There's something about that The Man with the Golden Gun!

Do you feel as I do that, despite terrible press and reviews over the years since the release of The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) over the years, it still has something about it that is special - it is very different in style and themes from many of the James Bond films that either preceded it or indeed followed it. There are the elements of the serial killer plot strand - Bond sent the 'calling card' of the OO7 engraved golden bullet, the light-007 versus the dark-007, the topicality of the 'energy crisis' plot, the transfoermation of Scaramanga from thug in the novel to a darker version of James Bond, the Flemingesque dialogue in the M-Bonsd briefing scene, the boxing match scene, the Scaramanga-Bond speeches at the dinner table etc.

This is a very Flemingesque film, and I think it is Moore's best James Bond performance after that in FYEO. It's a much better film that the bloated LALD that preceded it and the stunt-laden TSWLM and MR that followed it. Yet, despite all of these great elements - the welcome focus on Bond's character (odd in a Moore-Bond film) there's very little love for this film in the James Bond fan community. Roger Moore was just the optimum age for Bond here - after this he began to look increasingly too old for the part of the suave and sophisticated secret agent OO7.

It has some poor elements too - the way that (like in DAF) Bond's mission and the Scaramangs hunt are in fact linked is pretty hard to swallow, the end fight is poor - much of the good stuff involving Molotiov cocktails etc. left on the cutting-room floor etc. and the scenes in Hai Fat's 'school' feel like padding, as does the canal chase on klongs. Sheriff J.W. Pepper was also a great mistake - just like Mrs Bell in LALD.

I'd really love to hear your views on this overlooked flawed gem of a film - perhaps ambergrist rather than 24-carat gold...?

I re-watched this a couple of months ago.

For being made in the 70's, free love and all, the screenwriters should had written the Andrea and Mary with Bond in the Hotel room dilemma scene with a better execution.

After all, it's only logical.

Miss Anders wants Bond.

Miss Goodnight wants Bond too.

Why lock poor Miss Goodnight in the closet and just have a 1 on 1?

Why deprive Bond of a beautiful threesome with Miss Anders and Miss Goodnight?

Hey!

If any of you MI-6 Blokes were in Bond's situation, wouldn't you too want to have a Ménage à trois with Miss Anders and Miss Goodnight?

j7wild wrote:

I re-watched this a couple of months ago.

For being made in the 70's, free love and all, the screenwriters should had written the Andrea and Mary with Bond in the Hotel room dilemma scene with a better execution.

After all, it's only logical.

Miss Anders wants Bond.

Miss Goodnight wants Bond too.

Why lock poor Miss Goodnight in the closet and just have a 1 on 1?

Why deprive Bond of a beautiful threesome with Miss Anders and Miss Goodnight?

Hey!

If any of you MI-6 Blokes were in Bond's situation, wouldn't you too want to have a Ménage à trois with Miss Anders and Miss Goodnight?

Now there's a post you would NOT see on CBn for too long! I don't think that this would have got past the censors, really!

I think that one belongs in the 'sin bin' of the Adult Content section here on BaB. Nice idea, anyway!

YES!!!!!!!

Yes it may go too far in aping martial arts films, yes the overall plot never fully reached the promise of Lee vs. Moore, but it is an unforgettable joy. This was my second Bond film, and I've never forgotten its peculiar blend of humor, elegance, raunchiness and Hong Kong inspired feel.

I think Lee surpasses himself, the one liners are some of the best ever penned, Roger is spot-on as a pissed off 007, the idea of the world's greatest assassin wanting to kill Bond but revealed to actually be a big fan and it is actually his lover who wants 007 to kill him is pure Maibaum genius, Nick Nack is perhaps the greatest henchman ever, the Eastern locale is fantastic, Barry's rushed score is brilliant and much more.

Goodnight as a buffoon is terribly bad and should have been excised. But at least she's consistent. He bum is a dumb as her brain.
The JW Pepper-on-vacation idea is far too convenient, but I always enjoy the reversal of roles in the Hornet.

The funhouse and the island lair is one of the most memorable Bond locations.

I love this movie. I love it's gritty raunchiness, its slight distaste reflected in Roger being consistently pissed off, Maibaum plotting mixed with Mankewicz wit, Herve's sadistic grins, Lee having a ball being without cape and fangs and much more,

I may be small but I never forget!!

Is there any truth to the rumors of the Broccoli-Saltzman partnership being so strained at this time that LALD was essentially produced by Harry and TMWTGG being done by Cubby? I can't remember exactly where I once read of this.

I think the 'Everything or Nothing' documentary suggests the mood behind this production was particularly sour. Saltzman faced growing debt issues due to the drain of his extraneous projects, which Broccoli apparently resented for the distraction they were from Bond. It is also notable that Roger himself points to his relief when TSWLM finally allows him 'to be himself' as Bond (or words to that effect). TMWTGG appears something of a meltdown for the series.

Certainly for me this all tends to make itself apparent on screen and TMWTGG is the only Bond I can't enjoy. Christopher Lee is terrific but he's all alone amid a production that seems to undermine it's every asset, the feature stunt a prime example of how squander everyone's best efforts.

I found TMWTGG a vain attempt to recapture the popularity and magic of LALD. It just reeked of rehash to me.

To it's credit, TMWTGG is a unique, identifiable entry in the series, characteristic of the Saltzman era. When he left, Bond lost some of it's charm and became more homogenous and generic as Cubby continued on.

There were only 2 things I didn't like about TMWTGG

1. Those absolutely daft kung-fu sequences;
2. Nick Nack / Hervé Villechaize.

The storyline otherwise was quite original and thrilling...

I thought the bit at the kung fu school was great until Hip's little sisters crashed the party.

Can you guess how I feel about it?

The kung fu sequence is a time capsule (Carl Douglas' song was on the air at the same time as the film was in cinemas).

I had been to Hong Kong and Thailand just a couple of years earlier, so the scenery was a treat - and by that I mean both the background and the asian girls in the foreground.

Moore vs Lee - hell yeah!

Love that car chase - although I found out later to my chagrin just what junk AMC produced.

Sure it's not a spectacle, but it is still a classic.

IMCO.

I don't know what to say about this movie beyond the fact I absolutely love it. It was this installment too that finally made me a Roger Moore fan for the first time so I have to appreciate it for that as well. I just never really got into Moore before I found myself watching this one a few times. The movie is addictive and IMO has everything or maybe it just appeals to my weird tastes.
For one it feels very psychedelic from the set designs, the bizarre plot that seems to effortlessly blend every genre together to the theme song which I love too. I wouldn't be surprised to find out David Lynch directed parts of this. It just all feels like a wacky dream.

Nick Nack....so creepy, yet charming and cute as is his relationship with Scaramanga and their dialogue together is great. It's not often you see such a strange 'friendship' if that's what you would call it. It's absolutely hilarious watching them make their getaway together in the car with Mary locked in the trunk. The 'gun in a bag of peanuts'. The 'car plane.'
That shot of him on the TV screen and hanging around Scaramanga's victim after the street shooting as well as the lighting on the streets during those scenes,just a fantastic use of color.

That whole scene in the arena with Lee and Moore is brilliant, engaging, funny, classy and all the while the corpse of Andrea literally sitting right there which really is quite ghastly. It really seemed like Lee loved doing this film and if not just shows again how great of an actor he was. For someone playing the most deadly hit man in the world he sure had his charm and that really came out on his island in scenes like when he shot the champagne bottle and the almost child like expression on his face afterwards. No way I could have killed him. I would have called a truce and just hung out in that place with him and Mary for the rest of my life.


The fun house, awesome. I can't believe I have read online reviews that it was overused. No way, I wish it went on longer at the end and a very slow drawn out game of cat and mouse here would have been perfect. Same with the ship where we run into 'M' with the slanted floors and walls..it all just fit the mood of that movie..bent, warped, twisted.


love the music of John Barry in this movie and among his best

the locations were beautiful

The fight at the beginning and the knock out kick at the martial arts school. That's how you fight, to win and being a fan of martial arts movies in general I enjoyed that whole part.

And then there are the women. It's always impossible to decide which Bond flic has the hottest girls but this has to be near the top with Andrea and Mary Goodnight. Say what you will about the writing and Mary's character but for me it's more than made up for just by watching her. Her first appearance and that adorable charming laugh when he asks about the Cadillac and I was in love. Then the ending on the island in that bikini, just so sweet, beautiful ...she made me smile every time she was on screen. She didn't seem like an airhead bimbo to me just a bit out of her element and ran into some bad luck. I would see her as a more realistic character caught up in a very dangerous situation. I could just be biased too as those are the kind of women I am attracted to, being so fun and light.

And how a movie can be so subdued in tone yet so outrageous at the same time I have no idea but it all worked for me. I agree it's not one of the best Bond films but it's one of my favorites to watch. I find it a lot like Diamonds are Forever in that sense. That viewed as just a separate movie on it's own the enjoyment factor is high even more so if you just happen to be high. almost a perfect cult movie

Not often you read such extended praised for TMWTGG. The plot is a little too thin for my liking to regard it as a favourite, but I have a lot of fun revisiting film for the wackiness, colour and music that you mention. Ekland in a bikini certainly doesn't hurt, and Adams is much more effective Andrea than as Octopussy.

TMWTGG has many things going for it and is in many ways the last official film in the manner by which the series started because it was the last to have any involvement from Harry Saltzman whatsoever.

You have grandeur, incredible photography that does manage to infuse even some bits of low key realism during urban location work, the last film to be non scope of the original series, the last film to be partially shot by Ted Moore, the magnificent sets of the QE and Scaramanga's island, Christopher Lee's finest onscreen performance, many iconic moments, Herve is magic, Roger is tough and blunt and starts the film in a pissed of manner as Bond dislikes being hunted and the gorgeous score that still manages to have fun.

That's just for starters. I can go on and on about the Mankiewicz wit which here is astounding in some of the stuff he cooked up. Hamilton was still coming up with good ideas but had they taken a bit of a breather could have had a chance to charge his creative batteries. I think what should have happened was to have a little more time for Dick Maibaum to finesse his rewrite of the Mankiewicz drafts so that some of the rough edges could have been smoothed out-but this is only a minor point to acknowledge the film's inherent weaknesses.

But the thing holding it back was the partnership dying and the world essentially turning away from Bond. That's what really did it and the film itself if given a chance is marvelously entertaining to this very day.

Now everyone drink some Phuyuck.

As a newbie to James Bond in general I finally got over the Connery to Moore transition in terms of the films which is great as there is so much more to enjoy. I never disliked the Moore films but at first they felt like a major let down and I couldn't quite get with the flow of them. But I do now, they are comic book like in ways but highly enjoyable for that reason. I would still put Moonraker as my least favorite but I am really coming around on that one too and on the second and third viewings I am much less nit picky about the comedic elements.
As someone pointed out here about Pepper for example he is realistic as there are people like that and I find it equally realistic that an agent would find himself in all kinds of ridiculous situations like that so it works for me. The double take with the bird and all that, total whatever it's not taking anything away from it for me as there is way too much good in there and Roger really is that cool imo.

actually the only one that really bores me is Dalton as he comes across as a lump of wood to me and I am glad he only did two films

Agreed on the double taking bird. Never understood all of the fury over it. It's over in literally one second.

My Uncle(well my dad's Uncle) was working on the set of a movie with Christopher Lee years ago in Toronto. He got a ton of jobs as an extra as he has a certain generic kind of look that he can pass for many different races in 'movie world.' And he has a quirky personality that people in the film business liked to work with. Like he never knew who any of the stars of the film were for the most part, had no desire to ever be an actor and didn't try to pass his 'screenplay' to the director and or actors, seek autographs. lol that was a very common problem they had with extras so my Uncle got a ton of work lacking those ambitions. It tended to have the opposite effect too in that he would end up in many conversations with these actors on breaks and whatnot I would assume for that reason too. He would just talk to anyone, was that nice and didn't know or care who was a celebrity. He had conversations with Charles Bronson, Chris Lee, Jeremy Irons, Nicole Kidman, Goldie Hawn, all these people and really didn't know who they were.  But with Christopher Lee for whatever reason they really got talking a lot and often about a whole bunch of nothing, small talk, day to day things no big deal. My Uncle just really liked  Chris for being such a nice guy. Of course the film wrapped up and they didn't see each other again.
 Then about 5 plus years later my Uncle was downtown Toronto outside of a book store waiting for my Aunt while she shopped. He felt someone tap him on the shoulder and turn him around and it was Christopher Lee and he just acted like my Uncle was his oldest friend in the world. Not only did he remember him but he asked about my Aunt, remembered my two cousins names..all of it, everything they talked about years ago. As I said my Uncle is quite a quirky character in that sense himself so didn't think all that much about it other than it was this Chris guy he really liked. But hearing it kinda blew my mind that a legend like Lee who must meet and see thousands and thousands of faces all the time could remember one extra who worked with him many years before. He must have had a really extraordinary mind and character to even remember him. I mean I can barely remember people I met yesterday or last week.   very cool guy to say the least, just pure class
 He said Charles Bronson was the same. Just a real humble, down to earth regular guy who was just absolutely nice to everyone at all times the entire shooting of the film. I can't think of his name but the guy who played Magneto in the X-Men films he really liked too. My Uncle is one of the cops who get's his gun ripped out of his hand by Magneto. David Carradine, he was on a regular show with him..absolutely nutty...guy would disappear off the set for hours at a time and they would have to go find him. They once found him underneath a table in a restaurant. other times he would run away from them as if paranoid. said he was always nice but a very strange individual
and  it's incredible the amount of tedious work these extras have to do too considering just how poorly shot the majority of Hollywood films are and what appears often to be indifferent direction. He was on one set I can't remember which movie but even by an extras standard it was tiny. Like his face wasn't even in this shot he was just a pair of legs(supposed to be a Fed) exiting a car and they spent three day's getting it right. his pants didn't look right, socks weren't at the perfect level or color...those kinds of things.  But then he was on the set of three different Cronenberg films and said the guy never paid attention to anything even when they were shooting big scenes. He would usually be reading a newspaper, walking around, doing a cross word puzzle,whatever ...seemed totally indifferent yet directs such great films.
 But I did sort of my point here in my rambling on...
 oh yeah, Christopher Lee rules!!!

That gibes with everything I've heard about Lee. Really a top bloke. Likewise for Bronson. I've heard John Candy was a pretty good dude, too. A shame he left us so early.

he was in a movie with John Candy too I just can't think of which one right now

It might well have been "1941", Lee was a Nazi sub commander and Candy's involved somewhere, I forget where now.

I had to look that one up but it's too early and he didn't start the extra job until the early or mid 90's. I am pretty sure it was Canadian Bacon that he was in was in with Candy and it being JC last movie is familiar. As for what he was in with Lee in that time period I have no idea and would have to ask him. My cousin was in some horrible hockey movie in the 80's with Rob Lowe too but I've only seen parts of it lol

If it was the X-Men films from 2000 - 2006, that must've been Ian McKellen Sarai.

that's him! thank you xo

Sarai wrote:

My Uncle(well my dad's Uncle) was working on the set of a movie with Christopher Lee years ago in Toronto. He got a ton of jobs as an extra as he has a certain generic kind of look that he can pass for many different races in 'movie world.' And he has a quirky personality that people in the film business liked to work with. Like he never knew who any of the stars of the film were for the most part, had no desire to ever be an actor and didn't try to pass his 'screenplay' to the director and or actors, seek autographs. lol that was a very common problem they had with extras so my Uncle got a ton of work lacking those ambitions. It tended to have the opposite effect too in that he would end up in many conversations with these actors on breaks and whatnot I would assume for that reason too. He would just talk to anyone, was that nice and didn't know or care who was a celebrity. He had conversations with Charles Bronson, Chris Lee, Jeremy Irons, Nicole Kidman, Goldie Hawn, all these people and really didn't know who they were.  But with Christopher Lee for whatever reason they really got talking a lot and often about a whole bunch of nothing, small talk, day to day things no big deal. My Uncle just really liked  Chris for being such a nice guy. Of course the film wrapped up and they didn't see each other again.
 Then about 5 plus years later my Uncle was downtown Toronto outside of a book store waiting for my Aunt while she shopped. He felt someone tap him on the shoulder and turn him around and it was Christopher Lee and he just acted like my Uncle was his oldest friend in the world. Not only did he remember him but he asked about my Aunt, remembered my two cousins names..all of it, everything they talked about years ago. As I said my Uncle is quite a quirky character in that sense himself so didn't think all that much about it other than it was this Chris guy he really liked. But hearing it kinda blew my mind that a legend like Lee who must meet and see thousands and thousands of faces all the time could remember one extra who worked with him many years before. He must have had a really extraordinary mind and character to even remember him. I mean I can barely remember people I met yesterday or last week.   very cool guy to say the least, just pure class
 He said Charles Bronson was the same. Just a real humble, down to earth regular guy who was just absolutely nice to everyone at all times the entire shooting of the film. I can't think of his name but the guy who played Magneto in the X-Men films he really liked too. My Uncle is one of the cops who get's his gun ripped out of his hand by Magneto. David Carradine, he was on a regular show with him..absolutely nutty...guy would disappear off the set for hours at a time and they would have to go find him. They once found him underneath a table in a restaurant. other times he would run away from them as if paranoid. said he was always nice but a very strange individual
and  it's incredible the amount of tedious work these extras have to do too considering just how poorly shot the majority of Hollywood films are and what appears often to be indifferent direction. He was on one set I can't remember which movie but even by an extras standard it was tiny. Like his face wasn't even in this shot he was just a pair of legs(supposed to be a Fed) exiting a car and they spent three day's getting it right. his pants didn't look right, socks weren't at the perfect level or color...those kinds of things.  But then he was on the set of three different Cronenberg films and said the guy never paid attention to anything even when they were shooting big scenes. He would usually be reading a newspaper, walking around, doing a cross word puzzle,whatever ...seemed totally indifferent yet directs such great films.
 But I did sort of my point here in my rambling on...
 oh yeah, Christopher Lee rules!!!

That's a wonderful story. It just goes to show yet again that we're all actually the same species-and that there are good people in the industry. I still would have loved to have heard Lee and Peter Cushing in one of their unending conversations because they shared such a love of Looney Tunes that they frequently devolved into doing impersonations to one another.

In many ways Scaramanga was the best role Lee ever got to play. One because he was able to excise demons of typecasting, Two because he was finally having some genuine fun, and Third because he is absolutely magnificent and not overshadowed by anything. This makes the cut in the final duel all the more lamentable. Heck, there's a school of thought that had it not been for the Solex, Scaramanga could have been left alive!

Sarai wrote:

that's him!  thank you  xo

You're welcome .