So this is what the last energy crisis really looked like. In spy fiction. The James Bond film The Man With the Golden Gun, 1974, which unfortunately starred Roger Moore rather than Sean Connery, revolves around the capture of an innovative solar energy device funded by the villain Scaramanga and coveted by MI5, who desire the world-dominating powers it confers for themselves.
“Coal and oil will soon be depleted, uranium is too dangerous, geothermal and tidal control too expensive… The Solex Agitator, sir: the essential unit to convert radiation from the sun into electricity on an industrial basis. And it fits in your hand!”
As usual, the villains have better decor than MI5. Here you’re seeing Scaramanga’s house, supposedly on an island off China (it’s actually Thailand). Meanwhile, back in London everything is stuffy and ornate, which I suppose is comfortingly traditional to some but which I find entirely Hitlerian. The film was shot in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, and London.
Above, the lowered, custom-designed modular kitchen of the short butler/henchman, Nick Nack (Herve Villechaize). Below, the solar energy control room and plant on Scaramanga’s island.
