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While the main actors and many scenes are good, parts are overacted and contrived. It has a sanitised and dated look even for its time. For example the landing of Pussy Galore's flying circus girls is presented like a 1950's bathing beauty contest, quite unreal. Scene silliness : At his ranch, Goldfinger holds a meeting with (over-acting) gang bosses who want paying for equipment that they have supplied him, and explains his whole plot them. He then gasses them all (but one). Why waste the time explaining the plot, when he must be a very busy man on the eve of his big day? I know the plot had to be explained to viewers, but couldn't a better device have been found? But the silliest scene, distracting me from the main plot, was the car crushing. The one surviving gang boss is chauffeured away by Odd Job with his gold ingot payment in the boot. Down the road, Odd Job shoots him. But instead of driving back to the ranch, Odd Job drives on to a breakers yard where the car is crushed into a cube, which Odd Job then drives back to the ranch in a pick-up truck. Here Goldfinger makes the comment that gold now needs to be extricated from the cube. What was the point of crushing the car? The body was still in it anyway. It seems like the film director just wanted to entertain us for a few minutes with seeing how a car-crusher works. I am open to better theories.

Although 007 is notoriously careless with the equipment delivered to him by Q, there is one item that retains a close hold on his affections—the superb Aston Martin DB5 entrusted to him on the "Goldfinger" mission The Bank of England suspects that Goldfinger has been smuggling large amounts of gold bullion around the world… Armed with a bar of gold as bait, Bond is assigned to uncover the truth about the man with the "Midas touch." Gert Frobe—who had played a German sergeant on Omaha beach in "The Longest Day"—is perfectly cast in the role… He's an overweight man, but he's dressed smartly and expensively, and he has a certain lightness and grace to him… He's also supremely confident, self-assured, and resourceful… And even though Bond keeps thwarting him, nothing will shake his will to succeed Honor Blackman is the first of a long line of James Bond females with patently sexual names… And ho could ever forget Shirley Eaton's introduction in the film? She is lying on a chaise longue on the balcony of Goldfinger's Miami Beach hotel suite, attired in black bra and panties, while she observes Mr. Simmons' (Austin Willis) gin hand through binoculars The Swiss location shots add an international dimension to the fun with the chase along the overwhelming Swiss highways with the Alps in the background... With two immortal exchanges: "You expect me to talk?"/"No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!" and "My name is Pussy Galore"/"I must be dreaming."), and with a fairy tense plot between a large number of highlights, and an expected spread of gadgetry, great women, and a menacing heavy with a deadly weapon, "Goldfinger" is probably the liveliest and most amusing of the Bond spy spoofs In this entertaining film, Bond enjoys a bottle of Dom Pérignon'53...

I first saw GOLDFINGER round about 1977 and it has been shown on British television more times than I can count . In fact it`s somewhat ridiculous the amount of times it`s been repeated and having seen it so many times after more than 25 years I find it impossible to say much on it. I will say however that future Bond production teams seem to have taken all the lesser bits of GOLDFINGER while completely ignoring all the good elements . The lesser bits are the awful puns like " Shocking " and " He blew a fuse " . How many times have you watched a Bond movie where the hero has dispatched a bad guy and you`ve made your own pun which is ten times better than the one Bond says to camera ? Exactly . Of course in 1964 these one liners might have been ground breaking but after the franchise has gone on you feel that the screenwriters have been ordered to write a sequence so that Bond can make a groan inducing one liner . Oh and I haven`t even mentioned Pussy Galore ( Insert your own joke here ) , this is another thing that the producers seem obsessed with - woman with completely unreal names , everytime someone makes a Bond movie we get a Plenty O Toole or some such weird name . The novelty wears out very quickly . What I liked about GOLDFINGER is that James Bond is shown as being vulnerable , it`s about the only film in the franchise when he is unable to save the lives of his lovers for example , and lets not forget the classic scene of the lazer beam creeping up the table where he has to use his wits , and has anyone noticed that he doesn`t actually save the day at the Fort Knox climax ? He doesn`t even need to be there . Compare that scenario with the later Bond movies ( Especially the Roger Moore ones ) when he stops the baddies single handed in a ridiculously contrived and OTT manner , such a pity they don`t make Bond films like this anymore . Despite seeing GOLDFINGER more times than I care to mention I`ll no doubt watch it again next time it`s on British television

I first saw this in the late 80s on a vhs. Revisited it recently. This is the third installment in the Bond series n Connery reprises his role as James Bond for the third time. While vacationing in Miami Beach, Bond is directed by the MI6 n CIA to keep an eye on a bullion dealer Auric Goldfinger at the hotel there. During the investigation, Bond uncovers the gold magnate's sinister plan involving the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox. This was the first Bond movie to introduce the extensive use of technology and gadgets by Bond. It was also the first one where a Bond girl is killed. Quantum of Solace, includes an homage to the gold body paint death scene (inspired from this movie) by having a female character dead on a bed *, covered in crude oil. In this one, Bond faces a sinister and sadist villain known as Goldfinger and his strong henchman, Oddjob, who kills people with his razor sharp hat. He gets to cool off with Honor Blackman n Shirley Eaton. In the book, Goldfinger is an expert pistol shot who never misses, and always shoots his opponents through the right eye. He tells Bond he has done so with four Mafia heads. In the book, Oddjob has a taste for cats as food, apparently acquired during a previous famine in Korea.

Forty years after it's initial release, the third 'James Bond' film, GOLDFINGER, remains the quintessential 007 film for many fans, with a level of hysteria upon it's initial release that younger fans may not fully appreciate. It set records at that time as the fastest-grossing film in history (making back it's $3,000,000 production cost in a mere 2 weeks, on only 67 screens), spawned the first massive 007 merchandising 'blitz' (with everything from jigsaw puzzles, dolls, and lunchboxes, to shoes and cologne, and even Aston Martin DB5 automobiles offered as 'collectibles'), launched a whole new genre of 'spy thrillers' to TV and film (with the debut of the Ian Fleming-approved TV series, "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." in America, and the increased popularity "Danger Man" and "The Avengers" would enjoy in Britain), and gave the franchise it's first worldwide #1 hit song, sung by Shirley Bassey. Everyone was crazy about 007, with a resulting pandemonium that rivaled the adoration of the Beatles in it's intensity! The story, pitting the British secret agent against a megalomaniac whose master plan was to explode a 'dirty' nuclear device at Fort Knox, thus poisoning the American gold supply, and making his own gold reserves infinitely more valuable, would benefit from 'perfect' casting. German actor Gert Frobe (his voice dubbed, as he barely spoke English), was an ideal Goldfinger, a rotund, piggish monster who always 'cheated' to win, at cards, golf, or dealing with adversaries. His 'right-hand man', Oddjob, played by Hawaiian wrestler Harold Sakata, became the prototype of every subsequent villainous henchman; silent, nearly invulnerable, with an evil grin and a steel-edged bowler hat he would toss that could cut the head off a marble statue. Bond's women were never sexier; Shirley Eaton, 27, created a sensation in a 5-minute appearance as 'Jill Masterson', who betrays Goldfinger for a tryst with 007, and ends up a * corpse covered in gold paint; and 27-year old "Avengers" alumni Honor Blackman, as the lesbian pilot 'Pussy Galore' (yes, the name DID cause problems with American censors), who discovers the joys of male lovers after Bond pins her in a fight. Sean Connery, at 34, was simply irresistible in his third outing as 007! Director Guy Hamilton, making his first Bond movie, said that the character of 007 only needed a 'push' to become a Superman, and he provided it, by increasing the humor and ever-present gadgets, most memorably the prototype Aston Martin DB5, complete with armor plating, machine-gun turrets, rotating license plates, and an ejector seat. Unforgettable moments abound, from the "shocking" pre-title sequence, to the golf match between Goldfinger and Bond (introducing Connery to the sport that would become his lifelong passion), to the famous laser torture scene ("Do you expect me to talk?" "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to DIE!"), to the climactic fight between Bond and Oddjob (during which Connery was actually injured, and Sakata burned his hand, badly). 007 author Ian Fleming passed away during production, after a last visit to the Pinewood set (although the story takes place in Florida, Switzerland, and Kentucky, nearly all of the film was shot in England). He was very pleased at the success his creation had achieved, thus far, thought Connery made an ideal Bond, and was confident in the future of the series, in the hands of producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. And speaking of the future...A few months later, in Ireland, twelve-year old Pierce Brosnan would view GOLDFINGER (the first Bond film he'd ever seen), and decide to become an actor, fantasizing about playing the spy, someday...