Apr 03 2009
“The Man With The Golden Gun” (1974) *1/2
Preview
Starring: Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Herve Villechaize, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Desmond Llewelyn, Clifton James, Richard Loo, Soon-Tek Oh, and David Hedison.
Directed By: Guy Hamilton.
Story:
As the ninth film in the franchise and the second to star Roger Moore, “The Man With The Golden Gun” sends James Bond after a device known as the Solex Agitator, which is capable of harnessing the sun’s powers. The villain who has this device is Francisco Scaramanga (cough *Count Dracula* cough, Christopher Lee) and his little sidekick (and by little, I mean literally… little) Nicknack. 007’s sidekick, err Bond girl, this time around is Mary Goodnight.
Characters:
*James Bond (Roger Moore): Agent 007 who now seeks out the source of a golden bullet which happens to be Scaramanga.
*Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee): A villainous assassin who enjoys gun duels and plots to misuse solar energy.
*Mary Goodnight (Britt Ekland): The Bond girl who assists him in his adventures throughout the Far East.
*Andrea Anders (Maud Adams): Scaramanga’s dissatisfied mistress who helps Bond track him down.
*Nick Nack (Herve Villechaize): Scaramanga’s little servant.
*M (Bernard Lee): Head of M16 Secret Service.
*Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell): M’s secretary.
*Q (Desmond Llewelyn): Bond’s master of gadgets.
Overall:
Performances by Christopher Lee and Roger Moore light up this Bond adventure and give it some flair. Beneath that all, however, is a Bond film that feels rather boring or uninspired in some ways. There are fantastic concepts behind the two villains here, but the movie’s overall script lacks a sense of invention or freshness, elements that the previous entry “Live And Let Die” had.
The film pays a rather tedious comedic return visit to Sheriff Pepper from “Live And Let Die” but it goes on longer than it should, it worked for that film but here it just feels like they’re trying to remake that sequence all over again. The movie does contain one of the coolest car flips ever captured on cinema however. In addition, the film doesn’t really get remotely interesting until the last 30 minutes when, after a long car chase which he loses to, Bond tracks the villains down to their private island and goes there in a Seaplane. He is greeted by Scaramanga and Nicknack, shown around the facility, and even has lunch with them. Scaramanga then challenges Bond to a gun duel in his funhouse fortress which was carefully crafted by him.
While the end of the Gun duel doesn’t have a satisfying finish, the film makes matters worse with a tacked on “the whole place is going to blow” sequence (in how many Bond films have we seen this before?). “The Man With The Golden Gun was fairly successful box office-wise, but it was also the lowest earning Bond flick. Perhaps releasing it within a week of “The Towering Inferno” and “The Godfather, Part II” wasn’t the smartest idea on the studio’s behalf.
Rating: *1/2
