Blooper: Saida's mirror gets pushed out of alignment during a fight scene, bringing the camera crew into view.
B-Team Sequel: Ken Adam was unable to return as production designer, as he was working on Barry Lyndon. Syd Cain was also unavailable, as he was working on Gold in South Africa. The job was therefore given to Peter Murton — who had assisted Adam on Goldfinger and Thunderball — making this the only Bond film from the 1960s or 1970s not to be designed by either Adam or Cain.
California Doubling: Scaramanga's island is located within Chinese territorial waters, but is filmed on an island in the Phang Nga Bay off the coast of Thailand, on the opposite side of the Malay Straits. Obviously, it would have been impossible to film in Communist China in 1974, let alone one where they're depicted working with a foreign assassin.
John Barry disliked his score on the film in general, having only three weeks to do it. "It's the one I hate most ... it just never happened for me." He also regretted adding a whistle to the Do a Barrel Roll stunt. Guy Hamilton also agreed that this was a bad idea.
Albert R. Broccoli told an interviewer that there are parts of this film that he'd liked to redo.
Roger Moore apologized for the scene where he pushes a kid off his motorboat riding through Bangkok on the DVD Commentary. He was also uncomfortable with the scene where he roughs up Maud Adams. In the Everything or Nothing documentary, Adams confessed that she felt that the scene didn't work because it didn't suit Moore's Bond.
Guy Hamilton named this as the only Bond film he regretted making, as he felt Moore's portrayal of Bond was made to be too much like Sean Connery. He also said he was burnt out having done three Bond films in a row.
Richard Maibaum didn't care for the onset improvisation:
I have to admit that The Man With the Golden Gun in particular is a weak film. What happens is that they get on the set and try things, which seem like a good idea at the time but they don't consider that the writer has been breaking his head for six months trying to think of things. On a moment's notice they come up with something that's not that great. Sometimes it does work but very rarely.
Maud Adams said in an interview that Albert R. Broccoli hired her back in Octopussy because he admitted that it was a mistake to kill her character so early in this film.
This was the last Bond film Harry Saltzman was involved in before he dropped out of the series due to financial problems; Saltzman only oversaw two more films past Golden Gun in the last twenty years of his life.
It also marked the end of Guy Hamilton's participation in the Bond series.
Scaramanga is said to be about 35 in the book. Christopher Lee was 52 at the time.
One of the schoolgirl martial artists is played by Qiu Yuen, who was born in 1948 and was therefore around 24 at the time.
Defictionalization: The Bottoms Up strip club kept the same interior used in the film until it closed in 2004. The island which is Scaramanga's hideout (Ko Tapu or Nail Island) was virtually unknown to outsiders — it's now called James Bond Island and is an overcrowded tourist attraction (much to the annoyance of Christopher Lee when he took his wife there). Longtail boats are also referred to as "James Bond boats" in Thai tourist advertisements.
Deleted Scene: An extended fight between Bond and Scaramanga set on the island's beach was cut. Part of this scene is featured in the teaser trailer for the film, but the uncut footage has never been released. The featured dialogue in the scene is notable for significantly recontextualising Scaramanga's character, as it implies that he is cheating in his duel as opposed to him being a Noble Demon in the final cut.
Bond: "Now I know how you do it, Scaramanga!"
Scaramanga: "The secret to success, Mr. Bond: Never take chances!"
Enforced Method Acting: Britt Ekland admitted to being terrified when filming the scene where she and Roger Moore escape from Scaramanga's island. In his autobiography, Moore pointed out one particular shot, right before the second explosion goes off, when Ekland falls to the floor; according to Ekland that wasn't acting. Moore came back, picked her up, and helped her go on. His arm was around her back as the second explosion went off, and he felt the tiny hairs on her skin get singed.
Fountain of Expies: Scaramanga ranks with Goldfinger and Blofeld as one of the most recognizable of all Bond villains.
Looping Lines: Nikki van der Zyl dubbed Francoise Therry as Chew Mee.
Missing Trailer Scene: The original teaser trailer featured scenes from the showdown on the beach between Bond and Scaramanga that were cut from the final release: While Bond is chasing Scaramanga on his island, he throws a Molotov cocktail and shoot it to explode into a ball of flames. The duel was shortened, as the producers felt it was causing pacing problems.
One-Take Wonder: Stunt driver Loren "Bumps" Williard pulled off a full corkscrew in a car, and he did so on his very first attempt. According to Christopher Lee, Williard REFUSED to do another take while Roger Moore says that Williard jokingly asked for another take after Cubby Broccoli gave him a fat stack of cash for successfully performing the stunt.
Tourist Bump: The island of Khao Phing Kan in Thailand was a seldom-visited indigenous area until it was featured in this film as the site of Scaramanga's island lair. Since then, the island's become a popular tourist attraction to the point that it's commonly called "James Bond Island".
Troubled Production: Initial plans to film in Iran were abandoned after the Yom Kippur war, and writer Tom Mankiewicz was forced to leave "feeling really tapped out on Bond", bringing back recurring screenwriter Richard Maibaum.
The original script featured Q and another character called Boothroyd. Desmond Llewelyn pointed out that they're the same person, so Boothroyd was renamed Colthorpe.
Richard Maibaum disagreed with Christopher Lee's approach to Scaramanga.
I thought the character in the novel was very unusual. But it was all lost. Lee wanted to play it like a spoiled Guard's Officer. In other words he was trying to outdo Bond and it couldn't be done.
The gangster who tries to assassinate Scaramanga at the beginning is played by Marc Lawrence, who was previously in Diamonds Are Forever, playing one of the gangsters who confront Bond in his hotel room in Las Vegas and throw Plenty O'Toole through a window ("I didn't know there was a pool down there!"). It is unclear if they are the same character.
The novel
Creator Backlash: Ian Fleming grew increasingly unhappy with the book and thought about re-working it, but his publisher convinced him otherwise. In a letter to a friend, he wrote:
This is, alas, the last Bond and, again alas, I mean it, for I really have run out of puff and zest.
Development Gag: Bond describes his own name as "a quiet, dull, anonymous name", which had been Ian Fleming's aim when he first named the character.
Died During Production: The first draft and part of the editing process was completed before Ian Fleming's death and the manuscript had passed through the hands of his copy editor, William Plomer, but it was not as polished as other Bond stories. Much of the detail contained in the previous novels was missing, as this was often added by Fleming in the second draft. Publishers Jonathan Cape passed the manuscript to Kingsley Amis for his thoughts and advice on the story, although his suggestions were not used.