The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

Director:

Guy Hamilton

Writers:

Richard Maibaum (screenplay) and
Tom Mankiewicz (screenplay)

Release Date:

20 December 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

Tagline:

He never misses his target, and now his target is 007.

Plot:

Bond is led to believe that he is targeted by the world's most expensive assassin and must hunt him down to stop him.

Plot Keywords:

Assassin | Golden Gun | Bullet | Gold | Island

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Roger Moore	...	James Bond
Christopher Lee	...	Francisco Scaramanga
Britt Ekland	...	Mary Goodnight
Maud Adams	...	Andrea Anders
Hervé Villechaize	...	Nick Nack (as Herve Villechaize)
Clifton James	...	Sheriff J.W. Pepper
Richard Loo	...	Hai Fat
Soon-Tek Oh	...	Hip (as Soon-Taik Oh)
Marc Lawrence	...	Rodney
Bernard Lee	...	M
Lois Maxwell	...	Miss Moneypenny
Marne Maitland	...	Lazar
Desmond Llewelyn	...	Q
James Cossins	...	Colthorpe
Yao Lin Chen	...	Chula (as Chan Yiu Lam)

Also Known As:

Ian Fleming's The Man with the Golden Gun (UK) (complete title) (USA) (complete title)
The Golden Gun (International: English title) (informal short title)

Runtime:

125 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Thai

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | USA:PG (certificate no. 24040) | Iceland:L | UK:PG (1987) (video rating) | South Korea:15 | Brazil:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Canada:14A (video rating) | UK:PG (tv rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Ireland:PG | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (1974) | Peru:14 | Sweden:15 | West Germany:16 | UK:A (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Andaman Sea, Thailand

Company:

Eon Productions

Trivia:

"The Man With The Golden Gun" was the thirteenth and final complete James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming. It was the first and only one of his full James Bond novels to be published posthumously. Some sources claim that it was unfinished at the time of his death whereas other experts such as Andrew Lycett and John Cork maintain that Fleming had completed it before he died. It is of controversial debate as to whether Fleming wrote the novel completely himself or whether other(s) were involved.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: In the establishing shot of Hai Fat's hillside house, patches of light dart about on the ornate arch/frontage. This is from hand-held reflective panels, held by crew members out of sight (off the bottom corners of the image), who are trying to give the booklet guards some light/contrast on their faces.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Francisco Scaramanga: Nick Nack! Tabasco!
Nick-nack: Right away, Monsieur Scaramanga.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Hot Shots! (1991)

Soundtrack:

The Man With The Golden Gun

Enjoyable Bond adventure, but not one of the very best.

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!