Review of The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) by Kai82 — 20 Dec 2020

A divisive James Bond movie. For some it is one of the weakest and for others it is an excellent one. This is because of Christopher Lee as Francisco Scaramanga / The man with the golden gun and his right hand man Herve Villechaize as Nick Nack (he is introduced as his servant but I will say he is his close friend, right hand and a really dangerous).

He also got really famous later on in the TV series Fantasy Island. Back to the movie: It is the ninth movie and is staring Roger Moore but you can also say that Scaramanga is also a main character as you learn a lot about him.

After the amazing intro which gives you a great insight into Scaramanga and Nick Nacks relationship and abilities the story starts when a golden bullet engraved with 007 is received by the MI6. They believed it was send by Francisco Scaramanga who is a legendary assassin and a myth as nobody knows much about him.

He is possibly the most dangerous assassin on the planet and his skill might even be a deadly challenge for James Bond. Because of this James Bond is relived of his current mission to find a scientist who has the knowledge to solve the energy crisis.

So starts the story. The story itself would be pretty weak but Roger Moore and Christopher Lee made it excellent. You always know it will end with a final duel of these two as they play a cat and mouse game.

It is so enjoyable too watch how the characters enfold in the story. It is driven by the actors and this made me ignore all the other problems. For the cast we have Roger Moore in his second movie as James Bond.

He improved and has become the James Bond we know and love (I wont bring up the Sean Connery or Roger Moore topic). As I already said Christopher Lee is also the main actor here or close to it. He gets a lot of attention and you learn a lot about him.

An enjoyable and unforgettable performance and he reached the heights of the best James Bond Villains (best in the Roger Moore era with Jaws for me). Remark: Do you know that he was the step cousin of the James Bond author Ian Fleming? Herve Villechaize as Nick Nack delivers also a great performance.

He is often forgotten in the list of best henchman / lieutenants. He is clever, dangerous and I do not want to have him as enemy. Richard Loo is the second antagonist of the movie and made a good performance.

Clifton James returns as Sheriff Pepper. I so much enjoyed his stereotype parody performance. They also established the humor to the James Bond movies the Roger Moore era is famous for. Here are so many good jokes I wont spoil.

Also the locations were amazing. This time we got Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand. Visually impressive and worth to visit in real life. Bonus for the MI6 headquarter in Hong Kong;-). This movie is full of interesting gadget and devices and I think I will not give you a spoiler free description here.

Overall this is an excellent James Bond movie that I recommend. Be however warned as it is divisive. Like I said before for some it is a low point but I had no one ever see or heard criticizing Christopher Lees performance.