For many, Goldfinger is the “best Bond film”. For me, it has been one that I really liked but not better than my personal favourites. I am open to changing my mind as we go through the series, but I can’t make that call just yet.
James Bond (Sean Connery) begins his third adventure by destroying a drug lab in Latin America. He sneaks into the facility via an underwater route while wearing a wet suit with a fake bird on his head. He plants the bomb, then removes the wet suit to reveal perfect hair, a perfect white tux, and an perfect carnation to go with it. He walks out under the disguise of an invitee to a posh party before timing the lighting of a cigarette with the explosion he just set. Pessimists will see this as silly. Optimists will see it as fun.
Bond, now on vacation in Miami Beach, is directed by MI6 via CIA agent Felix Leiter (Cec Linder) to keep an eye on the gold bullion dealer Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe). After messing up Goldfinger’s card game and stealing his girlfriend, Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton), Goldfinger sends his Korean henchmen Oddjob (Harold Sakata ) to warn Bond to back off. Oddjob knocks out Bond and covers Jill in gold paint, murdering her by “skin suffocation”. It is not very practical but makes for a great scene in a movie.
Bond continues to track Goldfinger to discover how he smuggles gold into other countries. His investigation finds Bond captured and under the watch of Goldfinger’s personal pilot, Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman). Here, Bond stumbles onto Goldfinger’s greater plot, to break into the American gold reserve at Fort Knox in Kentucky, USA.
The previous two Bond films, Dr. No and From Russia With Love was directed by Terrance Young who wanted a better salary and a cut of the profits to direct a third. MGM decided to go with Guy Hamilton instead, who turned down Dr. No just two years earlier. Hamilton not only brought a tighter paced style of action but a sense of humour that remained a staple for almost every Bond film that followed.
He cranked the one liners to 11 which lightened the tension after every kill, something everyone from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Dirty Harry owe him for, but also made small additions that would become big over time. The best example of this can be scene in Desmond Llewelyn’s returned to play “Q”, the head of the Q-Branch who supplies Bond with his gadgets. Llewelyn played the character straight before, but this time Hamilton insisted that he be irritated by Bond’s inability to pay attention and blatant disrespect for his gadgets. It would make for Hollywood chemistry that would last for the next 15 times Llewelyn would play the character.
Speaking of the gadgets, save for a tracking device Bond kept in his shoe and a few shown in the Q-Branch headquarters, they are mostly reserved for the series debut of the Aston Martin. In this one, Bond drives an Aston Martin DBZ equipped with smoke screens, a bulletproof shield, machine guns, and an ejector seat. The car chase in the film is rather impressive for a pre-Bullitt movie.
The only change I did not enjoy was how they ramped up Bond’s male chauvinism. The second girl we see Bond with is presented as his “masseuse”. She is told to leave when Felix shows up so “the men can talk”. Bond turns her around to slap her ass as a point of emphasis. OK, forgivable for the ’60s but it still got my eyes rolling.
The big one is how he turns Pussy Galore straight. Literally. In the book, her character is lesbian. The film only hints at it (because it is the ’60s) when she claims to be “immune” to his charm. Later in the film he forces himself on her (cringe) and gets her to help him by appealing to her “maternal instinct”. Pfft. Terrible.
Getting back to fun territory, Sarah and I continued our competition to guess how long it would take Bond to get laid. Sarah, again was almost dead on again with a guess of 15 minutes and I was way off with 20. It took him 14 m and 27 seconds. For those keeping score:
Sarah – 3
Mars – 0.0
One final piece of I need to mention is Shirley Bassey’s opening tune Goldfinger. The song mixes in originality with Monty Norman’s James Bond Theme which would set the tone for every Bond song that followed. And it was the first song to become identifiable outside of the series. Remember when the Crane gang on Fraiser ran into the piano player who could only play Goldfinger? Good times
On paper, Goldfinger had enormous potential to be a disaster. You may have noticed how there is no mention of Blofield or SPECTOR. At the time, the planned sequel, Thunderball was in litigation over who owned the rights, so Goldfinger was only meant to be placeholder to save the series from losing momentum. Instead, with the aid of a new director with new ideas, and the budget of the previous two Bond films combined, Goldfinger became the blueprint for most of the Bond films that followed it. The… gold standard, if you will.
4/5
BAHAHA…
‘How Long Will It Take For Bond To Get Laid?” from Hasbro!
I really hope you do this for all the Bond Movies when you review them!
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This is a brilliant ongoing contest, Kevin. Sarca’s out to an early lead – but I have a feeling you’ll start gaining some ground in the Roger Moore era!
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lol. I guess we should call this the ‘Laid a Rater’
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What’s the Over/Under for the next film, 14 minutes?! How many women by the end of the film? The Vegas odds makers possibilities are endless!
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Careful Geoff you may put Kev into hysterics with all the Bond action.
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You guys are too much! We thought about adding more such as how many times, etc. But we thought the contest wouldn’t be fair since I do remember some from watching them before. Like I already knew there were 3 Bond girls in Dr. No. We thought this would put us on a level playing field. Looks like I needed a crutch after all, lol
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Yeah totally your getting your ass handed to you! lol
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At least it is getting handed to me from the best!
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Truer words have never been spoken
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Love the Bond films. My favorite Bond film changes every time I watch another one. Oddjob was a good villain in this also… Now I want to watch it yet again.
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I’ve been overdue for a re-watch for a while. It feels good to get back to them.
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I love the game you and Sarah are playing and the fact she keeps winning is fantastic. I also had to think for second on the car. I didn’t know what an Austin Martin was, but I think it is Aston Martin. I guess the Austin Martin became Austin Powers and made their own spy movies.
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lol, I did fix that at some point but I must have forgot to save or it auto corrected back to it. Geez. Well, thanks for pointing it out!
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Ha!! I am sure no one noticed, I love those cars and would take one if I could get it. We saw one yesterday and I pointed out to my daughter, look that is a James Bond car. I think she was like…What????
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I wouldn’t call myself much of a Bond fan, but this is among my favourites. Loads of entertainment here (I think Bond is always ridiculous)… the set pieces are pretty good and Connery has that glint in the eye. Some good stuff.
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Hey, J! I keep meaning to say how it is good to see around again! Yes, this is the one that set the blueprint for all others that followed. At least until the re-boot in 2006. It is a fun film.
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Cheers, man – good to be around.
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One of my favorites for sure. Just the names of the characters are enough to get me interested.
Seriously Pussy Galore.
Brilliant.
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I know… imagine getting away with that in a PG film today.
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I haven’t seen the classic Bond films in years, not since I borrowed my brother’s DVD set. One of these days I’ll have to rewatch them!
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It has been about 20 years or so for me as well. It was whatever was in my incomplete DVD collection and renting the rest on VHS.
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Been ages since I saw this one but I remember holding it above several of the others. I mean, it even got the Austin Powers treatment lol. We know these things don’t age well, in fact, best not to watch for anyone who is easily triggered by the behaviour.
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Yeah, for us it is more like… well, that didn’t age well, lol
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They never do! Attitudes and times change.
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I wouldn’t go that far. Plenty of films from the ’60s and before have aged well and were way ahead of their time. Bond did represent an attitude some had in the ’60s, but judging by the other films that came out at the time, not a majority.
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I like this one and break out the theme song at random. U never know when CB will let it rip.
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Truly an excellent theme. Let it rip, man!
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CB in the workplace “porta-poti” “GOLDFINGER!”
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Lol
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