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The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

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179 comments in total

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41 out of 52 people found the following comment useful :-
Moore's Best Bond Movie Has Greatest Villain, 6 March 2005

Author: Hal-900 from WA, USA

This is James Bond # 9, and one of the films in the series that has the worst reputation. Hardcore fans (and Connery idolaters) seem to always use this movie (and "Live and Let Die") as an example of the series' growing deterioration. In addition, from a box office standpoint, this is the lowest grossing film in the series. No, it was not a failure, but it did receive a lukewarm response from the general audience. Years ago, I felt that the film's detractors were right, which is why I never cared to revisit this movie before. What an incredible surprise was to find out that this is not only one of the best Moore movies, but it is also one of the most interesting films in the entire series. I simply fell in love with it, and I found myself clapping as the credits started rolling in. There is so much to admire here. The plot is very interesting, and plays like one of those suspenseful John Le Carre thrillers (the script is top notch). The movie is very low-key, and cerebral, and in my view, that is a good thing. The film has little action (and even those sequences are kept simple), concentrating on good plot twists and fine characterizations instead. There are no gadgets or elaborate set-pieces – the film's story is propelled by circumstances. It is indeed the most restrained Bond movie ever (yes, even more restrained than "Dr. No"), which may account for the film's failure to capture a large audience. It is a well-crafted espionage tale, very suspenseful, with a truly intriguing premise. This time around Bond doesn't face some crazy, over the top villain, but a canny, charismatic assassin name Scaramanga, superbly played by Christopher Lee – he is my favorite Ian Fleming villain. The film cleverly implies that Scaramanga is some sort of Bond in a parallel universe; a sinister version of 007. It is as if Bond is against his own alter ego, an element that makes the story much more interesting. This idea makes more sense once one realizes that Lee (Ian Fleming's real-life cousin), was Fleming's first choice to play Bond. The movie has humor, but the jokes are clever and don't interfere with the gritty nature of the story (well, let's ignore those scenes with the redneck policeman from "Live and Let Die"). I think the title song is very silly, but the way pop star Lulu sings it made me fell in love with the tune – a rare case of a singer that is able to "sell" an unmemorable song. I really hope that in the near future people start reevaluating the merits of this film. Meanwhile, I'm going to put this one up there, next to the other great Bond films, where it belongs. This is indeed a wonderful movie.

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14 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
Enjoyable Bond adventure, but not one of the very best., 19 August 2003
Author: Jonathon Dabell (barnabyrudge@hotmail.com) from Wakefield, England

The Man With the Golden Gun ditches the original novel almost completely (the book was set in Jamaica, for a start, whereas the film is located in the Far East). However, it is still a fairly entertaining entry is the long-running series, and features three strong reasons for tuning in: 1)a classic Bond villain in the shape of Francisco Scaramanga 2)a classic villain's henchman in the shape of psycho dwarf NickNack, and 3)a stunning Bond girl in the shape of Mary Goodnight. There'a also the most outrageous car stunt ever seen in a motion picture, rendered all the more impressive by the fact that it is not a computer enhanced sequence but was filmed for real (including that infamous loop-the-loop in the red sports car).

Bond is played by Roger Moore for the second time. Moore is relaxed and easy-going in his usual manner, but shows a bit of the old Connery toughness during a couple of martial arts fight sequences. His mission is simply to stay alive this time, having been targeted by world renowned hitman Francisco Scaramanga (chilling Christopher Lee). Moore decides that rather than waiting around to be shot, he will hunt for Scaramanga himself, and his search takes him to Beirut, Macao, Hong Kong and, finally, a privately owned Thai island. En route, he discovers that Scaramanga has bigger fish to fry than simply killing 007, as he also plans to use a powerful solar device to power-up a deadly laser gun that he has had built.

It's a surprisingly slow-moving film for a Bond flick, with more talky scenes than is customary. However, the action when it comes is pretty memorable. The comedy relief provided by Clifton James (you may remember him as a mouthy cop from Live and Let Die) is somewhat irritating and hurts the film more than it helps it. Lulu's title song is dated, but catchy. I would rate this an an enjoyable Bond escapade, definitely worth catching for series completists and fans of action bonanzas, but it isn't really the best of the bunch and isn't even the best of Moore's films in the series. If you're only going to see five minutes of the film, though, you simply must tune in for that afore-mentioned car stunt.... awesome!

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24 out of 35 people found the following comment useful :-
No doubt one of Roger Moore's best, 4 December 2002

Author: Mika Pykäläaho (bygis80@hotmail.com) from Järvenpää, Finland

I just recently watched "The Man with the golden gun" for the millionth time and it was day after I saw "Die another day" which I found massively disappointing. The difference between the two is just inconceivable! It's hard to believe both movies are actually part of the same series. When I watched "Die another day", most of the time I felt that I'm not even watching a Bond movie.

It was so deliriously refreshing to once again look out what a traditional, true first-rate Bond classic looks like and let me tell you: it always looks good. I can't understand people who claim "The Man with the golden gun" is one of the worst Bond films. Why the hell's that? To me it has always been one of Roger Moore's finest efforts as 007, he unfortunately started to be a bit too old anyway in his last films.

This is an extremely splendid film: entertaining, exotic and fascinating James Bond movie - just like "Live and let die". Funny, gripping and just simply irresistible and not boring for a single second. Christopher Lee's Scaramanga is certainly one of the greatest villains in a Bond movie ever. His servant Nick Nack (as played by Hervé Villechaize who sadly committed suicide 19 years later) is also one of the best of the classic sidekicks Bond's enemies has had - he's right in the company of Oddjob and Jaws. Excellent 007-adventure!

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14 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
Beautiful landscapes in a so-so Bond adventure, 4 October 2005

Author: michelerealini from Switzerland

Let me say I like Roger Moore very much, because I grew up watching his films -he's the first Bond I've ever seen. Many people prefer Sean Connery, who is really unique, true... But how can I say Roger Moore is not good? I've also a lot of affection for Moore because I watched on TV, when I was a kid, "The Persuaders" series.

Although that his second Bond outing is not very good. That's not his fault at all, the screenplay is not good and the story itself is not very interesting. Everything is a little slower than usual, the film has neither the liveliness of "Live and let die" -the first Moore Bond flick- nor the liveliness of the previous episodes.

Here Bond has to face a refined assassin -that's all, there isn't a real thrilling intrigue

On the other hand landscapes and John Barry score are fantastic. Also the cast is strong, because Christopher Lee and Britt Ekland bring a lot of glamour. It's a pity that the movie doesn't match the usual standard.

At the time producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman didn't get along well with each other any more. In '75 their partnership broke up and let Broccoli alone at the command of 007 empire. Maybe this tensions had an influence on "The man with the golden gun", who knows...

Luckily in 1977 Bond came back with one of the best films of the series -"The spy who loved me", a real classic, the definitive Roger Moore entry as Bond.

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Goodnight, Sir., 8 May 2007

Author: Shawn Watson (gator_macready@yahoo.com) from The Underverse

The nefarious (I've no idea what that means, but I know it works) super-assassin Francisco Saramanga is out to kill Bond. Because he's like that. Scaramanga charges a million dollars a hit and is the only person in the world who has a slim chance of getting to Bond. Concerned for his safety, M takes Bond off active duty.

Never perturbed (not really sure of that word either), Bond still investigates and soon discovers that Scaramanga has stolen the 'priceless' Solex Agitator. Oh yeah, one of those! A mere MacGuffin and no more. In his mission to retrieve said 'agitator' Bond travels to Thailand and Hong Kong and gets into many silly fights, one involving a midget butler. He even finds time stress-out hillbilly Sheriff JW Pepper once more and...erm...'roger' his gorgeous assistant Mary Goodnight.

It's very dumb and thoroughly unsophisticated but it's all in the name of fun and Roger Moore's light, somewhat innocent way of playing Bond just keeps you smiling all the way through. I also liked John Barry's score, despite the fact he claims it's his weakest effort on the series.

TMWTGG was the last Bond film to be shot in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio and I do feel that if it was shot in Panavision then it would have more slick and polished look. 33 years on, TMWTGG looks too grainy and dated and appears older than it is. I'm not sure why Guy Hamilton chose to film it this way when 4 previous Bond films had already been made in Scope widescreen.

Definitely one of the lesser Bond movies but saved by sense of humor and never-ending fun. Rent this one.

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Golden Gun is Golden Surprise!, 6 January 2006

Author: Cusson from United States

Roger Moore's second outing as Agent 007 puts him against the evil trick shot artist/assassin, Scaramanga (Christopher Lee). Hailed by many Connery fans as the film that marked the downfall of the 007 franchise, 'The Man With The Golden Gun' turns out to be one of the most pleasant surprises of the entire series and one of the 'better' Roger Moore films. 'Gun' does take some getting used to, in fact, more times than not, you need to see it a few times to really begin to enjoy the film.

The cast is great, one of the better ones of the entire series. There are two leading ladies in this film, the wonderful Maud Adams, who would later star in Octopussy (1983), and the terrible Britt Ekland who just acts so dumb and hopeless that it almost angers viewers. The villain Scaramanga is top notch as well as his comical, yet silently evil assistant, Nick Nack, played by French painter Herve Villechaize. The plot of the film is very interesting, the locals are exotic (which is always an extremely important part of a bond film), and Roger Moore continues to develop his character from a Connery-clone to putting his own, charming spin on 007.

All-in-all, 'Gun' is another good 007 adventure and is quite possibly the 4th best Roger Moore Bond film. Any fan of the series should give it a second look before they hail it as 'bad'.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Suave, sophisticated Roger Moore is good Bond in another caper..., 7 October 2006

Author: Neil Doyle from U.S.A.

As Bond films go, maybe this isn't the best of the lot, but, hey, it deserves points for giving us ROGER MOORE in another good turn as James Bond. Moore had already perfected this kind of hero in his "The Saint" roles on TV, whereby he had some quick one-liners as he outwitted various enemies. He's doing the same here as Bond and doing nicely in the action scenes as an additional requirement.

There are the usual car chases (very colorful one through the streets of Bangkok), the usual assortment of dangerous females with BRETT EKLUND being the dominant one, the usual gadgets to be used in a fight to the finish, and the usual spectacular stunts (this time one involving an almost unbelievable leap in a car), and the usual villains standing in the way of order and justice.

I have no complaints about this one. ROGER MOORE was always very acceptable as James Bond and seemed to get better with each film. This was only his second time out as Bond and he did improve later on--but that's no reason to complain, as others have done. Just sit back, relax and enjoy another Bond fantasy/adventure done in stylish ways and with CHRISTOPHER LEE as Scaramanga, the main baddie.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
The Worst Bond Film, 18 December 2006

Author: Robert Hamer from United States

The weakest of the Bond entries so far, The Man with the Golden Gun represents the series at rock-bottom. Maybe it's because the partnership between Broccoli and Saltzman was quickly dissolving, since this was the last movie that they would produce as partners. Whatever the case, almost every aspect of this film seems insipid. The screenplay is filled with inconsistencies and absurd situations (the return of Sheriff Pepper is unforgivable). The emphasis on humor is almost to the point of slapstick. All of the characters are irritable and there is barely any regard displayed even among the regulars. Mary Goodnight, the female lead, is a childish and immature character who's role as a seasoned MI6 agent is extremely hard to believe. This is especially evident in Bond's constant and completely understandable annoyance with being in her presence. Lieutenant Hip is a moron, and several of 007's predicaments are a direct result of Hip's stupidity. The opening song by Lulu is one of the most bland and forgettable, even compared to the songs that followed in future Bond installments. To be fair, the film is not a complete failure. Francisco Scaramanga, played by the immensely talented Christopher Lee, is easily one of the best Bond villains ever. Too bad this great character and actor were wasted on such a weak movie.

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6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Not all Bond movies are this bad. I swear., 5 November 2006

Author: poozerz from Dublin, Ireland

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

We all know that the James Bond movie franchise has a huge fan base the world over. And everyone of those fans knows somebody who loathes these films. The usual argument is that they are all extremely stupid with crap dialog, ridiculous action scenes and brainless women who do nothing except look pretty and act retarded so James Bond can rescue them and screw them afterwards. Of course, not all Bond movies are like that. But Roger Moore's second film as the MI6 agent doesn't help the series' reputation as nothing but lame, sexist, boy fantasy.

Franciscio Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) is an assassin who charges one million dollars a hit. He never, ever misses and uses bullets made out of pure gold. James Bond is investigating the disappearance of the "Solex Agitator", a devastating new kind of weapon that can harness the power of the sun itself when MI6 headquarters finds out that Bond is Scaramanga's next target. Bond must now find the connection between the Solex Agitator and Scaramanga, locate the assassin himself and stop him. Funny, but reading the story now, it seems as if a potentially cool cat and mouse film with Moore and Lee hunting each other around the world was not enough for EON productions and they decided so spice it up with a stupid sunbeam weapon. "Let's turn our deadly assassin into a crazy power hungry cliché by making him responsible for stealing the sun ray yoke". Doesn't work, does it? But while the idea is lame, the movie itself plays out even worse.

For starters, Britt Eckland is in this movie. She plays some sort of spy but unless she's acting stupid in order to infiltrate a gang of international idiots, she's the worst spy in the entire world. She get's herself locked in a boot of a car, get's kidnapped by the villain while putting up no fight whatsoever and then nearly kills Bond by accidentally turning on the big destructive laser with her arse. Shouldn't female spies be cool? Guess not. The other female protagonist is Scaramanga's lover Andrea Anders (Maude Adams). This is a pretty pointless role but she does have one good scene where James Bond smacks her around a bit to get some information. Shame he doesn't give Britt Eckland a few punches during the film. Christopher Lee himself is flat and dull. He has a cool gadget consisting of a pen, a cigarette case and a few other items that can be made into a gun but there's none of the icy cold charisma that makes Lee the great screen performer he is. In terms of acting, only Roger Moore and the other MI6 regulars, M (Bernad Lee), Q (Desmond Llywellyn) and Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) are any good. Moore himself is good in the same way Adam West was great in Batman. He knows he's in something silly and has a laugh with it. Also, a special mention must go to Herve Villachaize who plays Knick Knack, Scaramanga's diminutive valet. He's good fun to watch and has a pretty cool fight with Bond at the end.

This film is enough of a struggle to sit through without the crap action scenes. Scaramanga hunts an Itallian Mafia stereotype through a psychedelic wax museum, there's an awful "karate" fight with two girls and some henchmen in a lame attempt to jump on the kung-fu movie bandwagon of the early seventies and when Bond finally catches up with Scaramanga, it goes from a duel on a beach to another psychedelic wax museum thing. The most famous set piece in this film is the car chase around Thailand. It really isn't that good. Sure the footage of cars speeding around and crashing is not so bad but Bond is joined by the red neck sheriff from "Live and Let Die" who was funny once but serves no purpose here only to annoy the viewer. The incredible flipping car stunt is great to look at but has a cartoon like whistle as a sound effect which ruins the moment and sounds like a Clanger doing audio commentary. Then the bad guys get away by turning their car into a plane. By. Turning. Their. Car. Into. A. Plane. Wow. Nobody saw that coming. Why not disguise it as a elephant and sneak out?

"The Man with the Golden Gun" was one of the least financially successful Bond movies. It marks the beginning of the dark days of the franchise which is a shame because although the previous film "Live and Let Die" wasn't great, it was a good enough beginning to a new Bond era and could have, should have led to bigger and better things. But it didn't. It led to this. 1/10.

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7 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Scaramanga's trademark weapon was a single-shot, gold plated, 4.2-caliber handgun…, 9 July 2005

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

In Guy Hamilton's 'The Man With the Golden Gun', James Bond still enjoys a good cigar, and prefers Dom Perignon '62 above the '64 offered...

He sure does love Swedish babes, and dares to kiss a talented dancer's 'magnificent' abdomen... He slaps a tall, graceful slim girl, and he slaps her hard... He attempts to overtake Scaramanga's car by crossing a canal with no bridge in sight, and pilots a small seaplane to let us see those incredible prehistoric islands off the coast of Thailand...

Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) is a world's class assassin who has stolen a prize solar energy device, but who only needs one bullet to finish a job... He likes Tabasco sauce, gold jewelry, and a girl in a bikini... He caresses his lover with a golden gun, and loves to kill for a million dollars a shot... He has a 'sign' of great sexual prowess... He perverse love/hate relationship with a mischievous French-speaking assistant, and admires Bond so much that he even keeps a mannequin of him at his island retreat... He claims to be an artist, and challenges 007 to 'a duel between titans' on the sunlit beach... A man of taste, his AMC Matador car suddenly sprouted wings and jetted off into the blue sky…

Britt Ekland spends most of the film either locked in the trunk of Scaramanga's flying car or stuck in the closet of Bond's hotel room while 007 makes love to Andrea (Maud Adams).

Maud Adams remains the only exotic woman to have starred in two different Bond features, and would also have a brief cameo in "A View To A Kill." This Swedish beauty is sick of Scaramanga's sadistic games… It was she who sent the gold bullet to M16 that set Bond on Scaramanga's tail…

Nick Nack (Hervé Villechaize) perfectly proves that the smallest of Bond's adversaries can easily give 007 big trouble... He annoyed 007 right up until the very end of the mission… His tiny mannerisms perfectly fitted the fantasy tradition of the Bond movies... He's seen so quick on his feet as he plays with the controls that operate the 'fun house' on Scaramanga island…

'The Man With the Golden Gun' remains thin and obvious 007 extravaganza with conventional expensive excitements... The boat and car chases merely reprise sequences in both 'Live and Let Die' and 'Diamonds Are Forever.'

Last note: After being absent in 'Live and Let Die,' Desmond Llewelyn returns as the beloved Q, but provides 007 no fantastic gadgets and weapons this time...

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