Golden Gun’s 50th anniversary: The unloved Bond?

The Man With the Golden Gun poster

Updated from previous posts.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of The Man With The Golden Gun.

The 1974 film has received a lot of flak over the decades. It’s exhibit A when the subject comes up about 007 film misfires. Too goofy. Too cheap. Too many of the crew members having a bad day.

For example, Don McGregor, then a writer for Marvel Comics, savaged the movie in a lengthy article in a 1975 issue of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu magazine (which featured a cover drawn by comics legend Neal Adams).

Also, the former Her Majesty’s Secret Servant website had few kind words when its contributors (including myself) did rankings of the Bond films. (Speaking only for myself, as I look back on my comments, the one about John Barry was over the top.)

Over the years, Bond fans have said it has an average John Barry score (though one supposes Picasso had average paintings). Barry had three weeks to do the score, according to the 2012 book The Music of James Bond. Barry’s music had one major demerit, a slide whistle used for the movie’s signature stunt when a car makes a jump, rotates in the air, and lands right-side up. Barry regretted the choice, The Music of James Bond author Jon Burlingame wrote.

Other criticisms: The movie has too many bad gags (Bond watches as two teenage karate students take out a supposedly deadly school of assassins). And, for some first-generation American 007 film fans, it has Roger Moore playing Bond, which is bad in and of itself.

Golden Gun is a way for fans to establish “street cred” — a way of establishing, “I’m not a fanboy.”

Neal Adams cover to The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu magazine containing an article savaging The Man With the Golden Gun

However, the movie also has its defenders. Among them is David Leigh, who runs The James Bond Dossier website and is a regular guest on the James Bond & Friends podcast.

The movie was a disappointment at the box office.

Golden Gun’s worldwide box office plunged 40% compared with Live And Let Die ($97.6 million versus $161.8 million, according to THE NUMBERS website). Within a few weeks of its December 1974 U.S. release, United Artists hurriedly paired Golden Gun with Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, which UA released earlier in 1974, to make a double feature.

In terms of long-term importance, Golden Gun was the finale of the Albert R. Broccoli-Harry Saltzman 007 partnership. Saltzman would soon be in financial trouble and have to sell out his share of the franchise to United Artists. In a way, things have never really been the same since.

The end of the car jump of The Man With the Golden Gun

Golden Gun is not the best offering in the Eon Production series. Rather, in many ways, it’s the runt of the litter that many like to pick on — even among the same people would chafe at criticism of their favorite 007 films.

The documentary Inside The Man With The Golden Gun says the movie has all of the 007 “ingredients.” Of course, such a documentary is approved by executives who aren’t demanding candor.

But the statement is true. It has not one, but two Oscar-winning directors of photography (Oswald Morris and Ted Moore); it has a score by a five-time Oscar winner (John Barry); it is one of 13 007 movies to which Richard Maibaum contributed writing.

Then again, movies sometimes are less than the sum of their parts. It happens. Not everyone has their best day.

For many, Golden Gun is a convenient piñata. Despite some positives (including the genuinely dangerous driving stunt), it doesn’t get much love from parts of the 007 fan community.

Golden Gun’s 45th anniversary: The unloved Bond?

The Man With the Golden Gun poster

Updated and expanded from a 2014 post.

This year marks the 45th anniversary of The Man With The Golden Gun.

The 1974 film has received a lot of flak over the decades. It’s exhibit A when the subject comes up about 007 film misfires. Too goofy. Too cheap. Too many of the crew members having a bad day.

For example, Don McGregor, then a writer for Marvel Comics, savaged the movie in a lengthy article in a 1975 issue of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu magazine (which featured a cover drawn by comics legend Neal Adams).

Also, the former Her Majesty’s Secret Servant website had few kind words when its contributors (including myself) did rankings of the Bond films. (Speaking only for myself, as I look back on my comments, one about John Barry was over the top.)

Over the years, Bond fans have said it has an average John Barry score (though one supposes Picasso had average paintings). It has too many bad gags (Bond watches as two teenage karate students take out a supposedly deadly school of assassins). And, for a number of first-generation 007 film fans, it has Roger Moore playing Bond, which is bad it and of itself.

Golden Gun is a way for fans to establish “street cred” — a way of establishing, “I’m not a fan boy.”

Neal Adams cover to The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu magazine containing an article savaging The Man With the Golden Gun

However, the movie also has its defenders. Among them is David Leigh, who runs The James Bond Dossier website and is a regular guest on the James Bond & Friends podcast.  Also, the August 2018 issue of 007 Magazine (which is sold out) had an article titled, “In Defence of The Man With the Golden Gun.”

The movie was a bit of a disappointment at the box office. Golden Gun’s worldwide box office plunged 40 percent compared with Live And Let Die ($97.6 million versus $161.8 million, according to THE NUMBERS website). Within a few weeks of its December 1974 U.S. release, United Artists hurriedly paired Golden Gun with Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, which UA released earlier in 1974, to make a double feature.

In terms of long-term importance, Golden Gun was the finale of the Albert R. Broccoli-Harry Saltzman 007 partnership. Saltzman would soon be in financial trouble and have to sell out his share of the franchise to United Artists. In a way, things have never really been the same since.

The end of the car jump of The Man With the Golden Gun

Golden Gun is not the best offering in the Eon Production series. Rather, in many ways, it’s the runt of the litter that many like to pick on — even among the same people who’d chafe at criticism of their favorite 007 film.

The documentary Inside The Man With The Golden Gun says the movie has all of the 007 “ingredients.” Of course, such a documentary is approved by executives who aren’t demanding candor.

But the statement is true. It has not one, but two Oscar winning directors of photography (Oswald Morris and Ted Moore); it has a score by a five-time Oscar winner (John Barry); it is one of 13 007 movies Richard Maibaum contributed writing.

Then again, movies sometimes are less the sum of their parts. It happens. Not everyone has their best day.

For many, Golden Gun is a convenient piñata. Despite some positives (including a genuinely dangerous driving stunt), it doesn’t get much love from part of the 007 fan community.

1975: When Marvel Comics ripped 007

One of the more unusual titles published by Marvel Comics came out in the mid-1970s. That’s when the company’s Dealy Hands of Kung Fu magazine ran a detailed critique of The Man With The Golden Gun. The article by Don McGregor, then a writer for Marvel, ripped almost everybody associated with the movie.

Some background: Deadly Hands of Kung Fu was a 75-cent magazine on newsstands featuring characters such as Shang Chi and the Sons of the Dragons. Horror comics and kung fu stories were popular for Marvel so the company came out with magazines with black-and-white artwork and a higher price (regular comics were 25 cents at the time).

Issue 12 of the magazine in 1975 was unusual in that the cover story was McGregor’s long review of the movie, not a comic story. Marvel even commissioned iconic comic artist Neal Adams to do the cover of Roger Moore as Bond, in a scene based on the movie’s “karate school” sequence. You can view that cover by CLICKING RIGHT HERE. Our recollection of the article is that McGregor wrote from the perspective of a long-time fan who didn’t care for the lighter tone of the 1970s films that Eon Productions was making. The title of the article: The Man With The Golden Gun Shoots Blanks!

We were reminded about after some Bond fans we know were discussing Golden Gun. It’s been years since we read the McGregor article but it’s definitely one of the more unusual things Marvel had done up to that time. Evidently, nobody at Eon held a grudge because Marvel ended up doing the official comics adaptation of For Your Eyes Only in 1981.

About two decades later, McGregor did his own take on 007 in a comic book story called The Quasimodo Gambit.