Goldfinger (film)

• Release Date: 1964
• Director(s): Guy Hamilton
• Writer(s): Paul Dehn; Richard Maibaum
• Principal Actors and Roles: Sean Connery (James Bond); Honor Blackman (Pussy Galore); Gert Frobe (Auric Goldfinger); Bernard Lee (M); Cec Linder (Felix Leiter); Tania Mallett (Tilly Masterson); Harold Sakata (Oddjob)
• Book / Story Film Based On: Goldfinger by Ian Fleming

Goldfinger is the third movie in a series of espionage thrillers featuring the British super-agent James Bond. It was released in 1964, just the third year of an extremely durable movie franchise developed by Eon Productions. Goldfinger was also the third appearance of actor Sean Connery in the role of James Bond, a role he would play seven times in all and with which he is most often identified.

In 1953 novelist Ian Fleming created the fictional secret agent James Bond. Bond works for MI6 under the code-name 007. Eon Productions was founded by producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman in 1961, and it now owns the rights to all of the Fleming novels. The franchise has been extremely successful, with gross movie revenues above $6 billion by 2013. Adjusted for inflation, the total is actually nearly $14 billion.

Goldfinger was the movie that demonstrated the impressive earning power of the franchise. It set a standard for future Bond movies in countless other ways as well, from plot structure to gadgetry to tongue-in-cheek dialogue and charismatic villains. Even Shirley Bassey’s cover of the movie’s theme song, which was a huge hit, created a model for future Bond movies.

Sean Connery described the evolution of the James Bond character for his biographer, Michael Freedland: "In [the first 007 movie] Dr. No, the character was established. By the end of the second film the audience had thoroughly got hold of him. After that, the interesting thing was to surprise people who thought they knew how he was going to react to a situation. You’d play the reality, play the humor, have a bit of playful repartee with the audience and do something unexpected."

Plot

Like all James Bond movies, the plot of Goldfinger involves impossible feats of derring-do, all handled with a suave insouciance that is as inhuman as it is entertaining. The film opens with agent 007 blowing up a heroin lab on a Caribbean island. Bond strips off his wet suit to reveal a tuxedo beneath the rubber. He then kills a bad guy in a ferocious fight that mixes humor with violence.

Bond’s next assignment interrupts his relaxation in Miami. He is to watch a dealer in gold bullion whom the British government suspects of smuggling—Auric Goldfinger. Bond seduces one of Goldfinger’s workers, Jill Masterson. Jill is killed by being completely covered in gold paint, leading to "skin suffocation" (one of the most iconic scenes in all Bond movies, and a fictitious manner of death invented by Ian Fleming in the Goldfinger novel).

Bond later interacts socially with Goldfinger, discovering how he smuggles gold. Bond also overhears him discussing "Operation Grand Slam" with a Red Chinese agent, but Bond is captured. Goldfinger intends to use a laser to slice the agent in two in another iconic Bond scene. Bond is spared and flown to a horse farm in Kentucky by Pussy Galore.

In Kentucky Bond learns that Goldfinger intends to set off a nuclear device to contaminate the US gold supply at Fort Knox. His plan is to greatly increase the value of his own horde of gold. The plot begins with Pussy Galore and her partners spraying the installation with nerve gas. However, Bond has seduced Pussy as well, and a harmless substance is sprayed instead. The US military personnel play dead in order to make sure Goldfinger cannot use his nuclear device elsewhere.

The ensuing battle is won by the troops, but Bond must fight Goldfinger’s murderous assistant Oddjob and try to defuse the nuclear bomb. Bond succeeds when the bomb’s timer reaches 0.07.

Bond is invited to the White House in appreciation, but Goldfinger hijacks his plane. After a struggle, Goldfinger’s gold-plated gun shoots out a window on the plane. This causes an explosive decompression that yanks the gold-fixated villain out to his doom. Bond rescues Pussy Galore. They parachute to safety as the plane falls into the ocean.

Significance

In addition to being the first 007 blockbuster, recovering its budget in just two weeks, Goldfinger’s greatest impact was on subsequent Bond films and, by extension, almost all action-hero movies that followed it. It also created a huge boost to the sales of Ian Fleming’s novels.

The Goldfinger script basically became an outline for all 007 movies. It opens with an action sequence that precedes the credits and has little to do with the plot that follows. A powerhouse theme song accompanies the credits. It includes a briefing at Q branch where high-tech gadgets like machine guns and ejector seats in an Aston Martin are introduced. Bond’s interaction with Q is played for humor, and a sense of humor is carried through the entire film. Bond pursues a charismatic villain who is usually bent on world domination in one way or another. The villain often has an odd and lethal henchman whom Bond must defeat in hand-to-hand combat. The villain kills a Bond girl, but she is usually avenged, often inventively. And most importantly of all, Goldfinger set a standard for top-notch dialogue that characterizes every subsequent 007 movie.

Sean Connery established forever the basics of the character, leaving behind a challenge for all of the other actors who also played James Bond over the many years of the series. He was casually self-assured and genuinely gifted when it came to delivering clever lines dripping with innuendo and double entendre. Connery’s Bond was also inherently tough and perfectly comfortable with extreme violence. His portrayal is arguably the basis for any number of action heroes as well as villains that have appeared in movies ever since.

Goldfinger was the first Bond film to receive an Academy Award, for best sound effects editing. Its score was nominated for a Grammy. The American Film Institute has recognized the movie as seventy-first on its "100 Years . . . 100 Thrills" list and named Auric Goldfinger number forty-nine on its list of Top-100 movie villains. The AFI also includes the song "Goldfinger" and the famous Bond quote, "A martini. Shaken, not stirred," on its Top-100 lists of songs from movies and movie quotes.

Awards and nominations

Won

• Academy Award (1968) Best Sound Effects Editing

Bibliography

Chapman, James. Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films. London: I. B. Tauris, 1999. Print.

Dunbar, Brian. Goldfinger: Director, Guy Hamilton. Harlow: Longman, 2001. Print.

Freedland, Michael. Sean Connery: A Biography. London: Orion, 1995. Print.

Hall, Sheldon and Steve Neale. Epics, Spectacles, and Blockbusters: A Hollywood History. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2015. Print.

Lindner, Christopher. The James Bond Phenomenon. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2009. Print.

Parker, Barry. Death Rays, Jet Packs, Stunts, and Supercars: The Fantastic Physics of Film’s Most Celebrated Secret Agent. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2005. Print.