The Man With the Golden Gun (1974)

 

Roger Moore came in with the fun entry that was 'Live and Let Die', so where to go from there? Well, how about a story that pits James Bond not against an organisation, but against a man who is in fact what Bond could have been, if Bond decided to become a gun for hire. It's a great idea, but is the execution captivating enough? 

Well, not really. But there are some fun ideas, though.

The plot is literally that Bond gets a message that Scaramanga, the world's greatest assassin, is coming for him. He does so with a gold bullet with 007 inscribed on it. See, Scaramanga is so good that he now charges 1 million for every hit and he always uses a golden gun and bullet. But no one knows what Scaramanga looks like or even where he is. Bond tries to find him, but is sidetracked when he is ordered to find a scientist who has something called a solar agitator. This doohickey has something to do with converting solar energy to electricity and could solve the energy crisis.

Yes, this is a total MacGuffin and has no impact on the plot whatsoever. 

The story takes Bond to Hong Kong, Macau and Bangkok, where he teams up with agent Goodnight (Britt Eckland) in order to find and stop Scaramanga. But Scaramanga kidnaps Goodnight, thus luring Bond to his island hideout. Not merely to kill him, because he genuinely has admiration and respect for Bond. Hell, Scaramanga is the one that legitimately says that he and Bond are the same, where it not for Bond's devotion to 'Queen and country'. But of course, Bond declines to defect and now the game is afoot, as both men try to kill one another in Scaramanga's elaborate haunted house of horrors. 

You see, for a film that banks so heavily on the clash between Bond and Scaramanga, they don't truly meet until near the end and even then, it is over rather quickly, which is an absolute shame. Doubly so because Moore is finding his stride in full and he put opposite the perfect adversary in the legendary Christopher Lee, a man so cool, he puts Antarctica to shame. Lee just has this immense presence and when placed opposite of Bond, Moore does feel rather small (both literally and figuratively). They could have done so much more with this rivalry, but alas. 

The Bondgirls are a bit of a mixed bag this time. Britt Eckland is set up to be a bit of a bumbling fool, which is a shame. Maud Adams is much better, and it shows because she is later brought back to play the titular character of 'Octopussy'. Adams has the style and mysterious nature down to a T. Eckland could have done better, but the makers decided to play up the goofy side and it doesn't really work all that well. 

They even brought back that incredibly annoying sheriff JW Pepper from the last one. Why? I have no idea. Apparently his character was very popular with kids, but he is still grating as ever. 

Scaramanga of course has a henchman, but this time it's Hervé Villechaize. Nothing wrong with that, but a diminutive henchman called Nick Nack doesn't really inspire awe or fear. I'm not saying you should underestimate little people, but Villechaize looks too goofy to be menacing. I have never been able to take him seriously. 

The action in this one is okay. It's passable, but nothing special, save for one stunt that becomes even more awesome if you learn how they did it. See, Bond has to jump across a river, but the remnants of the bridge are warped, so when he goes over, the car does a spin. Because there were no computers as yet, they actually had engineers calculate the speed, angle and trajectory and they only got one go during which they nailed it. It still looks good today and maybe even better when you realize the work everyone put in to bring this to the screen. 

All in all, this is an okay entry, but it does get a little tedious at times and isn't as captivating as it could have been. But the confrontation between Lee and Moore is great, even if you will have to wait until the end to get it.