I write these Bond reviews with the expectation that everyone has seen all the movies, if not read the all the books. So, tread as carefully as it seems prudent.
In the novel Bond has just wrapped up taking down a heroin smuggling outfit and is headed home for America when a rich American who sat next to Bond at the Casino Royale asks him to help him to discover how a fellow Brit is cheating him at Canasta. With a few days on his hand and being offered a good paycheck for light work, Bond takes up the case. He encounters Auric Goldfinger for the first time and ruins his scheme. It is of note that the infamous golden girl of the movie does exist, but we only hear about it second hand from her sister Tilly Masterson. Bond finds himself looking to scotch the schemes of Goldfinger and we meet the gruesome Oddjob, a terrifying Koran martial arts master. As in the movie there is a plot to rob the mint at Fort Knox and there is a woman named Pussy Galore. Tilly and Pussy supply the sexual tension in this novel. It's a wild ending for certain, if implausible.
Goldfinger is often tagged as the gold standard of Bond movies, but for my tastes it falls short in many respects, though still quite diverting in many ways and so comes in as my fourth favorite Bond film. The notion of Bond taking on someone other than SPECTRE is fine and dandy, but the lack of that secret organization's shadow on this story hurts the motivations for me personally. If Goldfinger (portrayed by portly Gert Frobe) had been working for them all along and making monkeys out of the Chinese who seem to be his benefactors, then I'd have liked this one more.
The high points in this are the girls. Both Masterson girls end tragically in this tale, but both go out in memorable fashions. Jill (Shirley Eaton) gets painted gold and has become an icon for the Bond films and Tilly (Tania Mallet) out for revenge gets knocked in the noggin by Oddjob's deadly hat. But the star of the show is the insanely named Pussy Galore played by Honor Blackman, the first woman in the Bond series who can occupy the screen with Connery on equal footing.
The flaw in this one is the finale which is downright stupid. Somehow, we are to think that Bond after converting Pussy to his side with his awesome maleness uses her to undermine Goldfinger's scheme by having hundreds and hundreds of soldiers and others fall down (rather unconvincingly) as the supposed deadly gas passes through them. They all then stay still as legions of Red Chinese soldiers motor into Fort Knox. Then they all jump up and knock down the bad guys when the atomic bomb shows up. The battle between Bond and Oddjob is a classic but the tag ending with Goldfinger while perhaps fitting undercuts the potency of end.
This is the one in which a gleam gets in the eye of the producers, and they start to treat Bond with more humor than is really necessary. It's not readily noticeable in this installment, but the trend will continue until the whole shebang becomes open farce in the post-Connery years. Goldfinger has some dandy scenes, but its overall impact is diminished mightily by its impossible ending. But I do always like to see scenes of Kentucky in a movie of this scale.
Goldfinger is often tagged as the gold standard of Bond movies, but for my tastes it falls short in many respects, though still quite diverting in many ways and so comes in as my fourth favorite Bond film. The notion of Bond taking on someone other than SPECTRE is fine and dandy, but the lack of that secret organization's shadow on this story hurts the motivations for me personally. If Goldfinger (portrayed by portly Gert Frobe) had been working for them all along and making monkeys out of the Chinese who seem to be his benefactors, then I'd have liked this one more.
The high points in this are the girls. Both Masterson girls end tragically in this tale, but both go out in memorable fashions. Jill (Shirley Eaton) gets painted gold and has become an icon for the Bond films and Tilly (Tania Mallet) out for revenge gets knocked in the noggin by Oddjob's deadly hat. But the star of the show is the insanely named Pussy Galore played by Honor Blackman, the first woman in the Bond series who can occupy the screen with Connery on equal footing.
The flaw in this one is the finale which is downright stupid. Somehow, we are to think that Bond after converting Pussy to his side with his awesome maleness uses her to undermine Goldfinger's scheme by having hundreds and hundreds of soldiers and others fall down (rather unconvincingly) as the supposed deadly gas passes through them. They all then stay still as legions of Red Chinese soldiers motor into Fort Knox. Then they all jump up and knock down the bad guys when the atomic bomb shows up. The battle between Bond and Oddjob is a classic but the tag ending with Goldfinger while perhaps fitting undercuts the potency of end.
This is the one in which a gleam gets in the eye of the producers, and they start to treat Bond with more humor than is really necessary. It's not readily noticeable in this installment, but the trend will continue until the whole shebang becomes open farce in the post-Connery years. Goldfinger has some dandy scenes, but its overall impact is diminished mightily by its impossible ending. But I do always like to see scenes of Kentucky in a movie of this scale.
James Bond Returns in For Your Eyes Only.
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It could be that Pussy was actually bisexual and therefore not totally against occasional encounters with men. It might've been Bond's charm and personality that 'got' her, rather than his actual 'maleness'. Hey, anything's possible. Russel T. Davies (of Dr. Who fame) knew one totally gay male friend 'turn' when he fell in love with a woman. Anyway, the movie improves on the plot of the book by having Goldfinger planning on contaminating Fort Knox's gold reserves, rather than actually stealing it, which would probably have taken days, if not weeks, to do. Goldfinger was a good movie, but not a great 'spy' movie; that distinction more properly belongs to From Russia With Love. Incidentally, had it been Roger's Bond who had surfaced from a pond with a plastic duck on his head, then later peeled off his wetsuit to reveal a tuxedo, can you imagine the pelters he would have received for it? The outrageousness of Bond started here, with Connery, but somehow it worked (though shouldn't have had).
ReplyDeleteTotal agreement on the Duck hat disguise. Roger Moore catches heat for the campy approach to Bond, but the ship set sail long before he arrived on deck.
DeleteThe Goldfinger theme-song was performed by Shirley Bassey who also sang the theme-songs for Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker. I don't know how well-known Shirley Bassey is in America but here in Britain she's a legend.
ReplyDeleteFor those of a certain generation, she's a legend here as well.
DeleteThe thing about the soldiers falling down unconvincingly was very noticeable. John Brosnan's book "James Bond in the Cinema" highlights that part of the film. But as time has passed, you can gain a perspective that since the Army was "in" on fooling Goldfinger, it would have been pretty darn hard to rehearse the 100's of soldiers to collapse from gas convincingly. Because you're in on the gag once the camera pans to Leiter, who signals to take action. I love the movie, but it always seemed like it was in a hurry, it could have easily fleshed out more of the characters, IMO.
ReplyDeleteYour "in a hurry" line makes sense. The movie is so good at the beginning that mucking the end is hard to take.
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