On Her Majesty's Secret Service's gunbarrel.
There's a natural tendency to use release years only in calculating the time between James Bond films. But when you take into account month and year, things may appear a bit different.
You Only Live Twice (June 1967) and On Her Majesty's Secret Service (December 1967): This was the longest gap between 007 films made by Eon Productions at the time, 2.5 years. That's not mentioned a lot in tellings of the series' history.
That gap is comparable to the time between The Man With the Golden Gun (December 1974) and The Spy Who Loved Me (July 1977). That pause included the business breakup of Eon founders Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, which delayed Spy's production.
Majesty's was the first time Eon recast the part of Bond. Novice actor George Lazenby got the part, taking over from Sean Connery. What's more, once Lazenby donned his shoulder holster, Majesty's had a long shooting schedule. Filming the various action sequences in Switzerland wasn't easy.
Diamonds Are Forever (December 1971) and Live And Let Die (late June 1973)/Live And Let Die (late June 1973) and The Man With the Golden Gun (December 1974): It's often noted that there was only a year gap between the first two Roger Moore. United Artists, it's often said, was anxious to get Moore/Bond's second adventure underway.
The time between Live And Let Die and The Man With the Golden Gun is usually thought of as the time there was a one-year gap. Again, by release year only, that's true. But it's not that much different that the time between Diamonds and Live and Let Die.
In both cases, the movies came out roughly 1.5 years apart. That's not the blistering pace of the first four films in the Eon series. But 1.5 years -- or even 2.5 years -- between Bond films is unimaginable today.
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