The Man With The Golden Gun: How Not To Write A Villain

With my recent acquisition of an old, first-generation Kindle, I realized that I could quickly and easily read just about anything I wanted. After working through some truly great works, I started eating up all the pulp that I’ve always wanted to try, but never got around to. The Man With The Golden Gun is apparently Ian Flemming’s weakest work, but I didn’t know that at the time. I’ve had the Shirley Bassey song stuck in my head for weeks now, so I really can’t be blamed.

Before continuing, note that the movie is only “inspired” from the book. While I haven’t seen it yet, I can only hope that it's far more inspired than its source.

Scaramanga has all the makings of a great villain. He’s a world-class assassin whose signature weapon is a gold-plated colt peacemaker with an extra-long barrel. He’s a dangerous man with plenty of special agent kills under his belt. He has a deformed anatomy with a creepy third nipple over his heart. In addition, he’s also reported to have homosexual tendencies because he can’t whistle (no, really). He has all the makings to be the Moriarty to Bond’s Holmes.

Yet, when we finally encounter the man, he’s nothing more than a gangster who can do trickshots. We never see him assassinate anyone. He doesn’t lead Bond on a thrilling chase, always one step ahead.  Instead, we see him as a ring-leader who’s gotten in over his head and needs Bond (undercover as a security guard) to pull him out. Yes, that's really the plot.

After the imaginative title and the awesome theme song, I had high expectations.  Yet, the more we see of Scaramanga in the book, the less terrifying he becomes. He’s easily deceived and never acts like a true assassin. Instead of being a terrifying professional, Scaramanga never rises beyond being an arrogant gunslinger, despite how many times Flemming tells us otherwise. As a corollary to the old storytelling rule, no amount of telling can cover up not showing.

This is a shame because he truly can be a great bond villain. Instead of pulling the strings from the shadows like Blofield, he ought to be like a dangerous predator stalking our hero. Perhaps Christopher Lee infused more danger into the role. I can only hope.