My Review of Goldfinger (1964)

 

Written by Richard Maibaum And Paul Dehn

Directed by Guy Hamilton

James Bond: "Do you expect me to talk?"

Auric Goldfinger: "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!"

Ah, I'm into a halfway point for Sean Connery as James Bond and so far, I'm seriously enjoying his era as the iconic spy. Yes, it's definitely not the politically correct of eras but it's got an undeniable charm to it.

James did want to have a nice vacation for himself but soon enough, he was publicly humiliating gold obsessed baddie Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe) and bedding the beautiful Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton). In one of the most iconic scenes in a James Bond movie, poor Jill got a rather unfortunate but on point, theme wise death scene that's left a cinematic lasting impression.

Jill's death certainly created a growing enmity between Bond and Goldfinger and there's also the addition of Jill's twin sister, Tilly (Tania Mallet). She wanted revenge on Goldfinger but she was a crap shot and found herself victim to hat throwing henchman, Oddjob (Harold Sakata).

While Jill and Tilly were hit and miss as characters, one woman who left an impression was Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman). A name like that alone will make a character hard to forget but really, it's down to performance and Honor Blackman gave the most memorable one here.

She really went toe to toe with Sean Connery and matched him pretty well. The back and forth between James and Pussy was brilliant to watch. Pussy started off being Team Goldfinger before switching sides by the third act. Even Pussy herself wasn't immune to James's dubious charms.

As for Goldfinger, he's another strong villain in this early era with Gert Fröbe on strong form. Goldfinger's a suitably repugnant baddie and came close a few times to properly killing James. Like his villainous predecessors, he's also given a suitably over the top death to boot.

- There's more scenes with Leiter, Miss Moneypenny, M and Q (Desmond Llewelyn). Moneypenny really wanted to cook James dinner but he declined.

- Orson Welles was originally considered for the role of Goldfinger.

- Standout music: Of course it's Shirley Bassey's Goldfinger. How could it not be?

- Chronology: Bond was in Miami Beach to begin with before going to London, Switzerland, Kentucky and Fort Knox.

Goldfinger (1964) continued the streak for Sean Connery's Bond with strong movies, villains, great stunts and girls. Speaking of girls, Honor Blackman really did stand out in the best way possible as Pussy Galore.

Rating: 8 out of 10