Observations: The Man With The Golden Gun

Aston Martin DBSAston Martin DBS Derbyshire, EnglandPosts: 659MI6 Agent
edited February 2009 in The James Bond Films
I've just watched TMWTGG on Sky and I'd not seen it in a long time so now I've got a few observations/questions:

Isn't the model cowboy who comes out of the saloon in Scaramanga's funhouse a model of Roger Moore with a droopy moustache added?

Does anyone know if the models of Moore and the other waxworks were done by Madame Tussauds?

Speaking of which is it just me or the minute we see the 007 model in the pre-credits sequence you just know that Bond is going to dress as the model at some point in the film.

Does Goodnight make Stacey Sutton look like she belongs to Mensa the High IQ society?

Isn't the scene where Bond slaps Andrea about in the hotel room a scene where Moore tries to be Flemings Bond, but he seems uncomfortable with the actions and we had to wait until the scene where he kicks the car off the cliff in FYEO to see Moore as Flemings Bond?

JW Pepper - why? What the F**k?

That's it for now....
"NEVER SAY NO TO ADVENTURES." Ian Fleming

Comments

  • agent 00agent 00 Univex Station L Netherlands Posts: 340MI6 Agent
    The cowboy is Roger Moore with moustache and the models are real people not dolls.;)
    You can see it in the eyes.
    Jan

    " Sono Topolino, e tu chi saresti? ".
    http://www.facebook.com/agent00univex
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent
    I think what you are hinting at, Aston, is that TMWTGG just isn't a very clever film. There is plenty of stuff wrong with it and odd about it, much of which is documented in these forum pages.
  • superdaddysuperdaddy englandPosts: 917MI6 Agent
    still love the film though especially old rogs safarie suit.i personnely put the films into catergries lald,tmwtgg,octopussy, moonraker,avtak,daf,dad are what i call carry on spying bonds ie aload of nonesense but fun to watch and the rest are the real deal
  • JDubyaJDubya Florida USAPosts: 9MI6 Agent
    1. yea i always thought that

    2. i dont think theyre real but idk who did em, try google

    3. i was like 8-10 when i saw it the first time, i didnt even realise its significance at all more than revealing that scaramanga was obviously the villian or at least A villian and theyd meet ofc

    4. sutton can at least operate a computer and goodnight cant escape a trunk till its airborne? lol yea i agree

    5. by flemings bond if u mean ruthless then kinda yea - he kills without a thought if its a henchmen BUT ljust like the stupid villians he passes up so many chances to kill a supervillian - but fleming admitted when he met mcclory that he wouldnt know the first thing to write for a film - and we would not have a film if bond were the ruthless yet righteous hero fleming wrote.

    Writers rely on our imagination which is again why flemings bond didnt work - with quick ruthless action theres no rising action, climing action and de neux mas - falling action (french ppl please correct my spelling)

    no film without broccoli/saltzmans bond
  • JDubyaJDubya Florida USAPosts: 9MI6 Agent
    sorry - all due respect to fleming - i didnt mean his bond didnt work i mean what you suggested as that kinda bond we see rarely - ofc flemings bond works!!! but i just deferred to his own opinion that his imagination goes to words and is supposed to grab yours

    200 other people make a movie happen and we are talking apples, oranges and polaris missiles
  • DollyDolly Posts: 1MI6 Agent

    OK, so 12 years and a global pandemic have passed since the original poster asked his questions about 'The Man with the Golden Gun'. I stumbled on this thread in Summer 2021. As a Bond geek/know all, I just had to throw in my two penn'orth. Even if nobody reads it!

    First off, the 'waxwork dummy' of Roger Moore in villain Francisco Scaramanga's 'fun house' is no dummy - it IS Roger Moore! Watch the movie again ('TMWTGG' is available in full on YT at time of posting, July 2021), and it becomes obvious. Ten minutes in, just after Scaramanga has dispatched the mafia hitman with a gold bullet to the forehead, the James Bond 'figure' is standing in vision in the background and he's constantly, subtly - but unmistakably - swaying!

    It's even more obviously Roger Moore himself when we get the close-up, rear view of the 007 'effigy' as Scaramanga shoots off its fingers one by one. Moore's head wobbles with each exploding digit! Special effects had obviously done some clever stuff with the actor and a fake arm/hand. It's very well done. On first seeing the film, audiences would have assumed it was a waxwork likeness, and not clocked it was actually the star - which possibly confirms the gags about Roger's acting talent being confined to his eyebrows only!

    The cowboy 'dummy' with droopy 'tache however is NOT Roger Moore, and again it's not a dummy. It's commonly assumed to be a recycling of the supposed Bond 'waxwork' - or indeed, the flesh-and-blood RM himself. Not so. The cowboy was actually played by Moore's long-time stand in and stunt double Les Crawford. Stuntman Crawford frequently worked with RM from his earliest TV series 'Ivanhoe' (1958-'59), then 'The Saint' (1962-'69), and 'The Persuaders' (1971-'72). He was also Moore's double for his first two Bond outings, 'Live and Let Die' and 'TMWTGG'. Les Crawford died in 2006, aged 73.

    As others have said, like the cowboy, the gangster 'dummies' were also real people, with Al Capone played by actor Ray Marione. It always irks me that producers left in the shot of Capone/Marione blinking like a startled bullfrog at the sound of machine gun fire. He's supposed to be a mannequin FFS - his plastic, dummy arms fall out of his suit sleeves as he's shot at by the hitman! So his obvious blinking totally gives the game away he's flesh and blood. For me, that 2 second shot of him blinking is an even worse ****-up than the infamous and universally loathed, comic slide-whistle sound effect that ruined Bond's brilliant car jump.

    Apparently the scene in which Bond roughed up Scaramanga's mistress Andrea (Maud Adams), threatening to break her arm etc, was not to Roger Moore's taste. He felt Bond should charm the information out of her, not get violent. It's a scene that grates, but in Moore's defence it was only his second outing as Bond, so he was still guided by the macho Ian Fleming/Sean Connery template. From his next Bond movie 'The Spy Who Loved Me' onwards, he established his 007 as a gentleman spy who only got physical with women in the bedroom.

    I totally agree with the OP re Mary Goodnight, she's surely the most useless Bond girl of all time. The characterisation wasn't helped by Britt Ekland's wooden acting. Cubby & co went some way to atone for that sin with brainy Russian agent Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach), who gave Bond a run for his money in 1977's 'TSWLM'.

    I know fans have mixed feelings about 'The Man with the Golden Gun', and it was one of the lowest grossing Bond films. But when I revisited it recently, I thought it had stood the test of time. Like the golden gun itself, it's greater than the sum of its parts. It's best weapon is a sublime villain in Sir Christopher Lee's super-assassin, Scaramanga.

    Lee's classy, understated menace elevated 'TMWTGG' to a high quality, memorable production, and established Roger Moore as a James Bond to be reckoned with. That Lee got an additional movie credit as a stunt driver showed he gave his all to the role. I only wish the producers had made the most of their superstar villain. As Bond's ultimate gentleman nemesis, 'mano a mano', Scaramanga and 007 really should have shared more screen time.

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent

    Hi Dolly

    You may wish to introduce yourself in the dedicated thread in the Off Topic Chat forum - Welcome & Comings & Goings 🙂

    To be fair, even upon release in 1974, it was obvious that Roger and Capone were not mannequins, it didn’t need viewings on video to realise that.

    For a many years TMWTGG was way down on my list of favourite Bond movies, but in recent years I have warmed to it, the Far East locations and Christopher Lee’s performance being part of my revisioned enjoyment. There is still a lot wrong with it, Nick Nick being a particular bone of contention with me, but on the whole I enjoy this a lot more now.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff

    Hello Dolly, well Hello Dolly (sorry). There's a couple of welcoming messages in the thread mentioned above.

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent

    This thread is mad. And then it becomes brilliant - thanks to @Dolly who need not actually introduce themselves - nobody has to!

    I didn't realise they were mannequins. But then I don't care. It's a rubbish film.

    That includes Chris Lee as 'No threat ever' Scaramanga. Give me The Wicker Man any day. (Britt starred in that too.) He never gets under your skin in this and what the hell is he really up to? Who cares? So he's a bit suave.

    Anyone reading this will be checking out if it's really Moore as the mannequin!

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent

    welcome Dolly, come tell us all about your Secret Origins, Character Revealing Backstory and Unseen Missions in the Welcome & Comings & Goings thread.


    I gotta point out Stacey Sutton is a geologist, so must be cleverer than she looks, she just has that sexy breathless voice and screams in situations where I'd be screaming too. But Mary Goodnight's job is not revealed in the film (in the book she's Bond's secretary and does an impressive job of gathering research for him). Between Mary Goodnight, Tiffany Case and Rosie Carver, those early70s Guy Hamilton directed films made a lot of women characters look like fools, and the few that werent fools were victims. Not a lot of strong women characters in those three films.

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent

    I never gave the mannequins a second thought. I assumed they were mannequins. To be fair, I usually lose interest by the time they appear, both at the climax and in the PTS. I recently watched TMWTGG on ITV4 - I was bored, please forgive me - and it never ceases to amaze me how much of a roller coaster this film is, even inside individual scenes the movie veers from brilliant to absurd - as stated by the observations above. It's fascinating simply by being so hopelessly inept.

  • RevelatorRevelator Posts: 558MI6 Agent

    The original post asks "Isn't the scene where Bond slaps Andrea about in the hotel room a scene where Moore tries to be Fleming's Bond"?

    No, because Fleming's Bond never slaps a woman to obtain information or assert his dominance over her. Fleming's Bond tends be a more a chivalrous character than his screen counterpart and less of a cad. It's difficult to imagine Fleming's Bond stuffing Mary Goodnight into a closet before making love to Andrea.

    The slapping scene was Moore trying to imitate Connery, and he looked uncomfortable doing it. The filmmakers wisely decided to stop that sort of thing and let Moore rely on his own charm. And in contrast to the hapless bimbos of the Hamilton era, The Spy Who Loved Me made sure the female characters weren't pushovers.

  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 5,686MI6 Agent
    edited August 2021

    It's actually not Roger, even though I know it looks a lot like him. It's Les Crawford, who was often Roger's double in the 60s and 70s.

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