This review of The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) is part of a wider rewatch of the James Bond series to mark its 60th anniversary. 007 has always been my favourite movie franchise, and I wanted to see where each film ranks within the series. Please check out the main blog post for my rankings of this and the other twenty-four official films and links to the movie reviews for the rest of the franchise.
Short Review
Although this movie is interesting and Scaramanga is a worthy villain, if not an equal to Bond, the storyline just makes no sense. He is a wealthy man, charging $1 million a shot and is protected by the Chinese Government. Why does he need to worry about becoming some kind of Energy Magnet? It just doesn’t land for me. I understand that the film was set against the backdrop of the 1973 energy crisis (how very apt for today), but having 007 and Goodnight running around for most of the film after the Solex is not the most thrilling thing in the world. The title song by Lulu (composed by John Barry) is an interesting one, at the start of the movie the lyrics are about The Man With The Golden Gun (Scaramanga) and at the end of the film sings about James Bond, which is genius and shows they are being treated as equals by the film. Someone who isn’t shown as an equal is Goodnight, frankly, the writing is mean to her and treats her as a stupid Blond who always needs saving by Bond and is incapable, incompetent, and helpless which I am not a fan of – Her character could have been so much more – This is not a bad Bond film but it’s not the best, there are others I would watch before this (including many with Roger Moore) but if it’s on TV, I’d happily watch it.
Long Review and Film Summary
Roger Moore returns as 007 in The Man With The Golden Gun. The film starts with an interesting pre-title sequence that introduces Francisco Scaramanga (Played by Christopher Lee) by sending a golden bullet with 007 engraved on it. We will find out later that it was sent by his mistress, Andrea Anders (played by Maud Adams). In addition, we discover his third nipple, which becomes relevant later in the film when Bond pretends to be Scaramanga. Additionally, we get to see his fun house with a hall of mirrors and a Bond statue of all things (a.k.a his obsession with James Bond). This setup in the pre-title will help with the pacing and understanding of the surroundings in the final scene. During all of this, we meet his assistant/chef/accomplice Nick Nack (played by Hervé Villechaize). Later in the movie, we have the return of audience favourite Sheriff J.W. Pepper (played by Clifton James), who is renting a car on his holidays when 007 steals it to give chase to Scaramanga and Nick Nack. They have Mary Goodnight (played by Britt Ekland) stuck in the boot with the Solex (basically a circuit board that controls the solar energy system). The car is being chased by Bond and J.W., who perform a cool car flip, but this is somewhat undercut by the terrible penny whistle sound effect. Once the car arrives at a kind of barn, it turns into a plane and flies off as J.W. Pepper is trying to reason with the local police.
Back in Ms office, Q is talking about a flying car they are working on as news of Goodnight’s whereabouts comes through, we see her open the boot of the car as they are still flying and gets the shock of her life. Bond flies to the Chinese protected islands and is given dinner by Scaramanga, and a tour of the facility, where they also have a pistols-at-dawn fight, which turns into a similar scene that we saw in the pre-titles, but this time Bond (disguised as the 007 statue) gets his man. With the “help” of Goodnight, the facility starts to explode to the dismay of Nick Nack, who has a very silly but entertaining knife fight with Bond aboard the Junk boat, where he is unceremoniously put in the Crow’s nest.