ROBERT COTTON Scaramanga has all the potential a character could have. Look at his backstory for God's sake. A circus shot as a boy, he revels in the difficulty of killing his girlfriend from an impossible angle. However, for the duration of the rest of the film he just bang bang shoots people. He's the world's greatest assassin and yet his personal art form is on display only in his back story and one shot. Then, for no damn reason he's saddled with the energy crisis as his motivating force. And one last note. The world's greatest assassin is going to challenge his greatest nemesis on a REAL playing field, stop me from killing BLANK if you can, NOT in a shooting gallery in his backyard. Talk about the chance not taken. NickNack is an interesting distraction. Very Bondian. Yet he has no consistent motivation. Does he want to kill Scaramanga or is he the world's shortest enabler? Glad he never came back. BILL KOENIG Christopher Lee is one of the best character actors hired by Eon to play a villain. Add the fact he was a cousin of Ian Fleming and this should have been a slam dunk. But it´s not. Partially, I think it´s a mishmash of a story (credited to Richard Maibuam and Tom Mankiewicz, you get the impression they stapled together what they had from about 10 different drafts without really checking whether it worked or not). JAMES McMAHON Francisco Scaramanga - The excellent Christopher Lee should have been magnificent as a Bond villain, but wasn't given much to do.  This, and Christpher Walken's Max Zorin, rank as the biggest missed opportunities in the 007 series.  Both actors could have done so much, but the script writers completely let them down.  At least Lee looks great. Nick Nack - A nicely conceived, very Fleming-esque character, ably played by Hervé Villechaize.  He gets everything possible out of the character as written. DEBORAH LIPP There's nothing at all interesting about stealing an object and selling it, and the Solex scheme doesn't tie in well with Scaramanga's character as an assassin. Scaramanga has a reasonable amount of flair as a character, especially in his bizarre relationship with Nick Nack, and Christopher Lee is, of course, wonderful, but the whole thing doesn't quite add up. I'm torn between Nick-Nack's ridiculous fight at the end, and his primary function as a foil, chef, and personal manager. It's all very Green Hornet and Cato, not particularly original, but Hervé Villechaize does well enough with it.

ED WERNER Probably the biggest missed opportunity of the entire series. Not many actors know how to do evil like Christopher Lee. For the first time, Bond is up against someone that is supposed to be his equal, a professional assassin, supposedly the best in the world! OK, so you have a great actor, a seemingly great premise for a villain and what do you do with him? You put him in leisure suits or un-tucked short sleeve shirts, have him build a fun house (with canned laughter) that has a mock up of a western saloon front and another one with Al Capone in it and give him a flying car. What were they thinking? In the end, Scaramanga seems more like an evil choirboy or somebody's gay uncle, not the best assassin in the world. Don't even get me started on Nick Nack! TOM ZIELINSKI Francisco Scaramanga - Awesome actor in Christopher Lee, playing hired gun Scaramanga who charges a "million-a-shot" mano a mano with James Bond?  What a great concept!  The couple of subtle hints as to Scaramanga's psychosis are well-played, but then Mankiewicz throws in a "timely" energy crisis angle (funny how "timely" is most often what dates a film in the worst way) and it all goes wrong.  A terrible waste of a great actor in the villain role.  Damn you, Tom Mankiewicz. Nick Nack - Ack.  I despise this character.  I don't understand the motive behind his role in Scaramanga's Fun House (If "all this is mine" at Scaramanga's death, why not off him?), and his attack on Bond on the junk at the end of the film is an embarrassment.  The character (and film) is reduced to such lines as "You big bully!"  Feh.  I wish Bond had thrown the little bastard in the ocean. PAUL BAACK "Wasted opportunity" is the refrain, when we're singing the song of Christopher Lee as Scaramanga. I don't know how much more I can add to the chorus, but I'd like to direct your attention to his scene with Roger Moore's 007, at the Thai boxing match. Lifting his bio from Ian Fleming's novel, screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz gives Lee the semi-obligatory villain's monologue a light dusting of humanity. The cartoony "world's greatest assassin" has a softer side: a love of animals. A love sufficient to, in his youth, make him kill somebody for mishandling a circus elephant. He tells Bond the story in a dispassionate, quiet voice, while he stares into the middle distance. It's clear he's reliving the incident in his mind while telling its tale. Just that little bit helps lift Scaramanga from the bottom ranks of Bond Villains; that, plus it's Christopher-Freaking-Lee, man, blessing the film with his unique Dracula crazy-cool. An Evil Dwarf Henchman probably sounded a good idea on paper. Combining the sinister with the comic always makes for a great villain. Unfortunately, Tom Mankiewicz, director Guy Hamilton, and actor Herve Villechaize cannot round up an ounce of "sinister" between them, and failed to give Nick Nack anything truly nasty to do. Music composer John Barry contributes the final indignity on the character, giving him a cutesy/silly leitmotif in the music score, completely robbing him of any potential for evil. Nick Nack winds up being one of the big embarrassments in the Bond series.

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