Goldfinger

"Goldfinger" is my favorite James Bond movie. Sean Connery really put his stamp on Bond in this thrilling story of the "Bond" saga.

I first saw "Goldfinger" when it first premiered on television on the ABC network in early 1972. I was 16 at the time. Well, I'm 67 now and got it DVD and appreciate it more than ever. This was the first James Bond film I ever saw. I first got it on BETA back in the '80's. Then on VHS in the '90's. This is one of my favorite action adventure movies. Released in 1964, this was the 3rd James Bond flick. "Dr. NO" in 1962 and "From Russia With Love" in 1963 being the first two. Sean Connery returns as Agent 007 and this time his assignment is to go after Auric Goldfinger played by Gert Frobe ,who's plot is to corner the world's gold market by sabotaging the gold reserve at Fort Knox in Kentucky. Goldfinger is considered one of the best Bond villains of all time. The lovely Honor Blackman plays the Bond girl "Pussy Galore." Shirley Eaton plays Jill Masterson, Goldfinger's accomplice in a memorable role. Harold Sakata plays Goldfinger's henchman "Odd Job," another great villain. Bernard Lee returns as "M," Lois Maxwell as his secretary Miss Moneypenny and Desmond Llewelyn as "Q." Director Guy Hamilton does a fine job. John Barry composes a great score and Shirley Bassey sang the popular theme song which reached No. 8 on The Billboard Charts. Bond drives a fantastic Aston Martin. Which was chosen because it is considered England's most sophisticated car. This was the first one to become a big hit at the box-office and the first to win an "Oscar," (for Best Sound.) The tagline for one of the movie posters read...."James Bond is back in action ! Everything he touches turns to excitement !"

This is the movie that pretty much made Bond as a film institution. The car, the music, the cinematography, (for the day,) the casting...absolutley EVERYTHING was perfect for this third film installment of the Bond series, and it paid off. For a time, "Goldfinger" was THE highest grossing film in the world before "The Sound Of Music" came out. And at only $1.50 a head back in those days, $43,000,000 was no mean feat!What made "Goldfinger" so fascinating was that, as far-fetched as the idea was, the possible attempt by a foreign power to take over Fort Knox was STILL all-too-conceivable! Not much was changed from the book, but it WAS substantial: The inimitable Miss Galore only had 2% of the book, she had 66% of the movie. Tilly Masterson, who had 66% of the book, had only 1% of the movie. Felix Leiter was only in the last 2% of the book, but was all through the movie, and, in the movie, introduced Bond to Auric Goldfinger. In the book, the guy Goldfinger played gin with met Bond at an airport in the Caribbean as they were both leaving the island got Bond interested in Herr Goldfinger's suspected card cheating initially.In the book, Pussy Galore was actually one of the people brought in by Bond and Tilly FOR Goldfinger to help engineer Operation Grand Slam. In the movie, she worked for Goldfinger as a pilot and flight trainer...in the book, she headed a troupe of aerialists. (In the book, Bond and Tilly were granted their lives after being captured on the condition that they actually work for his organization AS recruiters and planners!) However, with all these differences, (and there are more!) the "feel" of the book is pretty much kept intact.Another thing, if you are too young to remember: This film, probably more than any other in movie history, influenced pop culture unlike anything you've ever seen! Pop literature, movies, television, manufacturing and magazine publishing all went bananas for the whole Bond aesthetic and lifestyle. TV was awash in Bond imitators on all three networks: shows like "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.", "The Wild, Wild West", "T.H.E Cat", "The Secret Life of Henry Pfyffe", "The Avengers", "The Saint", "Danger Man" ("Secret Agent",)"Honey West", "Get Smart", "Mission: Impossible", "Mannix", "Amos Burke, Secret Agent" and "Blue Light" started being programmed in as if a sluice gate opened after 1964, the year of Goldfinger's release.Fan magazines popped up for "U.N.C.L.E.", Bond, The Avengers and "Secret Agent" and commerce, too, dove in, with "007" toiletries for men, "Silva Thins" cigarettes, "James Bread from Bond", "The Man From G.L.A.D." and Mattel's "OM" line of toys. Nothing...repeat, NOTHING, not even Star Wars or Star Trek merchandising, ever equalled this madness!Many Bond competitors popped up in pulp novels as well, characters like Matt Helm, Modesty Blaise, George Smiley, Harry Palmer and others too numerous to mention. Movie rivals were "Arabesque", Blaise, Our Man Flint, Helm, George Smiley and Alec Leames, Harry Palmer and others, including a substandard comedy duo, Allen and Rossi, doing a piece of swill parody called "The Last of the Secret Agents". Even the gruesome, lowest common denominator sitcom, "The Beverly Hillbillies", parodied Bond. It was incredible!BTW, did you know that Auric Goldfinger was Russian and was actually working for SMERSH? Well, now you know! All in all, a movie with few faults in a period when good movie mystery/adventures were actually just getting revived as a genre, ("Charade", "Arabesque", "Our Man Flint".) This baby could easily be called the King of Them All!

Good service. A good movie from the early days of the Bond films.

GOLDFINGER burst onto the scene in 1964 and the Bond world would never be the same. Though the previous two entries had been well-received, this is the one that touched off the worldwide phenomenon that propelled the series well into our own generation (currently filming Bond movie #21!!) In fact, it would become the Bond movie that all other's would be compared to ("yeah, I liked the latest Bond movie alright, but it wasn't as good as GOLDFINGER!!)GOLDFINGER introduced us to so much of what would become trademarks of the series. It was the first to have an independent opening sequence (yes, FRWL had one, but it was more of a prelude than a stand-alone "mini-movie"). It was the first Bond film to have a title song sung during the opening credits (which would also become a fan-favorite Bond theme). It featured the first souped-up gadget car (hailed by many as still the best). It introduced us to the first "larger-than-life" henchman in the character of OddJob - a silent-but-deadly killer who would be the quintessential Bond henchman until Jaws came along. And, it featured the first main villain to truly stand on his own alongside of Bond. Gert Frobe left a memorable impression as the titular nemesis, and is also a fan-favorite to this day. Finale, it features the first of many double-entendre female characters - Pussy Galore(a very overrated Bond gal, by the way)Unfortunately, the movie also introduced us to that "other" element of the Bond series, and that is the "over-the-top" action spectacle. Sure, it is nowhere near as out-there as Bond in a submersible car, or Bond on the moon, but the genesis of all that followed in the "unbelievable" department begins here. And this is where my criticism of the film really comes in. Having just watched for the umpteenth time this weekend, I was really able to see the flaws of the film. For the first time, Bond is placed in an elaborate "machine-of-death," when a simple gunshot to the head would do. Yeah, it's a lasting image no doubt - that of Connery strapped to a table with a laser inching it's way toward his, ahem, mojo. And yes, it provides us with the first classic Bond line - "No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!" - however, it is a really silly moment compared to the series up to that point, and begins to take us into the more fantastic and out of the more believable.Several other actions by Goldfinger leave one wondering how intelligent he really was. In the above mentioned scene, all Bond has to do is suggest he knows more than Goldfinger thinks he does about his fiendish plot, and Goldfinger gives in and allows him to live. Why didn't he simply ask Bond to prove it - tell him what else he knows? He could easily have exploited how little Bond knew. Later, GF pitches his plan to a room full of mafia bosses (in one of the goofiest scenes with GF opening all kinds of hidden maps and displays in the room and the gangsters responding with lines like, "What is this, some kinda merry-go-round?") When one of the hoods declines being involved, GF has him taken out and secretly shot. However, he ends up gassing all the other hoods in the VERY NEXT SCENE! WHY? Who knows!? If he was going to kill them all, why take the one guy out and kill him seperately? If he was going to kill them all, why even tell them his plan? Yes, unfortunately, the more elaborate the film gets, the sillier it gets as well.Which leads us to a bizarre finale. Having foiled GF's scheme, Bond is sent home on a US Jet, presumably millitary. This is at an airstrip surrounded by millitary - yet somehow, GF and Pussy have gotten aboard, incapcitated the pilots . . . ah, it's just too much!Well, I have alot of complaints, obviously, and it mainly because I see the film in its context as being the first to really bring Bond down. DR. NO and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE tried very hard to give Bond some street cred as a believable Secret Agent - GOLDFINGER and later films tore that image down and turned Bond into what he is today - another generic action hero. That being said, there is still plenty of charm in this film - and it is still a Bond classic, if only for its score, villain, and Connery's most relaxed and comfortable performance in the role. His first, "Bond, James Bond" in this film is said with such suave dismissal, that you realize for the first time that Connery IS INDEED Bond, James Bond.

Die alten James Bond Filme habe ich schon lange nicht mehr gesehen. Sie wecken Erinnerungen an vergangene Zeiten.

Connery was a cold-hearted version of James Bond, which is how Ian Fleming wrote him. This film left the intrigue-based 'From Russia with Love' niche and veered to a 'gadgets-devices-chicks'-oriented mode, particularly Bond's car, a trend which remains in the series down to present-day. If you read the book, you will note that the 'heist' by Goldfinger at Fort Knox unfolds differently, but, in fact, makes much more sense. I was around when Goldfinger hit the theaters - it caused a real uproar, a ground-breaking cinematic breakthrough, that was imitated, and satirized ad nauseam. If you missed it, here's a chance to see what started the Bond-blockbuster craze -- Goldfinger, with the penultimate player of Bond, Sean Connery. Look at the picture on the DVD cover: Bond just found his newest girlfriend murdered by being smothered in gold paint -- does he look upset or sad? Nope - just curious. Maybe, a little ticked. This guy's heart was made of stone. Daniel Craig can imitate -- but no one can duplicate -- Connery's persona.

Goldfinger ist sicher einer der besten Bond Filme, wenn nicht überhaupt der Beste! Tolle Schauspieler, und es ist noch nicht so viel Aktion dabei. Hier zählt in erster Linie die schauspielerische Leistung. Der Film ist zwar schon einige Jahre alt, macht aber trotztem Vergnügen in immer wieder mal anzusehen. Solche Art der Filme werden heute leider nicht mehr gedreht. Unternehmt mal eine Zeitreise, und schaltet den Alltag für einige Zeit auf Pause.

Great print great delivery by Amazon!

In many respects this is the most iconic and celebrated on all the Bond films. The opening sequence is not without humour but once the film gets underway "Goldfinger" reveals itself to be a catalogue of the finest 007 moments whether it is the Aston Martin with the ejector seat, the duel on the golf course, the girl covered in gold paint or Bond's encounter with the laser whilst strapped to the table. It is also worth remembering that this is the film with Pussy Galore in too and with Auric Goldfinger (the name is borrowed from a then contemporary architect) and his henchman Odd Job, this film has two of the best Bond villains. For many Sean Connery remains the ultimate Bond yet , in some ways, a film like this very much seems the precursor to the more sophisticated Bond of Daniel Craig. Despite the gap of fifty years, the similarities between the way James Bond is protrayed by the two actors is quite staggering. For a film that is half a century old, "Goldfinger" looks very good in this restoration. Of course there are a few limitations and moments which don't stand up to scrutiny. The surfit of Chinese in Switzerland working for Auric Goldfinger never appears to have been picked up by the locals (although it didn't go unnoticed by the director of the French OSS 117 pastiche that wickedly lampoons Bond!) and the gathering of the mafia bosses at Goldfinger's Kentucky Ranch seems unnecessary when considering their ultimate fate. Despite these errors, I really enjoyed this film which was far better than I recollected. In some cases like the mirror used to deceive Bond in the car chase, I thought there was a degree of imagination that was superior from later editions where a gadget might have been used to the same effect. The final denouement at Fort Knox is handled with a modesty which would be lost by the time of "You only live twice" and the duel with Odd Job in the vault was something that struck me as particularly clever when I first saw this film as a child. In conclusion, "Goldfinger" is really the Bond film to start the collection. Some of the later films with Roger Moore became more of a gentle send-up but these early efforts remain resolutely iconic and valid despite the limitations of 1960's cinema. Essential viewing.