"Auric Goldfinger. Sounds like a French nail varnish." - James Bond.
Goldfinger has everything you could possible want in a Bond movie: the maniacal arch villain, his ridiculously elaborate plot, the gorgeous temptress, her ridiculously suggestive name, the dangerous henchman, the gadgets, the cars, the ejector seat, Miss Moneypenny, a catchy theme song, and, of course, the martinis (shaken, not stirred).
Sean Connery is back in the third (and my favorite so far) installment of the nearly 50-year-old franchise. This time he finds himself in Miami puzzling over the death of his latest conquest who has been killed by gold paint asphyxiation. All fingers (pun intended) point to Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe), whom Bond is assigned to shadow across Europe. He'll have his work cut out for him, since he'll not only have to deal with Goldfinger and his wildly elaborate and convoluted plot, but he'll also have to take on his mute henchman Odd Job (Harold Sakata), whose bowler hat doubles as a deadly Frisbee. Arguably the best scene in the movie is when Goldfinger has Bond exactly where he wants him: strapped to a table with a laser beam aimed at his groin. Bond asks, 'Do you expect me to talk?' 'No, Mr. Bond,' Goldfinger famously replies. 'I expect you to die.'
In the original script, the scene had a spinning buzzsaw (as envisioned in the original novel) until it was decided that this was too passé. And so, the laser beam made its very first appearance in a movie...ever.
Of course Bond escapes this predicament, only to be captured again by Goldfinger and his "personal pilot" with man-hands, Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman). Once they make it back to his secret American lair, Goldfinger begins revealing his plan -- complete with scale models and a pre-PowerPoint presentation -- to a gathering of mob bosses immediately prior to gassing them all, which begs the question: Why bother explaining the plan to them?. You know it's because he wanted to show off his model of Fort Knox. And so, Operation Grandslam is put into motion. Now all Bond has to do is take out Odd Job, capture Goldfinger, defuse an atomic bomb, get the girl (which won't be easy since Pussy likes the ladies), and save the world before the movie ends. Piece of cake.
So, even though this wasn't the first Bond film, it is the one that set the standard for every one that followed. It is essentially the movie that turned "Bond movies" into their own genre and is well-deserving of a 5 star-rating and its place on the list of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.
Did you know?: Gert Fröbe spoke very little English, so his voice was dubbed over by a different actor (Michael Collins). And contrary to popular belief, Shirley Eaton, the actress who played Goldfinger's gold-painted victim, did not really die from paint-poisoning. She went on to star in several other movies until she chose to retire in the late '60s.
Credits:
G.B. (Danjaq, Eon) 112m Technicolor
Director: Guy Hamilton
Producer: Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman
Screenplay: Richard Maibaum, Paul Dehn, from novel by Ian Fleming
Photography: Ted Moore
Music: John Barry, Monty Norman
Cast: Sean Connery, Honor Blackman, Gert Fröbe, Shirley Eaton, Tania Mallet, Harold Sakata, Bernard Lee, Martin Benson, Cec Linder, Austin Willis, Lois Maxwell, Bill Nagy, Michael Mellinger, Peter Cranwell, Nadja Regin
Oscar: Norman Wanstall (special sound effects)
Why you should watch Goldfinger: it's one of the best Bond movies ever made and it turned a fledgeling franchise into its own genre.
Why you shouldn't watch: Operation Grandslam might make you crave Denny's at 2 in the morning.
Up Next: A Hard Day's Night (1964)
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