The Man With the Golden Gun (1974)

 Before we discuss Roger Moore's second stint as James Bond in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1974), I want to give a shout out to the actor who plays Bond's nemesis in the film. THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN was in a way a rebirth for Christopher Lee to new audiences who had never seen the tall, suave actor. If they had seen Lee before, they would have seen him play every famous monster on the planet for Hammer Films in the 1950s.  Count Dracula in HORROR OF DRACULA (1959). Frankenstein's monster in THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957).  The mummy in THE MUMMY (1959). Lee continued into the 1960s making Hammer horror films. It was work but with his deep voice and distinguished looks, weren't there other roles Lee could play?

Lee was still playing Count Dracula and Fu Manchu when the great director Billy Wilder (SUNSET BOULEVARD) saw something in Lee, casting him as Sherlock Holmes older brother Mycroft in THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1970).  Next would come nice supporting roles in Richard Lester's THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1973) and Robin Hardy's cult horror film THE WICKER MAN (1973). Lee's career renaissance was on the rise when director Guy Hamilton would pick Lee as Bond's adversary Francisco Scaramanga in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN. Lee's popularity was such that he even appears on the Wings album cover Band on the Run with Paul & Linda McCartney and actor James Coburn among others.  Lee would have a long and illustrious career. Young filmmakers who loved Lee in his Hammer horror films would introduce him to a whole new generation of movie fans in films like Steven Spielberg's 1941, Joe Dante's GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH (1990), Tim Burton's SLEEPY HOLLOW (1999),  George Lucas's STAR WARS: ATTACK OF THE CLONES (2002), and most famously as the evil wizard Saruman in Peter Jackson's THE LORD OF THE RINGS (2001 to 2003) trilogy.

Besides ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE (1969), I've probably watched THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN the least compared to all the Connery and early Roger Moore Bond films. Initially, I thought it didn't have the scope and pizazz of earlier films. There were no big explosions or legions of minions to fight Bond in some underground base. And Christopher Lee (who I have just praised) as the villain didn't have any scars or fancy villain name (he does have three nipples) that made him stand out. But with each viewing, my appreciation of THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN increases. With a screenplay by the two best Bond writers in the series Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz (adapted from Ian Fleming's novel) and directed by Bond veteran Guy Hamilton (his fourth and last 007 film), THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN is an underrated film that forces James Bond to face a foe who's his doppleganger, handsome and suave as James, good with the ladies, and who's paid to kill like Bond.

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN plays with the conventions of the James Bond film. The opening sequence is usually reserved for a Bond mini-mission but in GOLDEN GUN we're introduced to the internationally famous assassin Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) relaxing on his exotic beach lair with his mistress Andrea Anders (Maud Adams) surrounded by limestone monoliths somewhere in the China Sea (actually Thailand's Phang Nga Bay). In a page out of the short story The Most Dangerous Game, Scaramanga has invited an American contract killer Rodney (Marc Lawrence) to try to kill him (he's even paid in advance). It's a game Scaramanga plays to keep sharp. Overseen by Scaramanga's diminutively sinister servant Nick Nack (Herve Villechaize), the deadly duel is played out with only one assassin surviving (guess who?). Cut to James Bond (Roger Moore) at MI6 headquarters in London meeting with his superior M (Bernard Lee).  A golden bullet with 007 etched on it has been addressed to Bond.  An invitation or warning from Scaramanga? No one has ever seen Scaramanga. Bond begins the hunt for the famed assassin.

Bond flies to Beirut first where a belly dancer named Saida (Carmen du Sautoy) has one of Scarmanga's golden bullets that killed a fellow British agent as a keepsake in her navel. Bond manages to swallow it during a fight in her dressing room with Russian thugs. After Q (Desmond Llewelyn) analyzes the bullet, Bond is off to Macau to find Lazar (Marne Maitland), the master craftsman who makes guns, rifles, and bullets for secretive clients like Scaramanga. With some subtle persuasion (Bond aiming one of Lazar's rifles at his crotch), Lazar reveals he drops off Scaramanga's golden bullets at a casino. Bond watches the hand-off from Lazar to the beautiful Ms. Andrea Anders. Bond follows Andrea on a ferry to Hong Kong. He's just about to confront her when Bond's fellow British operative Mary Goodnight (Britt Ekland) clumsily disrupts his surveillance.

Bond tracks Andrea to a swank hotel. After roughing her up a bit (then offering her champagne), Andrea reveals Scaramanga will be at the Bottoms Up Club to pick up his golden bullets. But when Bond goes to find him, he's nearly killed by a single shot by the assassin. It turns out Scaramanga's target was another patron of the club named Gibson, an energy expert, who had in his possession the Solex Agitator that could fix the world's current energy crisis. Nick Nack grabs the device in the confusion. Bond is whisked away by Hip (Soon-Tek Oh) with the Hong Kong police and taken to the half sunken ocean liner the Queen Elizabeth where M and Q have a secret headquarters. M suspects the Thai crime lord Hai Fat (Richard Loo) ordered the hit to steal the Solex Agitator and sell it to the highest bidder. Bond flies to Bangkok, Thailand to get the solar cell back.

Bond impersonates Scaramanga to meet Hai Fat but the crime lord is not tricked. Bond is forced to fight Fat's karate killers at his fighting school. After defeating Fat's best fighter, Bond flees, chased by Fat's men through Thailand's klongs (canals) and water markets. Scaramanga turns on Fat and kills him, taking the Solex Agitator to Bangkok. Andrea comes to Bond. She wants Scaramanga dead so she can be free. She steals the Solex Agitator from Scaramanga. The rendervous is a Thai boxing match but when Bond arrives, Andrea is dead and Scaramanga waiting for him. With the Solex Agitator back in his possession, Scaramanga and Nick Nack fly back to his beach island hideout (via a flying car) with Bond in pursuit. Scaramanga is delighted to have Bond as a guest. After showing Bond his plans for the Solex Agitator, Scaramanga and Bond face off in the film's finale mano a mano in Scaramanga's assassin funhouse where only one will survive (guess who?).

What makes THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN so interesting is the relationship between Bond and Scaramanga.  They are like two modern gunslingers. Scaramanga's Golden Gun vs Bond's Walther PBK. Scaramanga and Bond are two sides of the same coin with Scaramanga representing Bond's dark side. They both kill only Scaramanga kills for money (one million dollars per hit). Bond kills to protect his country and the world. They're both handsome, erudite, connoisseur's of beautiful women and fine food. When we see Scaramanga's shooting gallery in the film's opening with its house of mirrors, we know that Scaramanga and Bond will eventually meet there in the finale. The filmmakers cleverly begin it like a duel (another nod to gunslingers), each man with his back to one another. But like much of THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, nothing is like what it seems.

A Bond film wouldn't be a Bond film without some sexual innuendo and symbolism but THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN might just be the most overt in both categories. Scaramanga's golden pistol is a phallic symbol for his prowess both in bed and assassinating his victims. Case in point, early in the film, Scaramanga's in a room across from a Macau casino. His mistress Andrea lies on the bed. Scaramanga begins making love with her (foreplay) but then cuts it short to peer out again. His target comes out of the casino. Scaramanga kills him with one golden bullet. The kill is Scaramanga's climax, his ejaculation. No wonder Andrea searches out Bond to kill Scaramanga. It's always coitus interruptus when she's with him. Scaramanga's pistol may be longer and bigger than Bond's Walther PBK. But does the length and size matter?  It's how you use it that matters. Scaramanga also has three nipples, a sign in some cultures of virility.

The Bond series has always stayed true to current movie trends.  See 1973's LIVE AND LET DIE (Car Chase films, THE FRENCH CONNECTION, and Blaxploitation films) or 1979's MOONRAKER (STAR WARS). Bruce Lee and karate films were all the rage so director Hamilton stages a karate school scene in GOLDEN GUN. But Bond films have also been connected to world events.  The early Bond films were steeped in the Cold War (FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, THUNDERBALL) that was going on between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN is set during the real life 1974 Energy Crisis when several Arab countries proclaimed an oil embargo forcing countries worldwide to try and conserve energy. The key plot device in GOLDEN GUN is the Solex Agitator which can create sustainable energy for an entire country through solar power. First Hai Fat and then Scaramanga plan to sell it to the highest bidder. It's a timely topic pulled straight from the world headlines when THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN was filming. What's refreshing is the plot is not doomsday related although the Solex Agitator in the wrong hands could use it for nefarious purposes.

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN would be Roger Moore's second appearance as the British agent James Bond. Roger Moore never looked uncomfortable as Bond (he would start to look older as Bond beginning with OCTOPUSSY) but Moore seems very at ease and in good form in GOLDEN GUN. The weight of filling Sean Connery's large shoes in Moore's debut LIVE AND LET DIE (1973) was off his shoulders. Moore had succeeded in taking over the role and making it his to own. Moore still shows a brutal side to Bond, especially in his interrogation of Andrea in her hotel room. But Moore easily slipped into humor as well. His scenes with Britt Ekland as Mary Goodnight are sweet and funny and Moore is a pro with quips during fight scenes and car chases.

For the Bond girls, the filmmakers go Scandanavian this time with the Swedish duo of Maud Adams and Britt Ekland as Bond love interests. The role of Andrea Anders (played by Adams) is more complicated and tragic than I originally understood. Andrea's in a delicate position. She wants to escape from the clutches of Scaramanga as his mistress but she knows he'll kill her if she does leave. She turns to Bond to kill Scaramanga with the knowledge her treachery might be her doom. I was not a big fan of Adams in GOLDEN GUN upon first viewing. But she has an ice goddess beauty to her that I must admit grew on me this time. Adams would appear in Norman Jewison's futuristic ROLLERBALL (1975) as James Caan's ex-wife. Adams returned to the Bond series for a second time as another Bond girl, this time as the titular title character in OCTOPUSSY (1983).

Britt Ekland as Mary Goodnight, Bond's counterpart, has the more comic part in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN and she plays it well. Usually Bond ends up with the villain's girl but as I mentioned, GOLDEN GUN plays with the Bond conventions. Even though Goodnight is blonde, she doesn't come off as ditzy. She's a little clumsy and naive but she grows as an agent as the film progresses. The film teases us as Goodnight and Bond continually get close to making love several times only to be interrupted.  Ekland (who was briefly married to Peter Sellers and dated rock star Rod Stewart) would also appear in GET CARTER (1971) and THE WICKER MAN co-starring Christopher Lee.

One of screenwriter Mankiewicz's traits taking over the writing reins of the Bond series for three films was to highlight a second minor villain besides the main villain. In DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (1971) the main villain was Blofeld but in the wings were his subordinates, the gay assassins Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint. In THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, Scaramanga has a miniature henchman in Nick Nack played by the French actor Herve Villachaize. Nick Nack is part maitre'd, part partner of Scaramanga's assassin games on his private island. Nick Nack has a Napoleon complex and occasionally exhibits some petulance towards Scaramanga.  After Scaramanga's dispatched, there's still Nick Nack for Bond to deal with. GOLDEN GUN would propel Villachaize into stardom and his most recognized role as Ricardo Montaban's servant Tattoo on the TV series FANTASY ISLAND (1977-1983). Sadly, Villachaize would commit suicide in 1993 at the age of 50. 

Fans of LIVE AND LET DIE no doubt rejoiced with the return of Clifton James as the Louisiana redneck sheriff J.W. Pepper.  The filmmakers cleverly have Pepper on vacation with his wife in Thailand where he encounters Bond.  Only this time, they're not adversaries but partners during an exciting car chase through Bangkok and an incredible 360 degree car jump over a small klong. Marc Lawrence who played tough guys and crooks in films like John  Huston's KEY LARGO (1948) and THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950) makes his second Bond appearance (the first was in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER) as Rodney the Chicago contract killer Scaramanga faces in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN'S opening sequence.  Lastly, with no CIA agent Felix Leiter in this film, Soon-Tek Oh plays Hong Kong police commissioner Hip (a surrogate Felix Leiter) who assists Bond navigate the Far East and track Scaramanga whereabouts.

Some Bond tidbits.  THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN would be the 9th and last Bond film co-produced by the remarkable team of Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. Saltzman would leave the series and Broccoli would be sole producer going forward.  In a nice piece of irony, Christopher Lee who plays the villain Scaramanga was related to Bond creator and author Ian Fleming.  They were cousins. Although Scaramanga's island hideaway is supposed to be in the China Sea, the remarkable limestone islands are really Phang Nga Bay in Thailand. Scaramanga's island in the film is now called James Bond island and is a popular tourist attraction. All the locations in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN are some of the most exotic in the series. The filmmakers incorporate a Chinese junk boat as one of Scaramanga's modes of escape. If you've never seen a junk, they are beautiful and a perfect symbol for Asia. Lastly, the first Bond trailer for THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN contains a few extra shots not seen in the actual film between Bond and Scaramanga's duel on the beach before they moved to Scaramanga's funhouse.  Check it out on THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN DVD. 

With all my praise of THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN as an underrated gem in the Bond canon, it has a few weak spots. The theme song sung by Lulu (who you ask? She's a Scottish Pop Star) is not one of the series strongest entries.  And a flying car that Scaramanga and Nick Nack utilize to flee Bond is mostly a model (due to the fact that the pilot of the real flying car died in an accident with the flying car prior to GOLDEN GUN'S filming).  Surprisingly, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN would be the lowest grossing film up to this point in the Bond series despite the exotic locations and strong villain.

In retrospect, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN was a watershed moment for the Bond series (it wouldn't be the last one).  The producing team that brought James Bond to the big screen dissolved with Harry Saltzman stepping away after this one. Director Guy Hamilton who directed probably the best Bond film of all time in GOLDFINGER (1964) and followed up in the 70s with some strong Bond films stepped away for good. But all was not lost. The series had its new James Bond in Roger Moore who would carry the mantle all the way to A VIEW TO A KILL (1985). THE MAN WITH A GOLDEN GUN is a hiccup to some, a diamond in the rough for me.  Instead of a doomsday scenario, it highlights a current world event at the time as well as the dangerous people that James Bond encounters in his line of work, this time a character very close to his own persona. 

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