The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
Synopsis
Bond receives a golden bullet etched with 007 in the mail and is sent to investigate its likely sender, a circus-born renewable energy king with a third nipple. Bond will later meet this secret admirer in person, but not before having to inexplicably fight sumo wrestlers and a number of martial artists.
Particulars
Director: Guy Hamilton
Writer/s: Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz
Producers: Harry Saltzman & Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli
Stars: Roger Moore as James Bond, Christopher Lee as Francisco Scaramanga, Britt Ekland as Mary Goodnight, Maud Adams as Andrea Anders, Hervé Villechaize as Nick Nack, Soon-Taik Oh as Lieutenant Hip, Richard Loo as Hai Fat, Bernard Lee as M and Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny
Budget: $7 million
Shot: Thailand, Hong Kong (including the wreckage of the RMS Queen Elizabeth) and Pinewood Studios
Based on:, the 2nd book in Ian Fleming’s James Bond series
A sequel of overwhelming silliness
Here’s what I’ll say.
The Man with the Golden Gun at the very least has a more straightforward plot than some previous Bond films. It uses the 1973 energy crisis as its central problem and constructs a solar powered MacGuffin as a solution, so that’s kind of interesting and makes it a bit of a time capsule.
It’s at its best during scenes between Scaramanga and Bond and I think Christopher Lee is the film’s greatest strength, especially as a villain whose motivation is more than just being a megalomaniac. Yes, he has a ‘golden gun’ (i.e.a frickin’ laser) but I genuinely think he’s more concerned with hunting Bond than anything else.
I also love a pistol duel, so the fact that the film features one (even if it goes awry) is a bonus in my eyes. Now that the positives are out of the way, allow me to complain a bit.
The stuff that aged poorly
Justice for Nick Nack, who seems to be given agency and respect only by his employer. The way he’s referred to and treated (i.e. captured in a suitcase and imprisoned in the bird’s nest of a Chinese junk as a visual gag) in the film is rough and I just hope Hervé Villechaize found peace.
And justice for Andrea Anders, who receives a smack across the face from Bond in some unwelcome violence against women that I thought we’d put to bed with the Connery years.
There are also a few things muddying my understanding of the film’s cultural setting, like sumo wrestlers in a Thai millionaire’s garden, the prevalence of karate in rural Thailand and the script’s interchangeability of Bangkok and Hong Kong locations. I get that people can have interests outside of their own culture but it’s far more likely that Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz thought it fine to conflate different cultures into “Asia”, trusting that the 1974 audience either wouldn’t notice or care (and they were probably right).
The slapstick dorkiness
As a lover of camp and trash, I can handle a fair amount of silliness. Having said that, even I have my limits and this film pushed them every chance it got. And it started early.
It’s rare that I hate a Bond song (you’ll learn this later in the piece where I admit my embarrassing affinity for Madonna’s ‘Die Another Day’) but I’m sorry to say that Lulu’s clanger – while fitting with the funhouse theme – is an early franchise low. The way she sings “gu-huuun” also bothers me more than is rational, a signal of my sensory issues, perhaps.
Stupidity abounds in the third nipple Bond requests from Q so he can cosplay as Scaramanga, which seems like a huge waste of MI6’s resources and I totally understand why Q was displeased.
It’s in the cartoonish sound effect when Bond performs an astro spiral jump off a rickety bridge in his AMC Hornet. It’s definitely in Scaramanga’s car plane, a vehicle that was unsurprisingly not “air worthy” so a remote controlled model was used for the actual flying. And Chew Me as a name? Is this 70s porn? It feels like it.
Hate him
The recurrence of Sheriff J.W. Pepper
It’s one thing to give the dumb Sheriff from Live and Let Die a cameo but it’s quite another to give him ride-along privileges and more than one line. Prior to this moment there’d been no real continuity between Bond films outside of MI6 or the CIA, so to pick J.W. Pepper as the first recurring side character is a wild choice.
I wouldn’t say The Man with the Golden Gun is my least favourite Bond film thus far in my journey (that honour still remains with Diamonds Are Forever) but it’s probably not far off.
RANKING CATEGORIES (70%)
Bond execution = 7
Villain = 7
Bond girl(s) = 4
Song = 2
Opening titles = 3
Plot/action/gadgets = 5
Franchise identity = 4
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT (30%)
5/10