Bond Revisited

Goldfinger (1964)
Bond 3

The powerful tycoon Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe) has initiated "Operation Grand Slam," a cataclysmic scheme to raid Fort Knox and obliterate the world economy. James Bond, armed with his specially equipped Aston Martin (its accessory package includes built-in machine guns, a smoke screen and an ejector seat), must stop the plan by overcoming several outrageous adversaries. First there's Oddjob (Harold Sakata), the mute servant who kills at the toss of a lethal hat; next, the beautiful Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton), who gives new meaning to the phrase "golden girl"; and finally, sexy pilot Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman), whose romantic feelings for Bond complicate her involvement in Goldfinger's high-flying scheme. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Although many of the locations in the film are American, Sean Connery never set foot in America during filming. All scenes where he's apparently in America were shot at Pinewood Studios, London. The producers had to pay for the Aston Martin, but after the success of the film, both at the box office and for the company, they never had to spend money on a car again. Gert Frobe spoke very little English, so Michael Collins dubbed his voice. In the film's trailer, however, Frobe's own voice is heard when Goldfinger tells James, "Choose your next witticism carefully, Mr. Bond, it may be your last," and when meeting with the mobsters, when he says, "Except crime!" Pussy Galore introduces herself to Bond, who replies "I must be dreaming." The original script had Bond replying "I know you are, but what's your name?" This was deemed too suggestive. In the novel, Pussy Galore is a lesbian, which is why she gives Bond the cold shoulder to start with. In the original cut of the film, the bomb's timer was stopped at 003, explaining Bond's line about "three more clicks." It was later changed to 007 for obvious reasons.

The Characters:

• James Bond - Sean Connery in his third film as the venerable secret agent
• Auric Goldfinger - Gert Frobe
• Oddjob - Goldfinger's manservant/henchman with the deadly boller hat is played by Harold Sakata
• Pussy Galore - Goldfinger's personal pilot and the absolute best bond girl name ever, period, is played by Honor Blackman.
• Jill Masterson - the famous gilded woman is played by Shirley Eaton, although the woman in the advertisements, poster, title sequence and end credits is actually Margaret Nolan who played Dink, Bond's Masseuse in the movie.

The Theme Song: Goldfinger is the first of three James Bond films with a theme song sung by Shirley Bassey. Though she only performed three out of the many Bond film theme songs, her strong, brassy style became a Bond theme trademark. "Goldfinger" was written by John Barry and Anthongy Newley.

Vehicles & Gadgets:

• Aston Martin DB5 - The most famous of James Bond's company cars and very easily the most famous movie car of all time. It was his first company car in the films, and is equipped with all of Q Branch's usual refinements (carried from adventure to adventure), including bulletproof front and rear wind screens, oil slick dispenser, smoke screen burner, front wing machine guns, rotating licence plates and, most famously, passenger ejector seat (which would again be used in Die Another Day, but in an Aston Martin V12 Vanquish). While being the most recognised Bond car, it's actually only appeared in four Bond films: Goldfinger and Thunderball starring Sean Connery, and GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies starring Pierce Brosnan (not counting his The World Is Not Enough, where all the car's scenes bar a thermal satellite image were cut).
  
• The wetsuit that doesn't wet. In 1964 there existed "dry suits" which a diver could wear which would not allow water into the suit (for very cold water dives), but a dry suit is always distinguished by its rubber neck-seal, which the diver must poke a head through. No drysuit simply zips all the way to the neck, as Bond's wetsuit does. However, Bond's perfect white tuxedo is none the worse from water in the famous opening sequence of the film, despite a cover-suit which would be very hyperthermic out of water, if it worked. The nonwetting wetsuit in this film is half-way between "gadget" and "technical mistake."
• The Tilly Masterson character drives the then all-new Ford Mustang in a duel with the gadget-laden Aston. This is the first time the Mustang had been in a movie.
  
• Oddjob's steel-rimmed bowler hat, thrown in the movie notably like a Frisbee (a toy that had debued in name in 1958).
  
• Goldfinger rides in a 1937 Rolls Royce Phantom III, which has become famous in its own right from appearance in the film. The license plate (Au 1) includes the "Au" letters which are the chemical symbol for gold.
• Homer - Bond is issued two homing devices by Q Branch. The first, the larger, is used by Bond to track the villain's Rolls Royce automobile to his base. The second is the smaller and allows MI6 to track Bond's whereabouts; it is hidden in the secret compartment in the heel of one shoe. He later slips it onto the person of Mr. Solo who is taking his leave of Goldfinger's Fort Knox scheme; Bond hopes MI6 can then follow and capture Solo and question him about where he got the device. Unfortunately, the tracer is destroyed when Solo is murdered and his body crushed in a car-crusher along with the car he was in.
• The car-ferry airplane is an Aviation Traders Carvair, an aircraft that was built for transporting automobiles and well-off passengers. Only 21 Carvairs were ever built and therefore it is relatively unknown. Modern viewers may not be surprised at this airplane, which may superficially appear from the nose-bulge to be the well-known 747. However the 747 was not conceived until 1965, and did not fly commercially until 1970.
• Goldfinger's "private" jet. The first Lear Jet was still unsold when this film was released, and the Lockhead JetStar used in the movie as both Goldfinger's jet and the government's jet, was still very new, so the idea of a business jet or private jet was quite novel in 1964.
• The giant laser. Lasers did not exist in 1959 when the book was written, and they were a novelty in 1964 in the movie; this may be the first film appearance of the device (it is even referred to as an "industrial laser", which surely did not exist yet in 1964). The Bond set uses a scaled-up prop which visually suggests the original 1960 Theodore H. Maiman ruby-crystal laser, complete with coiled external flashlamp, and the beam is red. However, in the movie the laser beam is continuous, which is never the case with the 1960 flashlamp design. Reportedly the film prop actually used a low-powered helium-neon continuous beam gas laser, but the beam didn't show on the film, so it had to be added as an optical special effect. The effect on the table is simulated by a welder cutting through it from below with an oxyacetylene torch.
• The Chinese bomb. China was known to be working to become a nuclear power in the early 1960s, despite withdrawal of all Soviet assistance in 1960. However, China did not explode its first nuclear weapon until October, 1964, which was after this film's screenplay and release (September 17, 1964). Thus, the Chinese bomb, like the industrial laser, is a soon-expected but not-yet-realized device, in this film. [Source]
  

Pre-Title Sequence:
Although From Russia With Love had a pre-title sequence, Goldfinger's is the first to have a sequence that actually had nothing to do with the main plot of the film, in this case Bond destroys the base of a drug lord with plastic explosives, and defeats a thug in a bathroom brawl (electrocuting him in a bathtub with an impromptu lamp-toss, in a foreshadowing of Oddjob's demise).

Review:
This is probably the quintessential bond film. This movie gave us a Bond that was a little lighter in mood, a little more playful (Bond playing with Goldfinger's card game, Bond playing around with Goldfinger's golf game, Bond playiong around with Goldfinger's pilot, Pussy Galore, the first Bond Girl that is truely working on the other side {In From Russia With Love, Tatiana Romanova was not a part of SPECTRE but was tricked by them to participate}) And as I have said before Connery IS Bond. In terms of actually tickets sold Goldfinger is the second highest Bond film ever, selling an extimated 130.1 million worldwide, and is only one of two Bond flicks to sell more then 100 million (From Russia With Love is third at 95 million). Quick Sneaky Trivia: What Bond film sold more tickets? (Not made more money, sold more tickets). Goldfinger is also the first Bond movie to sell mechandise/memorabilia.

Next up: Bond 4 Thunderball