007 contra Goldfinger

Every individual James Bond film has some good assets and at least two or three special qualities that make it fantastically entertaining. "Goldfinger", however, exclusively has great assets and special qualities! I think this third entry in the series is almost unanimously – and righteously – labeled as THE best Bond movie of all. It's definitely also the most quintessential title to watch in order to get fully acquainted with the lead character's personality and working methods, as well as with the type of assignments he receives from his employer, his opponents and the hi- tech attributes he gets to help him. You'd expect all this to become clear already in the first film, "Dr. No", but the character created by Ian Fleming was still fairly unknown back then and hence the production values were a lot lower. Barely two years and only one sequel later, James Bond had already become a phenomenon and "Goldfinger" delivered the incredibly high expectations of the fans. It truly also is a terrific film, with an utmost solid script, a top three legendary villain and various highly memorable action & suspense sequences. Personally, I have the bizarre habit of ranking my favorite Bond movies based on the evil- factor and charisma of the villains, and thus "Goldfinger" is quite high up there thanks to the sublime roles of Gert Fröbe as the titular character and Harold Sakata as Oddjob, his silent but deadly henchman who pulverizes golf balls with his bare hands and throws around his killer-hat of steel. The gold-obsessed magnate has thought up an ingenious plan to rob the entire American gold supply from Fort Knox and naturally it's 007's job to prevent this from happening. Therefore Bond infiltrates into Goldfinger's private affairs twice; messing up his game cheating routines and seducing his female accomplices. Auric Goldfinger is undoubtedly one of the most vicious Bond-villains, but arguably also one of the dumbest! Never before or after did 007's opponents receive so many open and easy chances to eliminate him, but Goldfinger decides not to take the risk and kill his disloyal female assistants instead! Many, many sequences in this third Bond film are pure vintage, including the white tuxedo underneath the diving suit, Shirley Eaton's golden corpse, an uncomfortable laser beam moment and – of course – every scene with that awesome Aston Martin!

Goldfinger was the third Bond film and, on its release in 1964, proved itself to be the first blockbuster of the series, firmly establishing OO7 in the public imagination. Dr No and From Russia with Love had both been successful, but Goldfinger outperformed both at the Box Office, and in the process laid down the guidelines for nearly every Bond film that has followed since.

There is undoubtedly much to admire about the film, not least the memorable Shirley Bassey theme song, still one of the best. Guy Hamilton directs with impressive assurance, the locations are excellent and Sean Connery is once again the epitome of cool as Bond, although he is not as menacing as he was in the first two films. He is, however, still a believable character and finds himself in genuine danger during the film, having to rely on his wits to survive. Goldfinger is one of the great Bond villains, played with real bonhomie by Gert Frobe, who succeeds in making him a more fleshed-out character than many of the one-dimensional baddies of later films. The wonderfully-named Pussy Galore, meanwhile, is one of the best Bond girls. Honor Blackman plays her as a woman with real spirit and intelligence, and it is a pity she does not get more screen time.

Goldfinger also introduced several elements which have since become cliches of the Bond series. For the first time Bond visits Q's workshop to pick up his equipment, and for the first time he receives some fancy gadgets, packaged up in the famous and stylish Aston Martin. The film is also injected with a lot more humour than its predecessors, with OO7 throwing out one-liners more frequently and a somewhat camper tone being introduced to proceedings. As Oddjob, Howard Sakata is the first in a long line of totally silent but lethal henchmen. He is not as good as Red Grant in From Russia with Love (who spoke), but his deadly hat is memorable, and he is a formidable opponent for Bond.

Good as it is, however, it could be argued that Goldfinger had a malign influence on many of its successors. Because it was so successful, the Bond producers became convinced that later OO7 releases should follow the same gadget-led, tongue-in-cheek style, but on a grander scale. As a result, Goldfinger began the shift away from the relatively serious, hard-edged tone of the first two films towards the light-hearted visual spectaculars that would come to dominate the franchise in the 1970s. Taken on its own terms, though, Goldfinger certainly ranks as one of the best Bond films, and is much better than the later ones which tried hardest to mimic and outdo it. Personally I like the tougher films in the franchise the best, especially From Russia with Love, but Goldfinger is the most enjoyable Bond film of its kind, and deserves its classic status.

Well, that's what the movie poster promised, anyway. And, for once, the poster wasn't lying. "Goldfinger", the third James Bond movie, is generally considered one of the very best of the 20 some odd entries in the James Bond series to date. In fact, before Daniel Craig breathed new life into the character this movie was basically seen as the quintessential Bond film.

All of the ingredients that made James Bond a household name are present here. Globetrotting action? Check. Beautiful women? Check. A larger than life villain? Check. A memorable henchman? Check. Mordant humour? Check. You name it, "Goldfinger" has it.

The movie centres around improbably named gold smuggler Auric Goldfinger, who is at the bottom of some decidedly villainous activity which our man Bond is tasked with uncovering. Along the way he meets the equally improbably named vixen Pussy Galore and Goldfinger's mute henchman, Oddjob. Each of these characters are among the most memorable in the Bond canon, due in no small part to the acting talents of Gert Frobe, Honor Blackman & Harold Sakata. Of course, due credit must also be given to Sean Connery who contributed his most assured Bond yet.

Taking over from Terence Young, who directed the first two films, Guy Hamilton upped the ante with some highly memorable set-pieces. True, some rear projection & slightly questionable special effects detract a bit from the visuals but that's to be expected in a movie of this vintage. Musically, we're treated to one of the best Bond theme songs during the opening credits (courtesy of Shirley Bassey), not to mention one of John Barry's best scores.

All in all, this seems to be the one James Bond movie where absolutely everything fell into place. To top it all off, the plot is full of twists and turns that continually take the viewer by surprise. In conclusion, if you want a taste of classic James Bond, "Goldfinger" is the one to see.

Could anyone not recognise that line today...and still be clinically alive?

You hear talk about a "hit movie" today...what's that? "xXx" ??? (which itself owes its total existence to this film!) No my friends, "Success" is queuing up down the street to watch a film screening two sessions ahead. GOLDFINGER was such an enormous hit in '64 nothing much else mattered but THE BEATLES and seeing Connery do his thing! and let me add, NO-ONE has ever done the James Bond thing better...as Vin Diesel himself readily admits.

GOLDFINGER was everything that James Bond, action movies and escapism in general ever COULD amount to. Dated it may be, laughable back-projections yes! outrageous jump-suits and hair-styles....but still no one has come up with a better Bond film - and God they've had 18 stabs at it! PLUS a few ring-ins. (CASINO ROYALE, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN) Much of the credit for this fantastic film must go to the (then) new Bond Director Guy Hamilton, who ushered-in here an acknowledgment that Bond must grow and develop as a character and the ability to be able to send both himself and the series up via some smart dialog. How they ever managed to get away with the name "Pussy Galore" on screen, still staggers me!

The gadgets hit a new high with this third outing which at the box office that year blew most everything else off the screen. At the London theater premiere, they had the famous Aston Martin actually there in the foyer...and you people think the latest Holden Commodore has some meaning???? Gimmee a break guys! Its taken them forty years to make publically available the satellite tracking system used here. THAT'S how far ahead of its time it was!

Was this packed with memorable dialog too? "This is GOLD Mr Bond!" "Lovely sport!" "Oh, he had a pressing engagement," "You don't look like the sort of girl should be ditched!" and the quintessential "I never joke about my work 007" Gert Frobe's villainous Goldfinger has never been improved upon and Harold Sakata's bad-guy Oddjob simply never equalled.

GOLDFINGER had everything. It stands as perhaps THE icon of 60's movie-making and for those lucky enough to have been around then, it remains the most beloved of nostalgic revisitations.

I first saw this in the late 80s on a vhs. Revisited it recently. This is the third installment in the Bond series n Connery reprises his role as James Bond for the third time. While vacationing in Miami Beach, Bond is directed by the MI6 n CIA to keep an eye on a bullion dealer Auric Goldfinger at the hotel there. During the investigation, Bond uncovers the gold magnate's sinister plan involving the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox.

This was the first Bond movie to introduce the extensive use of technology and gadgets by Bond. It was also the first one where a Bond girl is killed. Quantum of Solace, includes an homage to the gold body paint death scene (inspired from this movie) by having a female character dead on a bed nude, covered in crude oil. In this one, Bond faces a sinister and sadist villain known as Goldfinger and his strong henchman, Oddjob, who kills people with his razor sharp hat. He gets to cool off with Honor Blackman n Shirley Eaton.

In the book, Goldfinger is an expert pistol shot who never misses, and always shoots his opponents through the right eye. He tells Bond he has done so with four Mafia heads. In the book, Oddjob has a taste for cats as food, apparently acquired during a previous famine in Korea.