A loose adaptation of Ian Fleming's posthumously published 1965 novel of the same name, the film has Bond sent after the Solex Agitator, a breakthrough technological solution to contemporary energy shortages, while in a game of cat and mouse facing the assassin Francisco Scaramanga, the "Man with the Golden Gun".

Christopher Lee's portrayal of Scaramanga as a villain of similar skill and ability to Bond was praised, but reviewers criticised the film as a whole, particularly its comedic approach and the performances of Moore and Britt Ekland.

Whilst profitable, the film is the fourth lowest-grossing in the series, and its relatively modest returns by comparison with those of Live and Let Die (1973) reportedly placed the continuation of the franchise in jeopardy.

In London, a golden bullet etched with '007' is received by MI6; it is believed to have been sent by Scaramanga, but because no one knows of his appearance outside of having a third nipple, M relieves Bond of his current mission involving the location of a solar energy scientist named Gibson.

At a hint from Moneypenny, Bond sets out unofficially to locate Scaramanga, first by retrieving a spent golden bullet from a belly dancer in Beirut.

Tracking Goodnight's homing beacon, Bond takes a RC-3 Seabee seaplane and flies to Scaramanga's island in the Red Chinese waters.

Scaramanga welcomes and shows Bond the solar power plant facility that he has obtained from Hai Fat, the technology for which he intends to sell to the highest bidder.

Goodnight kills Scaramanga's security chief Kra, but the latter's fall into a liquid helium vat causes the plant's temperature to spiral out of control.

Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman intended to follow You Only Live Twice with The Man with the Golden Gun, inviting Roger Moore to the Bond role.

Saltzman sold his 50% stake in Eon Productions's parent company, Danjaq, LLC, to United Artists to alleviate his financial problems.

[25][29] After considering Beirut, where part of the film is set;[30] Israel; Iran, where the location scouting was done but eventually discarded because of the Yom Kippur War;[31] and the Hạ Long Bay in North Vietnam; the production team chose Thailand as a primary location, following a suggestion of production designer Peter Murton after he saw pictures of the Phuket bay in a magazine.

[11] Filming commenced on 6 November 1973 at the partly submerged wreck of the RMS Queen Elizabeth, which acted as a top-secret MI6 base grounded in Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong.

[16] Bond's duel with Scaramanga, which Mankewicz said was inspired by the climactic faceoff in Shane, was shortened as the producers felt it was causing pacing problems.

[16] For Scaramanga's solar power plant, Hamilton used both the Pinewood set and a miniature projected by Derek Meddings, often cutting between each other to show there was no discernible difference.

[53] Three Golden Gun props were made; a solid piece, one that could be fired with a cap and one that could be assembled and disassembled, although Christopher Lee said that the process "was extremely difficult".

[54] In the film, the gun was designed to accept a single 4.2-millimetre, 23-carat gold bullet produced by Lazar, a gunsmith in Macau who specialized in custom weapons and ammunition.

[56] On 10 October 2008, it was discovered that one of the golden guns used in the film, which is estimated to be worth around £80,000, was missing (suspected stolen) from Elstree Props, a company based at Hertfordshire studios.

[58][59] The flying car was the newly introduced AMC Matador Brougham Coupe in the Oleg Cassini edition,[60] used by Francisco Scaramanga, along with Nick Nack, to kidnap Mary Goodnight.

Barry later regretted his decision, thinking the whistle "broke the golden rule" as the stunt was "for what it was all worth, a truly dangerous moment, ... true James Bond style".

[68] The writer Jim Smith suggested that the stunt "brings into focus the lack of excitement in the rest of the film and is spoilt by the use of 'comedy' sound effects".

The lyrics to the Lulu song were written by Don Black and have been described variously as "ludicrous",[54] "inane"[33] and "one long stream of smut", because of their sexual innuendo.

Derek Malcolm in The Guardian savaged the film, saying that "the script is the limpest of the lot and ... Roger Moore as 007 is the last man on earth to make it sound better than it is.

"[87] There was some praise from Malcolm, although it was muted, saying that "Christopher Lee ... makes a goodish villain and Britt Ekland a passable Mary Goodnight ... Up to scratch in production values ... the film is otherwise merely a potboiler.

[89] Robinson was equally damning of the changes in the production crew, observing that Ken Adam, an "attraction of the early Bond films," had been "replaced by decorators of competence but little of his flair.

"[90] The Sunday Mirror critic observed that The Man with the Golden Gun "isn't the best Bond ever" but found it "remarkable that Messrs. Saltzman and Broccoli can still produce such slick and inventive entertainment".

[91] Judith Crist of New York magazine gave a positive review, saying "the scenery's grand, the lines nice and the gadgetry entertaining", also describing the production as a film that "capture[s] the free-wheeling, whooshing non-sense of early Fleming's fairy tale for grown-ups orientation".

[92] Jay Cocks, writing in Time, focused on the gadgets such as Scaramanga's flying car, as what was wrong with both The Man with the Golden Gun and the more recent films in the Bond series, calling them "Overtricky, uninspired, these exercises show the strain of stretching fantasy well past wit.

The website's critical consensus states, "A middling Bond film, The Man With the Golden Gun suffers from double entendre-laden dialogue, a noteworthy lack of gadgets, and a villain that overshadows 007.

[96] Roger Moore was also criticised for playing Bond against type, in a style more reminiscent of Sean Connery, although Lee's performance received acclaim.

[97] Peary believes that the shootout between Bond and Scaramanga in the funhouse "is the one good scene in the movie, and even it has an unsatisfying finish" and also bemoaned the presence of Clifton James, "unfortunately reprising his unfunny redneck sheriff from Live and Let Die.