Goldfinger Film Review

[Lalo Scalf]

HelloClever People! Welcome to my first video on my reviews of the James Bond film franchise. Leading up to No Time To Die in November, I will be reviewing all 24 James Bond movies. In this video, I review the first three, all starring Sean Connery, all in the cheesy 60s movie style that made these films iconic. Click the video below to check out the review!

Goldfinger is a 1964 spy film and the third instalment in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, starring Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It is based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film also stars Honor Blackman, Gert Frbe and Shirley Eaton. Goldfinger was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. The film was the first of four Bond films directed by Guy Hamilton.

The film's plot has Bond investigating gold smuggling by gold magnate Auric Goldfinger and eventually uncovering Goldfinger's plans to contaminate the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox. Goldfinger was the first Bond blockbuster, with a budget equal to that of the two preceding films combined. Principal photography took place from January to July 1964 in the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the United States.

Goldfinger was heralded as the film in the franchise where James Bond "comes into focus".[3] Many elements introduced in it appeared in many of the later James Bond films, such as the extensive use of technology and gadgets by Bond, an extensive pre-credits sequence that stood largely alone from the main plot, multiple foreign locales and tongue-in-cheek humour. The film's release led to a number of promotional licensed tie-in items, including a toy Aston Martin DB5 car from Corgi Toys, which became the biggest selling toy of 1964,[where?] and an image of gold-painted Eaton on the cover of Life.

Goldfinger was the first Bond film to win an Academy Award (for Best Sound Editing) and opened to largely favourable critical reception. The film was a financial success, recouping its budget in two weeks and grossing over $120 million worldwide. In 1999, it was ranked No. 70 on the BFI Top 100 British films list compiled by the British Film Institute.

MI6 agent James Bond destroys a drug laboratory and electrocutes an unnamed antagonist in the bath in Latin America. Bond then heads to Miami Beach, where his superior M via CIA agent Felix Leiter directs Bond to observe bullion dealer Auric Goldfinger at the hotel in Miami Beach. Bond discovers Goldfinger cheating at a high-stakes gin rummy game, aided remotely by his employee Jill Masterson. Bond interrupts Jill and blackmails Goldfinger into losing. After a night with Jill, Bond is knocked out by Goldfinger's Korean manservant Oddjob. Bond awakens to find Jill covered in gold paint, dead from "skin suffocation".

In London, M tasks Bond with determining how Goldfinger smuggles gold internationally. Q supplies Bond with a modified Aston Martin DB5 and two tracking devices. Bond plays a round of golf with Goldfinger at his country club in Kent, wagering a bar of recovered Nazi gold supplied to him by the Bank of England. Goldfinger attempts to cheat, but Bond tricks him into losing the match. Goldfinger warns Bond against interfering in his affairs and Oddjob demonstrates his formidable strength, along with a steel-rimmed hat, making it deadly when thrown. Bond trails Goldfinger to Switzerland and meets Jill's sister Tilly, who tries to assassinate Goldfinger.

Bond sneaks into Goldfinger's refinery and overhears him telling a Chinese nuclear physicist Ling that he incorporates gold into the bodywork of his Rolls-Royce Phantom III to smuggle out of England. Bond overhears Goldfinger mention "Operation Grand Slam" and encounters Tilly, who again tries to kill Goldfinger. An alarm is tripped and Oddjob kills Tilly with his steel-rimmed hat. Bond is captured and strapped to a table with an overhead industrial laser, the beam advancing toward his crotch. Bond lies to Goldfinger that MI6 knows about Operation Grand Slam and Goldfinger spares his life so MI6 can believe that Bond is safe. Pussy Galore, a pilot, flies the captive Bond to Goldfinger's stud farm near Lexington, Kentucky in a private jet.

Once there, Bond escapes his cell and witnesses Goldfinger's meeting with American mafiosi, who have supplied materials needed for Operation Grand Slam. Goldfinger reveals the plan is to breach the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox by releasing Delta-9 nerve gas into the atmosphere, which Goldfinger claims induces unconsciousness for 24 hours. Goldfinger promises to multiply the mobsters' payoff if the scheme succeeds, but they ridicule his plan, particularly Mr. Solo, who demands to be paid immediately and leaves before the others are gassed to death by Goldfinger. Bond is captured by Pussy Galore, but attempts to alert the CIA by planting his homing device in Solo's pocket as he leaves.

Solo is killed by Oddjob and his body destroyed in a car crusher, along with the homing device. Bond confronts Goldfinger over the implausibility of moving the gold.[note 1] As Goldfinger denies an intent to steal it, Bond deduces from the presence of Mr. Ling that the Chinese government offered Goldfinger a dirty bomb in order to detonate inside the vault to irradiate the gold for decades, thus rendering it worthless. Goldfinger's own gold will greatly increase in value and the Chinese will gain an advantage from the resulting economic meltdown. Goldfinger warns that any attempt to interfere will result in the bomb being detonated at another vital U.S. location. Operation Grand Slam begins with Pussy Galore's Flying Circus spraying gas over Fort Knox, seemingly knocking out the military guards.

Goldfinger's private army breaks into Fort Knox and accesses the vault as Goldfinger arrives in a helicopter with the bomb. In the vault, Goldfinger's henchman Kisch handcuffs Bond to the bomb. Unknown to Goldfinger, Bond convinced Pussy to alert the authorities and replaced the gas with a harmless substance. Goldfinger locks the vault with Bond, Oddjob and Kisch inside. When the U.S. army attacks, Goldfinger kills Ling in a ruse and escapes. Kisch attempts to disarm the bomb, but Oddjob tosses him off a gangway. Bond frees himself with Kisch's key, but Oddjob batters him. Bond electrocutes Oddjob to death, forces the lock off the bomb, but is unsure how to disarm the bomb.

After killing Goldfinger's men, U.S. troops open the vault and a specialist turns off the device with "007" seconds remaining. Bond boards a jet to have lunch with the President at the White House, but Goldfinger hijacks the plane, tying up the plane's crew in the hangar and putting Pussy in the cockpit. In a struggle for Goldfinger's revolver, the gun fires, shattering a window and creating an explosive decompression; Goldfinger is blown out via the ruptured window to his death. Bond and Pussy parachute safely from the aircraft before it crashes into the ocean. Leiter's search helicopter passes over the unseen pair on an island. Pussy tries to make their presence known, but Bond declares, "This is no time to be rescued", and draws the parachute over himself and Pussy.

Desmond Llewelyn is not credited in the opening sequence, but he plays Q, the head of Q-branch. Hamilton told him to inject humour into the character, thus beginning the friendly antagonism between Q and Bond that became a hallmark of the series.[19] He had already appeared in the previous Bond film, From Russia with Love, and, with the exception of Live and Let Die, would continue to play Q in the next 16 Bond films.

Michael Mellinger portrayed Kisch, Goldfinger's secondary and quiet henchman and loyal lieutenant who leads his boss's fake Army convoy to Fort Knox. Nadja Regin played Bonita, a dancer who sets a trap for Bond in the pre-credit sequence. Burt Kwouk portrayed Mr Ling, the Communist Chinese nuclear fission specialist. Richard Vernon played Colonel Smithers, a Bank of England official. Margaret Nolan played Dink, Bond's masseuse from the Miami hotel sequence. (Vernon and Nolan both appeared in A Hard Day's Night that same year.) Nolan also appeared as the gold-covered body in advertisements for the film[7] and in the opening title sequence as the golden silhouette, described as "Gorgeous, iconic, seminal".[22] Gerry Duggan portrays Hawker, Bond's golf caddy.

While From Russia with Love was in production, Richard Maibaum began working on the script for On Her Majesty's Secret Service as the intended next film in the series, but with the release date set for September 1964 there was not enough time to prepare for location shooting in Switzerland and that adaptation was put on hold.[23][24] With the court case between Kevin McClory and Fleming surrounding Thunderball still in the High Court, producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman turned to Goldfinger as the third Bond film.[25] Goldfinger had what was then considered a large budget of $3 million (US$29 million in 2023 dollars[26]), the equivalent of the budgets of Dr. No and From Russia with Love combined, and was the first Bond film classified as a box-office blockbuster.[5] Goldfinger was chosen with the North American cinema market in mind, as the previous films had concentrated on the Caribbean and Europe.[27]

Terence Young, who directed the previous two films, chose to film The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders instead, after a pay dispute[4] that saw him denied a percentage of the film's profits.[28] Broccoli and Saltzman turned instead to Guy Hamilton to direct. Hamilton, who had turned down directing Dr. No,[29] felt that he needed to make Bond less of a "superman" by making the villains seem more powerful.[30] Hamilton knew Fleming, as both were involved during intelligence matters in the Royal Navy during World War II.[31] Goldfinger saw the return of two crew members who were not involved with From Russia with Love: Bob Simmons as stunt coordinator and production designer Ken Adam.[32] Both played crucial roles in the development of Goldfinger, with Simmons choreographing the fight sequence between Bond and Oddjob in the vault of Fort Knox, which was not just seen as one of the best Bond fights, but also "must stand as one of the great cinematic combats",[33] whilst Adam's efforts on Goldfinger were "luxuriantly baroque"[34] and have resulted in the film being called "one of his finest pieces of work".[16]

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