|
|
Location Guide - The Man With The Golden Gun
|
|
London, UK
James Bond is
summoned to the famous top-floor office of M,
head of MI6,
and given leave as a death-threat from the world's
sharpest freelance marksman arrives with 007's name
on it. Useless on his current assignment, Bond suggests
to M that he is only good to the Service if he finds
the assassin Francisco
Scaramanga before Scaramanga finds him.
|
|
|
|
|
Beirut, Lebanon
Beginning the near impossible task of finding the illusive
hit-man, Bond visits the locale of Bill Fairbanks'
(002) death.
Bond's colleague of the 'licence to kill' department
was assassinated by Scaramanga in a smoky nightclub
in the heart of Beirut. Bond meets with an exotic
dancer, also Fairbanks' ex-lover, now wearing the
golden bullet as a lucky charm. Bond charms his way
to retrieving the bullet, whilst fending off attackers.
|
|
|
|
|
Macau Province, China
The bullet is analysed by Q-Branch
and points to Lazar, a specialist arms-maker in China.
With a little
prompting Lazar reveals to 007 how he gets the bullets
to Scaramanga. Bond watches at the Floating Macau
Palace as Lazar makes his drop and it is collected
by a woman. Bond tails the beautiful but troubled Andrea
Anders via ferry to Hong Kong.
|
|
|
|
|
Hong Kong
Bond, with the help of agent Mary
Goodnight, traces Miss Anders to the Peninsula
Hotel. Questioning Anders, Bond discovers that Scaramanga
has an appointment at the Bottoms Up Club on Hankow
Road. Whilst staking out the venue, Bond is shocked
to find that the hit-man's appointment is the assassination
of Gibson -
an expert in solar energy. Amidst the commotion Bond
is picked up by MI6's own Lieutenant
Hip and whisked to the wreck of Queen Elizabeth
in Kowloon Bay, now a service outpost.
|
|
|
|
|
Bangkok, Thailand
Bond and Hip visit Scaramanga's associate Hai Fat.
The evening does not go how 007 had planned and
ends with Bond waking up at the Muang Boran Karate
school
where he is ably rescued by Hip and his nieces.
Undeterred, the black-belts at the school give
pursuit and Bond is chased through the river-side
markets of the Khlong and Thon Buri. With no new
leads, Bond and Goodnight have a romantic dinner
at the Oriental Hotel, but their evening is interrupted
by Anders who agrees to provide the Solex Agitator
in exchange for 007 killing Scaramanga.
|
|
|
|
|
Saraburi Province, Thailand
Bond and Goodnight rendezvous at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium
where the pair have agreed to meet Anders. But 007
discovers the cold corpse of the damsel and Scaramanga
nearby to gloat. When Bond makes his move, the assassin
has disappeared and taken Miss Goodnight with him.
Bond pursues with Louisiana Sheriff
J.W. Pepper in tow, but in a disused warehouse
Scaramanga's Medator sprouts
wings and takes off. |
|
|
|
|
Scaramanga Island, South China Sea
The homer in Goodnight's outfit leads MI6 to believe
Scaramanga is hiding out on a remote island in the
South China sea. Bond seeks permission to go in under
the radar via seaplane and
extract Goodnight and the Solex technology. Bond's
plane is spotted and Scaramanga dines with 007 before
challenging him to a dual. In his 'funhouse' Bond
battles the assassin, ultimately taking
the place of a mannequin Scaramanga has made in Bond's
likeness. |
|
|
Shooting The Man With The Golden Gun
Guy Hamilton returned to
the directors chair once again directing his fourth (third consecutive) Bond
film. The production began in November 1973 with a small unit filming in and
around Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong - notably Bond's arrival aboard the genuine Queen
Elizabeth wreck, having sunk just a year before. Bond was stood in for by a
stunt double as Roger Moore was not due to join the production until early
into 1974.
Above: Bond pursues a lead on the
mysterious hitman, Scaramanga, journeying to the a Middle-Eastern
night-club... |
The crew continued their Far East shooting schedule
with Moore joining the Bond family for a second outing, whilst
the crew were in Macau Province, China. Hong Kong was utilised
extensively with Dragon Garden in Castle Peak, Hong Kong doubling
for Hai Fat's rural Thailand estate. The Bottom's Up club was
a real establishment at the time of shooting and the Khlong-side
(canal) markets of Bangkok were host to the 007 second unit when
they staged Bond's escape from the Karate School by boat.
Above: Bond heads east to China and Hong Kong, following the golden bullet... |
The crew then journeyed south-west to the Phuket
coast where sequences involving Scaramanga's island lair were
shot. In '74 the island was all-but deserted and special provisions
for the cast and crew were made by the producers. The nearest
running water was miles away by plane or boat, and together with
the heat, this provided both a logistical and morale-boosting
challenge for "The Man With The Golden
Gun" producers, Harry
Saltzman and Albert
Broccoli. The island of Ko Khao Phing Kan was home to the
crew during the days of shooting exteriors of the villain's lair
and the tall protruding rock from which the solar disc emerges
was the isle of Ko Tapu - now more commonly referred to as "James
Bond Island".
Above: Bond meets Hai Fat, escapes Karate
black-belts,and wines and dines Mary Goodnight before following
Scaramanga to his island lair... |
The second unit had a daring and by no means more pleasant task to perform on the Thai mainland. The famed dare-devil stunt driver "Bumps" Williard was employed to assist the crew in the now-infamous (for its accompanying whistle) 360 degree barrel role. Hundreds of calculations were made as well as special modifications to the AMC Hornet (the steering wheel was lowered and centred and Williard drove the car laying on his stomach for best weight distribution) in order to make Bond's vehicle take to the skies. The stunt, so complex that it was, has never been performed successfully on film again.
The crew returned to wrap up shooting at the 007 Films' spiritual home of Pinewood Studios, completing the production process in summer of 1974 and proceeding into post-production, ready in time for a December '74 release.
|
|
|