Review of The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) by Lenny R — 10 Dec 2015

This one's very silly, and has some definite flaws, but it has some good elements too. Scaramanga isn't much of a character, but Christopher Lee, purely by being Christopher Lee, makes him somewhat more memorable than he might otherwise have been.

I can only imagine what he might have done with a more substantial character in a more substantial film. In a movie that, overall, tries too hard to be funny and often fails, Goodnight could have been just another dumb caricature, but Ekland does a great job of fleshing her out (so to speak).

Mary's kind of incompetent, but Ekland makes her ineptitude endearing and entertaining rather than annoying. She's one of my favourite 'girls'. 10-years-before-Octopussy Maud Adams (possibly the only good thing about my least favourite Bond movie) has a less substantial role here, but does fine.

The actually amazing corkscrew car jump is ruined by a silly cartoon sound effect, Scaramanga's waxwork shooting gallery is ridiculous, and JW Pepper, who worked fine in the Louisiana Bayous in L&LD, is most unwelcome here.

But the movie does have a couple of great lines, including my favourite Bond pun-liner of all - 'I'm now aiming directly at your groin, so speak now or forever hold your piece.' Classic. It almost makes up for Lulu's terrible, terrible theme song.