MovieChat Forums > The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) Discussion > Christopher Lee's Scaramanga underrated

Christopher Lee's Scaramanga underrated

posted 12 years ago by sommert-507-32566
8 replies | jump to latest

While Jaws was the most fun villain (they brought him back, after all). I'd say Lee's Scaramanga was probably the closest to being Bond's equal, perpetually staying one step ahead of him while lacking an army of nameless thugs in his employ the way most of his nemeses do. Also, as established in the opening sequence he has an actual reason for not killing Bond despite a number opportunities, at least until the end (You think Blofeld would have learned). I can't think of any other of the bad guys that got as much solo screen time either. And there is the fact Lee is simply gold in damn near everything spanning, what, 50 years in acting or so?

[–] psychocosmic-1 12 years ago

His first starring role was in DRACULA 1958 and as the Monster in CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN 1957! Thats making it 55 years..

[–] margin_walker2003 12 years ago

Chrisopher Lee is an impressive actor with an incredible filmography.

I think Scaramanga was designed as the dark half of James Bond. He kills, but for money instead of love of country. There are a few points where they play up the parallels, even talking about it when they meet, and then of course the mirrors in the fun house. This probably could have been developed more, but it's a Bond movie.

[–] OldGrayMare 12 years ago

Scaramanga is recognized as one of the best Bond villains. It's just unfortunate he's in one of the worst Bond movies.

[–] FridayOnElmStreet 11 years ago

Lee did a great in this film as he always does.

[–] gza385 11 years ago

Christopher Lee's Scaramanga is definitely in my Top 5 Bond villains list. It's too bad such a brilliant performance is lost and forgotten inside of an otherwise mediocre film.

[–] mariakelly-04164 8 years ago

Christopher Lee was the best thing in the entire movie.

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

i thnk he is a very interesting villain. I like the way he challenges Bond to a duel at the end instead of arranging one of those ineffectual slow deaths with sharks etc, which never work anyway. Of course, he could have saved himself a lot of trouble by just shooting Bond in the first place, but no bond villain ever thinks of that.

[–] seanwhelan2310 (575) 3 years ago

To me the best Bond villains are Goldfinger (Gert Frobe), Blofeld (Pleasance and Savalas), Dr. Kananga (Yaphet Kotto), Scaramanga (Lee), Drax (Michael Lonsdale), Zorin (Christopher Walken), Sanchez (Robert Davi), Alec Trevalyn (Sean Bean), Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsson) and Silva (Javier Bardam). But Lee’s villain is kinda like you would envision Lee as James Bond, considering he was Fleming’s distant-cousin and served in World War II, I also heard that Lee was an inspiration for the Bond character