The Man With the Golden Gun

James Bond: Who'd want to put a contract on me?
M: Humiliated chefs! Outraged tailors! Jealous husbands! The list is endless!

Intro:

In the ninth official film, released in 1974, the hunter becomes the prey when Bond is targeted for assassination. The movie is based Ian Fleming's novel with the same title, and features the second appearance of Roger Moore as James Bond, the third Bond after Sean Connery and George Lazenby.

Plot:

The title villain, the man with the golden gun, Francisco Scaramanga, was played by Christopher Lee, who incidentally is a cousin of Ian Fleming. Scaramanga is, unlike most other Bond villains, not trying to take over the world (or at least part of it), but the very best assassin in the world (charging $1 million per hit), who "just" wants to test his skill against James Bond, the only man alive able to beat him. When a golden bullet with the number 007 engraved arrives at British Intelligence, everybody assumes Bond will be the next target. So he sets out to get Scaramanga, before Scaramanga gets him, in the usual Bond way: Follow the trail of bullets...

Trivia:

Bond girls are Britt Ekland as the aptly named Goodnight and Maud Adams as Andrea. By the way, Maud Adams will appear again in Octopussy as the title character.

Equipment provided by "Q" (the late Desmond Llewelyn) includes a Nikon camera which caused subject to explode when aimed and a Homing device and detector, almost a token gadget in later Bonds.

The southern sheriff J.W. Pepper (Clifton James) returns for comic relief: ("Hey! You're that english secret agent! From England!"), after his first appearance in Live and Let Die was received successfully by the audience.

This is one of the few Bond movies where Bond does not make a personal appearance in the pre-credit teaser sequence. Instead, it serves to introduce Scaramanga as the villain, who hires other hitmen to try and kill him.

Suggested by RalphyK: The corkscrew jump was calculated precisely with computers, and they got it right on the first try. The producers actually took out a patent on the stunt, so nobody was allowed to do it for two years, although nobody has tried since.

Incidentally, even though Scaramanga does not manage to kill Bond (I hope nobody will consider that information to be a spoiler), he does kill Agent 002 (Bill Fairbanks) in Beirut, once again proving that the Double-0 when not Bond is the equivalent to a Red Shirt in Star Trek.

To finish up and complete the writeup, here is a nice link to all things Bond:

• Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang!: http://www.ianfleming.org

Previous Bond: Live and Let Die, James Bond will return in: The Spy Who Loved Me

The track used for the movie sounds pretty silly on first hearing, but it has some nice guitar in it and some of the requisite double entendres ("Who will he bang?" used here to sound clean but is obviously intended to be dirty given the nature of the title character).

Many years before Will Smith we have a song that summarizes one of the characters in a movie. At least Roger Moore isn't singing about how he is so bad and really kicks Scaramanga's ass.

Track: The Man With The Golden Gun
Written By: Don Black
Performed By: Lulu
Album: The Best of Bond... James Bond 007 (1999)

He has a powerful weapon
He charges a million a shot
An assassin that's second to none
The man with the golden gun

Lurking in some darkened doorway
Or crouched on a rooftop somewhere
In the next room, or this very one
The man with the golden gun

Love is required whenever he's hired
It comes just before the kill
No one can catch him, no hitman can match him
For his million dollar skill

One golden shot means another poor victim
Has come to a glittering end
For a price he'll erase anyone
The Man With The Golden Gun

His eye may be on you or me...
Who will he bang?
We shall see...

Love is required whenever he's hired
It comes just before the kill
No one can catch him no hitman can match him
For his million dollar skill

One golden shot means another poor victim
Has come to a glittering end
If you want to get rid of someone
The Man With The Golden Gun...

Will get it done
He'll shoot anyone
With his golden gun

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Here's the theme song that was almost used for the movie - by Alice Cooper no less.

Lulu ended up doing the song because the EON productions people didn't like this one. It's debatable which one has aged better, but it should be noted that this isn't the only time people have had a Bond theme turned down - Alice Cooper are joined by Blondie (For Your Eyes Only) and Pulp (Tomorrow Never Dies, with 'Lies' instead of 'Dies' when they released the song - as the original title of the move used "Lies").

There's supposedly a version with Liza Minelli doing vocals too.

Track: The Man With The Golden Gun
Artist: Alice Cooper
Album: Muscle of Love (1973)

The man with the golden gun
He's waiting somewhere out there for you
But you'll never see him
He'll be looking for you

Demand for the golden gun
It's high priced, precise and true
But you'll never see him
He'll be looking for you

The man with the golden gun in his pocket
The man with the golden gun in his case
The man with the golden gun in your face

But you'll never see him
He'll be looking for you
You better beleive
He'll be looking for you

He's the man with the golden gun in his pocket
The man with the golden gun in his case
The man with the golden gun in his pocket
The man with the golden gun in your face

But you'll never see him
He'll be looking for you
You better beleive
He'll be looking for you

The man with the golden gun in his pocket
The man with the golden gun in his case
The man with the golden gun in his pocket
The man with the golden gun in your face

The man with the golden gun in his pocket
the man with the golden gun in his case
The man who gave you the the golden....
gun

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Doesn't the title of the movie look funny when it's just a line in a song with no capital letters?

For more info on "almost-rans" in Bond movies check out:
http://www.007forever.com/actors_and_action_001/almost_acted_and_sung/