Octopussy

OCTOPUSSY
1983 | Dir. John Glen | 131 Minutes

"We're two of a kind. There are vast rewards for a man of your talents, willing to take risks."

MI6 Agent 009 is slain in East Germany leaving behind a counterfeit Fabergé egg. Picking up the fallen agent's mission, James Bond encounters deposed Afghan prince Kamal Khan and his cohort, a prolific jewel smuggler and all-female cult leader known as Octopussy. Bond discovers Khan is in league with a rogue Soviet general and races to stop their nefarious plot.

Offering few thrills and failing to capitalize on its aging leading man's cheeseball charisma, perhaps best remembered for literally presenting Bond as a clown in one off-puttingly self-aware moment, John Glen's second Bond film, and Roger Moore's sixth, Octopussy is another low point in Eon Productions' film series. The plot involving circus performers, stolen Russian treasures, and nuclear disarmament is convoluted yet the story is threadbare. The characters are downright boring, featuring the least intimidating villain Bond has ever faced and a love interest who predictably and infuriatingly loses all agency after one night with Bond.

The action scenes are mostly by-the-numbers, every one of them substandard. Bond is chased through the streets of Rajasthan littered with awful Indian caricatures, he dodges bullets and swings from jungle vines complete with corny Tarzan yell, he improbably drives on train tracks and leaps train cars in pursuit of his target. Even Octopussy's skimpy acrobats who do most of the fighting in the finale fail to truly liven things up. Aside from the production value on display in some of the sets, there is little to distinguish Octopussy from a tedious made-for-television movie.

Roger Moore has seen better days as James Bond, and though he still appears committed to the part delivering the often cringey dialogue without missing a beat, he has clearly overstayed his time as the action hero based on how much screen time his stunt double receives in this one. Previously appearing as Scaramanga's doomed lover in The Man with the Golden Gun, Maud Adams is fine but unremarkable as Octopussy. Adams surprisingly doesn't have much to do despite the fact that film is named after her character. Louis Jourdan doesn't leave even the slightest lasting impression as Kamal Khan, which might be the worst thing that can be said for a Bond villain, and neither does Kabir Bedi who plays is go-to henchman Gobinda. Twins David Meyer and Anthony Meyer are slightly more memorable than the main baddies as knife-throwing assassins Mischka and Grischka. Kristina Wayborn is great as the seductive Magda, surprisingly makes it through the entire film without dying, Tennis star Vijay Amritraj is charming as the doomed token foreign operative Vijay, and Steven Berkoff chews scenery the cartoonish Soviet General Orlov. Walter Gotell makes his fourth appearance as the honorable KGB leader Gogol, Desmond Llewelyn receives significant screen time as Q in his tenth appearance, Lois Maxwell makes her thirteenth appearance as Moneypenny, and Robert Brown appears as M as the second actor to take on the role.

Octopussy is arguably the worst Roger Moore Bond film in terms of entertainment value. Not only is it unapologetically silly, it's also uncharacteristically dull. The adversaries are rather generic and unappealing, the featured set pieces are disappointingly mundane, and the action sequences are among the least inspired and most forgettable of the entire series.


THE COLD OPEN
It's the best action sequence of the picture. Naturally, it's completely unrelated to the rest of the film. With the help of a beautiful accomplice, Bond infiltrates a Cuban military base, gets caught, and accomplishes his mission while making his daring escape piloting a small airplane.


THE THEME SONG AND OPENING TITLES
Rita Coolidge's "All Time High" is a fairly standard inoffensive track. It's pleasant love song but rather forgettable for a James Bond theme tune. For me, the title is unintentionally ironic, as I consider Octopussy one of the series' all time lows. The opening title sequence by Maurice Binder isn't one of his best, featuring odd-looking laser graphics over the on-brand nude models and silhouettes of acrobats that look out-of-place.


THE BOND GIRL
With an infamously terrible name, Octopussy is written as an interesting and capable match for Bond. Unfortunately, despite her incredible backstory as a skilled smuggler and leader of a formidable cult of fighting women, the film only ever tells and doesn't show, the plot doesn't give her much to do once Bond beds her. Instead of having her dispatch Khan in revenge for his betrayal, he almost immediately takes her hostage during the finale, shamefully rendering her another damsel in distress.


THE BOND VILLAIN
Bland as can be, Kamal Khan fails to live up to the standards of even the most basic Bond villains. The evil scheme devised by Khan and General Orlov carries catastrophic implications but unfolds late in the film, is over-complicated in execution, and is relatively pedestrian overall. The most memorable thing he does is plucking an eyeball out of a stuffed lamb's head and eating it.


FEATURED HENCHMAN
Gobinda is just as forgettable as Khan despite showing his strength by crushing dice with his bare hands. If there's one thing that's memorable about him, it's his perhaps misguided loyalty to his boss. When ordered to fight Bond hanging outside of their plane midflight, he questions Khan but ultimately does as he is told leading to his demise.


FEATURED GADGET
The crocodile submarine is one of the most ridiculous out-of-left-field gadgets featured in the series, delivered as a campy plot twist when Bond emerges from its mouth after struggling with what is clearly a real crocodile. It's really kind of sublime in its campiness.


FLEMING FIDELITY
The story of Octopussy's father, the disgraced Major Dexter Smythe, as well as the title of the film, originate from Ian Fleming's short story of the same name first serialized in the Daily Express in 1965, with few details changed. The auction sequence is loosely based on Fleming's short story The Property of a Lady first published in Sotheby's annual journal The Ivory Hammer in 1963. The rest of the film is an original story.


BATTLE OF THE BONDS
Ion Productions' Octopussy was in direct competition with Never Say Never Again, Kevin McClory's remake of Thunderball starring Sean Connery released by Warner Brothers four months after Octopussy. Though it claimed a better opening weekend than Octopussy, Never Say Never Again ultimately made less money.


FRAGMENTS
- In one extraordinarily cheesy moment, this film features the first and only diegetic use of the James Bond theme tune when Vijay plays it to charm a snake

- At the bottom of the end credits, the film advertises that "James Bond will return in 'From a View to a Kill'" though the title of the next film was slightly shortened to A View to a Kill during production

For Your Eyes Only

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
1981 | Dir. John Glen | 127 Minutes

"The Chinese have a saying: Before you set out on revenge, you first dig two graves."

A spy ship carrying a device used to coordinate the Royal Navy's fleet of nuclear submarines is sunk in an accident, and the marine archaeologists hired by the British are assassinated by a Cuban hitman. Unlikely alliances are forged as James Bond races against Soviet operatives to recover the device and crosses paths with the daughter of the murdered marine archaeologists seeking vengeance at any cost.

John Glen, editor for On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker, makes his directorial debut delivering a straightforward James Bond adventure that brings the series back to its more practical roots with mixed results. The camp that so prevalent in the series throughout the 1970s is dialed so far back that For Your Eyes Only seems to actively play against Roger Moore's strengths. While its central theme of revenge is explored with slightly more depth than expected, the inherent drama is undermined by predictable plot twists and severely suppressed vestiges of low-key cheap comedy. Deceptive smuggler Aristotle Kristatos' betrayal can be seen a mile away, encapsulating the narrative's lack of dramatic tension in a nutshell.

Notable action sequences featured in For Your Eyes Only take place in Cortina, Italy and underwater within a sunken ship, recalling Bond's prowess on a set of skies and in diving gear. However, even taking into consideration the high altitude final act that begins with Bond hanging from the side of a mountain, the stunt work and set pieces of the picture are merely passable and mostly unremarkable overall. The one notable exception is the film's very best sequence depicting Bond and Melina's escape from certain doom as they are dragged through a shark infested coral reef is truly excellent.

Roger Moore really shows his age in his fifth picture as Bond, and though he successfully pulls off a sterner 007 the script doesn't do him any favors, significantly toning down the humor so prevalent during his tenure and drawing direct attention in one sequence to the age gap between him and lusty Olympic hopeful Bibi Dahl played by accomplished American figure skater Lynn-Holly Johnson. As the vengeful crossbow-wielding Melina Havelock, Carole Bouquet convincing gives off a fierce intensity rarely found in Bond love interests. Julian Glover is believably suave as Kristatos though he isn't afforded a moment to truly shine as a Bond villain, his henchmen the laconic Emile Leopold Locque and KGB thug Erich Kriegler are respectively played by Michael Gothard and John Wyman. Israeli luminary Topol turns in a fun performance as honorable Greek smuggler Milos Columbo. Geoffrey Keen and James Villiers return as Frederick Gray and Bill Tanner to dole out exposition, alongside Desmond Llewelyn as Q and Lois Maxwell in her twelfth appearance as Moneypenny. More of a looming threat this time, Walter Gotell reprises the role of KGB head General Gogol, letting out a terrific laugh at the end. Cassandra Harris appears briefly in the thankless role of doomed Countess Lisl von Schlaf.

For Your Eyes Only is Roger Moore's most grounded but least memorable James Bond film by far. The stunt work and set pieces are relatively mundane compared to spectacular heights the franchise had previously reached. Hinging on a predictable twist, the picture ultimately lacks the whimsical spirit of the series' best and worst entries.


THE COLD OPEN
Completely divorced from the rest of the film, Bond visits Theresa's grave and survives an attempt on his life by a bald man in a wheelchair with a white cat on his lap, concluding with Bond dropping the villain down an industrial smoke stack. It's a dopey sequence made even sillier by Thunderball writer Kevin McClory's legal dispute with Eon Productions preventing the producers from officially identifying Bond's uncredited nemesis as Blofeld.


THE THEME SONG AND OPENING TITLES
The third James Bond theme song to be nominated for an the Best Original Song Academy Award, Sheena Easton's "For Your Eyes Only" written by composer Bill Conti is a pleasant enough love ballad but it isn't one of my favorites. As opening title designer Maurice Binder liked Easton's appearance, she appears alongside the usual selection of nude models in the strange literally bubbly sequence so that it plays almost like a standard 1980s music video. Approached by the producers of the film, rock band Blondie recorded a theme song for the film but it was rejected in favor of Sheena Easton's track.


THE BOND GIRL
Melina Havelock is one of the stronger Bond love interests, with her own apolitical mission that she could have carried out alone. She may also be the least fun of all of Bond's lovers, without much of a personality aside from her quest for vengeance.


THE BOND VILLAIN
Aristotle Kristatos is the most mundane Bond villain. Though he seems to have an unhealthy preoccupation with Bibi, acting as her sponsor, there is little that makes him stand out from other big bads and his plot to retrieve and sell the ATAC to the Soviets while shifting suspicion to his former smuggling partner Columbo is the least impressive evil scheme of the entire series.


FEATURED HENCHMAN
Emile Leopold Locque is the least memorable henchmen of the franchise though he's the only one who leaves any sort of a meaningful impression in this film. His look anchored by a set of octagonal glasses is more dweeby than intimidating. The way Bond kicks his car down a cliff is really damn cold.


FEATURED GADGET
The giant Identograph computer put to work in identifying Loque is hilariously giant and impractical, filling up an entire room in Q's lab.


FLEMING FIDELITY
The film is adapted from two of Ian Felming's James Bond short stories published in 1960 in the collection entitled For Your Eyes Only, the title story and Risico. The murder of the Havelocks was adapted from the collection's title story in which M offers Bond an off-the-books mission to avenge their deaths at the hands of Cuban assassins hired by ex-Nazi Herr von Hammerstein. When Bond tracks down von Hammerstein, the Havelocks' daughter Judy is one step ahead of Bond, killing von Hammerstein with an arrow from 100 yards away as he dives into a swimming pool, directly inspiring the scene in Spain depicted in the film. The character of Aristotle Kristatos, his betrayal of Colombo, and his collusion with the Russians is adapted pretty faithfully from Risico.


FRAGMENTS
- Regular Rocky series composer Bill Conti provided the score for the film as series regular composer John Barry was unable to work in the UK for tax reasons at the time

- Out of respect for M actor Bernard Lee who passed away in 1981, producer Albert R. Broccoli refused to recast the role of M for this film

- Julian Glover had been shortlisted as a possible Bond for Live and Let Die but ultimately lost out to Roger Moore

- Claus, one of Loque's underlings, is played by a Charles Dance, best known for playing Tywin Lannister on Game of Thrones

- Cassandra Harris and her husband, future Bond actor Pierce Brosnan, lunched with Albert R. Broccoli during filming

- At the bottom of the end credits, the film advertises that "James Bond will return in Octopussy"

Moonraker

MOONRAKER
1979 | Dir. Lewis Gilbert | 126 Minutes

"Well, I'd heard that Hugo Drax is obsessed with the conquest of space. Now I can believe it."

James Bond's investigation into a stolen space shuttle leads him to its manufacturer, billionaire industrialist Hugo Drax. To thwart Drax's apocalyptic plan, 007 teams up with undercover CIA Agent Holly Goodhead on a mission that eventually leads the spies to a secret space station orbiting Earth.

The James Bond film franchise is at its worst when it desperately chases the zeitgeist and it is dreadfully obvious Moonraker was fast-tracked to ride the coattails of massive box office smash Star Wars. However, despite shifting the series to a genre in which it clearly does not belong, it is a whole lot of campy fun. For his third and final Bond picture, director Lewis Gilbert dials the corniness and slapstick humor all the way up. This movie is best enjoyed taking the action and comedy in stride as to take its plot seriously would be a mistake. The chase sequence in the canals of Venice aptly represents the tone of the film, beginning with a Bond dispatching a knife throwing assassin conveniently hiding in a coffin that turns out to be his own and ending with Bond's gondola-turned-hovercraft casually gliding through the square as various onlookers, including a pigeon and a dog, perform double-takes at the sight of it. Other notable action sequences include the picture's high flying cold open, a mindless smash-everything-in-the-room fight in a glass museum, a brawl on a suspended gondola lift, and an explosive boat chase on the Amazon River.

The featured third act space scenes are technically quite impressive, though the excessive use of laser guns and the notion that the U.S. military is ready to dispatch a squadron of soldiers trained for space combat at a moment's notice is absolutely ludicrous. The film's depiction of zero G is also hilariously inept, amounting to little more than slow motion movement for the lead performers while extras awkwardly leap and fall in the background.

Moonraker is a gold mine for Roger Moore as he excels at delivering cheesy dialogue. Nearly every other line or action for Bond in this one is played for laughs. Lois Chiles is charming, convincingly tough and capable, but unfortunately less than memorable as undercover Agent Holly Goodhead. As run-of-the-mill evil mastermind Hugo Drax, Michael Lonsdale is fine but perhaps a little dry considering how he could have really chewed the scenery. Completely overshadowing aikido master Toshiro Suga's unspecified Asian henchman Chang, Richard Kiel returns as the lovable relentless Jaws with more screen time, a final act heroic turn, and an adorable little girlfriend named Dolly played by Blanche Ravalec. French actress Corinne Cléry plays Drax's doomed personal pilot, while Emily Bolton leaves a strong impression as Bond's decidedly not-so-doomed fellow spy Manuela. Amusing as ever, Lois Maxwell, Bernard Lee, and Desmond Llewelyn appear once again as M, Moneypenny, and Q, at one point operating out of a secret MI6 base in a Brazilian Monastery. Returning from The Spy Who Loved Me, Geoffrey Keen and Walter Gotell briefly appear as Frederick Gray and General Gogol.

Moonraker may be the most absurd Bond film but under the appropriate mindset it is a lot of fun. Full of sight gags and one-liners, the movie simply refuses to take itself seriously. While the concept of 007 in space is patently ridiculous, the visual effects aren't half bad all things considered.


THE COLD OPEN
While the explosive hijacking of Moonraker shuttle is pretty standard for a Bond movie cold open, Bond's midair fight for a parachute with Jaws on his tail is really great stuff.


THE THEME SONG AND OPENING TITLES
Shirley Bassey's dreamy "Moonraker" isn't her best song for the franchise but it's still better than most of the other opening theme songs. I much prefer the uptempo disco version that plays during the end credits. The Maurice Binder designed opening title sequence is as stylish and silly as the film itself with nude women bounding through the clouds and among the stars.


THE BOND GIRL
Holly Goodhead is one of the better love interests in the series. She is an intelligent, skilled, and highly competent spy who manages to do a better job than Bond infiltrating Drax's operation. Best of all, not once is she captured or held hostage by the villain. In disguise as a doctor working for NASA, it's actually kind of ridiculous that Bond is surprised to learn a doctor can be a woman when he is first introduced to her. It's 1979 for crying out loud.


THE BOND VILLAIN
Scheming to kill everyone on Earth so that he may repopulate it with a master race of his handpicked physically perfect people, Hugo Drax's plot feels merely like an elevated version of Karl Stromberg's from The Spy Who Loved Me. Ambitious though he may be, Drax doesn't display much of a personality to standout from other Bond villains.


FEATURED HENCHMEN
Chang practices Japanese martial arts though is name is Chinese or Korean, so clearly the writers didn't care enough to name their character accurately. His uninspired, frankly stupid-looking costume says as much. It ultimately doesn't matter as Bond easily kills him and he is quickly replaced by Jaws, the best henchman ever, as Drax's top enforcer. Jaws' redemption motivated by his love for the short and bespectacled Dolly, counter to Drax's standard for perfection, is actually pretty sweet.


FEATURED GADGET
Bond's wrist dart shooter introduced during the mission briefing at the top of the film is more practical than the other nonsensical tech presented in this movie and takes the nearly the entire movie to pay off, but it's an awesomely punny moment once it does.


FLEMING FIDELITY
The film takes only its title and the villain's name from Ian Fleming's third James Bond novel Moonraker published in 1955; the plot of the picture is entirely unrelated to the source material. In the book, Hugo Drax is a secret Nazi posing as an English war hero. He collaborates with SMERSH in a scheme to destroy England using a missile rocket called "Moonraker" while playing the stock market to profit from the impending disaster. With help from fellow agent Gala Brand, Bond foils Drax's plan and annihilates him and his Soviet cohorts with the nuclear warhead they had plotted to use against England.


FRAGMENTS
- The score features several cheesy musical references: the first three notes of Richard Strauss' "Also sprach Zarathustra" prominently featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey is played on a trumpet to announce Bond's arrival in one scene, the love theme from Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet Overture" plays when Jaws meets Dolly, John Williams' theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind is the key-code for a security door to the hidden lab where Drax's scientists manufacture the lethal poison for his scheme, and Elmer Bernstein's theme from The Magnificent Seven plays when Bond rides on horseback in gaucho clothing to MI6's secret base headquarters in a Brazilian monastery

- Crew member Victor Tourjansky makes a cameo appearance as the man with a bottle of wine in Venice who reacts humorously to Bond's gondola/hovercraft gliding through the square; he previously appeared in The Spy Who Loved Me and would go on to appear in For Your Eyes Only

- John Barry's 007 theme plays during the chase sequence on the Amazon River

- At the bottom of the end credits, the film advertises that "James Bond will return in 'For Your Eyes Only'"

The Spy Who Loved Me

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
1977 | Dir. Lewis Gilbert | 125 Minutes

"In our business, Anya, people get killed. We both know that. So did he. It was either him or me."

When British and Soviet nuclear submarines go missing, MI6 and the KGB send their respective top spies to investigate, Agent 007 James Bond and Agent XXX Anya Amasova. The two elite operatives must learn to set aside their differences and work together to stop wealthy madman Karl Stromberg from destroying the world.

Directly following installments that range from middling to terrible, Roger Moore's third Bond film is genuinely excellent. The Spy Who Loved Me boldly takes the series' signature brand of escapist espionage entertainment in a decidedly optimistic direction by presenting a scenario in which Cold War rivals collaborate to combat a mutual threat against humanity. To the credit of the filmmakers, they attempt to balance Bond's inherent chauvinism by pairing him with an opposing female agent created for this film to be his equal. The picture puts Roger Moore's undeniable charm to good use and combines it with director Lewis Gilbert's talent for presenting elaborate and fantastic action with a dash of humor resulting in an incredibly fun and memorable ride. The primary locations of Egypt and Sardinia are gorgeously photographed, exuding the sense of exoticism and luxury the series is known for when it's at its best, and Stromberg's underwater lair Atlantis and his massive supertanker Liparus are some of the most creative and ambitious sets of the franchise. The thoroughly enjoyable soundtrack by Marvin Hamlisch is most notable for its unique disco version of the James Bond theme.

The Spy Who Loved Me features some of the best and most memorable action sequences of the series. Jaws' relentless pursuit of Bond and Amasova brings on thrilling action sequences in Egyptian Ruins, aboard a train, and in Atlantis. A chase scene in Sardinia involving a helicopter and a Lotus Esprit courtesy of Q Branch that transforms into a submarine armed with all sorts of amusing weapons leads to a brief but visually stunning underwater battle. The final battle aboard Liparus culminating with Bond's perilous maneuver to blow open a reinforced steel wall with a nuclear warhead detonator is classic 007.

Roger Moore looks like he's having the time of his life playing Bond, consistently suave but far from infallible, leaning into the corny nature of the role as it was written at the time, his one-liner land more often than not on this outing and he sells the action sequences well enough. In the role of Agent Amasova, Barbara Bach is very lovely and makes for a convincingly competent Soviet superspy, an appropriate match for Bond until the narrative disappointingly turns her into a damsel for Bond to rescue during its final act. German-Austrian actor Curt Jurgens plays Stromberg as an emotionally subdued megalomaniac, his iconic physically imposing steel-toothed henchman Jaws played by Richard Kiel leaves much more of a lasting impression. Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, and Desmond Llewelyn once again return as exposition machines M, Moneypenny, and Q, operating out of a secret base in the Sahara, while Walter Gotell and Geoffrey Keen make their respective debuts as KGB head General Gogol and British Defence Minister Frederick Gray.

Extraordinarily entertaining, highly imaginative, and full of action and humor, The Spy Who Loved Me is the very peak of Roger Moore's run as 007 and the among the best of the James Bond series. It is among only a handful of classic Bond films that continues to hold up remarkably well.


THE COLD OPEN
A lot is packed into the cold open for this one but the payoff is awesome. An American submarine is abducted, the KGB activates Agent XXX who turns out to be a woman, and Bond escapes enemy combatants skiing off a cliff with a massive drop only to open a parachute emblazoned with the Union Jack. Absolutely glorious.


THE THEME SONG AND OPENING TITLES
Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better" is one of the very best Bond theme songs, and one of the few that effectively functions as a great love ballad beyond the movie. It was the second James Bond theme song to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The opening title sequence by Maurice Binder is mostly saved by the song as Bond's war against a generic parade of nude female silhouettes, some in bearskins and some doing gymnastics on the barrel of a pistol, is more silly than sexy.


THE BOND GIRL
Agent XXX Anya Amasova is pretty great by Bond love interest standards as she actually gets the upper hand on Bond in a memorable sequence, easily seducing him before knocking him out with a cloud of sleeping powder and stealing the MacGuffin of the moment for her country. She proves to be a competent spy, and even resists Bond's charm for a good stretch. Amasova's hatred for Bond for killing her fellow spy and lover gives their relationship some third act tension, but she inexplicably and quite predictably ends up in bed with Bond anyway after she is reduced to a lady to be rescued by Bond for uninspired story reasons.


THE BOND VILLAIN
After so many SPECTRE agents, Blofeld and his harebrained schemes, and common criminals with impractical ambitions, Karl Stromberg is a refreshing Bond villain in the simplicity of his delusion. His scheme to kick start World War III with hijacked Western and Soviet nuclear submarines and create a new utopian civilization underwater is impractical and quite insane but his execution is kind of elegant thanks to his abundant resources. It's impressive that Stromberg has so many followers staffing the Liparus, though how many were paid as opposed to actually believing in Stromberg's questionable vision for the future. His lair is also pretty neat with a great view, and the trap door to feed enemies to his shark is a nice gag. However, the hidden gun under the long dining table wasn't the best idea and he inevitably paid for it.


FEATURED HENCHMEN
With an entertaining distinctive gimmick and an abundance of personality despite having no dialogue whatsoever, Jaws is best and most iconic Bond henchman ever. Jaws was so popular at test screenings that the filmmakers shot additional footage for the final cut of the film to reassure the audience that he survived his encounter with Stromberg's shark and the destruction of Atlantis. His counterpart, a short and squat bruiser named Sandor, is tragically mostly forgotten despite his memorable death scene.


FEATURED GADGET
The transforming Lotus Espirit submarine is peak 1970s Bond. It would be so much fun to go on an underwater date in that thing, even better if given the opportunity to take out enemies with missiles.


FLEMING FIDELITY
When Ian Fleming sold the film rights to his 1962 Bond novel The Spy Who Loved Me, the ninth in his series, he only gave permission for the title to be used as critics and readers were very disappointed with the book. The plot of the novel follows the tribulations of a young Canadian woman, thrown into a night of fending off gangsters at a motel with Bond coming to her assistance by chance. Jaws is based on one of gangsters in the book, a metal-toothed thug who goes by Sol "Horror" Horowitz.


FRAGMENTS
- As Anya dresses down Bond she mentions that he had been married once before he sternly stops her from saying more, a rare reference to the tragic events of On Her Majesty's Secret Service

- Walter Gotell previously appeared in From Russia with Love as SPECTRE henchman Morzeny

- Robert Brown makes his first appearance in the series as Vice-Admiral Hargreaves, eventually filling the role of M beginning in Octopussy; it's unclear in series canon if M was a title passed on to Hargreaves or if Robert Brown's M is meant to be the same character as the M played by Bernard Lee

- An excerpt from Maurice Jarre's score for Lawrence of Arabia during Bond and Amasova's journey through the Sahara

- Crew member Victor Tourjansky makes a cameo appearance as the man with a bottle of wine on the beach who reacts humorously to the Lotus Espirit emerging from the ocean; he would go on to appear in Moonraker and For Your Eyes Only

- At the bottom of the end credits, the film advertises that "James Bond will return in For Your Eyes Only" but due to the unprecedented success of Star Wars, Eon Productions followed up with Moonraker instead

The Man with the Golden Gun

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN
1974 | Dir. Guy Hamilton | 125 Minutes

"You see, Mr. Bond, like every great artist, I want to create an indisputable masterpiece once in my lifetime. The death of 007, mano a mano, face to face, will be mine."

When MI6 receives a death threat against James Bond from eccentric assassin Francisco Scaramanga in the form of a a golden bullet with "007" etched into it. Bond follows Scaramanga's trail through Macau, Hong Kong, and Thailand, uncovering the villain's plot to steal a solar energy device, the key component to a weapon of mass destruction, and sell it to the highest bidder.

The Man with the Golden Gun is a significant low point in Eon's James Bond film series. The action is mostly by-the-numbers, Scaramanga's scheme is incredibly underwhelming, and the humor that characterizes Roger Moore's tenure as Bond falls miserably short. The doomsday weapon on Scaramanga is mostly an afterthought and exists solely to justify a MacGuffin chase that fills in the film's hollow plot. The narrative inevitably builds to a duel between Scaramanga and Bond, a contest that ultimately fails to meet even the most modest expectations. The set pieces are some of the least impressive of the franchise. The river boat sequence is far less engaging than the one in Live and Let Die that it was clearly designed to replicate, and Scaramanga's fun house that serves as the battleground for his duels is absolutely impractical and completely absurd.

Attempting to emulate popular kung fu films of the time, The Man with the Golden Gun features a martial arts sequence that's poorly realized and mostly embarrassing for everyone involved. The Asian representation in this film is highly problematic in its gross inauthenticity. Having Japanese sumo wrestlers appear in a Chinese-speaking Thai industrialist's compound in Bangkok not only demonstrates a clear lack of attention to detail, but also blatant disrespect to vastly different East Asian cultures.

At least Roger Moore looks like he's having fun in this one, his dopey performance perfectly encapsulated in the scene where Bond accidentally swallows a golden bullet he extracted from the navel of belly dancer with his lips. As Scaramanga, film villain extraordinaire Christopher Lee does his best with the material despite its many inherent shortcomings, giving the part much more gravitas than it deserves. Lee's dignified presence runs in stark contrast to Hervé Villechaize's ultra campy performance as Scaramanga's dwarf companion Nick Nack. Britt Ekland is lifeless in the admittedly thankless role of incompetent secret agent and love interest Mary Goodnight. By comparison, Maud Adams leaves more of a lasting impression than Ekland as Scaramanga's doomed mistress Andrea Anders, an unfortunate stock Bond character in the very worst way. Korean-American actor Soon-Tiak Oh is just fine as Hong Kong cop Lieutenant Hip, Bond's token ethnic ally on this particular adventure, though clearly he isn't fluent in English or Chinese. Inexplicably, the worst Bond movie character ever returns as Clifton James reprises the role of the racist Louisiana sheriff J.W. Pepper from Live and Let Die, this time with even more screen time, eventually partnering up with Bond for a mostly forgettable car chase featuring one incredible stunt that's played for laughs. Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell's appear for the ninth time as M and Moneypenny, operating out of an absurdly designed secret base located in the wreck of the RMS Queen Elizabeth in Hong Kong Harbour with everything tilted at an angle. In his seventh series appearance, Desmond Llewelyn's Q amusingly berates Roger Moore's Bond for the first time. James Villiers appears uncredited as MI6 Chief of Staff Bill Tanner, a recurring character in later entries of the series.

Thoroughly uninspired and generally kind of dull, The Man with the Golden Gun is among the worst Bond films. This one is just barely worth watching for a fun performance from Christopher Lee as the titular villain.


THE COLD OPEN
One of the worst cold opens of the series with an out-of-place old-timey gangster in an even more out-of-place fun house murdered by Scaramanga in a terribly staged duel.


THE THEME SONG AND OPENING TITLES
Lulu's "The Man with the Golden Gun" is possibly the most irritating Bond opening theme song with shrill vocals and seemingly haphazard structure. The alternate reprisal version the song played during the end credits is shorter, somehow cornier, and not much better. To make matters worse, Maurice Binder seems to phone it in for the opening title sequence, lazily interspersing shots of the Scaramanga's golden gun and models with a wavy water effect overlayed on top.


THE BOND GIRL
Mary Goodnight's name is a stupid as the character, completely useless as an MI6 operative and becoming Scaramanga's hostage by basically delivering herself to him. For a franchise that infamously mistreats women especially in its early days, The Man with the Golden Gun is particularly bad.


THE BOND VILLAIN
Scaramanga's motivation is divided in such a way that detracts from the character overall. On one hand, he is driven to kill Bond in a duel for fame and glory, a simple but intriguing and unique low-stakes goal for a Bond villain. His hunt for the Solex device, and his dealings with Hai Fat and Communist China raise the stakes but are decidedly incongruous to his duel with Bond. Admittedly, there wouldn't be much of a movie without the fate of the world hanging in the balance, but it is nonsensical for a hired killer like Scaramanga to have any global-minded ambitions.


FEATURED HENCHMEN
Nick Nack is a memorable secondary villain for his small stature alone. For cheap comedy, he is placed in several undignified positions throughout the film that have become tougher to watch as time moves on.


FEATURED GADGET
Scaramanga's golden gun comprised of disguised fountain pen, lighter, cigarette case, and cufflink is one of the more creative and memorable designs for a Bond movie prop.


FLEMING FIDELITY
Adapted from Ian Fleming's final Bond novel of the same name published posthumously in 1965, the film discards everything from the source material except the titular villain and his famous weapon. Following the events of 1964's You Only Live Twice, which ended with an amnesiac Bond leaving his Japanese lover for Russia in hopes of recovering his memory, the book opens with a brainwashed Bond attempting to take M's life. MI6 successfully de-programs Bond and M sends him on a difficult mission so that Bond may prove himself. Bond assumes the identity of Mark Hazard to dispatch Cuban assassin Francisco "Pistols" Scaramanga, a prolific criminal associated with a syndicate of American gangsters and KGB engaged in various illicit enterprises that undermine Western influence in the Caribbean. With help from Felix Leiter, Bond takes out members of the syndicate along with Scaramanga.


FRAGMENTS
- The Prodigy's "Mindfields" which is prominently featured in the Wachowskis' The Matrix samples "Hip's Trip" from John Barry's score for this film

- Chinese action star Yuen Qiu, perhaps best known to contemporary Western audiences as the chain-smoking landlady from Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle, plays one of Hip's nieces prominently featured in the scene where they rescue Bond from the martial arts school

- At the bottom of the end credits, the film advertises that "James Bond will return in The Spy Who Loved Me"