Goldfinger

Goldfinger

“Shaken, not stirred”

• James Bond

If “Dr. No” introduced us to James Bond’s adventures, and “From Russia with Love” made it clear to us that J.B. is a serious player and that the film industry should pay close attention to this (then) new golden goose, “Goldfinger” set some standards and guidelines that future films about agent 007’s adventures would use.

But let’s start from the beginning…

After (quite routinely) blowing up a drug processing laboratory in Latin America, our J.B. decided to take a mini-vacation on the famous beaches of Miami (pardon me, Miami Beach). Our poor thing must enjoy an exclusive hotel and everyone must pamper him. However, soon his friend Felix (CIA agent) visits him to convey M’s message that 007 has a new task, which is to monitor the mysterious gold trader, Auric Goldfinger. After successfully sneaking into his room, where on the terrace he found the beautiful Jill Masterson looking through a telescope at a gin game (I mean the card game, you crazy alcoholics :D) between Goldfinger and his acquaintance (and incidentally whispering to him what cards his opponent has, since Goldfinger has a bug in his ear), J.B. decided to “joke around” a bit with Goldfinger and took control of the microphone and mocked him a bit, threatening Goldfinger with police if he doesn’t deliberately lose some money. And while Goldfinger turns red with rage that he has to play and lose, J.B. meanwhile spends juicy moments with his new sweetheart, Jill Masterson. I got the impression this is the first film where Bond maybe became emotionally interested in some girl.

Though he’s an unsurpassed smooth operator, J.B. knows his alcohol, and the golden rule that “in bed a woman must be hot, and champagne cold.” Since the champagne warmed up, he had to go to the fridge for a new bottle and briefly leave Jill in the bedroom… except someone knocked him out while he was in the kitchen. When he came to, J.B. now found Jill dead, all covered in gold paint.

Now we’re in London, and J.B. gets a concrete task from M to investigate the “Bank of England’s” suspicion that Goldfinger is illegally smuggling gold, and to try to lure him with a gold bar from Nazi Germany from World War II. After an interesting golf game between Goldfinger and J.B., Goldfinger clearly makes it known to our hero not to play with fate anymore, incidentally presenting the negotiation skills of his sturdy mute assistant Oddjob and his metal-reinforced hat.

So 007 decided to now follow his enemy a bit more subtly, all the way to Switzerland. However, a moment of inattention (caused by new acquaintance Tilly Masterson) leads to him being caught, and being Goldfinger’s “guest” for some time at his ranch, where he has the opportunity to learn some things about the diabolical “Operation Grandslam.” Of course, even such deadly danger has its advantages for J.B., because he has the opportunity to meet Goldfinger’s pilot, the beautiful… um… Pussy Galore. Yes, that’s really her name…

[Image caption: And you were to say her (film) name with full respect, understand?]

Whether Bond will manage to expose the diabolical operation in time, survive Goldfinger and his mute assistant/hat-sniper and get Pussy (I had to), you’ll find out if you watch the film which, from the current perspective, has a title like an art porno film, “Goldfinger”… I mean, you know yourself what the film’s outcome will be, but I have to add a bit of drama, you know (“Yeah, people are on the edges of their seats reading your reviews, they’ll go crazy from tension…” – note from subconscious).

The visual aspect (expectedly) experienced another jump in quality, and especially the sound aspect of the film (i.e., sound effects) was improved, which brought the first Oscar to a Bond film.

As for acting, many believe our Sean was at his peak here as secret agent 007. As for me, I got the impression he was better in the previous part, but I really have no complaints about his acting here, he’s still brilliant. Gert Fröbe portrayed the bombastic megalomaniac Auric Goldfinger quite interestingly for us (one of the rare Bond villains the audience often remembers/recognizes), complete with behavioral changes (one interesting fact: Gert played Jug Bogdan in the 1981 film “Banović Strahinja”). The sturdy Harold Sakata gave us the legendary Oddjob, the mute martial arts master with the deadly hat and famous confident smile (many fans of 007 films will remember Goldfinger’s servant/assistant before many of Bond’s arch-enemies through the films).

Bernard Lee (M) and Lois Maxwell (Moneypenny) are still standardly good in their episodic (couple of minutes) roles, and Desmond Llewelyn (Q) got even more minutes to explain his gadgets.

Ah, Bond girls… the beautiful sisters Jill (Shirley Eaton) and Tilly Masterson (Tania Mallet) had their five minutes each (literally, you’ll see why… shame, especially for Jill), but the main star is the vivacious Honor Blackman as pilot Pussy Galore… of course, we’ll meet through later Bond films many girls with hilarious, ambiguous names), who remained in many men’s memory as one of the more memorable Bond girls. A couple of interesting facts about this actress: she was 38 years old when she filmed “Goldfinger” (and several years older than Connery), she was known for the role of Hera in “Jason and the Argonauts” (1963) and Cathy Gale in the series “The Avengers” (1961), and she was also into singing. By the way, she passed away last year (when legendary Sean also left us).

I mentioned at the beginning that the film set some guidelines and standards for future James Bond films, as well as introducing many novelties. So now we see that gadgets and weapons from Q’s department will in the future become an integral part of the arsenal of Bond’s “skills” (and we have the opportunity to see for the first time the department Q runs). In future films we’ll have increasingly frequent appearances of various “specific” henchmen to main villains (like Oddjob), who serve to make Bond’s life difficult. There will also be frequent situations where (unfortunately) Bond girls die. And more and more (occasionally through the film) comic elements will be inserted, especially focused on sarcastic comments or those where Bond mocks opponents.

When we mentioned technology, an interesting fact is that Bond now has at his disposal a larger transmitter (for tracking villains) and a smaller one (so MI6 knows where Bond is at all times), as well as a secret compartment in the heel of his shoe (where, lo and behold, he can hide the smaller transmitter). Though the villains also got their weapons (like Oddjob’s deadly hat or Goldfinger’s golden gun). Perhaps the biggest attraction when it comes to technology is Bond’s “tricked out” car with machine guns, tire slashers, bulletproof windows, a tracker, smoke bombs and oil (to make enemy cars skid) and, perhaps the most famous surprise element, the passenger seat that can be launched into the clouds. 😀 And since we’ve already mentioned cars…

…Bond’s car of choice in this film is, perhaps the most famous Bond car, the brilliant and luxurious (sports) Aston Martin DB5! Goldfinger, on the other hand, opted for the lordly Rolls-Royce Phantom III model.

What also stood out, but was simultaneously a good refreshment, was the appearance of the laser (laser beam) in a famous scene.

Unlike previous films, this film didn’t have many traumatic problems during filming, though it required more resourcefulness (like getting access to Fort Knox, but not deeper entry into it; carrying out a plane flyover above Fort Knox; Fröbe, German by origin, couldn’t really speak English quickly, so he spoke in German, and then another actor did a redub in English).

The action in the film was also raised to a higher level, and especially the final showdown (beating) scene between J.B. and Oddjob, which is considered one of the classics when it comes to “1 on 1” confrontations.

The film was mostly shot in Switzerland and USA (Florida and Kentucky), with a brief visit to a golf club in England, and all other scenes were (as in the previous two films) recreated in “Pinewood Studios” in London.

The budget for this film was as much as three (3) million dollars (as much as the first two films together), and it earned 51 million, and a later re-release (together with the film “Dr. No”), led to an impressive gross of almost 125 million dollars! Wow, that’s called profit!

Welsh singer Shirley Bassey sang the famous opening number “Goldfinger” (and thus also set a standard for Bond films, where famous singers guest with opening numbers). The number was composed by John Barry.

A couple of interesting facts about this film:

• We hear the famous “shaken, not stirred” for the first time
• Sean didn’t travel to Florida at all to film his scenes, because he was simultaneously engaged in Hitchcock’s film “Marnie” (he filmed his scenes in Pinewood studio)
• We’ve already mentioned the first appearance of a laser
• First Bond film to win an Oscar
• The film was entered in the “Guinness Book of Records” as the film with the fastest large earnings
• Since, for security reasons, filming inside Fort Knox was forbidden (nor was anyone connected with the film allowed to enter), the recreated warehouse was done so incredibly authentically that even Fort Knox confirmed it
• Producers were considering Orson Welles to play Goldfinger, but assessed he was too expensive for them. When Fröbe asked for 10% of the film’s profit as earnings, producers thought they maybe screwed up by not engaging Welles after all
• Sean injured his back in the final fight scene, which he used to negotiate even better (financial) conditions for the next film
• This is Steven Spielberg’s favorite Bond film
• The scene with the machine gun car was Hitchcock’s favorite scene
• During the film’s promotion, Honor Blackman enjoyed embarrassing journalists during various interviews, deliberately often saying her character’s name
• Sean became interested in golf after filming this film

For other interesting facts, take a look here.

For me, “Goldfinger” is an excellent Bond film. It’s entertaining, dynamic, witty, has memorable villains and Bond lady Pussy, and set, so to speak, guidelines for future Bond films.

I’d dare to put it in the “top 5” Bond films, but we’ll see more… 🙂

And you, dear reader, what are your impressions of this film? 🙂

Trailer

IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic

Format: Film

Premiere: 1964

Duration: 110 minutes