The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

Director:

Guy Hamilton

Writers:

Richard Maibaum (screenplay) and
Tom Mankiewicz (screenplay)

Release Date:

20 December 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

Tagline:

He never misses his target, and now his target is 007.

Plot:

Bond is led to believe that he is targeted by the world's most expensive assassin and must hunt him down to stop him.

Plot Keywords:

Assassin | Golden Gun | Bullet | Gold | Island

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Roger Moore	...	James Bond
Christopher Lee	...	Francisco Scaramanga
Britt Ekland	...	Mary Goodnight
Maud Adams	...	Andrea Anders
Hervé Villechaize	...	Nick Nack (as Herve Villechaize)
Clifton James	...	Sheriff J.W. Pepper
Richard Loo	...	Hai Fat
Soon-Tek Oh	...	Hip (as Soon-Taik Oh)
Marc Lawrence	...	Rodney
Bernard Lee	...	M
Lois Maxwell	...	Miss Moneypenny
Marne Maitland	...	Lazar
Desmond Llewelyn	...	Q
James Cossins	...	Colthorpe
Yao Lin Chen	...	Chula (as Chan Yiu Lam)

Also Known As:

Ian Fleming's The Man with the Golden Gun (UK) (complete title) (USA) (complete title)
The Golden Gun (International: English title) (informal short title)

Runtime:

125 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Thai

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | USA:PG (certificate no. 24040) | Iceland:L | UK:PG (1987) (video rating) | South Korea:15 | Brazil:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Canada:14A (video rating) | UK:PG (tv rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Ireland:PG | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (1974) | Peru:14 | Sweden:15 | West Germany:16 | UK:A (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Andaman Sea, Thailand

Company:

Eon Productions

Trivia:

The energy crisis storyline was inspired by media stories of such current events of the time.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Even though it is supposed to be a wax dummy, you can clearly see Al Capone blink his eyes when he fires the gun. Also, his movements are way too human-like to be a dummy.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Francisco Scaramanga: Nick Nack! Tabasco!
Nick-nack: Right away, Monsieur Scaramanga.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in 007: Agent Under Fire (2001) (VG)

Soundtrack:

The Man With The Golden Gun

Suave, sophisticated Roger Moore is good Bond in another caper...

As Bond films go, maybe this isn't the best of the lot, but, hey, it deserves points for giving us ROGER MOORE in another good turn as James Bond. Moore had already perfected this kind of hero in his "The Saint" roles on TV, whereby he had some quick one-liners as he outwitted various enemies. He's doing the same here as Bond and doing nicely in the action scenes as an additional requirement.

There are the usual car chases (very colorful one through the streets of Bangkok), the usual assortment of dangerous females with BRETT EKLUND being the dominant one, the usual gadgets to be used in a fight to the finish, and the usual spectacular stunts (this time one involving an almost unbelievable leap in a car), and the usual villains standing in the way of order and justice.

I have no complaints about this one. ROGER MOORE was always very acceptable as James Bond and seemed to get better with each film. This was only his second time out as Bond and he did improve later on--but that's no reason to complain, as others have done. Just sit back, relax and enjoy another Bond fantasy/adventure done in stylish ways and with CHRISTOPHER LEE as Scaramanga, the main baddie.