#the man with the golden gun

Welcome to Christopher Lee: A Sinister Centenary! Over the course of May, I will be counting down My Top 31 Favorite Performances by my favorite actor, the late, great Sir Christopher Lee, in honor of his 100^th Birthday. Although this fine actor left us a few years ago, his legacy endures, and this countdown is a tribute to said legacy!

Today’s Subject, My 6^th Favorite Christopher Lee Performance: Francisco Scaramanga, from The Man With the Golden Gun.

Christopher Lee and James Bond have more ties than you might think: as it turns out, Lee was actually Ian Fleming’s cousin, and at one point, Fleming had actually suggested Lee (who, at that time, was just starting to make a proper name for himself in movies) to play the titular super spy. Lee would have been perfect casting, seeing as how he actually worked in the secret service for England for years, but alas, this never came to pass. Eon Productions made this up to audiences, however, when they decided to cast Lee to play arguably one of the greatest Bond Villains of all time: Francisco Scaramanga, the titular assassin from “The Man With the Golden Gun.”

While “The Man With the Golden Gun” is admittedly one of the more flawed James Bond movies (its tone is all over the place, two major characters are pretty annoying, and the plot is somewhat convoluted, even by Bond film standards), it is, nevertheless, an example of a case where the movie is better than the book. The book, for some strange reason, plays out more like a Spaghetti Western than a James Bond story, and the titular villain of Scaramanga is little more than a black-hatted thug with a fancy weapon. It was the last novel written by Ian Fleming for the series, and you can tell he was sort of strapped for ideas at that point. The movie, for all its own faults, wisely goes in a totally different direction from the novel…and, in deliberately not following the book much at all, it also ends up greatly improving on the character of Scaramanga.

Lee’s gilded dastard was envisioned as “the dark side of Bond;” he is one of a few villains throughout the franchise (Raoul Silva, Janus, and Red Grant are other examples) who are meant to be a dark parallel to Bond himself. Like Bond, Scaramanga is a notorious assassin who has somehow managed to remain secretive while also having a noteworthy reputation. He is a brilliant pistol shot, and enjoys the finer things in life, always wearing excellent suits and enjoying the best wines and foods he can find. However, where they differ are their motivations: Bond has his rough edges, his foibles and flaws, but he ultimately works for a heroic cause, and has a basic moral fiber somewhere under the surface. Scaramanga does not: he lives with practically no purpose but to kill and destroy, and he absolutely LOVES his work. Through death, he has made financial killings of his own; through death, he can live the life he’s always wanted. Shooting people is ultimately the only thing that brings him pleasure in life. (And I mean “pleasure” in more than one sense of the word.) Under his sophisticated and at times rather charming demeanor, he is a literal killing machine, and nothing more.

This was yet another role that gave Lee a chance to break the mold of the horror actor he was stuck in so perpetually at the time. True, Scaramanga is still the villain, but he’s a rather different creature from characters like Dracula or Fu Manchu. Lee brings an enthusiasm and energy to the part that gives Scaramanga an almost boyish quality; his childlike excitement when Bond comes to “visit” him on his island hideaway (because of course he has one of those) is especially wonderful. He doesn’t just RESPECT Bond, he outright seems to IDOLIZE the guy; you almost get the feeling that Scaramanga’s similarities to Bond are self-crafted, that he’s been building up this moment for himself for years, and the chance to finally see his hero, have dinner with him, and show him around his pad is just as delightful to him as the chance to fight said hero in combat and come out the victor. Of course, the relationship is almost tragically one-sided, as Bond is quite disgusted by Scaramanga, which no doubt only heightens his desire to see Bond fall courtesy of one of his own gold bullets. The best comparison I can think of in a more modern film is the relationship between Syndrome and Mr. Incredible from “The Incredibles”: the villain is just as much the hero’s fanboy as their self-proclaimed nemesis.

Bottom line: while “The Man With the Golden Gun” has its problems, the titular villain is not among them. He’s one of my top three favorite Bond Villains, without question, and I actually feel pretty bad for not including him in the Top 5 on this countdown. Hopefully those who rank above him will not disappoint. ;)

The top five starts tomorrow. Not only that, but tomorrow marks the official birthday of our honored actor! Who will be chosen to mark that special occasion? Join me next time to find out.