The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

Genre

Action | Thriller

Director

Guy Hamilton

Country

UK | USA

Cast

Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Hervé Villechaize, Richard Loo, Soon-Tek Oh, Clifton James, Bernard Lee, Marc Lawrence, Desmond Llewelyn, Marne Maitland, Lois Maxwell, James Cossins, Carmen du Sautoy

Storyline

When a golden bullet with 007 engraved on it arrives at the headquarters of British intelligence, the British believe that James Bond (Roger Moore) is the next target for international hitman Scaramanga (Christopher Lee). Bond's assignment is to kill Scaramanga before he kills Bond.

Opinion

After the fine "Live and Let Die", Roger Moore is back in action easily at his worst but the script is to be blamed. Infact, "The Man with the Golden Gun" suffers from an uninteresting story, a lack of gadgets and actual fights, and a villain that overshadows Bond.

The script is so weak it could have won the Oscar this year. It's filled with useless moments, and repeated scenes because believed to be funny. The re-introduction of Sheriff JW Pepper is quite funny here, but it's just too improbable, and has no reason. Like I just said, a desperate attempt to repeat a joke.

Then there are the Bond girls. How could Maud Adams not be the lead in the film? How? Right when there is a Bond girl that shows more depth than they usually do, the character is (predictably) killed off. Too soon. The other one, Goodnight, is a British agent and arguably one of the most clumsy and stupid women in the Bond franchise (so far).

The villain, Francisco Scaramanga, isn't much threatening - the way it is written is to be blamed -, but overshadows Bond, and Nick Nack, Scaramanga's helper, is some sort of minion version of Goldfinger's Oddjob. Does anyone know what originality is?

The theme song, Lulu's "The Man with the Golden Gun", is catchy but nothing more. An awful attempt to turn the title into a song.

Roger Moore is so serious at times, it almost seems like he's trying to play Sean Connery's James Bond. When he is not busy being serious, he smiles. A lot. Christopher Lee easily steals the show as Francisco Scaramanga. The villain may not be the greatest ever but Lee brings a very sinister screen presence, and will probably have you rooting for him. Maud Adams does a fine job but she's killed off too soon, and Britt Ekland is beautiful but unattractive and her acting is just poor.