The Man with the Golden Gun (film)

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The Man with the Golden Gun
The Man With the Golden Gun film poster
James Bond	Roger Moore
Also starring	Christopher Lee Britt Ekland Maud Adams Hervé Villechaize
Directed by	Guy Hamilton
Produced by	Harry Saltzman, Albert R. Broccoli
Novel/Story by	Ian Fleming
Screenplay	Richard Maibaum, Tom Mankiewicz
Cinematography by	{{{cinematography}}}
Music by	John Barry
Main theme
Composer	John Barry Don Black
Performer	Lulu
Distributed by	United Artists (1974-1981) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1982-present)
Released	December 19, 1974 (UK / USA)
Running time	120 min.
Budget	$7,000,000
Worldwide gross	$97,600,000
Admissions (world)	51.6 million
Preceded by	Live and Let Die
Followed by	The Spy Who Loved Me
IMDb profile

The Man with the Golden Gun is the ninth film in the EON Productions James Bond series and the second to star Roger Moore as British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond 007. Released in 1974, it was the fourth and final film in the series to be directed by Guy Hamilton.

The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman and was the final Bond film to be co-produced by Saltzman as his partnership with Broccoli dissolved after the film's release. Saltzman's 50% stake in EON Productions parent company, Danjaq, LLC was then purchased by United Artists. The resulting legalities over the Bond property delayed production of the next Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me for three years. The interval had been the longest break in the series until the six-year gap between Licence to Kill (1989) and GoldenEye (1995).

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Cast & characters 3 Crew 4 Soundtrack 4.1 Track listing 5 Vehicles & gadgets 6 Locations 6.1 Film Locations 6.2 Shooting locations 6.3 See also 7 Trivia 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Plot summary

The film version's title character is Francisco Scaramanga, a high-priced assassin who charges US$1 million per hit. He's known for using a golden gun and only needs one golden bullet per hit. Nothing is really known about Scaramanga in the beginning of the film except that he has a third nipple (information which Bond later uses to get in touch with Scaramanga's financier, Hai Fat); no pictures or physical descriptions of him exist.

The movie begins, oddly enough, not with a mission of Bond's, but with an assassination attempt on Scaramanga by his own servant, Nick Nack. After a run through Scaramanga's twisted funhouse the assassin is dispatched and Scaramanga chides Nick-Nack that he will have to try harder. Apparently, if Scaramanga is killed his fortune will be left to Nick-Nack. It is also revealed that Scaramanga owns a life-size replica of Bond.

The next scene opens with a golden bullet, with "007" — Bond's codename — etched into its surface, being received by Her Majesty's Secret Service, the Secret Intelligence Service (MI-6). It is believed by Military Intelligence that Scaramanga has been hired to assassinate James Bond and has sent the bullet to intimidate his new target.

Bond's mission at this time revolves around the work of a scientist named Gibson, thought to be in possession of information crucial to solving the energy crisis by creating a virtually unlimited amount of energy using a new technique of harnessing the Sun's power. Because of the perceived threat to the agent's life, M removes James from his current mission, and forces 007 to go on leave until the matter is resolved.

Though officially "on leave" from his duties, Bond sets out to find Scaramanga before Scaramanga finds him. By retrieving a golden bullet used to assassinate another 'Double-0 agent' sometime previously, Agent 007 is led to the man responsible for supplying Scaramanga with his unusual golden ammunition.

This leads Bond to Andrea Anders, Scaramanga's mistress. She confesses that it was she who sent the golden bullet to MI6 — to lure Bond to kill Scaramanga for her. Anders informs Bond as to where Scaramanga's plans will require him to be.

Unbeknownst to Bond, that location is that of Scaramanga's next 'hit', the target of which is Gibson, the solar energy scientist from Bond's previous mission. The hit takes place in order to steal the "solex agitator" — a critical component of Gibson's solar energy device. It is now Bond's mission to retrieve the solex agitator and duel it out with Scaramanga before Scaramanga can sell the device to the highest criminal bidder or use it for his own nefarious plans.

[edit] Cast & characters

• James Bond — Roger Moore
• Francisco Scaramanga — Christopher Lee
• Mary Goodnight — Britt Ekland
• Andrea Anders — Maud Adams
• Nick Nack — Hervé Villechaize
• M — Bernard Lee
• Miss Moneypenny — Lois Maxwell
• Q — Desmond Llewelyn
• Sheriff J.W. Pepper — Clifton James
• Hai Fat — Richard Loo
• Lieutenant Hip — Soon-Tek Oh
• Saida - Carmen du Sautoy

This is the first of three movies in which Maud Adams appears. In 1983 she plays a different character, Octopussy, in the film of the same name. She would later have a cameo in the Bond movie A View to a Kill. This is also the second movie with Clifton James playing the role of Sheriff J.W. Pepper. He first appeared in Live and Let Die.

[edit] Crew

• Directed by: Guy Hamilton
• Written by: Ian Fleming
• Screenplay by: Richard Maibaum, Tom Mankiewicz
• Produced by: Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman
• Composed by: John Barry
• Cinematography by: Ted Moore, Oswald Morris
• Production Design by: Peter Murton
• Art direction by: Peter Lamont

[edit] Soundtrack

The Man with the Golden Gun
Soundtrack by John Barry
Released	1974
Recorded	1974
Length	42:17
Label	EMI
Producer(s)	Frank Collura (Reissue)
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
John Barry chronology
The Dove (1974)	The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)	King Kong (1976)
James Bond soundtrack chronology
Live and Let Die (1973)	The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)	The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Alternate cover
Re-release cover

Main article: James Bond music

The theme tune, "The Man with the Golden Gun", was performed by Lulu, composed by John Barry, and the lyrics to the song were written by Don Black. Alice Cooper claims his song "The Man With The Golden Gun" was to be used by the producers of the film until it was dropped for Lulu's song instead. Cooper's song appears on his album Muscle of Love.

The theme tune and score are generally considered 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." ^[1]

The film was also the first to drop the distinctive plucked guitar from the Bond theme heard over the Gun Barrel sequence - in all subsequent John Barry Bond scores, this theme would be heard on strings and trumpet.

[edit] Track listing

1. "The Man With The Golden Gun" - performed by Lulu
2. "Scaramanga's Fun House"
3. "Chew Me In Grisly Land"
4. "The Man With The Golden Gun"
5. "Getting The Bullet"
6. "Goodnight Goodnight"
7. "Let's Go Get Them"
8. "Hip's Trip"
9. "Kung Fu Fight"
10. "In Search Of Scaramanga's"
11. "Return To Scaramanga's"
12. "End Title" - The Man With The Golden Gun

[edit] Vehicles & gadgets

Main articles: List of James Bond vehicles and List of James Bond gadgets

• AMC Hornet 'X' 'hatchback' — Bond steals this car from an AMC dealership in Bangkok, Thailand, unknowing that Sheriff J.W. Pepper is in it, planning to test drive it (a full-on example of product placement, as AMC cars were actually never sold in Thailand, which drives on the left). LHD AMC cars were also used for the cop's cars, and by Scaramanga. A great stunt in the film takes place using the UNIVAC computer-calculated 'Calspan Spiral', permitting a fantastic feat of automotive acrobatics, until that time considered physically impossible.
• Car Plane — During a car chase, Scaramanga's AMC Matador Oleg Cassini edition coupe disappears in a shed for some time. When it emerges it has wings attached, allowing it to fly away. The vehicle is an extrapolation of the last of the Taylor Aerocars, then undergoing experimentation in the United States. It is also very closely related to the AVE Mizar, an attempt to mate a Ford Pinto with the wings, aft engine, and tail section of a Cessna Skymaster, appearing to be essentally a jet-powered version of the same concept.
• The Golden Gun — Scaramanga's weapon of choice, it could fire a .17 calibre golden bullet specially made for the gun. The gun contained only a single round, which was sufficient for Scaramanga given his legendary marksmanship. The gun also separated into a gold cigarette lighter, a gold cigarette case, a gold cuff link, and a gold pen so as to avoid detection.
• Fake Nipple - James Bond uses a fake, synthetic nipple provided by Q to make it look like he has three nipples so that he might impersonate Scaramanga (who was known for said physical trait).

[edit] Locations

[edit] Film Locations

• London, United Kingdom
• Beirut, Lebanon
• Macau, China
• Hong Kong, China
• Bangkok, Thailand
• Phuket, Thailand

One of the more interesting locations is the use of a derelict former Atlantic Ocean liner, the RMS Queen Elizabeth, as a top-secret MI6 base in Hong Kong harbour.

[edit] Shooting locations

• Pinewood Studios — London, England
• Hong Kong
• Macau
• Thailand

[edit] See also

• Hong Kong in films

[edit] Trivia

• Yuen Qiu, who played one of the young girls Bond meets in the dojo, would showcase her remarkable martial art skills 30 years later as the chain smoking Landlady in Stephen Chow's blockbuster Kung Fu Hustle (2004).
• The film references the then-recent 1973 energy crisis. Britain had not yet fully overcome the crisis when the film was released.
• The announcer on the Hong Kong-Macau hydrofoil ferry announces, when passing the wreck of the Queen Elizabeth, mentions that it sank in 1971. Actually it was January 1972.
• Christopher Lee is Ian Fleming's cousin and according to some sources was one of Fleming's choices for the role of Dr. Julius No in the film Dr. No (1962).
• 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.
• The idea of a 'golden gun' was also referenced in the video game Total Overdose, where the player can use a special move that equips the character with a golden revolver, which automatically hits whoever you are targeting and is also an instant kill.
• In the 2003 movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Dorian Gray uses a gun with looks very much like the golden gun, only this weapon can fire at least three bullets a round, unlike the one bullet round of Scaramanga's weapon.
• 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, and the outbreak of war in the region made filming impractical. Roger Moore was invited to be Bond in the 1969 version.
• The cork-screwing car jump was proposed several years before. 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 modelling.
• The scenes featuring the island hideout of Scaramanga were filmed in Phang Nga Province in Thailand, northeast of Phuket now named James Bond island. 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.
• Marc Lawrence, who plays the gangster 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.
• When Bond appears on Scaramanga's island, Scaramanga doesn't use his deluxe golden gun—made from a cigarette case, lighter, and other components—to shoot the cork off the bottle of Dom Perignon champagne. Instead, he employs a gold-plated Colt .45. This could be a nod to the weapon that Scaramanga uses in the original novel, or a reference to the golden gun brandished by Auric Goldfinger during the climax of Goldfinger. It may even be the same prop.
• In the book, Scaramanga fires a gold plated Colt .45 that shoots silver jacketed, solid gold bullets, dipped in poison. In the film, the bullet is a .17 caliber slug without a silver jacket. Scaramanga would have to be an incredible shot in order to make a one shot kill with such a small caliber bullet.
• At one point, Bond states, when informed of the size of the Golden Gun's bullets by Q, that there is no gunmaker in the world that uses such a caliber, while Q states that, while no regular gun manufacturer makes such a round, any number of specialist gun makers (known in the United States as wildcatters) might. A number of rifle rounds in .17 caliber were introduced in the 1990s and 2000s for target shooting and light game. (By comparison, the BBs used in many different air guns intended for children are .177 calibre.) Ironically, Q's statement was inaccurate even at the time of the movie, as Remington Arms had introduced its .17 Remington rifle round in 1971, although there were no handguns using .17 caliber ammunition at the time.
• The canal scenes where Bond disables the dojo's boat was filmed in Thon Buri, Thailand.
• Because Christopher Lee was filming the movie in Bangkok, Ken Russell was unable to sign Lee to play The Specialist in Tommy (1975). The part was eventually given to Jack Nicholson.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Man With the Golden Gun (1974) at the Internet Movie Database
• MGM Official website