Ninth Bond film and the second with Roger Moore, who, throughout the film, wears suits that are too big for him. Bond pursues the “Solex Agitator” device (tied into an interesting plot about the 1973 oil crisis) and arch-villain Scaramanga (Christopher Lee). It’s as racist and sexist as you’d expect from the vintage. That aside, what are the pros and cons of the film?
Pluses:
• M and Q’s base hidden in a wrecked ship in Hong Kong has brilliantly skewed angles with their own dream logic – superb set design.
• Christopher Lee is charming and convincing compared to most Bond villains. He could be the best of all. He certainly out-acts Roger Moore.
• The horror-funhouse in which Scaramanga traps his victims is imaginative and thrilling.
• This dialogue...
Bond: “But where is it collected from? You need the sun.”
Scaramanga: “Watch that mushroom-shaped rock. lngenious, isn't it?”
Minuses:
• Britt Ekland is terribly weak as “Goodnight”, but the character is so underwritten that she isn’t given much to work with.
• The name “Goodnight” seems to exist only to enable a feeble pun at the very end of the film that isn’t worth the wait.
• Bond hits a woman again (see also From Russia with Love).
• Awful theme tune by Lulu: a breathless dash of a song.
• In one scene, Nick Nack throws countless wine bottles at Bond but no wine spills anywhere. Then Britt Ekland manages to clean up hundreds of shards of glass within minutes.
• The comedy character Sheriff J.W. Pepper returns from Live and Let Die and hasn’t got any funnier.
• A brilliant stunt in which a car corkscrews across a river is ruined by the pointless addition of a “whoopsie” sound effect. What were they playing at?!
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