gets married, his wife will die. Although the movie did not do as well as its predecessor (You Only Live Twice), it still did well at the box office. I think its problems were mainly due to having to replace Connery.
I think Lazenby was "OK" in the role. He looked good, but it is obvious that a lot of his lines are post-dubbed (and I don't mean when he is undercover as "Sir Hilary Bray". All of Bray's lines were dubbed by the actor - George Baker - who played him). Between dubs and edits, they managed to cobble together a pretty good performance from him. I think if Lazenby had stuck with the part, he would have made some good movies. Maybe the series would not have made the turn to mostly comedy as it did with Roger Moore.
I saw this at the theater in 1970, and later watched it for the first broadcast on TV. Almost like two different shows.
The first TV broadcast began in the middle of the film with Bond skiing to escape the bad guys, and ends up in a car race. Then comes on a narrator and says...”And how did I get here?” Then it suddenly reverts to the first of the movie.
I believe it was shown, part one week, and part the next week. Very confusing.