ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Roger Moore's second crack at the role of the legendary James Bond is actually further off the mark than his first try, though the fault doesn't lie entirely with Moore.

Christopher Lee is too Shakespearean for a Bond-film villain, Britt Ekland is too scrawny for a Bond-girl heroine, and Clifton James (again playing Sheriff J. W. Pepper) is almost too red-necked for "Smokey and the Bandit", much less a James Bond movie.

The story centers around the efforts of a million-dollar hit man (Lee) to acquire a priceless micro-chip to be used in his solar-powered laser cannon. There's a reasonable amount of action, most of which is set in the Orient, but nothing as memorable as the previous film's speedboat chase, even though this one has a speedboat chase as well.

The climax is a lackluster, one-on-one showdown between Moore and Lee on the villain's tiny island stronghold. Bond fans felt cheated by the lack of a big battle scene (an oversight which was handsomely corrected in the next Bond outing).

The title theme by British Pop star Lulu is considerably more Bond-like than Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die" theme, but it wasn't as successful on the music charts.

The casting of Herve Villechaize as Christopher Lee's valet/henchman was a bad idea; instead of an exciting fight between Bond and an Oddjob-like henchman, the film concludes with Roger chasing Herve around a bedroom and tieing up the little pest in a net!

Directed by Bond-film veteran Guy Hamilton, which is something of a surprise, in view of the movie's faults. Moore's next Bond film, "The Spy Who Loved Me" was a big swing back in the right direction.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pye-Rate]

Lack luster as the movie is I remember it for the locals. The Pussycat Club in H.K., been there; Scaramunga's island in Thailand, been there.

[Bud Brewster]

I'm watching it right now, and you're right, Pye-rate. This movie is so much better than Live and Let Die at presenting the Bond world-hoping locals. I sold the movie a little short in my post.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pye-Rate]

I have been to most of the places in Asia in the movie, the movie makes me want to go back.

[Bud Brewster]

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IMDB has 129 trivia items for this movie — a surprise in view of the fact that it's such a weak Bond film. Unfortunately there were only three which I found interesting.
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One of the lowest-grossing Bond films. That fact, combined with behind-the-scenes problems, nearly made this the final Bond film, and delayed production of the next entry in the series, The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).

Note from me: Interesting, considering what I just said about it above.

In his autobiography, Roger Moore said that when they were filming the boat chase on the klongs, he fell in twice. The first was on purpose (because they told him not to do it), and the second time was by accident. On the second fall, Moore made the mistake of opening his eyes under water, and saw what the local undertakers did with the bodies of the less fortunate.

Note from me: And here we all thought that being a Bond star was all glitz and glamour!

While on location in Thailand, Roger Moore found a cave full of bats. He couldn't resist seeking out Christopher Lee, telling him what he had found and joking "Master, they are yours to command!" Lee appreciated the joke.

Note from me: This is the kind of trivia item I like — and anecdote about two of the actors. With bats.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

I believe I read that Christopher Lee & Bond author, Ian Fleming, are related.

The gorgeous Maud Adams who plays Scaramunga's mistress would be one of the only actresses who would appear in 2 007 movies.

She would portray an entirely different albeit beautiful woman in Octopussy. In fact,she's the title character.

I also always found the gunfight finale scene to be a disappointing one. Not often that a Bond films drops the ball involving action scenes. They did so this time.

Scaramunga's island setting was always interesting to watch for me. The surrounding rock formations were fascinating to see.

[johnnybear]

[size=20I must admit I did like the first scene that took place in the Bottoms Up club!
JB[/size]

[Bud Brewster]

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Just to refresh everyone's memory, here's the "bottom" JB referred to.
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_The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) - Bottoms Up Club


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[The Spike]

"You get as much pleasure out of killing as I do, so why don't you admit it?
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The Man with the Golden Gun is directed by Guy Hamilton and adapted to screenplay by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz from the Ian Fleming novel. It stars Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Herve Villechaize, Soon-Taik-Oh, Richard Loo and Clifton James. Music is scored by John Barry and cinematography by Ted Moore & Oswald Morris.

Bond 9 and 007 is distracted from his pursuit of the Solex Agitator when it appears he has been targeted for death by famous assassin Francisco Scaramanga.

This would be the last Bond movie to be produced by the partnership of Broccoli and Saltzman, the latter of which was the one to leave.

Perhaps they fought about what direction Moore's Bond should be taking? Because The Man with the Golden Gun is not a fitting film for them to part on, their fall out most likely impacting on why this is a pretty unadventurous entry in the James Bond franchise.

The film plays more as a slapstick comedy than an action adventure.

The script is uninspired, with the characters of Mary Goodnight (Ekland) and Sheriff Pepper (James) reaching new lows for Bond allies, while some of the situations that arise are just bizarre and lazy. The latter statement of which applies big time to the weak finale.

However, even average Bond films have value somewhere in the mix.

Here there's some grit in Moore's performance and Lee's Scaramanga, who is one of the series' most interesting villains.

Maud Adams is given a good character to work from, her Andrea Anders is intriguing and very much a live wire in the plot. It's a good performance that would see Adams rewarded with the lead lady role in Octopussy (1983).

Villechaize's Nick Nack, Scaramanga's right hand man/helper is a unique villain, though this is spoiled somewhat by a daft final confrontation with Bond.

There's a brilliant car stunt performed by Bumps Willard, done in one take. It alone deserved to be in a better film.

Elsewhere. Barry is back on musical score duties, providing an Oriental tinted arrangement. Sadly, Lulu's title theme song is instantly forgettable and lyrically feels like it was written in 5 minutes.

Locations are sumptuous, with Macau, Hong Kong and Thailand put to great use by the team, and the gadgetry is kept to minimum, which allows us to enjoy the one or two inventive modes of transport used within the piece.

The box office was $98 million, a considerable take for sure, but still some $63 million down from the previous Bond adventure.

With critics and fans considering the film a let down, questions were again raised as to if Bond was loosing his appeal. With Saltzman, Hamilton, and Mankiewicz bowing out of the franchise, would there be a turnaround in Bond's fortunes? Would Moore finally get a script and film to test him?

6.5/10
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The quality of mercy is not strnen.

[Krel]

Christopher Lee was one of the actors originally considered for the role of James Bond. Given his history during and after WWII, it could have been considered type casting if he had gotten the part.

David.

[Bud Brewster]

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I still think that Roger Moore was a poor replacement for Sean Conner. However, Pierce Brosnan was the perfect "new" Bond.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]

[johnnybear]

Sean Connery was just too good as Bond to be replaced!
JB

[Bud Brewster]

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Yep, I pretty much agree, JB.

Although I do think Pierce Brosnan did a fine job of "rebooting" the character in his own style, rather than doing a "Sean Connery" impersonation, like the others did.





And the great plots in the Pierce Brosnan films were so much better than the lame Rogor Moore films! In fact, they were better than all the sadly dated Sean Connery movies — other Goldfinger!

As for the "Danial Craig" Bond movies . . . well, people from my generation grew up in an era which would be shocked by modern movies of that kind . . . NOT pleasantly entertained.

Let's face it, folks . . . the world has changed dramatically.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)