Insider
Focus Of The Week: Andrea Anders
Meet Scaramanga’s mistress
The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)’s Andrea Anders (Maud Adams) is a woman driven by desperation. Under the influence of ruthless international assassin Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee), Andrea lives on his secluded private island in Chinese waters. On the surface she is happy, but deep down she is plotting to escape from his controlling clutches.
Anders’ plans kick into action when she sends a golden bullet engraved with the number ‘007’ to the British Secret Service. She hopes it will spur James Bond (Roger Moore) to come after Scaramanga, kill him, and free her from a life she loathes. She describes Scaramanga as a “monster’, resolute in the belief that leaving him will spell certain death.
Bond takes the bait and watches Anders collect a shipment of Scaramanga’s custom-made gold bullets from a casino in Macau. Bond trails her back to her hotel and confronts her in the shower. Startled, she pulls a gun on 007 (“A water pistol?” Bond quips) and walks him into the bedroom. As she calls the reception desk, Bond knocks the weapon from her hand. Bond proceeds to grill Andrea about her relationship with Scaramanaga. She eventually reveals that she is his mistress and tells Bond he will be at the Bottoms Up club that evening.
Anders later visits Bond in his hotel room (while he is seducing Mary Goodnight [Britt Ekland]) warning Bond that Scaramanga wants to murder him. She admits that she sent the bullet and will pay any price to have Scaramanga killed. Bond asks her to acquire the Solex Agitator, a key component of the world’s most efficient solar energy system.
Andrea goes back to Scaramanga on his boat, telling him she had been at the cinema. As she puts away her jewellery in Scaramanga’s safe, she spots the Solex Agitator and steals it for Bond. When 007 arrives at the rendezvous, a Thai Boxing match, he discovers she has been shot and killed by Scaramanga after discovering her betrayal, the bullet wound concealed by her jacket. “A mistress cannot serve two masters,” the killer coldly observes.
