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!

Hands down, Goldfinger is the most iconic bond movie of all time. It is the standard by which later Bond films will be judged and it set the bar massively high for the bonds to come. Every, EVERY, E-V-E-R-Y Scene is memorable, unique and legendary in it's own right. The dozen one liners and facials are excellent, all the characters are excellent and all performances are amazing. The story and the plot isn't as deep as we get in movies like Skyfall (2012) or From Russia With Love (1963) but I doubt that this is a flaw. Oddjobb is iconic, Goldfinger is iconic, Pussy Galore is iconic and Sean Connery is at his best! Tied with 2006's Casino Royale as the best Bond Movie of all time.

I wouldn't put too much money on it, but in a small friendly wager, I'd be willing to bet that those who are Bond fans like Goldfinger best of all Bond films. Especially those who think Sean Connery is the best and only man whoever should have played 007.

Certainly the most dangerous opponent Bond ever faced was Odd Job, who was Auric Goldfinger's bodyguard and all around assassin. I believe he was the most dangerous opponent James Bond ever fought with in all of his films. Watch that fight scene that Harold Sakata had with Sean Connery, he's got Connery almost down for the count. Fighting skills can only carry you so far when your opponent outweighs you and is built like a brick outhouse. In fact it's only sheer trickery in which Connery overcomes Sakata in a shocking conclusion.

As for Gert Frobe who was Goldfinger he's the ultimate Bond villain with the ultimate plan. He's even got his men fooled who think they're going to rob Fort Knox so he can corner the world's gold supply. Actually Goldfinger plans to blow up Fort Knox with an atomic bomb and then he'll really corner the market. Of course it's up to 007 to stop him.

The Bond girls are more luscious than ever with two of them, Shirley Eaton and Tania Millet meeting their demise. Eaton was the famous golden girl who Goldfinger suffocated by painting her entire body with gold paint. And of course there's Honor Blackman who switched sides do to the charms of James Bond. Who can ever forget a character name like Pussy Galore.

I well remember when Goldfinger was released in 1964 just in time for the presidential campaign. The Republican candidate was Barry Goldwater that year for you young people, not alive at the time. Poor Barry was busy defending himself from charges that he would scrap Social Security, sell the Tennessee Valley Authority and lob one into the men's room at the Kremlin. So all he needed was a film to come out with a master villain with a name so similar. The Democrats had a field day spoofing the title song that Shirley Bassey made such a hit from.

Without the Goldwater reference, Goldfinger is still a great action film, one of the best of Bond.

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.

Almost sublime - this James Bond film had it all, from adventure to romance to thrills. It starts with a shocking electrocution and then into the classic saucy gold credits before the scene is set with Goldfinger himself.

Bond, played by dashing Sean Connery for the third time, has to find out what unpleasant gold-smuggling chap named Auric Goldfinger is up to and put a stop to it. He tracks him down first to Geneva then Kentucky in a sparkling sequence of adventures, occasionally involving bumping into Goldfinger's memorable Korean hatchet-man Oddjob with the odd hat. Favourite bits from so many: short-lived girlfriend Shirley Eaton going for gold; polished Bond being dismissive of the brandy at the Bank Of England much to M's pleb puzzlement; the debut of the special Aston Martin and Q's workshop; the narky golf match between Bond and Goldfinger; Bond's close but rather unnecessary laser shave at Goldfinger's HQ; his various encounters with feisty Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman); the gangster with the pressing engagement; and Shirley Bassey's title song was by miles the best Bond song ever.

The whole film is still a joy, maybe improbable and even ludicrous at times yet I watched it rapt all these years later. It portrays back to us a simpler world though we didn't know it at the time, a world I can sometimes relate to better than the beautiful perfect world we have now. You don't need cgi cartoonery, strong sex, extreme violence, so-called realism – or even a sensible story – if you've got the right mix of escapism and personality put together by people who enjoy what they're doing instead of only being in the middle of a franchise.