The 007 Files: The Man With the Golden Gun

In The Man with the Golden Gun, Roger Moore’s second appearance as 007, we get a real mixed bag of a movie. It contains some solid elements but also a lot of weak stuff, from a poorly written Bond girl to a truly dull and nearly non-existent plot.

Moore’s first outing Live and Let Die certainly had some issues, too. It did have a classic Bond theme from Paul McCartney and Wings, though. This film’s theme song by Lulu? It’s pretty bad and definitely the worst Bond theme so far.

Let’s start positive. The villain character of Scaramanga is well-regarded among Bond fans. I give most of that credit to Christopher Lee, a fine actor who brings a lot to the character. He’s a world-famous assassin who happens to have his own island that happens to be a disguised solar power plant . Scaramanga’s plan is to sell the plant to the highest bidder or let the oil barons buy it so they don’t have competition. Or something like that. The plot is not the movie’s strong point. Not that specific story elements are ever extremely important in a 007 picture, but I’ve been struck how thinly plotted both Moore entries have been so far.

Oh, Scaramanga also kills his victims with a cool looking golden gun, in case you were wondering where the title came from.

And he also has a midget sidekick named Nick Nack (Herve Villechaize) who provides some memorable moments. The villain also has an elaborate funhouse set up on his island, which he and Nick Nack use to trap people who Scaramanga intends on killing. The funhouse element likely stems from Scaramanga’s past, where he was raised by a traveling circus ringmaster. As he explains to 007 at one point in the picture, his interest in becoming an assassin originated from an abusive animal trainer when he was a kid. You see, the mean ol animal trainer hurt an elephant that Scaramanga had made friends with, so Scaramanga killed him. Oh, and Scaramanga also has three nipples for some reason. Moving on…

The film’s main Bond girl is Mary Goodnight, played by the gorgeous Britt Ekland. Her character represents the low end of the spectrum for Bond girls. The writers (007 vets Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz) repeat the same mistake they made in Diamonds Are Forever. Goodnight is played as a total ditz. It’s even worse here because we’re supposed to believe this girl is a secret agent. Call it personal preference, but I’d much rather the Bond girl be someone who’s got some intelligence and adds a little to the story, like in the Connery pictures. Here, it’s as if Chrissy from “Three’s Company” somehow managed to become a spy.

In the role of Scaramanga’s mistress who ends up assisting Bond (in a couple of ways), actress Maud Adams is better and she has a cool demise. Adams would actually later appear as the main Bond girl in Octopussy nine years later. We’ll get there soon.

And then there’s the inexplicable return of the Sheriff J.W. Pepper character from Live and Let Die. Apparently, audiences must have responded positively to the redneck Louisiana sheriff, portrayed by Clifton James. Not sure why. When Bond discovers the hick lawman is vacationing in Bangkok (really?), 007’s reaction is: “Oh no!”. So was mine.

There’s also a few karate related sequences that were clearly put in to capitalize on the kung fu craze that was happening in the early 70s, due to Bruce Lee and others. While these scenes are mildly entertaining, I couldn’t help but think of how Live and Let Die also borrowed from the popular at the time blaxpoitation genre. The early Bond films set the trends that filmmakers in the action genre would follow. The first two Moore features seem to often be following whatever trend was hot at the moment.

The Man With the Golden Gun does make good use of its beautiful island location in the last half hour. In fact, the last act of the film is quite entertaining because Lee gets a chance to shine more than a lot of other Bond villains. Also, the funhouse showdown between Bond and Scaramanga is fun.

However, other than one nifty car stunt and a few other moments here and there, the first three-fourths of Golden Gun is forgettable and by-the-numbers.

Audiences, to an extent, seemed to agree. The picture’s worldwide gross was just under $100 million. In America, it earned $21 million, giving it the distinction of being the lowest grossing 007 picture so far and placing it 19th on the year’s list of moneymakers. With a $7 million dollar budget, don’t get me wrong: it made tons of money. Nevertheless, considering that its two predecessors, Diamonds Are Forever made $116 million and Live and Let Die made $161 million (in just the year before, no less), Golden Gun‘s numbers were subpar.

This would be director Guy Hamilton’s fourth and final go round as a 007 director. He started with a classic, Goldfinger. His other three entries – Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, and this… not so classic.

Bottom line: for me, the final half hour almost made me forget the first hour and a half that I sat through. There’s a lot I didn’t like in Golden Gun, but like all Bond flicks, it’s watchable. How’s that for a sterling recommendation?

Here are the facts:

Film: The Man With the Golden Gun

U.S. Release Date: December 18, 1974

Director: Guy Hamilton

Screenplay: Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz

Bond: Roger Moore

Main Villain: Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee)

Main Bond Girl: Mary Goodnight (Britt Ekland)

Theme Song: “The Man With the Golden Gun” – performed by Lulu

Budget: $7 million

Worldwide Box Office: $97.6 million

My James Bond blog series will return in “The 007 Files: The Spy Who Loved Me”