Wonderland Burlesque: Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: With Or Without, Part VI

Thursday, August 28, 2025

Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: With Or Without, Part VI

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's All Go To The Movies:

With Or Without

Part VI

As the say in show biz: some got it, some ain't.

To do with or without?

That appears to be the question. And these are the men with the all the answers.

Or so these films would have us believe.

Let's take a peek at what the world of cinema has to offer when it comes to the haves and have not.

Either way? It's movie magic!

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The Man With The Gun

(1938)

Taking place during the October Revolution, when the army is approaching the army of General Krasnov, Ivan Shadrin, a peasant who became a soldier, goes to Petrograd in order to convey a letter to Vladimir Lenin with questions that concern his comrades.

This Soviet history drama was directed by Sergei Yutkevich and stars Maksim Shtraukh, Mikheil Gelovani, Boris Tenin, and Zoya Fyodorova.

Revising history: Stalin - as played by Mikheil Gelovani - increasingly disappeared from the film after his death in 1953. Between 1956 and 1961, a scene in Smolny was cut. When the film was restored in 1965, Stalin was completely cut out of it: the scene of eating potatoes of Lenin, Stalin, Dymov and Shadrin was shortened, and in the final scene of the film Stalin was also retouched - with the result of Lenin delivering the speech standing on a podium alone. All references to Stalin in the film texts were also removed.

You can watch this film in its entirety for free on YouTube.

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Man With The Gun

(1955)

AKA: The Trouble Maker, Deadly Peacemaker

A stranger comes to town looking for his estranged wife. He finds her running the local saloon girls. He also finds a town and sheriff afraid of their own shadow, scared of a landowner they never see who rules through his rowdy sidekicks. The stranger is a town tamer by trade, and he accepts a $500 commission to sort things out.

Based on the short story, The Deadly Peacemaker by N.B. Stone Jr, this American Western was directed by Richard Wilson and stars Robert Mitchum, Jan Sterling and Karen Sharpe.

The working titles of this film were The Deadly Peacemaker, The Town Tamer and The Trouble Shooter.

Producing debut of Samuel Goldwyn Jr., son of Samuel Goldwyn, and directorial debut of Richard Wilson.

Angie Dickinson has an early uncredited role as Kitty.

Man with a Gun received mostly positive reviews and several favorable comparisons to High Noon (1952). One reviewer commented: "Like The Ox-Bow Incident and High Noon, it is one of those rare westerns that can be classified as screen literature". In his review for The New York Times, A. H. Weiler called the film "an engrossing adventure" and "several cuts above the norm for this genre".

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Man Without A Star

(1955)

Dempsey Rae, a cowboy with no clear aim in life, winds up working on a spread for a steely lady owner who just arrived from the East coast. She needs a tough new top hand and uses all her means of persuasion to get Rae to take the job. But he doesn't like the way the other settlers are getting treated and starts to side with them, despite their introduction of the barbed wire he loathes.

Based on the 1952 novel by Dee Linford, this American Western was directed by King Vidor and stars Kirk Douglas, Jeanne Crain, Claire Trevor, William Campbell, Richard Boone, Mara Corday, and Myrna Hansen.

One of the first films that Kirk Douglas made through his production company. The film was a box-office hit, netting Douglas a cool million!

Kirk Douglas and King Vidor an abrasive and unfriendly working relationship. However, screenwriter Borden Chase, who did not often speak glowingly of directors, was effusive in his praise of Vidor and said that he had transformed a routine story into something special.

The horse that Kirk Douglas is riding in the film is a movie star in his own right. The horse's name is Pie and appears in many Western movies, mostly those with the actor Jimmy Stewart. Besides Stewart and Douglas, he was ridden by Glenn Ford and Audie Murphy. Pie appeared in 17 Westerns. Jimmy Stewart loved the horse and said he was "...one of the best co-stars I ever worked with." Pie lived until 1970 and was buried on Jimmy Stewart's ranch in California.

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Man With A Gun

(1958)

When a nightclub is burned to the ground, a detective is assigned by an insurance company to find the cause. The detective suspects the club owner of torching the place, but meets the club owner's niece, who helps the detective uncover a mob protection scheme that's responsible.

This low-budget 1958 British second feature crime film was directed by Montgomery Tully and stars Lee Patterson, Rona Anderson and John Le Mesurier.

First screenplay by Michael Winner and first musical score by Ron Goodwin.

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This crime melodrama is a routine British second feature competently made and efficiently acted. Although it has few distinctive features it fulfills its purpose in a workmanlike way."

Lee Patterson

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The Man With The Golden Gun

(1974)

Scaramanga is a hitman who charges one million dollars per job. He becomes linked to the death of a scientist working on a powerful solar cell, and James Bond is called in to investigate. As he tracks down Scaramanga, he realizes that he is highly respected by the killer, but will this prove to be an advantage in the final showdown?

A loose adaptation of Ian Fleming's posthumously published 1965 novel of the same name, this Bond film was directed by Guy Hamilton and stars Roger Moore, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Christopher Plummer and Hervé Villechaize.

Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman had originally intended for this movie to be the sixth entry in the Bond film franchise - to follow You Only Live Twice. This movie was originally to be shot in Cambodia, with Moore filling the shoes of Sean Connery as the second James Bond. However, the Vietnam War caused the producers to change plans, and pick On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) as the sixth Bond movie, with George Lazenby playing Bond. Lazenby briefly reported that this would be his follow-up in the media, before changing his mind, and quitting the role. The producers would then choose Diamonds Are Forever, with Sean Connery returning as Bond after Lazenby's resignation. Instead, Live And Let Die (1973) would serve as Moore's intro to the world as Bond.

Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman's professional relationship deteriorated throughout the making of this film. This would be the last Bond movie co-produced by Harry Saltzman and the last directed by Guy Hamilton. In addition, Guy Hamilton had a falling out with screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz, due to the writer's growing sense that he was "feeling really tapped out on Bond". This led to the re-introduction of Richard Maibaum as the Bond screenwriter. In addition, long-time director of photography for the Bond films, Ted Moore quit halfway through the production due to tensions on the set which had a negative impact on his health.

The title role was originally offered to Jack Palance, before it eventually went to Sir Christopher Lee, the cousin of Ian Fleming who was known as 'The Man with the Golden Pen'. Fleming had previously wanted Lee in the title role in Dr. No (1962).

Britt Ekland had been interested in playing a Bond girl since she had seen Dr. No (1962), and contacted the producers about the main role of Mary Goodnight. Ekland auditioned for the role of Andrea Anders, but landed the role of Mary Goodnight after posing in a bikini. When Ekland read the news that Maud Adams had been cast, she became upset, thinking Adams had been selected to play Mary Goodnight. Producer Albert R. Broccoli then called Ekland to invite her for the main role, as after seeing her in a movie, Broccoli thought Ekland's "generous looks" made her a good contrast to Adams. Director Guy Hamilton met Maud Adams in New York City and cast her because "she was elegant and beautiful that it seemed to me she was the perfect Bond girl."

Filming began on November 6, 1973, with a double filling in for Roger Moore, who wasn't scheduled to begin shooting until April 1974.

Director Guy Hamilton wanted to toughen Bond up more, in order to be closer to Ian Fleming's original intent for the character. One of the ways of accomplishing this was by having Bond twist the arm of Andrea Anders behind her back, threatening to break it unless she told him what he wanted to know. Moore didn't enjoy filming that scene, feeling that Bond would have instead charmed the information out of her. Another scene Moore didn't enjoy was pushing the boy into the water during the boat chase. This was due to what Moore knew first hand lie beneath; local coroner's frequently placed unclaimed bodies in those waters, leaving them to rot beneath the surface.

While doing the title sequence, title designer Maurice Binder ran into a problem with one of the nude models. Her pubic hair was sticking up when they needed it flat. After a few minutes of her trying and failing to get it right, Binder smeared her pubic hair with Vaseline. She gave Binder the brush and told him to fix the hair to how he needed it. The whole thing was seen by Sir Roger Moore and producer Harry Saltzman, causing Moore to turn to Saltzman and quip, "If you're the producer of this film, you're not getting the perks!"

Britt Ekland was 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.

According to this movie's accountant, the white gloves worn by Hervé Villechaize had to be custom-made, and cost the production $10,000. Prior to this movie, Hervé Villechaize was so poor that he was living out of his car in Los Angeles, California. Villechaize once lamented to Roger Moore that whenever he stayed at a hotel, he could never get a room above the first floor. When Moore asked him why, he said it was because he couldn't reach the buttons in the elevator. Villechaize was something of a sex pest to the women on the set of this film and frequently visited strip clubs during Thailand shoot and paid for the services of local prostitutes. Moore states that he himself found Villechaize to be a creepy individual and never warmed to him (unlike Christopher Lee, an actor that Moore had known a long time and had nothing but respect and admiration for.

The stunt in which the car does a barrel roll of 360 degrees was done on the first attempt, much to the relief of producer Cubby Broccoli who gave the stunt driver a $1,000 bonus. The jump had been programmed by a computer expert at New York's Cornell University aeronautical laboratory. Saltzman bought the rights to the car roll so no one could do something similar for two years after the movie came out.

Producer Harry Saltzman wanted an elephant stampede in the movie, so Bond and Scaramanga could chase each other on elephant back. The rest of the creative team balked at the idea, but Saltzman went to see an elephant trainer. It turns out that elephants need a special shoe on their feet to protect them from rough surfaces when they work. A few months later, while filming in Thailand, producer Albert R. Broccoli got a call saying his elephant shoes were ready. Saltzman had ordered about 2,600 pairs of them. The sequence was not in the movie, but the man who made the shoes had not been paid. As of 1990, Eon Productions still owed him.

Alice Cooper's Muscle of Love album has a song Man With the Golden Gun on it. It was to be the theme song of the movie, but the producers balked and opted for the version sung by Lulu instead. Tony Bramwell, who worked for producer Harry Saltzman's music publishing company Hilary Music, wanted Elton John or Cat Stevens to sing the title song. Albert R. Broccoli, whose turn it was to produce, rejected Bramwell's suggestions. Bramwell subsequently dismissed the song as "mundane".

One of the lowest grossing Bond movies and most critically reviled. That fact, combined with behind-the-scenes problems, nearly made this the final Bond movie. With Saltzman selling his 50% share of the Bond franchise to Universal, it all delayed production of the next entry in the franchise, The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).

There were three copies of the golden gun; one did nothing, one fired caps, and one was to be assembled as shown in the film. One of these was stolen and is missing. And one of them was given to Christopher Lee who lost it to homeland security when it was confiscated at the airport.