James Bond - Goldfinger

7 December 2014

Goldfinger 1964

• Director:  Guy Hamilton
• Based on the novels  by Ian Fleming
• Cast: Sean Connery, Gert Fröbe, Honor Blackman, Bernard Lee, Eunice Gayson, Lois Maxwell
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Sean Connery  – The Rock, First Knight, Murder on the Orient Express, Goldfinger, Marnie, Dr. No, From Russia with Love, The Longest Day and others of the early Bond films but I’m not sure which ones
• Honor Blackman – Bridget Jones’s Diary, Colour Me Kubrick, The Virgin and the Gypsy
• Gert Fröbe – Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Longest Day
• The others: in various old films and TV series
• Why? Curious. Hal and I saw several Bond films in a Bond festival in the early 70’s and enjoyed them. Sean Connery is the only Bond we have ever seen.  Friends have said later actors have been good too. And with Judi Dench they can’t be all bad.  So we bought the box...
• Seen:  Once previously. Now November 28, 2014.

The music gets a star all by itself.  Who can ever forget the profound sensation of hearing Shirley Bassey sing “Goldfingah!” on the radio in the 60’s. What a classic.

The film?  We’ll see.

It’s a visual masterpiece.  Incredibly sophisticated. But what is that totally nerdy terry cloth play suit that Bond puts on at the pool? Total macho credibility loss.

That aside, it’s grimmer at times, funnier at times and the cars are car-ier. Wow. Thunderbirds. Mustangs. Aston Martins. I used to think they were so cool.

The golf is non-nacho too but Oddjob’s hat trick is impressive.  I like the Swiss Alps and the granny with the machine gun. 

The story is as enjoyable absent as always but the techno-toys more than make up for it. The near castration of macho Double-O Seven by laser was quite suspenseful.

Pussy Galore?  Who got paid how much money for coming up with that name?  But she’s a pilot so I guess we have to take her seriously.

Filled with Bond icons it’s quite watchable in spite of its weirdness and customary absence of depth or logic.  Who cares about stuff like that? As before I doze off in the middle but who cares about that either?

Radioactivating the Fort Knox gold? How devilishly clever.  It all gets ho hum towards the end though.  A pity.  All in all a cut about the other two. But even with the song it’s just

2 ½ * of 5