The Man with the Golden Gun

Can a midget beat up James Bond in a fight? Where does a racist Louisiana State trooper vacation overseas? Can a needless nipple be evil? These and other questions are answered in "The Man with the Golden Gun," a switching but typically simple 1974 Roger Moore addition in the Bond franchise. 

This time, James Bond has twice the concerns that, surprisingly, show up midway through the movie. The main concern: three-nipple villain Francisco Scaramanga, played by Ian Fleming's cousin, the late Christopher Lee, wants Bond dead. With this, Bond's mission to retrieve a "solex agitator" (Peter Canavese stated in his review, "a MacGuffin if ever I saw one") is pushed aside for a bit. The solex agitator has the key to fixing – or, when someone evil gets it, worsens – the energy issue, a problem that's really serious 35 years later. Guy Hamiliton's third of four Bond directing Bond movies flings in Beiru, Macau, Hong Kong and Thailand. Bright dialogue by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz. There's two beautiful "Bond girls:" Andrea Anders (Maud Adams, in her first of two Bond movies) and Mary Goodnight (Britt Ekland, who wears only a bikini in the final act). 

The plethora of characters in this Bond addition includes Hip (Soon-Taik Oh), who is basically plays the role of Felix Leiter in this film, Scaramanga's "dwarf" right-hand-man Nick Nack (Hervé Villechaize), and the familiar characters of M, Miss Moneypenny and Q. Sadly, we also get the irritating reprisal Clifton James as "ugly American" tourist Sheriff J.W. Pepper of the Louisiana State Police. This is the same character who first appeared in Moore's debut Bond film, "Live and Let Here." Here, he returns to witness a boat chase and jump into a car chase. 

Canavese said, "The Man with the Golden Gun serves us plenty of novelties to keep its two hours moving: the leaning remains of the Queen Elizabeth in Hong Kong Harbor turn out to be an MI6 base, and Bond competes with martial artists before his showdown with Scaramanga on his private island in Red Chinese waters. If it wasn't already apparent, the climax makes explicit that the core inspiration for Scaramanga is less, say, Carlos the Jackal than General Zaroff of Richard Connell's short story "The Most Dangerous Game." "My golden gun against your Walther PPK," Lee purrs, though the modular golden gun isn't his only toy; he also has a deadly funhouse and a fully-stocked Chinese junk." Despite that "The Man with the Golden Gun" is mainly filler, it's without a doubt fun, from Bond's famous "astral spiral" car stunt to Scaramanga's strange flying-car getaway. 

I sincerely think this movie had a great villain in Christopher Lee. Then again, this is the same man who played Dracula and later would go on to play Saruman. How can you go wrong with this brilliant actor? Definitely see this one because, even though it may be one of the weaker entries, you can't help but have so much fun watching this, so I say check it out and don't skip this one. 

Check in tomorrow when I look at the next entry in "James Bond Month."