*

In a word: pathetic. However, after one is forced to endure this third consecutive BOND film from director Guy Hamilton, there is a bright side: this film concludes the final chapter of what I affectionately refer to as Guy Hamilton's "Trilogy of Trash" and, mercifully, this is also his last BOND film. Unfortunately, his whole 'let's all have FUN' attitude will continue to infect future BOND productions. In short, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN is a genuine film dud for absolutely nothing contained therein makes much of an impression. Once again, the screenplay is muddled up by Tom Mankiewicz. The plotline we're given is yet another nonsensical mess involving quite a few insipid, so-called inspirations :

1.	A million-dollar assassin for hire with a gold plated REMCO-like spy toy pop gun.
2.	Some double-talk discussion about solar power and a "Solex Agitator." Very quaint.
3.	Said assassin relies on his very own amusement parlor to distract his various victims.
4.	A very gawky dumb blonde who gets to run around in a bikini while avoiding fireballs.
5.	An expensive computer designed car jump stunt that only looks like a cheap model.
6.	A very expensive radio controlled car-plane miniature that looks like a cheap model.
7.	A henchman that's molded as a type of Odd Job in miniature. It doesn't work at all.

And so on. All of the above only adds up to a tremendous bore. The BOND producers attempt to be trendy with references to the so-called energy crisis, yet they are a year late and a million short, for it was long over. Plus, it was only a hoax perpetrated by various petroleum syndicates. Yawn! What do you do with a film that fails to bring out any menace from Christopher Lee? Sure, he's a Dr. No wannabe here, but he's supposed to be a kind of anti-Bond overall. Instead of this, we only get another actor who is going for the light touch ala Roger Moore. This is intolerable! But it still was a very good idea to cast Lee as a BOND villain -- finally. However, brilliant casting it is most definitely not when addressing the likes of Herve Villechaize and Britt Ekland. What in the Sam Hill were the BOND filmmakers thinking? It's too disturbing to even contemplate.

Overall this film is very depressing to watch. Not even the return of composer John Barry is enough to electrify any of the proceedings. The various attempts at comedy are all lame, the sexual innuendo is really vulgar and all the attempts at action and thrills are only most perfunctory. The bottom line is this: how can Scaramanga be a threat in the middle of nowhere with his solar powered ray gun? Even though he's planning to sell it to the highest bidder, this does absolutely nothing to heighten the so-called suspense or tension here. The Fleming novel on which this film is based was unfinished and later published posthumously. The original material was rather tepid at best, but look what finally replaced all of it on the screen. To add insult to injury, Clifton James is brought back as Sheriff J. W. Pepper. He was amusing the first time, fellas. The BOND producers will make a similar mistake in 1979 with a henchman called Jaws: once is quite enough, do you hear me? Of course, they don't listen to any of us true BOND fans. The BOND producers tend to aim for the lowest common denominator. Ho hum.