The Man with the Golden Gun
(1974) is the ninth spy film in the James Bond series and the second
to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond and is a
loose adaptation of Ian Fleming's novel of same name.
The
Man with the Golden Gun is the twelfth novel (and thirteenth book)
of Ian Fleming's James Bond series. It was first published by
Jonathan Cape in the UK on April 1st 1965, eight months after the
author's death. The novel was not as detailed or polished as the
others in the series, leading to poor but polite reviews. Despite
that, the book was a best-seller. The novel centres on the fictional
British Secret Service operative James Bond, who had been posted
missing, presumed dead, after his last mission in Japan. Bond returns
to England via the Soviet Union, where he had been brainwashed to
attempt to assassinate his superior, M. After being "cured"
by the MI6 doctors, Bond is sent to the Caribbean to find and kill
Francisco Scaramanga, the titular "Man with the Golden Gun".
The first draft and part of
the editing process was completed before Fleming's death and the
manuscript had passed through the hands of his copy editor, William
Plomer, but it was not as polished as other Bond stories. Much of the
detail contained in the previous novels was missing, as this was
often added by Fleming in the second draft. Publishers Jonathan Cape
passed the manuscript to Kingsley Amis for his thoughts and advice on
the story, although his suggestions were not subsequently used. The
novel was serialised in 1965, firstly in the Daily Express and then
in Playboy; in 1966 a daily comic strip adaptation was also published
in the Daily Express. The film adaption with Roger Moore playing Bond
and Fleming's cousin, Christopher Lee, as Scaramanga, has Bond sent
after the Solex Agitator, a device that can harness the power of the
sun, 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 and involves Bond as he tries to stop assassin
Francisco Scaramanga, (Christopher Lee pictured right) known as
"The Man With The Golden Gun", who has stolen a device
which will allow him to control solar power for criminal purposes.
The film was set in the face of the 1973 energy crisis, a dominant
theme in the script and Britain had still not yet fully overcome the
crisis when the film was released in December 1974. 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.
Mankiewicz wrote a first
draft for the script in 1973, delivering a script that was a battle
of wills between Bond and Scaramanga, whom he saw as Bond's alter
ego, "a super-villain of the stature of Bond himself."
Tensions between Mankiewicz and Guy Hamilton led to the introduction
of Richard Maibaum. 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. The film saw mixed reviews, with Christopher Lee's
performance as Scaramanga being praised; but reviewers criticised the
film as a whole, particularly the comedic approach, and some critics
described it as the lowest point in the canon. Although the film was
profitable, it is the fourth-lowest-grossing Bond film in the series.
Albert
R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman intended to follow You Only Live
Twice with The Man with the Golden Gun, inviting Roger Moore to the
Bond role. However, filming was planned in Cambodia, and the Samlaut
Uprising made filming impractical, leading to the production being
cancelled. On Her Majesty's Secret Service was produced instead with
George Lazenby as Bond. Lazenby's next Bond film, Saltzman told a
reporter, would be either The Man with the Golden Gun or Diamonds Are
Forever. The producers chose the latter title, with Sean Connery
returning as Bond.
Broccoli and Saltzman then
decided to start production on The Man with the Golden Gun after Live
and Let Die. This was the final Bond film to be co-produced by
Saltzman as his partnership with Broccoli was dissolved after the
film's release. Saltzman sold his 50% stake in Eon Productions's
parent company, Danjaq, LLC, to United Artists to alleviate his
financial problems. The resulting legalities over the Bond property
delayed production of the next Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me, for
three years.
The novel is mostly set in
Jamaica, a location which had been already used in the earlier films,
Dr. No and Live and Let Die; The Man with the Golden Gun saw a change
in location to put Bond in the Far East for the second time. After
considering Beirut, where part of the film is set, Iran, where the
location scouting was done but eventually discarded because of the
Yom Kippur War, and Vietnam, the production team chose Thailand as a
primary location, following a suggestion of production designer Peter
Murton after he saw pictures of the Phuket bay in a magazine.
Saltzman was happy with the choice of the Far East for the setting as
he had always wanted to go on location in Thailand and Hong Kong.
During the reconnaissance of locations in Hong Kong, Broccoli saw the
wreckage of the former RMS Queen Elizabeth and came up with the idea
of using it as the base for MI6's Far East operations.
AV
CLUB FEATURETTE DEPARTMENT
Untitled
This is the original
trailer of for The Man With The Golden Gun. Buy
it here.
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 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".
French
actor Hervé Jean-Pierre Villechaize, would achieve worldwide
recognition for his role as Scaramanga's evil henchman Nick Nack.
Prior to being signed up by Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli, he made
ends meet by working as a rat catcher's assistant near his South
Central home and at one time Villechaize had become so poor he was
living out of his car in Los Angeles. From what his co-actor
Christopher Lee saw, The Man with the Golden Gun filming was possibly
the happiest time of Hervé's life: Lee likened it to honey in
the sandwich between an insecure past and an uncertain future. In
addition to being an actor, Villechaize was also an acclaimed painter
and became an active member of a movement in 1970s and 1980s
California to deal with child abuse and neglect. He would later go
onto TV stardom as Mr. Roarke's assistant, Tattoo, in the television
series Fantasy Island (1978-1984). Though popular with the public,
Villechaize proved a difficult actor on Fantasy Island, where he
continually propositioned women and quarrelled with the producers. He
was eventually fired after demanding a salary on par with that of
co-star Ricardo Montalbán. The show's popularity waned after
this move, and it was soon cancelled. In 1993, despondent over
longtime health problem, Villechaize ended his own life at his
residence in Los Angeles, California.
On November 6th 1973
filming commenced at the partly submerged wreck of the RMS Queen
Elizabeth, which acted as a top-secret MI6 base grounded in Victoria
Harbour in Hong Kong. The crew was small, and a stunt double was used
for James Bond. The major part of principal photography started on
April 18th 1974 in Thailand. Scenes featuring Scaramanga's hideout
were filmed on the local islands of Ko Khao Phing Kan, and Ko Tapu
and are often now referred to as James Bond Island both by locals and
in tourist guidebooks. In late April, production returned to Hong
Kong, and also shot in Macau, as the island is famous for its
casinos, which Hong Kong does not have. Later production moved on to
studio work in Pinewood Studios which included sets such as
Scaramanga's solar energy plant and island interior. Academy Award
winner Oswald Morris was hired to finish the job after
cinematographer Ted Moore became ill and production wrapped in
Pinewood in August 1974.
One of the main stunts in
the film consisted of stunt driver "Bumps" Willard (as
James Bond) driving an AMC Hornet leaping a broken bridge and
spinning around 360 degrees in mid-air about the longitudinal axis,
doing an "aerial twist"; Willard successfully completed the
jump on the first take. The stunt was shown in slow motion as the
scene was too fast. Composer John Barry added a slide whistle sound
effect over the stunt, which Broccoli kept in despite thinking that
it "undercouped the stunt". Barry later regretted his
decision, thinking the whistle "broke the golden rule" as
the stunt was "for what it was all worth, a truly dangerous
moment, ... true James Bond style". The sound effect was
described as "simply crass", with one writer, Jim Smith,
suggesting that the stunt "brings into focus the lack of
excitement in the rest of the film and is spoilt by the use of
'comedy' sound effects." Eon Productions had licensed the stunt,
which had been designed by Raymond McHenry; the stunt was initially
conceived at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory (CAL) in Buffalo, New
York as a test for their powerful vehicle simulation software. After
development in simulation, ramps were built and the stunt was tested
at CAL's proving ground. It toured as part of the All American Thrill
Show as the Astro Spiral before it was picked up for the film. The
British show Top Gear attempted to repeat the stunt in June 2008, but
failed. The scene where Scaramanga's car flies was done at Bovington
Camp, with a model inspired by an actual car plane prototype. Bond's
duel with Scaramanga, which Mankewicz said was inspired by the
climactic faceoff in Shane, had its length shortened as the producers
felt it was causing pacing problems. The trailers featured some of
the cut scenes.
Hamilton adapted an idea of
his involving Bond in Disneyland for Scaramanga's funhouse. The
funhouse was designed to be a place where Scaramanga could get the
upper hand by distracting the adversary with obstacles, and was
described by Murton as a "melting pot of ideas" which made
it "both a funhouse and a horror house". While an actual
wax figure of Roger Moore was used, Moore's stunt double Les Crawford
was the cowboy figure, and Ray Marione played the Al Capone figure.
The canted sets such as the funhouse and the Queen Elizabeth had
inspiration from German Expressionism films such as The Cabinet of
Dr. Caligari. For Scaramanga's solar power plant, Hamilton used both
the Pinewood set and a miniature projected by Derek Meddings, often
cutting between each other to show there was no discernible
difference. The destruction of the facility was a combination of
practical effects on the set and a destruction of the miniature.
Meddings based the island blowing up on footage of the Battle of
Monte Cassino.
Three
Golden Gun props were made; a solid piece, one that could be fired
with a cap and one that could be assembled and disassembled, although
Christopher Lee said that the process "was extremely
difficult." The gun was "one of the more memorable props in
the Bond series" and consisted of an interlocking fountain pen
(the barrel), cigarette lighter (the bullet chamber), cigarette case
(the handle) and cuff link (the trigger) with the bullet secured in
Scaramanga's belt buckle. The gun was to take a single 23-carat gold
bullet produced by the Macau-based gunsmith, Lazar. On 10 October
2008, it was discovered that one of the golden guns used in the film,
which is estimated to be worth around £80,000, was missing
(suspected stolen) from Elstree Props, a company based at
Hertfordshire studios.
Tony Bramwell, who worked
for Harry Saltzman's music-publishing company "Hilary
Music", wanted Elton John or Cat Stevens to sing the title song.
However by this time the producers were taking turns producing the
films; Albert Broccoli - whose turn it was to produce - rejected
Bramwell's suggestions. Bramwell subsequently dismissed the
Barry-Lulu tune as "mundane".
The theme tune to The Man
with the Golden Gun, released in 1974, was performed by Scottish
singer Lulu and composed by John Barry. The lyrics to the song were
written by Don Black and have been described variously as
"ludicrous", "inane" and "one long stream of
smut", because of its sexual innuendo. Alice Cooper wrote a song
titled "The Man with the Golden Gun" to be used by the
producers of the film, but they opted for Lulu's song instead. Cooper
released his song in his album Muscle of Love.
Barry had only three weeks
to score The Man with the Golden Gun and the theme tune and score are
generally considered by critics to be among the weakest of Barry's
contributions to the series, an opinion shared by Barry himself:
"It's the one I hate most ... it just never happened for
me." The Man with the Golden Gun was also the first to drop the
distinctive plucked guitar from the theme heard over the gun barrel opening.
The
Man with the Golden Gun was premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square
in London on December 19th 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 USA, 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.
The
Man with the Golden Gun met with mixed reviews upon its release and
opinions have not changed with the passing of time. Some critics saw
the film as uninspired, tired and boring. Roger Moore was also
criticised for playing Bond against type, in a style more reminiscent
of Sean Connery, although Lee's performance received acclaim. Film
critic Danny Peary wrote that The Man with the Golden Gun "lacks
invention, is one of the least interesting Bond films" and
"a very laboured movie, with Bond a stiff bore, Adams and Britt
Ekland uninspired leading ladies". Peary believes that the
shootout between Bond and Scaramanga in the funhouse "is the one
good scene in the movie, and even it has an unsatisfying finish"
and also bemoaned the presence of Clifton James, "unfortunately
reprising his unfunny redneck sheriff from Live and Let Die."
AV
CLUB SLIDESHOW DEPARTMENT
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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 and involves Bond as he tries to stop assassin
Francisco Scaramanga, (Christopher Lee pictured right) known as
"The Man With The Golden Gun", who has stolen a device
which will allow him to control solar power for criminal purposes.
The film was set in the face of the 1973 energy crisis, a dominant
theme in the script and Britain had still not yet fully overcome the
crisis when the film was released in December 1974. 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.
French
actor Hervé Jean-Pierre Villechaize, would achieve worldwide
recognition for his role as Scaramanga's evil henchman Nick Nack.
Prior to being signed up by Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli, he made
ends meet by working as a rat catcher's assistant near his South
Central home and at one time Villechaize had become so poor he was
living out of his car in Los Angeles. From what his co-actor
Christopher Lee saw, The Man with the Golden Gun filming was possibly
the happiest time of Hervé's life: Lee likened it to honey in
the sandwich between an insecure past and an uncertain future. In
addition to being an actor, Villechaize was also an acclaimed painter
and became an active member of a movement in 1970s and 1980s
California to deal with child abuse and neglect. He would later go
onto TV stardom as Mr. Roarke's assistant, Tattoo, in the television
series Fantasy Island (1978-1984). Though popular with the public,
Villechaize proved a difficult actor on Fantasy Island, where he
continually propositioned women and quarrelled with the producers. He
was eventually fired after demanding a salary on par with that of
co-star Ricardo Montalbán. The show's popularity waned after
this move, and it was soon cancelled. In 1993, despondent over
longtime health problem, Villechaize ended his own life at his
residence in Los Angeles, California.
Three
Golden Gun props were made; a solid piece, one that could be fired
with a cap and one that could be assembled and disassembled, although
Christopher Lee said that the process "was extremely
difficult." The gun was "one of the more memorable props in
the Bond series" and consisted of an interlocking fountain pen
(the barrel), cigarette lighter (the bullet chamber), cigarette case
(the handle) and cuff link (the trigger) with the bullet secured in
Scaramanga's belt buckle. The gun was to take a single 23-carat gold
bullet produced by the Macau-based gunsmith, Lazar. On 10 October
2008, it was discovered that one of the golden guns used in the film,
which is estimated to be worth around £80,000, was missing
(suspected stolen) from Elstree Props, a company based at
Hertfordshire studios.
The
Man with the Golden Gun was premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square
in London on December 19th 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 USA, making it the fourth
lowest-grossing Bond film in the series.
The
Man with the Golden Gun met with mixed reviews upon its release and
opinions have not changed with the passing of time. Some critics saw
the film as uninspired, tired and boring. Roger Moore was also
criticised for playing Bond against type, in a style more reminiscent
of Sean Connery, although Lee's performance received acclaim. Film
critic Danny Peary wrote that The Man with the Golden Gun "lacks
invention, is one of the least interesting Bond films" and
"a very laboured movie, with Bond a stiff bore, Adams and Britt
Ekland uninspired leading ladies". Peary believes that the
shootout between Bond and Scaramanga in the funhouse "is the one
good scene in the movie, and even it has an unsatisfying finish"
and also bemoaned the presence of Clifton James, "unfortunately
reprising his unfunny redneck sheriff from Live and Let Die."
