The Man With The Golden Gun (United Artists, December 19th, 1974)
Music by
John Barry (Theme song written by Alice Cooper, Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, & Neal Smith. Performed by
Alice Cooper) [1]
Screenplay by
Edward O'Malley, Richard Maibaum, Tom Mankiewicz (Based on
The Man with the Golden Gun by Ian Fleming)
Produced by
Albert R. Broccoli & Harry Saltzman
Directed by
Guy Hamilton
Cast
Roger Moore as James Bond 007
Christopher Lee as Scaramanga
Jane Seymour as Mary Goodnight [2]
Maud Adams as Andrea Anders
Introducing
Linda Hunt as Demi Tasse [3]
Yaphet Kotto as Felix Leiter [4]
Soon-Talk Oh as Lieutenant Hip
Diana Dors as Saida: A British belly dancer living in Beirut. [6]
Richard Loo as Hai Fat
Bernard Lee as M: The head of MI6
Marc Lawrence as Rodney, an American gangster who attempts to outshoot Scaramanga in his funhouse. Pre-title sequence. [5]
Desmond Llewelyn as Q
Marne Maitland as Lazar
Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny
James Cossins as Colthorpe
Plot
pre-title sequence:
There is some focus on the henchman, the German-born Demi Tasse (Hunt) who is fluent in three languages (Mandarin, English, and German), as well as Scaramanga's lair where he lives with Tasse and Anders (Adams). The highlight is Scaramanga's (Lee) shootout with Rodney. The shootout ends with Scaramanga shooting the fingers off of a wax figure of James Bond. The camera zooms in on his gun and then Alice Cooper's theme song kicks in.
* Post-credits, the film is similar to OTL for the first bit. There are gradual changes thanks to input given by Edward O'Malley, his last effort in the franchise.*
In London, a golden bullet with James Bond's code "007" etched into its surface is received by MI6. It is believed that it was sent by assassin Francisco Scaramanga, who uses a golden gun, to intimidate Bond. Because of the perceived threat to the agent's life, M relieves Bond of a mission revolving around the work of a scientist named Gibson, thought to be in possession of information crucial to solving the energy crisis with solar power. Bond sets out unofficially to find Scaramanga.
After retrieving a spent golden bullet from a belly dancer in Beirut (Diana Dors in a memorable cameo), and tracking its manufacturer to Macau, Bond sees Andrea Anders, Scaramanga's mistress (Adams), collecting the shipment of golden bullets at a casino. Bond follows her to Hong Kong and in her Peninsula Hotel room seduces her into spilling the dirt on Scaramanga. [7]
Anders tells Bond about the Bottoms Up Club. The Bottoms Up Club is the location of Scaramanga's next 'hit', Gibson, from whom Scaramanga's dwarf henchman Demi Tasse steals the "Solex agitator", a key component of a solar power station. Before Bond can assert his innocence, however, Lieutenant Hip escorts him away from the scene, taking him to meet M and Q in a hidden headquarters in the wreck of the RMS Queen Elizabeth in the harbor. M assigns 007 to retrieve the Solex Agitator. *
After British Intelligence Agent Mary Goodnight (Seymour) shows Bond where Miss Anders is staying, she hopes to spend the evening with Bond, but 007 declines, as he has his meeting with Hai Fat, a wealthy Thai businessman who MI6 suspect of arranging Gibson's murder. Goodnight, standing in front of the hotel, is rather miffed when she sees Hip's nieces riding along in the backseat as they take off.
Bond had earlier posed as Scaramanga, but his plan backfired because unknown to Bond, Scaramanga is actually operating at Hai Fat's estate. 007 is captured and placed in Fat's dojo, where the fighters are instructed to kill him. After escaping with the aid of Hip and his nieces, Bond speeds away on a long tail boat along the river and reunites with his assistant Mary Goodnight. Scaramanga subsequently kills Hai Fat and usurps control of his empire, taking the Solex with him. Bond doesn't realize that during the tail boat chase, his best friend and CIA informant Felix Leiter (Kotto), who was visiting on vacation, had spotted Bond.
Later on, Goodnight is in the middle of a romantic encounter with Bond when Andrea Anders barges in with information for Bond. Bond tries to hide Goodnight in the bed, who goes along with it until he tries to stuff her into a closet. Bond condescendingly tells Goodnight that "Her turn will come". Disgusted, Goodnight instead tells Bond off, knees him in the groin and leaves out a bathroom window with her belongings. Anders hears Bond howling and runs into the bedroom to ask if he is ok. Bond tells her "It was really nothing, I just shut my hand in the closet".
Bond then proceeds to spend the night with Anders, who agrees to meet Bond the next day with the solex.
Bond meets with Miss Anders at a sumo wrestling event with Goodnight and Hip as his backup. Goodnight takes control of the Solex. Hip poses as a peanut vendor. Bond shows up to find Anders dead, killed by Scaramanga. Bond and Scaramanga have a conversation while Tasse sits behind them eating peanuts. Tasse eventually vanishes. Unbeknownst to Bond, Tasse has banished to vandalize Bond's vehicle.
Meanwhile, while placing a homer on Scaramanga's AMC Matador, Goodnight is pushed into the car's trunk by Scaramanga himself. Hip, who was the designated getaway driver grabs the car keys and heads out with Bond to follow Scaramanga and Demi Tasse who have Goodnight in their trunk. The two agents discover that the car has been vandalized.
A car pulls up, Bond realizes that it is his friend, CIA operative Felix Leiter, who tells the two agents to get inside. A high-speed chase ensues between Bond/Leiter/Hip and Scaramanga/Tasse. Scaramanga's vehicle transforms into a plane, which flies himself, Nick Nack and Goodnight away from Bond.
Before Bond parts ways with Leiter, the two deduce that Goodnight is at Scaramanga's lair. Bond flies a seaplane into Red Chinese waters and lands at Scaramanga's island. Upon landing, Bond is greeted by Scaramanga who shows him the solar power plant operation that he has taken over, the technology for which he intends to sell to the highest bidder. While demonstrating the equipment, Scaramanga uses a powerful energy beam to destroy Bond's plane.
Bond then meets up with Goodnight who is on the island. During a meal where Goodnight and Demi Tasse are present, Scaramanga proposes a duel to Bond.
Scaramanga then proposes a pistol duel with Bond on the beach; the two men stand back to back and are instructed by Demi Tasse to take twenty paces, but when Bond turns and fires, Scaramanga has vanished. Tasse leads Bond into Scaramanga's Funhouse where Bond stands in the place of a mannequin of himself; when Scaramanga walks by, Bond takes him by surprise and kills him.
Goodnight meanwhile fights one of Scaramanga's henchmen with her black belt karate skills. Unfortunately, the henchman falls into a pool of liquid helium. Realizing that what she has done will upset the balance of the solar plant, which begins to go out of control, she runs and gets Bond. Bond retrieves the Solex unit just before the island explodes, and they escape unharmed via Goodnight, who leads 007 to Scaramanga's Chinese junk (yacht). Bond then fends off a final attack by Demi Tasse, who had smuggled himself aboard, subduing Tasse, who is then tied to the mast of the yacht as Alice Cooper's theme song kicks back in.
James Bond will return in
The Spy Who Loved Me.
Trivia
Critical reception was mixed. Newcomer Linda Hunt, an unknown stage actor discovered by Broccolli and Edward O'Malley was praised for her performance. Jane Seymour also was noticed for her role as Mary Goodnight. Christopher Lee's turn as the antagonist was a breath of fresh air for the actor who soon found himself in Hollywood where he was getting better film offers. However, as Ebert noted, the film tended to go from tongue in cheek to very dark at times.
"It doesn't know if it wants to be a silly Bond film like
Diamonds Are Forever or a more serious entry in the series. One minute we're treated to a rather bizarre cameo from British star Diana Dors as a belly dancer, the next there are moments that give the film dark undertones".
-Roger Ebert
Edward O'Malley wanted to kill off Felix Leiter to give the film more of a serious edge. Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz shot the idea down. Interestingly, the latter two had wanted to bring back Sheriff Pepper from the previous film, an idea O'Malley shot down.
Regardless, the film did decent box office, and Alice Cooper's theme song became a chart hit in early 1975. However, Moore decided it would be his last outing as Bond. The actor had also appeared in the film
Gold alongside Susannah York during 1974 and wished to appear in more non-Bond roles. British actor Ian Ogilvy, best known for the 1969's proto-slasher film
The Dark, and 1970's
Wuthering Heights (which featured former Bond Julian Glover) was announced sometime later as Moore's replacement.
Jane Seymour signed a contract with Broccoli to star in a proposed Mary Goodnight spin-off film at a later date.
Notes
[1] Cooper's theme doesn't get rejected ITTL and is left off of the 1973
Muscle Of Love LP to be included in this film. Lulu's recording is rejected here.
[2] I crammed Britt Ekland into On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1967) so she could still say she did a Bond film. Seymour, passed over for
Live And Let Die ITTL, is cast. Her Mary Goodnight is brighter than the one Britt Ekland portrayed due to changes demanded in the script by Edward O'Malley. She also doesn't put up with Bond's antics in the motel room.
[3] Per IMDB: "In earlier versions of the script, the character of Nick Nack played by Hervé Villechaize was originally called Demi Tasse and Hai Fat had a business partner called Lo Fat, a character which was scrapped". I decided to go with Demi Tasse rather than Nick Nack. Hunt plays Demi Tasse as portrayed by Hunt is an androgynous male German of small stature living in Hong Kong who wears a suit and straw fedora. Picture a miniature Irma Bunt mixed with Odd Job.
[4] Felix Leiter replaces the insufferable Sheriff Pepper.
[5] IOTL, Lawrence played a gangster in Diamonds Are Forever that may have been the same character. ITTL, it's
not the same character.
[6] Supposedly Saida was originally written as overweight and wearing excessive make-up. Diana Dors, fresh from a small role in
Theatre Of Blood came to mind. The scene where Saida notices the golden bullet she keeps in her navel missing is played out more for humor here.
[7] While the other two credited screenwriters wanted a more aggressive Bond akin to Sean Connery, O'Malley scoffed at the idea. Instead of smacking Maude Adams character about, he smooth talks her instead. He is still smarmy enough for Mary Goodnight to knee him in the groin, however.
