Review of Goldfinger (1964) by Ryan S — 09 Oct 2015

Sir Sean Connery will always be the quintessential Bond and this is one his best films as 007. The plot involves a sinister amoral tycoon Auric Goldfinger, played with great panache by German actor Gert Frobe who brings a considerable amount class and menace to the title role.

Goldfinger plans to irradiated the gold reserves of the United States by exploding a small nuclear device inside Fort Knox and obliterating the world economy as well as corning the gold market. Connery is in top form and is the epitome of cool in his portrayal of Bond, tough, charismatic and ultra-suave, as Goldfinger's pilot and Bond's sexy foil the wonderfully named Pussy Galore is one of the all time best Bond girls, Honor Blackman plays the judo skilled no nonsense woman with real spirit and intelligence.

Goldfinger's bodyguard/assassin Oddjob is played memorably by Hawaiian wrestler Harold Sakata, he is mute nearly invulnerable with an evil grin and a lethal steel razor edged bowler hat that when toss could cut the head of a marble statue.

It should be mentioned that this film featured the debut of the beloved "Q," wonderfully played by the late Desmond Llewellyn, the inventor of Bond's spy hardware and Bond's first spy gadget; the Aston Martin, a sports car laden with headlight machine guns, smokescreen, oil slick, bulletproof shield and a passenger side ejector seat.

Marvelous direction by Guy Hamilton, with an outstanding production design by Ken Adam, and a brilliant score by the late great John Barry. Goldfinger set records at the time as the fastest grossing film in history, making back it's $3,000,000 production cost in just two weeks in only 67 screens.

There is an unforgettable title song that gave this franchise it's first worldwide No.1 hit song, it was sung by the incomparable Shirley Bassey. This film is one of the most enjoyable of all the Bond films and richly deserves it's classic status.

Highly Recommended.