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Comments
@w2bond, in my mind, it's GF where Bond's big, brassy orchestra sound was made a true force. Barry does great work in FRWL, like he did great work everywhere, but GF was his big coming out party as a Bond composer. I could listen to the GF score all day, it sounds as golden to the ears as Auric's plane.
For all its iconography, though, I can't in good conscience allow it to rank above Dr. No and From Russia with Love. I find them more potent escapes, with tighter scripts in the vein of true spy thrillers, where Connery really got to play. GF toes the line between the Young Bond and the type of Bond that would unfortunately run rampant into Camptown later on, where he'd rule for all the 70s and half the 80s, but thankfully we get enough of the former in this film to avoid any upset.
I'll post my more substantive comments later, but for now...
Bondathon Ranking (2016-2017)
1.) From Russia With Love
2.) Dr. No
3.) Goldfinger
It's the most complete film of them all. Every single scene, every camera angle, every shot is bloody perfect.
It's beautiful.
It's shiny.
It's GOLD.
Compared to Goldfinger almost all other Bond films pale in comparison.
One iconic scene after the other.
A simple and bold statement? YES
For detailed and nuanced please refer to the master @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 :)
Can't wait to read those comments. Be careful not to paint Goldfinger with the sins to its bastard offspring, mind. Also your ranking matches my own. So, that's a thing.
You'd be surprised old chap.
I got it.
You got a point.
It is undeniable . But when i argue the same for YOLT it doesn't wash with anyone. I will however do my best to champion it in 2 weeks time B-)
Direction
A change of director for this movie, Guy Hamilton does a super job of making a wonderful Bond movie; a movie that is still the template for Bond movies today (with the exception of a few).
Opening title design
If FRWL was great and set the way for these designs, then this is the one they aspire to be. I love this title design, it looks beautiful and a great fit for the movie.
Script
A great script that became a, sort of, template for future Bond movies.
Cinematography
Ted Moore, again, does a super job of making this movie look great. With others, it's like the people who have been here for all 3 so far, have certainly found their feet and doing their jobs to great effect.
Music
Wow, what can I say, the music in this is fantastic and the best of the 3 movies so far. John Barry does a super job here and this is one of the best scores of the Bond movies. Even little things like, Goldfingers tune when we first see him, just brilliant. It's almost like FRWL was a warm up for him.
Editing
Great editing again from Peter R Hunt. Fast and flawless and, again, like he’s really found his feet in the Bond movies. Best yet.
Costume design
Connery looks great as he always does, especially in the white tux that, again, has been copied in future movies. However, I'm not sure about the towelling suit he has to wear when Leiter catches up with him in Miami, that's a shocker I'm afraid.
Sets
Three great sets to speak of here, from the great Ken Adam. First up we saw the laser room, the scene of one of the most quoted scenes from any Bond movie. Then we saw the rumpus room, this, again, looks amazing, the moving floors, the model of Fort Knox etc. Brilliant. Best of all though we had the Fort Knox set. We all know that this isn't really what Fort Knox looks like, although I’m aware that Ken Adam received much praise about it. It's a super set that finished 2nd in our set design elimination game not long ago. A triumph.
Thank you. I do wish I could put things into words like you fellas on here. Some of your reviews are outstanding.
Excellent @Birdleson. I've been doing something similar on here for years. ;)
Some Production Notes for Goldfinger
In the background of the opening titles to Golfdinger we see a slightly confusing mash up of clips from the film to come, followed by clips from the previous two films. Still the gyrating dancers, but we had to wait until the next film to get some crude visual puns so identified with the Bond titles.
Goldfinger is littered with famous lines. Endlessly quotable it makes one realise how bland the dialogue would become in later years.
There is the usual top quality cinematography especially in Switzerland. It gives Goldfinger a scope which may not have been so obvious in the first two films.
John Barry found the Bond sound in this one. The title song, belted out by Shirley Bassey is as big and outrageous as everything else in the film, and established the 'Bond sound'.
Sometimes the music sounds a bit dated. The trombone effect used to introduce Pussy's pilots is right out of the Carry On films.
Also the hill billy music when we reach Kentucky is a bit of a pastiche.
But I love the dynamic music when Bond is strapped to the laser bench, rising and falling, dropping away when the laser is switched off.
And of course the gentle, harmless chimes that accompany the appearance of the dangerous OddJob is a brilliant touch.
Bond wears three piece suits in this one, and of course looks fantastic (especially the different coloured waistcoat in the first M scene).
The sets are always excellent, but none more so than Ken Adam's re-imagining of the interior of Fort Knox. This must be the point he established his credentials and ensured the Producers could trust him with the volcano set of You Only Live Twice.
Interesting that the director here has received so much criticism for his later Bond films. This is a stylish piece of film making. Maybe the problem was that by the 70s the content of the Bond films would be dictated to almost by public demand.
In other words did Guy Hamilton become a slave of the very monster he created?
Let’s have a bash shall we -
Opening title design
Stunning in their iconography. Which is a phrase used a lot in reviews of Goldfinger. The titles themselves are projected on a Golden Girl (Margaret Nolan). Lovely stuff. So simple and an improvement on From Russia With Love.
Script
What can I say about the script that hasn’t already been said? One of the best in Bondom. This was was a major artistic turning point in Bond lore; Goldfinger had a new director, Guy Hamilton, and a new screenwriter, Paul Dehn. Together they presented a more stylised film and violence. Hamilton influence at the helm makes the film less callous, less brutal, more stylised, more overt. Although this approach would lead the series into parody, Goldfinger itself, has just the right proportions of escapism, coolness, sexiness, danger, tension, romance and espionage. In short, Goldfinger is one of the most perfectly balanced films in the canon.
Cinematography/Settings
If there is a flaw to Goldfinger, is that it looked as if it was shot on the backlot. The brief foray into Switzerland is a welcome chance to show Ted Moore’s skills. The most drab of the 60’s films, I’d say. Skyfall had the same problem. It didn’t harm the box office taking of either film.
Music
If that doesn't thrill you, you must be dead frankly.
As always, more to come on the Bondian elements and filmmaking elements of the picture soon.
Actor & Character Elements
Bond and Actor Performance
In this, his third go at a James Bond film, Sean Connery shows no signs of slowing down in his iconic portrayal. While Dr. No and From Russia with Love required Sean to play a Bond with an air of unease about him as he navigated a fearful Jamaica ruled by No’s myths of danger and dragons and the rough town of Istanbul colored by the complex and disconcerting shifts in relations between the Turks, Bulgars and Russians as he finds himself in the middle of a SPECTRE plot, in Goldfinger we see Sean having the most fun I’d say he has for his entire tenure.
I think this is largely down to the fact that there is so much downtime in this film where Bond can truly stretch himself from the confines of spy life, and socialize, even when he’s virtually a prisoner on a Kentucky stud ranch (yeah, that happens). The film begins with 007 on a bit of vacation (or so he thinks), he socializes with Goldfinger in very public and relaxed locations throughout the feature and once we get to Kentucky, Bond is more sociable than ever. In many ways Goldfinger is a film about Bond reacting instead of acting because of this, which often doesn’t exactly work in its favor.
But back to Sean. Dr. No and From Russia with Love are full of nice quiet moments where Sean’s subtle acting really got to shine, and in Goldfinger, these moments remain. Sean’s swagger is mighty, and he’s well off the leash as he seduces and charms his way through the movie with great charisma and sexiness. Sean is the master of these quiet moments where he needs no words to convey to an audience what he is doing, and his rebelliousness is exciting. I love how, when he is making his way to Goldfinger’s Miami hotel room after spotting the man’s cheating tactic, he charms the cleaner to get close to him so he can swiftly grab her key, lead her reluctantly to the door and unlock it. Then, once on the balcony, he charms Jill in less than 10 seconds flat (it took me just one second), and when she requests for Bond to move back so she can see Auric’s reaction to losing the game, Sean only slightly moves his head out of the way so that his face is just centimeters from the side of Shirley’s face as she looks into the binoculars; at this moment you can see Sean sneak a sniff of her hair as his animal mating ritual begins and he becomes fully enchanted by her beauty.
Goldfinger is nothing if not a collection of moments where Bond somehow finds a way to infiltrate and disrupt or annoy his company in amusing ways. In the pre-title sequence he stealthily rigs a plant to blow and stands waiting for the ticking of his clock to reach the moment of climax as the club’s foundations shake alongside the explosion, which he walks through in the aftermath like it was nothing more than a minor quake, dressed to the nines in a gorgeous ivory dinner jacket. At dinner with the head of the Bank of England, he shows off his knowledge of the right drinks, to M’s immense puzzlement. When he meets with Q to get his gear, he acts oh so bored, but still attentive as the gadget man shows him his new toys. When he meets Tilly and openly crashes her car, he sits rather adorably on the back of her car boot like a child, playing innocent with a big grin. On the flight to Kentucky, Bond inspects the plane’s restroom and blocks all the attempts to survey him like he does in the hotel scenes of Dr. No and From Russia with Love, a great callback to the previous Young films. When Goldfinger thinks he’s got Bond locked away and out of mind in a cell, he breaks out, takes care of his guard and hears all of the villains plan unnoticed. And then there’s the endlessly sharp barbs he sends Goldfinger’s way throughout, gradually eroding the villain’s ego as he goes in entertaining ways. He even talks back to M in this film, which is a big no-no. This is a Bond off the leash, with a mind of his own.
This is all not even beginning to mention the massive sex appeal of Sean Connery here. A fun fact about myself is that Sean Connery in Goldfinger has more than once in the past made me question everything I know of my heterosexuality. This is because in Goldfinger, Sean is his finest looking as Bond; this is the film where he steals the crown of sexiest man from anyone else who claimed right to it previously or at any time thereafter. His attractiveness is all in that animal magnetism he helped to define. The way a few commas of his hairpiece fell in Flemingesque fashion over his forehead. The way he sneaks a peak at Lois Maxwell’s rear as she goes to her office desk. His swagger walking through a room, making female eyes light up and fires burn aflame in their hearts and lower regions for him as he smiled and displayed dimples as deep as the ocean. The way he wore a suit like he was born in it. The way he went after his women like he was an animal in the wild, battling for their love with kinetic energy, unrestrained as he flared his nostrils. Sean simply exudes sex in this film, and every time he looks at a woman you can feel an erotic energy cascading off of him that is penetrating (bad choice of words?). Sean isn’t an actor, he’s a force of nature, a perfect amalgamation of clean, refined eloquence and dirty, untamed machismo. His libido is a wrecking ball and the women of Goldfinger are the walls he breaks down until they topple at his feet, fulfilling his every request. I defy any man to watch Sean Connery in Goldfinger without admitting up front that they would totally allow him to do anything he wanted to them. What a man. Erm, uh-back to the analysis!
We’ve discussed Sean’s immaculate performance and his aroma of attraction, but what of Bond the character in Goldfinger? This is where things get more complex, because on the surface of its iconography and its foundation as a source of tradition for many of the films that would come thereafter, on a deeper level, Goldfinger seems like a lesson in failure, with Bond as its student. This is because in Goldfinger, James Bond is presented as an ineffectual force in the face of Auric Goldfinger, Oddjob and their resources.
Moreover, Goldfinger is a film about female oppression and the destruction of female rebelliousness by more patriarchal forces represented by our villain and henchman, featuring the demise of women often through Bond’s direct influence. It is Bond that seduces Jill as a bonus of investigating of Goldfinger, and he ignores M’s requests for his further study so that he can roll in the sheets with her (can’t say I blame him). This ends with Goldfinger making an example of Jill for Bond’s sake, showing 007 that he’s not a man to be messed with. As Tilly is preparing to make a killing shot on Goldfinger in Switzerland (which she fails at the first time), Bond tackles her and makes the barrel of her rifle set off the alarms of the compound. Then, as he tries to provide cover fire for her when they’re ambushed in the DB5, he tells her to run for it, directing her right into the path of Oddjob’s hat, which ends her life swiftly. Throughout the film you could play a drinking game collecting the endless number of times Bond is knocked out or captured, driving home the idea of just how much he may be in over his head by facing Goldfinger. In fact, Bond starts his mission in Miami thinking Auric is just some random rich prick, but over time, sparked by the cold and bizarre killing of Jill, 007 discovers the glistening severity of Goldfinger’s power. The film works best as a message to Bond of what happens when he underestimates his enemies, which you think he’d have learned while being in the middle of SPECTRE plot for the entirety of the last film.
But more on the ineffectual and powerless Bond of Goldfinger and the oppression of women therein later.
Bond Girl/s and Performance
Pussy Galore- In a film full of oppressed women who end up getting crunched to a splatter under the heels of powerful men, there’s one that rises above it all and dishes out all she can take.
Honor Blackman in Goldfinger represents one of the all-time baddest chicks in cinema history. Before Fiona Volpe came around, Pussy looked Bond in the eyes while he was in charm mode and told him she wasn’t interested (she’d have kicked Fiona’s ass too). She’s a strong and independent opportunist that can handle guns and fight any man who faces her on top of being an A-class pilot. The fact that she’s a woman is besides the point, barely even worth mentioning, in fact. Pussy is a woman who plays the same game as the boys, and plays it well. She won’t stand for the kind of abuse or trickery that befalls Jill or Tilly, and is strong enough to handle herself in brushes with danger.
Her motivations are clear-she’s a woman trying to make it in a world paved and ruled by men, and is doing quite well without them. This could be why her entire squad of pilots are women, and why she doesn’t allow any man to come on to her. In Pussy, and in the reaction of men to her, her gender is often used against her to make light of her abilities beyond being an object of sexual objectification, and she’d be dominated wholly, if it wasn’t for her strength of character.
In a true sign of the times, Bond at first thinks the pilots Pussy commands are “chaps,” and when he presses her about what her other obligations are to Goldfinger, she acts outraged, saying she is just a “damn good pilot,” nothing more. Pussy doesn’t want to be defined by her womanhood only and put into a box, arguing that it quite rightfully that such a thing shouldn’t enter into the conversation, demanding that she not be viewed as an object of sex for men to play with and leave behind when they’ve had their fill.
These aspects of her character all make Pussy quite a mystery, but a glorious one at that. Up until the end of the film, she keeps us guessing at to who she will follow the orders of, Bond or Goldfinger, but she doesn’t disappoint. Most notably, her sexuality is uncertain, as you could interpret her aversion to Bond and Goldfinger’s touches a sign of her lesbianism and lack of attraction to their gender, or, as a defiance of the attempts of men to make her less than what she is, a strong human being, and only a woman besides. I prefer this former interpretation, as it helps me process the later barn scene better, where it’s far easier for me to take Bond and her having a bit of foreplay before they consummate their initial attraction as opposed to Bond forcing himself on a lesbian who wants nothing to do with him.
With this former option in consideration, I think Pussy becomes a much stronger character. In a film of powerful men, she is a woman who shows she can be just as capable as the boys with their toys. She has collected a band of female pilots and trained them with a strong and nurturing tutelage to be the best because she knows what it’s like to live in a man’s world, and her support for her fellow women, the maternal relationship she carries for them and her belief in their abilities as capable and talented workers gives them a visible sense of empowerment that she is the prime source of. This is because Pussy represents the best kind of feminine empowerment, the kind that doesn’t condemn the men, but that instead shows them they are on an equal playing field, reminding them to never forget it. Pussy’s strength of character is visible even in the face of our favorite spy. While Auric falls and falters to Bond’s attempts at touching his buttons, Pussy looks Bond dead in the eyes and tells him to back off, gun in hand. When Bond beats everyone in his way to listening in on Goldfinger’s plan, it’s Pussy who catches him by surprise and brings him back in. And it’s ultimately her who saves the day at the end, when Bond thinks he’s going to certain death inside Fort Knox, helplessly strapped to a dirty bomb.
This image of Pussy as a character fits well with the image of Honor Blackman, a woman who could hold her own with the boys in real life, growing up a tomboy, and who could genuinely fight convincingly, even writing a book of her own on martial arts. Honor was a woman who did her own stunts on The Avengers, and fought in sequences of action that demanded her to fall hard on cement floors, which wasn’t easy on her body over time. Everything she was demanded to do in Goldfinger, then, was cake in comparison, but she wasn’t the type to complain regardless. Everything about Honor’s performance here is finely tuned, and she never feels the fool of a man; she faces machismo head on and doesn’t falter in the face of it, even when it is being exuded by Bond himself. Even when she wrestles in the barn with Bond and ultimately has sex with him, we can be assured that she’s doing it because she wants it, and not because he is making her do it. The way Honor moves, how she handles herself in a fight, how she holds a gun all feels credible, too. Her voice, so gloriously sultry and in command wraps a very pretty package. She’s the kind of woman you’d still fall for just as hard when she was reprimanding you as when she was being cordial. There’s a turn-on in her ability to command herself and let her presence do the talking, a purer image of a real woman than most I’ve ever seen before. When I see Honor on screen, my face carries that same look of awe and arousal as Bond’s does when he awakens on the plane and Pussy’s beautiful face is the first thing he sees out of the tranquilizer’s fog.
With this all in consideration, then, such a strong and commanding force as Pussy couldn’t have been given to a greater actress to play, as the character wasn’t far removed in spirit from the glorious and gorgeous actress that brought her to life. Honor gives, unsurprisingly, great honor to Pussy, and lends credibility to how strong a character she is by being such an independent woman of her own off screen. We believe Pussy when she says she can knock Bond off his feet. We don’t doubt her when she says she could shoot him in seconds flat if he gave her more lip. And we believe her when she says she’s a damn good pilot that has trained the best group of female-yes, female-pilots in the world. We believe all this because inherently, we believe Honor, in every word she mouths and movement she brings into action.
Pussy Galore is a Bond girl that quite simply defies the title, and it almost makes you feel bad to deride her with the gender-laced term. Pussy is a capable, athletic, smart, cunning, resourceful, professional and inspiring person. The fact that she just so happens to be a woman is pretty low on the list of all the amazing things she is and what she stands for. With all this under consideration, Pussy is by far one of my favorite Bond gals, and she’s a great blueprint for what it means to be an empowered woman in any time period, beyond her alluring role even here.
In retrospect, she should have been called Greatness Galore.
Bond Henchman and Performance
Oddjob- Oddjob, the henchman to begin them all. Somehow, after all these years and no matter how many times I watch Goldfinger and become immune to some of its surprises through such a deep memorization of it, the man in the bowler hat always unsettles me.
The film builds up Oddjob gradually as a force of nature, nothing more than a silhouette on the wall of Bond’s hotel room at the start, over time becoming a fully formed symbol of evil and oppression (particularly of women). Barry even gives him his own minor theme, an unsettling jingling that signals his return to the screen for every bit of chaos and murder he unleashes. The music becomes something to fear the return of, because along with it will come Oddjob, and the death of more innocents that the tune acts as a piercing prelude to.
There’s a sadism tinged in everything Oddjob does. He doesn’t just follow Goldfinger’s orders because he’s the boss. He enjoys it. Oddjob clearly marvels ecstatically in seeing pain and destruction that he himself reaps, smiling chillingly after each depraved act he commits. One of my favorite little moments comes when Bond crashes the DB5 into the wall of Auric’s factory to avoid a head-on collision. In the aftermath of the crash, with Bond’s vehicle trapped under collapsing rubble, Oddjob looks off to a point where he is being reflected in a far away glass, and smiles as he takes the scene in. He seems happy to be amongst the rubble and destruction, like it’s his greatest hobby to bring about chaos and misfortune.
Where Oddjob’s feelings and actions toward women are concerned, he becomes even more devilish. The film shows us many examples of his joyful oppression and crude silencing of women, which fast characterizes him as a brutal patriarchal force that cuts down enterprising, independent women.
The first act we attribute to Oddjob is his painting of Jill. He has taken something beautiful and vandalized its image, tainting it fatally. Gold, with its shimmer commonly denoting value and worth, begins to feel deadly, evil and horrific to view when it’s in the hands of Oddjob. By killing Jill he makes something as beautiful and glitteringly glorious as gold crude in idea, and uses it to deface and destroy something equally beautiful in the form of the innocent Ms. Masterson.
The second act we see Oddjob commit, visibly this time, is also quite telling, as he takes his hat and defaces a very sensual looking female figure at Goldfinger’s golf course. As he did with Jill, Oddjob takes ready pleasure in defacing, vandalizing and destroying a beautiful and sensual feminine image.
When Tilly Masterson attempts to avenge her sister Jill in Switzerland and strives independently to kill Goldfinger, Oddjob is there to oppress her, sending out his deadly hat on a collision course with her head. This moment is especially crude and laced with sadism because Tilly meets the same fate as the statue at the golf club. Two women, one of stone, the other of flesh, artfully brought usunder.
It becomes more than clear in Goldfinger that, while Bond celebrates women, Oddjob destroys and dismantles them. While Bond looks into the faces of women and feels an untamed, irrepressible sexual connection and thirst for their skin to touch his form, Oddjob looks at the same face, into the same eyes, and prepares his hat to knock those features clean off their neck. There’s an inherent, animalistic way to how Oddjob acts out against women, and not knowing why he’s driven to such action is what makes him most frightening, further so when you see how much he enjoys doing it.
Everything about him, even down to his costume design, speaks mountains of the evil force the film designs him to be. I once read that in the late 19th century it was a commonly held belief and rumor that Satan was roaming the land dressed in a black suit with a black top hat. In the image of Oddjob and his black-tie, anachronistic get-up, like he’s a man out of time, I feel the same sense of wickedness and sadism emitting from him that Christians feel is best exemplified by Satan. The fact that Oddjob is a mute is just another sinister addition to the long list of characteristics that serve to make a devil of his character. The true terror and horrific essence of Oddjob is that he’s both figuratively and literally mute to the destruction and oppression he causes, as if he’s indifferent to it. Moreover, he has no words to explain his evils, and therefore can’t be reasoned with or questioned about why he does what he does. He’s like pure evil, acting unprovoked and we’re without reason to explain the horror away. All these aspects of his character come together to make Oddjob a primal symbol of pure evil laced with masculine power, a wicked tool of a patriarchy ruled by his boss, Auric Goldfinger, that stamps over women hard and fast.
Oddjob’s capability is given credibility by the actor that brought him to life, Harold Sakata. The man’s weightlifting prowess and immense strength more than made up for his stature, and his abilities are quite visible as he commands the screen. A true professional, Sakata gave his all to the role. In a notable story, he was severely burned during his iconic death inside Fort Knox as the shot was being taken, but he refused to let go of the famous hat caught between the bars until Guy Hamilton said “cut!” Proving the enduring presence that Oddjob was, Sakata would play the character numerous times in various promotional materials throughout the rest of his life post-Goldfinger. Like the pop culture he impacted and was made a permanent resident of, Oddjob never left Sakata, and Sakata never left him.
Bond Villain/s and Performance
Auric Goldfinger- Goldfinger was always the outlier of the Connery era, the man unconnected with the villainous SPECTRE, and that is just one of the many reasons why he’s so fascinating. At the heart of everything Auric Goldfinger does is a craving for a specific shimmering element, an element he will do anything to acquire more of. Goldfinger’s love of gold goes beyond a simple obsession, however. It’s a lifestyle.
Everything about Goldfinger screams ambition. He has endless amounts of gold and wealth, but he wants more, until every plane he has, ever gun he’s collected and all his women are covered in it (by jewelry, not paint, I hope). No price tag is too big, no amount of the element enough to sate his avarice and desire for opulence. Sure enough, while nobody’s banks are open on Sundays, by George, Auric Goldfinger’s bank will be! That’s another thing-what man would look at a map of Fort Knox, point to the building and call it his “bank” before he’d so much as gotten within 500 feet of it? Such is the overconfidence of this man. Whether it’s his personality, his greed, his cunning or his size, everything about Goldfinger is big, and he only wants it all bigger.
The filmmakers did a brilliant job of gradually giving us the picture of the man we’d know to be Auric Goldfinger. At the beginning, much like Bond, we see Goldfinger as nothing more than a rich and overly proud man with far too much money and time on his hands-and he’s a cheat, at that. He seems relatively harmless, as long as he’s allowed to skip past buffet lines at his favorite five-star restaurants and given access to the finest cars and women. When we see Jill’s cold, golden corpse, however, we begin to learn our lesson at underestimating the man. It’s here that Goldfinger becomes a more dangerous figure than we’d at first figured. We begin to question just what kind of man would have a beautiful woman like Jill painted gold and suffocated? Did he view Jill’s death as something to marvel at? Did Goldfinger in his own mind transform something as horrible as death into something beautiful through the shimmer and shine of the gold coating her body? The mysteries behind the man and why he does what he does persist as the film unfolds.
One of the biggest aspects of Goldfinger’s behavior, besides his obvious obsessions with all that shimmers, if how much he pisses on obligations, partnerships and tenets of gentlemanly kindness. Auric Goldfinger is a man out for himself, who goes so far as to request money from benefactors that he has no intention of allowing into his inner circle. He doesn’t even let those who give him money know what he’s doing with it, as we see in the Kentucky briefing scene. In the many social scenes we get between Bond and Goldfinger, his rule-breaking is even more clear. While playing golf with Bond, Goldfinger is fast to rush to the tee box, when it was Bond’s honor to drive down the fairway first. And in golf as in cards, Goldfinger is a cheat that can’t do anything properly without massive assistance from others. For a man who loves gold, nearly all of Goldfinger’s abilities are as phony as pyrite.
His loyalties to his partners mean even less in value. He hosts a briefing at his estate only to kill all the men investing in his plans afterward, orders Mr. Solo crunched, turns on Mr. Ling by shooting him to death, traps Oddjob-yes, Oddjob-inside the Fort Knox fault to die, and has plans set to shoot Pussy to tie off the final loose end when his plan falls out of order.
Of course, the reason Goldfinger is so famous today is because of his interactions with Bond, and that’s where his impact is greatest. The entire film sees Bond and Goldfinger punching each others’ egos, in a formal, hidden fashion, in true Bond style. Instead of staging their verbal battles in private settings, Bond and Goldfinger tussle in public, in recreational spaces, namely a resort/hotel, golf course and stud ranch. Bond taunts Goldfinger’s lack of character, and within seconds Goldfinger will slyly brag about Jill’s death to him, using it as an example to Bond that he’s not to be messed with. The film is a chess match and dick-measuring contest between this pair, and we’re a front row audience to it all. As the film progresses, their interactions are laced with more and more mad envy on Goldfinger’s side. Bond is stylish, seductive, lean and charming, while Goldfinger is a disproportionate, oversized plum of a man. It’s already clear which man has the best chance with the ladies.
One of my favorite moments in the film that underscores Bond’s supremacy comes at the golf course. As Auric prepares to putt, Bond drops the gold on the green and disrupts his concentration, making him miss the hole. To get back at Bond, Auric interrupts Bond’s golf swing as he prepares to tee off at the next hole, but, unflappable as ever, 007 sends the ball straight down the fairway while an unprovoked Auric can only hit it far into the rough.
While in Kentucky, Bond looks at Goldfinger’s horses, then stares at the villain directly in the eyes, calling the animals “better bred than the owner.” 007’s lack of respect for the man is clear, but he keeps his barbs formal and masks them behind his sophisticated appearance. He’s a guest and prisoner at Goldfinger’s ranch, but he’s not going to keep quiet.
Later on, after Bond escapes his cell and overhears everything about the villain’s plan to attack Fort Knox, he overtly lets Goldfinger know that he knows, saying, “Operation Grand Slam. I did enjoy your briefing.” Auric’s anger and flustered nature in the sight of Bond’s supremacy and subterfuge is satisfying, and to save face the man quickly spits out, “So did I,” before walking off in embarrassment.
All of this is brought together perfectly by Gert Fröbe and Michael Collins. As @Birdleson noted, they make such a perfect team that it’s not hard to imagine that the voice of Collins was Fröbe’s own because it’s all so fitting of the man. The magic of Fröbe’s performance becomes even more of a miracle when you realize that his English was so rough he had to say his lines phonetically, using the sounds of the words to convey his dialogue. Because of this, his acting partners had to work around the sometimes confused words coming from his mouth, memorizing their lines in sequence so well that they could say them with the right emotion after Fröbe delivered his. In his appearance, Fröbe provided the perfect image of Fleming’s character, a big bloating mass of a man, as opulent in size as he is in gold, while Collins provided the perfect voice, so larger than life and bellowing in how its sound carried across a room. The two are the perfect team, and when the performance and voice are brought together, we get a villain who is physically and verbally a force of evil, and a most greedy and creepy man.
With all this in consideration, it’s easy to see why, all these decades later, Auric Goldfinger remains a fixture of our imagination, and why he’s still a vital part of cinematic pop culture.
Supporting Cast Performances
M- Out of Sean’s first three Bond films, I think Goldfinger represents Bernard Lee’s best performance, because like Sean, he got to have some real fun with it. Two of my all-time favorite M moments in the history of the franchise are in just this film.
First, when Bond has the audacity to raise his voice an octave too high, Lee’s M gives the agent a stern look like a father would a misbehaving child, and Bond is quick to add “sir” to the end of his response.
Even more delicious is later on, when Bond displays his finesse at knowing the right drinks (or in this case, the wrong ones) while he and M are eating at the Bank of England. Before Bond said anything M seemed to have been enjoying his drink fine, not realizing it was not a respected blend. When Bond hands M the bottle, M sniffs it and we see a hilarious look of puzzlement on his face as Bernard Lee provides some strong physical comedy to the film. It’s clear that when it comes to the right drinks, M is clueless and doesn’t “get” the subtle science.
Moneypenny- By this point in the franchise we’d seen two separate Bond and Moneypenny interactions that set the standard for the flirtatious and playful scenes that would become one of the many staples of the Bond films. There must have been a feeling that with a new director and a slightly lighter Bond adventure, the script on even these moments needed to be flipped a bit. This may be why Moneypenny is the one who gets to toss Bond’s hat on the rack this time around. This moment well compliments a Bond girl like Pussy, who spends the entire film showing up the men and taking charge. Perhaps Hamilton even thought it’d be weird and excessive to have Bond throwing a hat in a film where that would already be the shtick of one of the main villains.
Outside of this minor twist on the formula, Lois Maxwell is her lovely self once again, never faltering. By this point she had eased into the role so completely that there’s no questioning her performance, and she never sings a false note. Her interactions in the scene with Sean are authentic feeling and playful as ever. When she says “angel cake,” I could melt.
Q- One of the most iconic scenes in cinema history that set the template for every Bond film thereafter that had Q as a part of the cast. After Goldfinger it was expected that at some point in a Bond film 007 would get new gadgets, Q would explain them, they would have a bit of banter and hilarity would ensue.
Our dear Desmond had already appeared in From Russia with Love for a minor time, showcasing his finesse with gadgets, but it is in Goldfinger that he becomes an essential part of the Bond mythos forever after.
The repartee between Sean and Desmond in this scene is magic, and it’s part of the reason why their dynamic felt most special. It’s great fun to see Q run Bond through the controls of the DB5, and spot the childish way 007 responds, acting a little bored at one moment, and immature the next.
I laugh heartily every time Q explains the function of the red button to Bond, and how Desmond makes a swooshing noise to simulate the launching of the ejector seat. Like the audience of the time, Bond can’t believe that’s what the button really does.
Desmond’s stern delivery of the line, “I never joke about my work, 007” crystallized Q as the cunning gadget man with an earnest face forever, igniting the imaginations of moviegoers everywhere in the process.
Felix Leiter- While he’s a far cry in appearance from the handsome, suave and lean Jack Lord, Cec Linder does a great job as Felix Leiter in this film.
It’s not hard to believe that he and Bond are friends because Linder and Connery’s chemistry is so nice and their interactions so cordial. Felix is very supportive of Bond throughout the film, allowing him to do his thing as only he can after witnessing his capabilities in Jamaica, an adventure which Bond references here.
A favorite moment of mine comes when Felix spots Bond walking with the gorgeously dressed Pussy and says to his colleague, “That’s my James,” with a wide grin. It reminds me of something I would say of my best friend (also named James) if he was found in a similar situation.
Jill Masterson- When the history of Bond is analyzed, something that will always come up is the haunting and bizarre, but somehow beautiful image of a gold-painted Jill Masterson lying dead on a bed.
For the little time she’s in the film, Shirley Eaton makes a hell of an impression. The first glimpse we get of her in that black bikini is enchanting, and later, when she and Bond are in the hotel room we get a close up shot of Eaton looking directly into the camera with a sensual look on her face. It is hard not to fall in love.
Tilly Masterson- Tania Mallet makes a slightly more substantial appearance here than Shirley Eaton, but in the time that we have her, she proves interesting. It’s fitting that Mallet originally auditioned to be Tatiana Romanova in From Russia with Love, because she fits the image of that character in her simple beauty and in how the character of Tilly is much like Tatiana, an innocent caught in the middle of a dangerous caper. There’s also shades of Honey Ryder to the character, as she’s quick to avenge her sister’s death with murder on the mind, though she’s a bad shot.
How Tilly is introduced is quite brilliant. Bond pulls up on an hill, and the barrel of a gun is slowly introduced to us as a shot is fired. We don’t know at this moment whether Tilly is trying to kill Bond on Goldfinger’s orders, or if she’s a free agent with a bad trigger finger. This adds some nice suspense to the film as Bond gives chase after her in the DB5.
When Bond makes her car crash, we are fully introduced to her. I enjoy how she completely tunes out Bond’s flirtations, and simply wants him to allow her to get on with her business. Her fatal failure later at the Swiss factory, and how her death matches Oddjob’s beheading of the statue at the golf course is chilling as she becomes another beautiful woman brought down by Oddjob.
DB5- There was no way I was going to close out my discussion of supporting characters in Goldfinger without mentioning the DB5. Just as with Batman and his batmobile, Bond and his DB5 become one, each an extension of the other.
The construction of the shiny gray body and its sleek and classic beauty is like a Bond girl in car form that Bond has the keys to. It is through the DB5 that the nature of gadgets in Bond films was born, first and foremost, for better or worse. There’s a great sense of character to the DB5 as we see it cruising around the green hills of Switzerland, its engine revving to life. The dangerous resources it packs as customized gadgets provide an added thrill to the car that is immaculate all on its own. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to sit in theaters in 1964 and see it debut for the first time. Even to this day, there’s never been a better car, and there never will be. Like Bond himself, the DB5 has timeless appeal.
Best henchman theme in the series.
Reading this took longer than watching the film!!
And if I may say, it also was almost more entertaining than the film!!
Bond and actor performance: Connery was very cool in this & for the 3rd time we see a Bond who is very cunning and who has met his match in the film's villains.
Bond girl/s and performance: While all the 3 main women in the film gave extremely convincing performances, Shirley Eaton just has such palpable sexual tension on screen with Connery in the scene where Bond meets Jill and is so unbelievably sexy in this film that she just eclipses all the other women in the film for me. I always find myself saying "well....the hot one died" after the first few minutes and it's just really depressing that there's not really a stunner in the film after that. All the actresses give very convincing performances though & Honor Blackman certainly has presence on screen and does a great job here.
Bond henchman and performance: Wrestler Harold Sakata is very imposing as Oddjob. He is clearly a physical force to be reckoned with and does everything the part requires. The smile he gives when Bond throws that gold brick at his chest & it bounces off is the moment where this performance really shines for me.
Burt Kwouk as Mr. Ling: This is another character that doesn't speak much in the film. The actor doesn't get much to work with and is a bit upstaged by Harold Sakata's Oddjob.
villain/s and performance: Gert Frobe as GF is absolutely incredible here. He's exceptional in the scene with Bond on the slab with the laser of course but I actually want to talk about some of his more nuanced moments in the film that I absolutely love about this performance. Gert Frobe really does deliver a performance that can be appreciated even more on repeated viewings & he is a HUGE asset to this film!
Some highlights:
--Throughout the film Gert Frobe gives the character some really interesting nervous ticks and the one that comes to mind is fiddling with the buttons on his coat while he gazes off at so many bars of the objects of his obsession at Fort Knox. He is visibly reluctant to make all of that gold untouchable for so long and it helps sell the changes from the book. In the hands of a lesser actor these changes would seem out of character for GF, who gave us a monologue earlier in the film about his obsession not with money but with gold itself --he was very insistent on that. However, the changes work in the film & Gert Frobe is why.
--When Bond throws the brick of gold on to the golf course & GF misses an extremely easy putt because he just can't take his eyes off that shimmering bar.
--Breaking the pencil after losing the rigged poker game in Miami. I just love the way he fights to control his composure because he can't let on why he is upset to his opponent at the card table but then he boils over and storms off. It's just so satisfying to see the cheater get played like this. And the smug/delighted tone & look on Connery's face after that moment makes it even better.
Side note: Bond really only beds women in this film that GF is likely interested in but that GF hasn't slept with. It kind of seems like one more way that he's trying to best him throughout the film like "Well sure you captured me, but now I'm going to take your Pussy" but I digress.
Supporting cast performances:
M: Oh yes, Bernard Lee is fantastic here. I really love the scene where he is lecturing Bond about remaining professional (a similar scene with Robert Brown & Dalton comes later in LTK). Connery is excellent in that scene as well--conveying so much silent rage as he stands there and takes it and then the anger comes out in his reply and he eases off on it when he realizes his current behavior is kind of verifying every criticism M just made and adds "sir" and kind of shrinks back. I really love the dynamic between Bernard Lee and Sean Connery in these early films and it's been a delight re-discovering some of these films in this Bond-a-thon.
Moneypenny: Lois Maxwell's playful on-screen presence once again matches Connery's well in their scene together.
Q: This is the one where Desmond Llewellyn becomes the "Quartermaster" or "Q" and although Major Boothroyd is the character from the novel that gives Bond his car (making his character technically the same man he played in FRWL) there is no denying that this is a very different performance. While Llewellyn hits the scene out of the park with his exasperation, the real credit for this change should go to director Guy Hamilton who instructed Llewellyn to play the part not as a colleague who admires 007 but as not liking Bond because he never treats Q's gadgets that he works so hard on with any respect. It's easy to take this stroke of brilliant direction for granted and without Guy Hamilton's direction in the series we probably wouldn't have the Q we have all come to know and love over the years.
Felix Leiter: I don't know the actor's name, but he definitely delivers a lighter happier Felix Leiter to my eye than Jack Lord. The performance makes sense because Jack Lord 's Felix seemed to slowly develop some professional admiration for Bond and by this point the two are more familiar and relaxed with each other. It's an adjustment but it works for this particular film very well.
Dink: Grant was so much nicer to his masseuse! Maybe she should transfer to SPECTRE island.
PTS While FRWL gives the series its first PTS, this one is the first one where we see Bond on a previous mission, which quickly became a popularly recurring trend in the series. I really like how they handled this scene because if the film had started the way the novel starts I really don't think the beginning would have gone over so well--not everything from the novels would translate well to the big screen. That explosion is still pretty impressive and that fight scene is another really brutal one. This is an unforgettable PTS.
Locations: I'm a big fan of Bond movies that when I watch them make me go "Wow! Look at that place! It looks so different from where I live and so new and exciting and different & now I just HAVE to visit there some day!" This is really the only criteria that I can think of to evaluate the effect the location has on me as a viewer. One location in the film really stands out for me and that is the scene where Bond is tailing Goldfinger & Oddjob through Switzerland. The mountains are majestic and every time I watch those scenes I think "Wow! I want to go there some day!"
Gadgets: Goldfinger kicks off another great Bond movie tradition of Bond having & using gadgets that haven't been introduced to the audience (I've always just assumed that the man has a utility cummerbund somewhere packed full of gadgets like Batman). Here this is in the form of a piton gun that Bond fires and uses to scale a wall in the PTS. Bond also gets his first personal tracking device from Q in this film and it even fits into the heel of his shoe so if he is searched it won't be found! That's pretty cool. And no discussion of cool gadgets would be complete without mentioning the timeless elegance of the Aston Martin DB5. In fact, I almost listed this car as a character itself --so ingrained has it become in the Bond films. Smoke screen, machine guns, bullet proof windows, oil slick, revolving license plates, an ejector seat, radar and probably something I forgot. I want one.
Action: That fistfight in the washroom in the PTS is pretty brutal. I like that we don't just see punches and kicks being thrown but also see the two grabbing each other and having to fight each other off. It's a very exciting sequence that really feels like a fight to the death. The fight with Oddjob in Fort Knox also really stands out in a good way. I enjoy when Bond is up against someone who is physically his superior and he has to use his wits to beat them as he does here. Oddjob just keeps coming at Bond like a freight train --his chest repelling solid gold bricks. Seeing Bond physically taken aback when Oddjob breaks through the beam he wields at him also really sucks the viewer in because it's clear Bond wasn't expecting that weapon to not knock Oddjob down. A lot of things don't work out the way Bond probably planned in this movie and in moments like this it makes for an exciting watch. The car Chase through a forest road at night is also great--it showcases all the car's cool gadgets very well and Tilly's death sets up a dark joke here that always gives me a good chucke, which brings us to:
Humor: The darker humor has always been my favorite. Some favorite lines:
"Manners Oddjob. I thought you always took your hat off to a lady." "As you said, he had a pressing engagement."
Villain's scheme: Goldfinger's partnership with Mr. Ling to make the entire gold supply of the U.S. radioactive for 58 years to raise the value of his own gold while the Chinese government gets economic chaos in the west is in the words of Bond "an inspired deal!" for Goldfinger. I'm always really impressed by just how well Goldfinger planned everything, even going so far as to have a military uniform he could change into to blend in if the army arrived on the scene. Mr. Ling plays his death scene very well and it stands out in a way that highlights just how ruthless Goldfinger is.
Why I didn't get a man-crush on him until I saw him in his swimming trunks in Thunderball. Which is perfectly acceptable. ;)
Excellent write ups guys. Great to be part of such a positive thread. I know it will all change later in the series, but I will defend YOLT, Brady will defend DAD. As long as we get someone feeling positive about every Bond film we should have an excellent thread going on here.
Skyfall? Drab?!?!
I agree, @w2bond. There's also no way that a film that has gold as one of its biggest visual motifs is going to be drab. I give that honor to FRWL (this isn't a criticism by the way), especially because its cinematic color palette is primarily made up of grays, smokey blues and browns, and so much of the action takes place at night or in the shadows and cramped compartments. GF has the blue skies of Miami, bright greens of Switzerland, the bustling like of Kentucky and the regal yet classic nature of the stud ranch. It's a film where you really get out in nature and feel it, whereas FRWL by its very nature is rather claustrophobic and ominous, in true spy thriller fashion.
Here's a comparison of all the shots in each film put into barcodes, where their palettes are easier to judge:
FRWL
GF
@0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Actually I agree with royale65 about Goldfinger. Not so much that the sets or locations or characters are drab, because that would be an insult to Adam, Fleming and Switzerland, but I've never liked Hamilton's way of directing Bond films - it feels too...cavalier to me. I realise that was the intention, and how this way of directing changed cinematic history. Goldfinger holds up well because of its use of the source novel. But his other three films highlight the problems I have with his style - I can't put it into words but it doesn't sit right with me.
Going back to the locations, the use of Turkey in FRWL almost feels interactive. I would say Hunt, Gilbert and perhaps Campbell (in CR) did the same. With Hamilton and Glen it feels like they put a few cameras around the place and took a few shots so while the background may be beautiful it's not as engaging
Ridiculous, it should read dreary drab.
@w2bond, so you mean drab in terms of qualitative judgement, as in lackluster shot compositions? I thought we were speaking from color palettes, sorry.
I do agree there, then. Young and Hunt had an eye for drama through images, and I do agree that Hamilton lacked that, as I'm struggling to think of any interesting, innovative or striking shots in GF that really blew me away. There's certainly nothing that matches the shot in FRWL where Grant stalks Bond walking down the station from the train car, or how Hunt introduces Bond to us in pieces as he drives down the coast.
Bondian Elements
Gun barrel sequence-
Goldfinger’s gun barrel sequence lets you know right off the bat that it’s really happy to be a Bond film. The theme blasts to great effect as the wonderful guitar takes over to finish it off as Simmons turns and shoots. The fade into the pre-title sequence has a hint of the big brass orchestra to it, and it’s less unsettling than the From Russia with Love fade leads into Grant on the hunt. This time around the fade is quiet and stealthy enough to provide a great introduction to Bond rising from the water to begin his mission, helping the atmosphere to feel suitably quiet as 007 attempts to remain undiscovered.
Pre-title sequence-
For the first time in the early Bond series we get a pre-title sequence without any connection to what the main plot will be. We see Bond rise from an expanse of water disguised as a floating duck (only Sean could get away with this), where he then ropes over a wall and rigs a heroin manufacturing site to blow. The sequence itself is rather short for containing such a busy chain of events, but it is classic nonetheless.
The reason it is so iconic is the shot we see of Sean as he appears in the bar in that gorgeous ivory tuxedo, counting down the ticks on his watch until the big boom. In true Bondian fashion, as the place rattles in the aftermath of the explosion and the patrons rush to get out of there, Bond makes his way down the stairs as if nothing is happening.
In a fun bit of Bond trivia, the dancer that he meets for a quick shag in the back of the bar is the same woman that plays Kerim’s lover in From Russia with Love. I like to think that following Krilencu’s attempt on Kerim’s life with the mine the woman left Turkey, fearing the dangerous climate, and chose to relocate to Latin America to start her life anew. After the Istanbul job Bond took it upon himself to track the woman, and took the mission from M so that he could use the opportunity to catch up with her and inform her of Kerim’s passing.
The sequence wraps up with the now iconic “shocking…positively shocking” after Bond defeats Capungo once he spots the man on the attack in his lady friend’s iris.
Locations-
While I don’t find Goldfinger’s location shooting to be quite as immersive as Young’s work in Dr. No and From Russia with Love, there are great moments to be had.
I think the pre-title sequence has a great sense of atmosphere to it as Bond walks through the smoke and heat of the Latin American dive, and the shots of Switzerland rank as some of the greatest use of locations in a Bond film, and it’s shocking (positively shocking) that EON haven’t gone back to it more frequently in the series. The lush greens, the icy mountains towering in the back of the shots, how the hills are used to make Bond seem miniscule in his surroundings and to mask the person trying to shoot him or Goldfinger, before Tilly is reveal to us is all beautiful and clever. The entire collection of daylight shots of Switzerland are just immaculate, and it’s a shame that we didn’t get a chance to pause and feel its culture like we do with Jamaica and From Russia with Love. I’m willing to give the film the benefit of the doubt here, however, because Goldfinger was the first Bond film to stage its action in more than one main location, whereas the first two films got to really grow comfortable in their respective areas as the story unfolded.
I’ve never been enamored with the American location shooting (or what’s doubling for America), but I think that’s simply down to how lacking in the exotic it feels. The sequences around Goldfinger’s ranch and the faux Fort Knox are all right, but nothing to scream about.
A last notable mention would be the Stoke Park golf course at Buckinghamshire that offers a nice stage for Bond and Goldfinger’s first face-to-face confrontation, a sequence that Sean himself says sparked his lifelong love for the game of golf forever thereafter.
Gadgets-
The big gadgets in this film include a rather sensible tracking device and the daddy of them all, a weapon-laden DB5. The tracker gives Bond a nice chance to play detective in the film, getting one over on Goldfinger in a move that allows him to track his operations to Switzerland.
The gadgets of the DB5 help to make the vehicle and Bond feel like partners in a symbiotic relationship, where both need the other to get the job done. The oil slick, turret guns, bulletproof body and smokescreen offer some big screen fun as the chase around Goldfinger’s facility kicks off. The DB5 just feels right as Bond’s vehicle of choice here, like no other vehicle could fill the position half as well. The car’s classic appeal and finely constructed exterior match their driver well, as Sean looks dashing as he takes it for a spin.
Action-
The biggest action sequences of Goldfinger are the DB5 chase around Goldfinger’s factory and the later shootout in and around Faux Knox.
It’s great to have a car chase in an early Bond that is made up largely of real stunt driving and shooting as opposed to back projections like in Dr. No and From Russia with Love. There’s a great rhythm to the shots as Bond tries out all of Q’s toys on his pursuers. One of the best moments of the series comes when Bond pushes the red button, launches his passenger and tears out of there.
I find the Faux Knox shootout to be far less stimulating, however, and I think that’s more down to the small stage it is set around more than anything else. We don’t get the action taking place across a sizeable set that feels atmospheric, it’s just good old Pinewood with a very sterile, ordinary look. I think the sequence is easily beat by the wonderfully constructed gypsy shootout from From Russia with Love, and could have desperately used some shots of Felix getting the chance to fight his way through the set to get to Bond, displaying his own cunning and prowess.
The last bit of action comes in the form of Bond’s fight with Goldfinger, which also leaves me a bit flat. It’s nice to see Sean and Sakata tussle for a bit, as it’s a sequence that shows off the latter’s strength and toughness, but on the whole it’s rather dull. It’s set against a wipe open space, offering decreased tension, and the fight itself is also equally ordinary. It doesn’t help that this film was preceded with From Russia with Love, whose action was more imaginative, tense and clever in every way.
Humor-
While Goldfinger has more moments of levity than the previous two films in the series, it had yet to be overrun with camp and deemed parody.
The moments of humor that worked in Young’s first two films, including the black comedy and physical moments of humor remain, to great effect. It’s entertaining to see Bernard Lee’s M utterly clueless trying to decipher what about his drink isn’t up to snuff as he and Bond dine at the Bank of England. Watching Sean react like an immature child as Q explains his new toys to him is equally entertaining.
All the rest of the greatest comedy, in my eyes, comes in the subtle performances of the actors. The look of joy in Sean’s eyes when Jill confesses to him that she doesn’t sleep with Goldfinger, to which he replies, “I’m so glad.” The way Goldfinger looks like he’s going to explode when Bond keeps pricking his ego with sharp pins. The way Goldfinger makes such a gigantic showing of his plan to a bunch of gangsters that are more frightened by the moving floors and shifting walls than anything he’s saying. How Bond looks utterly bored in his cell following his first escape as a dozen of Goldfinger’s armed goons watch over him to ensure he doesn’t slip out again, like they’re his parents and he’s a misbehaving teenager.
Plot plausibility/Villain’s scheme-
Because the plausibility of Goldfinger and the scheme the villain is devising here are so heavily connected in this particular film, I’ve taken it upon myself to discuss them both in one category.
As far as the plausibility of Goldfinger goes, it simply doesn’t hold up when logic is applied to it. Jill Masterson would never die from skin suffocation after being painted gold, a myth that’s been well done in. Furthermore, Goldfinger’s entire scheme relies on the gold of Fort Knox becoming radiated to hike up the value of his stock, but in reality radioactive gold would become melted goop just days after it came into contact with something like the dirty bomb we find in Golfinger. While one could argue that Goldfinger’s gold value would still rise even in the face of the destroyed gold, that is not his intention in the plot, so I must call it out. It’s also amusing to me that Goldfinger explains his massive plan to the gangsters he corrals together, only to end up killing them anyway without much reason. I can chalk it up to Auric being such an egotist that he needs to brag to his inferiors about his amazing idea, but it’s pretty clear that the only reason the sequence is there is so that Bond can listen in and uncover the Fort Knox plot so that the audience know what kind of finale the film is building up to.
All of this isn’t a big deal to me however, as it’s a Bond film and we can accept this as escapist entertainment that doesn’t play with the same rules of reality that we inhabit, especially when it comes to its attention to science. Even Dr. No has the radiation bathing scene that is bonkers in its junk movie science, so I can forgive Goldfinger’s slips in logic and just go along for the ride.
One aspect of Goldfinger that I do enjoy and find incredibly plausible is the way that Auric runs his business. He feels like a true mob type figure and crime kingpin in how he smuggles his desired cargo in ways that slip past customs. When it’s revealed how he uses his cars to stealthily transport and build up his gold stock six times a year in Switzerland (and no doubt worldwide), it’s a great reveal and makes the film carry a tinge of crime fiction to it that is exciting. With all this in consideration, then, it makes sense that Goldfinger is so heavily connected with gangsters based in several major cities of the United States who invest in his operations, because so much of the tricks he uses to evade law enforcement attention are true to the history of crime operations and they are quite clever when executed onscreen.