“Bond was a spy in their midst and this was his last ride…” (125).
Widely believed to have been unfinished upon the death of Ian Fleming in August 1964, The Man with the Golden Gun marks an abrupt and somewhat anticlimactic ending to the Fleming James Bond series. This book was published posthumously about eight months after Fleming’s death to somewhat polite criticism and muted disappointment. Unfortunately, The Man with the Golden Gun is fairly thin and quite evidently not as polished as the other novels in the series –during the writing process, Fleming was in such poor health that he could only muster about an hour or so of writing each day writing (which took place between January and February 1964 at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica). This was in contrast to his prior rate of about two thousand words per day. A first draft of The Man with the Golden Gun was submitted to his career-long editor, William Plomer, at Jonathan Cape, however Fleming expressed that he was mostly unsatisfied with the book and was considering scrapping the whole thing. Conversations were ongoing, but Plomer encouraged Fleming to continue to finish the book by simply adding a bit more color and rich detail. However, Fleming suddenly died after suffering yet another heart attack in England. Jonathan Cape later sent the manuscript of the novel to Kingsley Amis for edits, but his feedback was never actually incorporated into the novel and it was published straightaway. The Man with the Golden Gun was followed by the publication of one more James Bond short story collection in 1966, Octopussy and The Living Daylights.
The Man with the Golden Gun picks up right where You Only Live Twice left us. James Bond has defeated his arch-nemesis Blofeld in Japan, and during his escape from the vast coastal “death castle” where Blofeld was hiding, he sustained a head injury which led to severe amnesia. Bond could remember much of anything about his identity, certainly not that he was a secret agent, so he remained among the Ama island people off the coast of Japan, living a life as a fisherman alongside his paramour, Kissy (a nude diver who, unbeknownst to Bond, became pregnant with his child), but a bit of crumpled newspaper suddenly jogged Bond’s memory and compelled him to travel to Russia in search of his true past. Now, it has been about a year since Bond’s mission in Japan and he has apparently since been taken in by Colonel Boris in Russia for the past few months at the luxurious “Institute on the Nevsky Prospekt” in Leningrad. Here, Bond was brainwashed by the Soviets and sent back to England in order to assassinate M –this is an altogether amusingly farcical start to the final Bond novel.
Next, we turn to internal operations within the Secret Service (some of my favorite scenes in the novels occur within the bureaucracy of the Secret Service) wherein we learn about things like the Top Secret information record known as “The War Book” kept in the event of M or his chief of staff’s deaths. One day, Bond phones up the Secret Service out of the blue and justifies his identity while requesting to meet with M. Bond is first directed to No. 44 Kensington Cloisters in a dull Victorian mansion with Major Townsend before being invited to meet with M at headquarters. But presently, the Secret Service is shocked and suspicious to learn that Bond has resurfaced (he was previously presumed dead at the end of You Only Live Twice, complete with an obituary released by M).
“There was always something odd about 007’s death. No body. No solid evidence. And the people on that Japanese island always seemed to me to be playing it pretty close to the chest. The Stone Face act. It’s just possible…” (4).
When asked to describe various details about headquarters, Bond confirms his identity by stating internal facts that would only be known to an agent, like Miss Maria Freudenstadt who was a double agent working for KGB section 100 (her name was also written as “Maira Freudenstein” in the James Bond short story “The Property of a Lady”). However, there is still uncertainty at the outset, there are closely guarded secrets within the Secret Service and the re-emergence of Bond is peculiar and unnerving. Can we trust our protagonist? Why does he seem so distant and unlike himself? He surfaced in West Germany –so why didn’t he report to Station B or W? Or with his friend, 016, in Berlin?
“…it is the first duty of a Secret Service to remain not only secret but secure.”
Miss Moneypenny is distraught over Bond’s vaguely distant smile, and Bill Tanner seems deeply uneasy. Still, M grants Bond a private audience and in the course of their brief meeting, Bond attempts to murder M by firing a cyanide pistol at him, but a protective shield suddenly springs forward, protecting M, and Bond is led away by staff. Almost immediately, M decides he doesn’t want undue attention drawn to his team, so he declines to prosecute or even punish Bond (how does this make even a lick of sense?). He assigns expert neurologist, James Molony, to un-brainwash Bond so that Bond may soon be fit to return to his old section as 007. M claims, “007 was a sick man. Not responsible for his actions. If one can brainwash a man, presumable one can un-brainwash him” (18). Again, this is all a completely ridiculous premise.
At any rate, Bond quickly recuperates and M rushes him into his next mission –chasing after Francisco (Paco) “Pistols” Scaramanga, a freelance assassin and vicious gunman believed to be mainly under KGB control through D.S.S. Havana, Cuba, but he often works an independent operator for other organizations. Scaramanga has caused widespread damage not only to the S.S. but also the CIA. The rise of Fidel Castro in 1959 seems to have been the trigger for Scaramanga’s operations. Locally, he is known as “The Man with the Golden Gun,” a nickname given in honor of his preferred weapon of choice, a gold-plated, long-barreled, single-action Colt .45. with special gold core jacketed bullets. With it, he has killed hundreds and maimed others like 098 an area inspection officer who was left with bullet wounds in both of his knees. Scaramanga is 35-years-old, he is 6’ 3,” and slim, with light brown eyes, long sideburns, as well as a gaunt, somber face with a pencil mustache. He was raised in a circus of all places. Strangely enough, he has a third superfluous nipple on the left side, and he is a rampant womanizer who is known to engage in sexual intercourse before shooting people, believing it will improve his aim or “eye.” Scaramanga is a former gunman for the Spangled Mob in Nevada (a gang which has been mentioned in earlier Bond novels, most memorably in Diamonds Are Forever), and he was forced to flee the U.S. after a feud with the Detroit Purple Gang (which also mentioned in earlier Bond novels like Goldfinger and Thunderball). Per usual, I love the rich, detailed exposition in these early chapters at headquarters, in particular, the scenes of M in rifling through the file on Scaramanga (where we are given a glimpse into M’s crusty, curmudgeonly contempt for another pretentious man at headquarters named C.C.). Per a note in the file, the Secret Service wonders about Scaramanga’s sexual prowess and whether or not he might be a homosexual (there are various Freudian speculations expounded upon here). And apparently M suspects that Scaramanga might be gay simply because he cannot whistle… I wonder how much of this goofy theory represents Fleming’s own true view on the matter.
Thus, Bond is dispatched abroad and chases Scaramanga for six weeks around the Caribbean and Central America, missing him only by a day in Trinidad, and by mere hours in Caracas. We find Bond back in his frequent stomping grounds throughout the novels –in Kingston, Jamaica. It is a delightful return for Mr. Bond that awakens fond, wistful memories from previous books, like Live and Let Die, Dr. No, and For Your Eyes Only). As he walks around, Bond reflects on his past adventures in Jamaica, including his memories of Honeychild Rider in Dr. No: “James Bond was delighted. He had had many assignments in Jamaica and many adventures on the island. The splendid address and all the stuff about chains and perches and the old-fashioned abracadabra at the end of the advertisement brought back all the authentic smell of one of the oldest and most romantic of former British possessions. For all her newfound ‘Independence’ he would bet his bottom dollar that the statue of Queen Victoria in the center of Kingston had not been destroyed or removed to a museum as similar relics of an historic infancy had been in the resurgent African states… What were a couple hours of heat and boredom in this island compared with the memories of Beau Desert and Honeychile Rider and his survival against the mad Dr. No? James Bond smiled to himself as the dusty pictures clicked across the brain. How long ago it all was! What had happened to her? She never wrote. The last he had heard, she had had two children by the Philadelphia doctor she had married” (34-35).
However, Bond’s love interest in this novel winds up being his former secretary, Mary Goodnight, who joins Bond in Jamaica. She first starting working as Bond’s secretary in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Bond comments on how this is their first romantic interaction in the three years they worked together. On a separate point of note, in this novel Bond is still trying to limit himself to about 20 cigarettes per day, typically failing by five, and Mary Goodnight sets him up with Strangways old car (Strangways previously appeared in Live and Let Die and Dr. No).
At any rate, the local station chief, Commander Ross, has disappeared (we later learn he was killed by Scaramanga in Trinidad) and Bond follows a trail that leads to a brothel on Love Lane on the southside of the island where he meets a woman named Tiffy (all her sisters were named after flowers but her mom named her “artificial” after she couldn’t think of any more flowers –thus “Tiffy” became her name). But, incognito as Mark Hazard, he quickly meets Scaramanga in the bar. After a drink or two, Scaramanga shoots a pair of birds, which greatly upsets Tiffy (using her private superstitions, she issues a hex on Scaramanga). For some reason, Bond is invited to a meeting of Scaramanga’s fellow “stockholders” where Bond is hired as Scaramanga’s personal secretary (interestingly enough, on this trip Bond is reading Jack Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage). Scaramanga claims to be working in labor relations, with likely ties to Cuba. These “businessmen” meeting with Scaramanga include: Sam Binion, who works in real estate and is worth maybe $20M with his associates; Leroy Gengerella of Gengerella Enterprises in Miami; Ruby Rotkopf, a hotel man from Vegas; Hal Garfinkel, from Chicago, in labor relations and represents the Teamsters; Louie Paradise from Phoenix, Arizona who is in the “one armed bandit business” at Paradise Slots. Bond also meets Hendriks, a man posing as a Dutchman who is secretly connected to the KGB. All these men refer to Scaramanga as “Pistol” or “Mr. S.”
“…to provoke a draw against a man who was possibly the fastest gun in the world was suicide” (39).
During the meeting, Bond stumbles upon everyone’s favorite CIA agent, Felix Leiter, the tall, bronzed, hook-handed Texan (see the conclusion to Live and Let Die for background on how Felix Leiter wound up with a hook for a hand along with a prosthetic leg), posing as a temporary accountant checking on Bond’s credit score and also as a phone monitor who bugs Scaramanga’s operation (Leiter has recently been called up again by the CIA). Felix Leiter has been joined by an associate named Nick Nicholson. During the meeting, Bond has some drinks and behaves a bit brashly, demonstrating his shooting skills before a wild orgy ensues… cue the eyerolls at Fleming’s insistence on inserting odd gratuitous themes into his novels.
At any rate –amidst the weekend squabbles over marijuana, prostitution, drug deals, and even the explosive death of one of Scaramanga’s gangsters—Bond joins the group in discussion, and hunting (at one point, Bond has a few drinks and recklessly shows off his shooting skills) before they all hop aboard a train trip which is used to test Bond to see if he secretly a British agent. Scaramanga has placed a decoy in a blond wig on the tracks which he convinces Bond is actually Mary Goodnight. But Bond falls for the ploy and immediately shoots Hendriks in the head, killing him, as well as Scaramanga, who is badly wounded. Leiter and Bond then leap off the train into a marsh –but they are followed by a wounded Scaramanga (why in the world didn’t either Bond or Felix simply put an extra bullet into Scaramanga when he was critically injured on the train?). Meanwhile, Felix rigs a detonation device on the train, killing all the remaining gangsters and destroying the train.
Meanwhile, a dying Scaramanga stumbles into a clearing and has a brief encounter with a huge snake in the marsh before Bond confronts him:
“Now then, let’s talk. ‘Fraid you haven’t got much time, Scaramanga. This is the end of the road. You’ve killed too many of my friends. I have the licence to kill you and I am going to kill you. but I’ll make it quick.”
However, moments later, a pleading but fearless Scaramanga asks Bond for a moment of prayer (he claims to be Catholic), but unsurprisingly, while “praying,” Scaramanga quickly grabs his knife and charges Bond. Bond scrambles and fires five shots, finally killing Scaramanga with a shot through the heart. Then all is still again. Why in the world would Bond fall for this obvious ploy by a notorious gangster who suddenly claims he is pious? Bond has never particularly been an admirer of religion in the past, why would he decide to do so now? This is simply unfathomable and underwhelming in my view –another contrivance in a book filled with odd contrivances.
Anyway, this short novel wraps up as Bond, Felix, and Nicholson are awarded the “Jamaican police Medal for gallant and meritorious services to the Independent State of Jamaica” by the police and a member of the Supreme Court. Curiously, Bond speaks about of the stature and impressiveness of Scaramanga, whereas Felix comments on how “an enemy’s an enemy” and that he was to be dealt with like any “pest control” (perhaps this is Fleming’s commentary on British versus American views of enemies) and the novel ends with Bond recovering and reading Allen Dulles’s The Craft of Intelligence as Mary Goodnight brings in a triple-x deciphering machine to present an “Eyes Only” message from M (interestingly enough, M signs his notes “Mailedfist” instead of “M”). It turns out to be a laudatory note in which the prime minister is recommending a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth –is Bond really being honored with a knighthood for this relatively mediocre mission? Would a knighthood really be conferred upon someone who attempted to assassinate M as featured at the start of this novel?
Bond hides his own pleasure with M’s commendation, but “the rest, he knew, was not in his stars. He had never been a public figure and he did not wish to become one. He had no prejudice against letters after one’s name, or before it. But there was one thing above all he treasured. His privacy. His anonymity. To become a public person, a person, in the snobbish world of England, of any country, who would be called upon to open things, lay foundation stones, make after-dinner speeches, brought the sweat to his armpits” (157-158). Bond laughs at the idea of being “Sir James Bond” and Mary Goodnight invites Bond to join her at her villa in Mona dam overlooking Kingston harbor. Bond plans to join her, but “at the same time, he knew, deep down, that love from Mary Goodnight, or from any other woman, was not enough for him. It would be like taking a ‘room with a view’. For James Bond, the same view would always pall” (160). Thus ends the book.
It is fitting that Bond’s final adventure (and Ian Fleming’s last novel) sees James Bond revisit Jamaica, a country of great importance to both Bond and Fleming where so many of Bond’s past adventures transpired. Unfortunately, this being an unfinished manuscript, the ending to You Only Live Twice would have served as a better send-off for the character. The Man with the Golden Gun revisits many Western-themed tropes, from gunfights to train heists, and while I enjoyed this rather ridiculous little adventure, it is a far cry from Bond’s earlier, more weighty espionage outing. I mean, the idea that Bond would begin the novel as a brainwashed Russian asset only to be speedily revived and sent back out into the field to take-out a notorious gunman only to end the novel with a possible knighthood from the Queen, is a complete divorce from slightly more plausible tales in the series, like Casino Royale.
Per usual, I have a great deal of questions about the plot for this book: Why would Scaramanga accept Bond as his personal secretary if he suspects him of being a secret agent? And why would Scaramanga invite Bond into a closed-door meeting with his associates? Why wouldn’t Bond quickly kill Scaramanga at their first meeting? Why doesn’t Hendriks attempt to kill Bond if that is what he is instructed to do? Why does Bond decide to provoke Scaramanga into a prolonged conflict unfolding over the weekend, rather than eliminate him immediately? And lastly, whatever happened to Kissy who was carrying Bond’s child at the end of You Only Live Twice? I suppose we will never know. The Man with the Golden Gun is a fairly goofy story that bears very little in common with the 1974 Eon film of the same name, but it is still an enjoyable outing provided you don’t pay too much attention to the details.
Fleming, Ian. The Man with the Golden Gun. Thomas & Mercer in Las Vegas, NV c/o Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. 1965 (republished in 2012). Paperback edition.