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The Man with the Golden Gun

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The Man with the Golden Gun 1974 poster 4

The Man with the Golden Gun is a 1974 spy film and the ninth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and the second to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. A loose adaptation of Ian Fleming's posthumously published 1965 novel of the same name, the film has Bond sent after the Solex Agitator, a breakthrough technological solution to contemporary energy shortages, while facing the assassin Francisco Scaramanga, the "Man with the Golden Gun". The action culminates in a duel between them that settles the fate of the Solex.

The Man with the Golden Gun was the fourth and final film in the series directed by Guy Hamilton. The script was written by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz. The film was set in the face of the 1973 energy crisis, a dominant theme in the script. Britain had still not yet fully overcome the crisis when the film was released in December 1974. The film also reflects the then-popular martial arts film craze, with several kung fu scenes and a predominantly Asian location, being set and shot in Thailand, Hong Kong, and Macau. Part of the film is also set in Beirut, Lebanon, but it was not shot there. It was the last Bond film to be co-produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, with Saltzman selling his 50% stake in Danjaq, LLC, the parent company of Eon Productions, after the release of the film. The resulting legalities over the Bond property delayed production of the next Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me for three years. The interval would be the longest break in the series until the six-year hiatuses between Licence to Kill in 1989 and GoldenEye in 1995 and again between Spectre in 2015 and No Time to Die in 2021.

Storyline[]

Plot[]

A scientist working on a device that can make harnessing the sun's energy possible. So he must now find the device. When a golden bullet arrives at the headquarters of British intelligence with "007" engraved on it, the British believe that James Bond is the next target for international assassin Francisco Scaramanga.

Genres[]

  • Action
  • Adventure
  • Spy
  • Thriller
  • Action Thriller

Motion Picture Rating[]

  • 13 (Argentina)
  • PG (Australia)
  • NRC (Australia) (original rating)
  • 12 (Brazil)
  • PG (Canada) (Manitoba/Ontario)
  • A (Canada) (Nova Scotia)
  • G (Canada) (Quebec)
  • 14A (Canada) (video rating)
  • 15 (Denmark) (DVD and Blu-ray rating)
  • K-15/13 (Finland) (uncut)
  • K-16/13 (Finland) (uncut)
  • K-16 (Finland) (1974, cut)
  • Tous publics (France)
  • II (Hong Kong) (original rating)
  • IIA (Hong Kong) (re-rating)
  • L (Iceland)
  • UA (India) (re-rating)
  • A (India) (1978, original rating)
  • PG (Ireland)
  • T (Italy)
  • G (Japan) (2015)
  • U (Malaysia)
  • A (Mexico)
  • 12 (Netherlands)
  • AL (Netherlands) (2000, DVD rating)
  • PG (Nigeria)
  • 15 (Norway) (DVD and Blu-ray rating)
  • 12 (Norway) (recommended rating)
  • 16 (Norway) (1974, cinema rating)
  • 14 (Peru)
  • 16 (Poland) (self-applied)
  • M/12 (Portugal)
  • PG (Saudi Arabia)
  • PG (South Africa)
  • 15 (South Korea)
  • 18 (Spain) (ICAA)
  • 15 (Sweden) (1992, uncut)
  • 15 (Sweden) (1974, cut)
  • PG (UK)
  • A (UK) (original rating)
  • PG (UK) (2012, video rating)
  • PG (UK) (1987, video rating)
  • PG (USA)
  • 16 (West Germany)

Images[]

Cast and Crew[]

Director[]

  • Guy Hamilton

Writing Credits[]

  • Richard Maibaum (screenplay by) and
  • Tom Mankiewicz (screenplay by)

Cast[]

  • Roger Moore - James Bond
  • Christopher Lee - Scaramanga
  • Britt Ekland - Goodnight
  • Maud Adams - Andrea Anders
  • Hervé Villechaize - Nick Nack (as Herve Villechaize)
  • Clifton James - J.W. Pepper
  • Richard Loo - Hai Fat
  • Soon-Tek Oh - Hip (as Soon-Taik Oh)
  • Marc Lawrence - Rodney
  • Bernard Lee - 'M'
  • Lois Maxwell - Moneypenny
  • Marne Maitland - Lazar
  • Desmond Llewelyn - 'Q'
  • James Cossins - Colthorpe
  • Yao Lin Chen - Chula (as Chan Yiu Lam)
  • Carmen Du Sautoy - Saida (as Carmen Sautoy)
  • Gerald James - Frazier
  • Michael Osborne - Naval Lieutenant
  • Michael Fleming - Communications Officer

Other Cast (in alphabetical order)[]

  • Sonny Caldinez - Kra (uncredited)
  • Yuet-Sang Chin - Extra (uncredited)
  • Micky Clarke - Beirut Club Patron (uncredited)
  • Leslie Crawford - Cowboy in Fun House (uncredited)
  • Gordon Everett - Gibson (uncredited)
  • Lynda Fisher - Pedestrian (uncredited)
  • Michael Goodliffe - Chief of Staff Bill Tanner (uncredited)
  • Ron Gregory - Beirut Club Patron (uncredited)
  • Alan Harris - Technician (uncredited)
  • Fred Machon - Bottoms Up Club Patron (uncredited)
  • Ray Marioni - Al Capone (uncredited)
  • Jay McGrath - Q Branch Technician (uncredited)
  • Terence Plummer - Beirut Thug (uncredited)
  • Bob Raymond - Bottoms Up Club Patron (uncredited)
  • Jay Sidow - Maybelle Pepper (uncredited)
  • George Silver - Fat Beirut Thug (uncredited)
  • Rocky Taylor - Beirut Thug (uncredited)
  • Francoise Therry - Chew Mee (uncredited)
  • Master Toddy - Martial Arts Student That Fights Hip's Nieces (uncredited)
  • Nikki Van der Zyl - Chew Mee / various (voice) (uncredited)
  • Joie Vejjajiva - Cha - Hip's Niece #2 (uncredited)
  • Wei Wei Wong - Bottoms Up Waitress (uncredited)
  • Qiu Yuen - Nara - Hip's Niece #1 (uncredited)

Producers[]

  • Albert R. Broccoli (produced by)
  • Harry Saltzman (produced by)
  • Charles Orme (associate producer)

Details[]

Countries[]

  • UK
  • USA

Language[]

  • English
  • Italian

Release Dates[]

  • December 14, 1974 (Japan)
  • December 19, 1974 (Denmark)
  • December 19, 1974 (Netherlands)
  • December 19, 1974 (West Germany)
  • December 20, 1974 (Belgium) (Gent)
  • December 20, 1974 (Canada)
  • December 20, 1974 (Finland)
  • December 20, 1974 (France)
  • December 20, 1974 (UK)
  • December 20, 1974 (Ireland)
  • December 20, 1974 (Italy)
  • December 20, 1974 (Norway)
  • December 20, 1974 (USA)
  • December 21, 1974 (Sweden)
  • December 23, 1974 (Spain)
  • December 25, 1974 (Colombia)
  • December 25, 1974 (Portugal) (Porto)
  • December 26, 1974 (Australia)
  • December 26, 1974 (Hong Kong)
  • December 27, 1974 (Greece)
  • January 5, 1975 (Brazil)
  • March 17, 1975 (Uruguay)
  • March 13, 1979 (Philippines) (Davao) (re-release)
  • November 24, 1981 (Turkey)
  • October 22, 2002 (Mexico) (DVD premiere)
  • October 22, 2002 (Singapore) (DVD premiere)
  • January 14, 2015 (Poland) (Blu-ray release)

Also Known As[]

  • The Man with the Golden Gun (original title)
  • El hombre del revólver de oro (Argentina)
  • The Man with the Golden Gun (Australia)
  • Ian Fleming's The Man with the Golden Gun (UK) (complete title)
  • The Man with the Golden Gun (UK)
  • Ian Fleming's The Man with the Golden Gun (USA) (complete title)
  • The Man with the Golden Gun (USA)

Production[]

Writing and themes[]

Tom Mankiewicz wrote the first draft for the script in 1973, delivering a script that was a battle of wills between Bond and Scaramanga, who he saw as Bond's alter ego, "a super-villain of the stature of Bond himself". Tensions between Mankiewicz and Guy Hamilton and Mankiewicz's growing sense that he was "feeling really tapped out on Bond" led to the re-introduction of Richard Maibaum as the Bond screenwriter.

Maibaum, who had worked on six Bond films previously, delivered his own draft based on Mankiewicz's work. Much of the plot involving Scaramanga being Bond's equal was sidelined in later drafts. For one of the two main aspects of the plot, the screenwriters used the 1973 energy crisis as a backdrop to the film, allowing the MacGuffin of the "Solex agitator" to be introduced; Broccoli's stepson Michael G. Wilson researched solar power to create the Solex.

While Live and Let Die had borrowed heavily from the blaxploitation genre, The Man with the Golden Gun borrowed from the martial arts genre that was popular in the 1970s through films such as Fist of Fury (1972) and Enter the Dragon (1973). However, the use of the martial arts for a fight scene in the film "lapses into incredibility" when Lt Hip and his two nieces defeat an entire dojo.

Casting[]

Originally, the role of Scaramanga was offered to Jack Palance, but he turned the opportunity down. Christopher Lee, who was eventually chosen to portray Scaramanga, was Ian Fleming's step-cousin and Fleming had suggested Lee for the role of Dr. Julius No in the 1962 series opener Dr. No. Lee noted that Fleming was a forgetful man and by the time he mentioned this to Broccoli and Saltzman they had cast Joseph Wiseman in the part. Due to filming on location in Bangkok, his role in the film affected Lee's work the following year, as director Ken Russell was unable to sign Lee to play The Specialist in the 1975 film Tommy, a part eventually given to Jack Nicholson.

Two Swedish models were cast as the Bond girls, Britt Ekland and Maud Adams. Ekland had been interested in playing a Bond girl since she had seen Dr. No, and contacted the producers about the main role of Mary Goodnight. Hamilton met Adams in New York, and cast her because "she was elegant and beautiful that it seemed to me she was the perfect Bond girl". When Ekland read the news that Adams had been cast for The Man with the Golden Gun, she became upset, thinking Adams had been selected to play Goodnight. Broccoli then called Ekland to invite her for the main role, as after seeing her in a film, Broccoli thought Ekland's "generous looks" made her a good contrast to Adams. Hamilton decided to put Marc Lawrence, whom he had worked with on Diamonds Are Forever, to play a gangster shot dead by Scaramanga at the start of the film because he found it an interesting idea to "put sort of a Chicago gangster in the middle of Thailand".

Release and reception[]

The Man with the Golden Gun was premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on 19 December 1974, with general release in the United Kingdom the same day. The film was made with an estimated budget of $7 million; despite initial good returns from the box office, The Man with the Golden Gun grossed a total of $97.6 million at the worldwide box office, with $21 million earned in the US, making it the fourth lowest-grossing Bond film in the series.

The promotion of the film had "one of the more anaemic advertising campaigns of the series" and there were few products available, apart from the soundtrack and paperback book, although Lone Star Toys produced a "James Bond 007 pistol" in gold; this differed from the weapon used by Scaramanga in the film as it was little more than a Walther P38 with a silencer fitted.

Retrospective reviews[]

Opinion on The Man with the Golden Gun has for the most part remained the same as it was in 1974. On Rotten Tomatoes 39% out of 51 critical reviews about the film were positive, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The website's critical consensus states, "A middling Bond film, The Man With the Golden Gun suffers from double entendre-laden dialogue, a noteworthy lack of gadgets, and a villain that overshadows 007." Metacritic, gave the film a weighted average score of 43 out of 100 based on 11 reviews from critics, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".

Company Credits[]

Production Companies[]

  • Eon Productions (made by) (as Eon Productions Limited)

Distributors[]

Technical Specs[]

Runtime[]

  • 125 mins

Color[]

  • Color

Sound Mix[]

  • Mono
  • 3 Channel Stereo (London premiere print)
  • Dolby Surround 7.1
  • Dolby Atmos

Aspect Ratio[]

  • 1.66:1
  • 1.85:1
  • 4:3 (Full screen prints, along with the film itself in open matte)

Trivia[]

  • The film refers the then-recent 1973 energy crisis. Britain had not yet fully overcome the crisis when the film was released, and North Sea oil was not as well exploited as today.
  • Christopher Lee, Ian Fleming's cousin, was Fleming's choice for the role of Dr. Julius No in the film Dr. No. According to Bond film historians, Lee also was considered for the role of James Bond.
  • The Bottoms Up Club (the bar where Gibson, the man who created the Solex meets Lt. Hip, MI6's main agent in Hong Kong) is actually a real bar that's still open today. It even has a notice on it's sign that it was featured in the movie.
  • In the video game GoldenEye 007, and subsequent James Bond games (including Agent Under Fire, Nightfire, and GoldenEye: Rogue Agent), the Golden Gun counts as an instant kill, reflecting that the villain Francisco Scaramanga never missed.
  • This film was criticised that, in addition to production faults, it is the most sexist story in the series, with James Bond's assistant, Mary Goodnight, a stereotypical blonde buffoon who is nearly useless to him. On the other hand, when Bond is fleeing an enemy dojo, chased by martial artists, he offers to protect two girls who were being menaced by them, only to have them demonstrate their superior fighting skill by easily thrashing Bond's pursuers.
  • Although her performance in the film is undistinguished, Mary Goodnight is a recurring character in several Fleming Bond novels, even appearing in lieu of Miss Moneypenny; in the novels, Goodnight is Bond's secretary.
  • Broccoli and Saltzman originally intended The Man with the Golden Gun as the film to follow You Only Live Twice, in 1969, but production was cancelled, because it was to have been filmed in Cambodia, the ongoing Vietnam War in the region made filming impractical. Roger Moore was invited to be Bond in the 1969 version.
  • The cork-screwing car jump was first demonstrated on January 12, 1972 at the American Thrill Show which was held in Houston, Texas in the Astrodome where Jay Milligan drove an AMC Javelin. Cubby Broccoli contacted Milligan where he entered into negotiations - the producers took out copyrights and patents on the stunt in order to prevent it being used before they could integrate to a James Bond film; the jump was planned using computer modeling based on research at Cornell University on rollover collisions for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Stuntman Bumps Willard drove the AMC Hornet (modified by Milligan's stunt team with a center mounted steering wheel and powered with an AMC 258 (4.2L) inline six motor bolted to a Chrysler Torqueflite 904 transmission for reduced weight) when he performed the stunt with a center mounted steering wheel. Milligan also drove another similar looking AMC Hornet where he did perform the driving stunts in Bangkok including the J-turn (later known as a Rockford as seen in the TV series The Rockford Files) in one scene.
  • The scenes featuring the island hideout of Scaramanga were filmed in Phang Nga province in Thailand, north of the city of Phuket. One of the islands seen in the film is known as the "Nail" island (or Ko Khao Tapoo) — in the film, this island houses the solar panels. Scaramanga's hideout is actually Ko Kow-Phing-Khan — both islands are now tourists attractions. The "nail" island seen in the film is known by locals as James Bond Island in all tourist literature. The site was extremely hard hit by a tsunami following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Originally, Ha Long Bay off the coast of Vietnam was considered but the effects following the Vietnam War - the Phang Nga filming location was revisited again in 1997 for Tomorrow Never Dies substituting for Ha Long Bay.
  • Marc Lawrence, who plays a gangster called Rodney who was shot dead by Scaramanga at the start of the film, played a similar character in Diamonds Are Forever, although this film does not indicate whether Lawrence is playing the same character.
  • The title sequence features the dancing of Carolyn Cheshire, later to be a renowned bodybuilder.
  • While filming, Roger Moore used to tease Christopher Lee about his role in Dracula.
  • Also, one time when they were filming on the island, Christopher Lee accidentally went into a cave and startled a swarm of bats that flew out of the cave.
  • Of all the films, this movie sports the smallest kill count for Bond, being Scaramanga himself.
  • Christopher Lee and Britt Ekland also starred together around the same time in the cult Scottish horror film the Wicker Man (1973). Unlike this film, they share little screen time together in it.
  • The squint doorways in Scaramanga's funhouse are a visual echo of the slanted cabins seen inside the Queen Elizabeth, the shipwreck MI6 headquarters in Hong Kong.

Connections[]

Follows[]

Followed by[]

Remade as[]

  • The Man with the Golden Gun: The Radio Play (2020) (Video) - Remake of / Version of.

Edited into[]

  • Fall on Your Sword: Last Christmas (2013) (Music Video) - Edited from footage from this film.
  • Heineken's the Chase (2015) (Short) - Nick Nack is digitally composited into this television commercial.

References[]

  • The Lady from Shanghai (1947) - Bookended fun-house sequences with mirrors
  • Shane (1953) - Bond and Scaramanga's duel was inspired by Shane (1953).
  • The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) - Title
  • Dracula (1958) - When Andrea enters Scaramanga's bedroom, he is asleep, lying on his back with his hands folded on his chest. This is a reference to Christopher Lee's many appearances as Dracula in the Hammer Films productions of the 1960's and 70's.
  • The World of Suzie Wong (1960)
  • The Comancheros (1961)
  • Cape Fear (1962) - When Scaramanga pushes Goodnight into his car, the theme of "Cape Fear" is played.
  • Fantomas Unleashed (1965)
  • On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) - When M relieves Bond from his current operation, he says "I'll endorse your resignation", a reference to OHMSS where Bond almost resigns due to being relieved of Operation Bedlam.
  • Live and Let Die (1973) - Theme music heard when Bond meets Pepper again.

Referenced in[]

  • For Your Eyes Only (1981)
  • Friends: The One with Phoebe's Ex-Partner (1997) (TV Episode) - Both Chandler and Scaramanga have a third nipple.
  • Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) - During Bond's approach to the final denouement, Thailand's Phang Nga Bay Island (aka James Bond Island or Scaramanga's Island) is visible.
  • Inspector Gadget (1999)
  • Die Another Day (2002) - The corridors in the secret area of the Gene Technology Department, in the Cuban hospital, contain rotating mirrors and objects, much like Scaramanga's fun house. The field office of MI6 is on a ship in Hong Kong Harbor. Bond retrieves a diamond from Jinx's navel (bullet in the belly dancer's navel). There is a solar-powered superweapon.
  • The Incredibles (2004) - During the Dash's chase sequence with the hovercrafts over the water, the shape of the rock formations is like that of Scaramanga's island in the Bond movie
  • Flushed Away (2006) - American tourists caught up in Bond adventure
  • Skyfall (2012) - Bond finds himself in a hall of mirrors during the title sequence. Silva lives on his own island as a virtual recluse.
  • Spectre (2015) - Interior of damaged MI6 building like Scaramanga's funhouse; James Bond wears a white tuxedo; Helicopter barrell roll like car barrel roll cork-screw car jump
  • No Time to Die (2021) - A glider turns into a submarine just as a car turned into a plane in this earlier Bond movie. James Bond goes to the arch villain's island lair via flying in an airplane which also acts as a water vessel which was a seaplane in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).

Spoofed in[]

  • Hot Shots! (1991) - Scene in boxing crowd
  • Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
  • Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) - Goldmember has a golden gun
  • Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) - The flight-capable spy car.
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