After completing an assignment in South America, Bond is sent to Miami Beach,
Florida, where he’s put up at one of the best hotels--but not for a spot of R&R.
Instead, Felix Leiter, Bond’s old pal from the CIA, arrives to inform 007 that M
wants Bond to keep an eye on another guest who’s staying at the hotel: Auric
Goldfinger. Goldfinger is an international businessman who’s been suspected of
doing some shady dealings. The Bank Of England suspects he’s smuggling gold out
of the country, but they don’t know how. When Bond discovers Goldfinger is
cheating at a game of cards, he sabotages the illicit act, as well as steal
Goldfinger’s girl Friday, Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton).
But Goldfinger gets his revenge when an assassin knocks out Bond in his hotel
room and kills Jill by painting her entire nude body gold, an act which stirs
the need for revenge within Bond, as well as also create the iconic image of the
film. Back in London, Bond meets up with Goldfinger during a game of golf--only
to discover that he’s cheating once again, thanks to help from Oddjob, his
bear-sized servant/bodyguard who throws his hat like a deadly discus. Armed with
his tricked-out Aston Martin, Bond follows Goldfinger all the way to Switzerland,
where he uncovers a plot known as Operation Grand Slam--yet Bond also winds up
having a very close encounter with an industrial laser, and when Bond asks if
they expect him to talk, Goldfinger coldly replies: "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you
to die."
Although two Bond films preceded it (Dr. No and From Russia With Love), out of
all the 1960s James Bond movies that starred Sean Connery, Goldfinger is
considered the pinnacle of the Bond series, and a classic film in its own right.
While the first two Bond films tried to adhere to the Ian Fleming books as much
as they could, Goldfinger ignored the original source material by jettisoning
the more vulnerable traits of the character and turning Bond into an invincible
superhero. It may not have been very faithful to the printed version of Bond,
but Goldfinger proved to be cinematic gold, and became the template for which
all future Bond films (as well as their imitators) would be based.
Connery was in his prime as the lethal James Bond, who’s not above making snappy
quips--especially when meeting the sultry Pussy Galore, played with ice-melting
charm by Honor Blackman. German-born Gert Frobe was marvelous, and believably
threatening, as Goldfinger. And Harold Sakata’s Oddjob would prove to be so
popular, that his character was the inspiration for future villainous henchmen
(and women) who would plague Bond. A clear sign of Oddjob’s popularity was the
fact that he received his own plastic model kit, the only character from the
Bond films--other than Bond himself--to do so. And the legendary Aston Martin
D.B.5 that’s first introduced in Goldfinger would not only show up in later Bond
films, but would also become a star in its own right as a truly classic car.
Well after forty years since it’s release, Goldfinger remains a vastly
entertaining film, not only as a Bond adventure, but as a time capsule that
shows the peak of everything that was fun about the swinging sixties.
--SF
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