Review of Goldfinger (1964) by Derick K — 30 Mar 2013

For a lot of people especially back in the 60s "Goldfinger" was the Bond film that officially kick started the Bond phenomenon worldwide and made Sean Connery a household name as James Bond. This was the Bond film that had it all: countless beautiful and gorgeous women, stunning action set pieces and gadgets including the famous and iconic Aston Martin DB5, a great and quotable villain (Bond:"Do you expect me to talk?" Goldfinger:"No Mr. Bond, I expect you to DIE.") along with a memorable henchman Oddjob, and an outlandish scheme thats quite ingenious. Goldfinger set the standard for all other Bond films that followed afterwords from the opening teaser before the titles that set up the action, to the title sequence with the title song for the movie to the main plot and so on and so forth.

Sean Connery is James Bond at his peak with his cool suave, witty ladysman personality and cunning to get out of a tough situation.(Hint. one of the iconic scenes in the movie where Bond is captured. And his most cool moment(Jill:"Who are you? Bond:"Bond. James Bond." cue Bond theme). Shirley Eaton as Jill is memorable for being hot for five minutes and then getting killed off by skin suffocation of gold paint in one of the most memorable scenes from the movie. Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore(the 60s really were an innocent time) has the honor of being the oldest and most attractive Bond girl at the time at the age of 37 and for having good chemistry with Sean Connery. German actor Gert Frobe(dubbed by Michael Collins) who plays Goldfinger is one of the best villains outside of SPECTRE in the Sean Connery era. (He's rich, cheats at cards and golf, kills his girlfriend because she let him lose at cards and tries to blow up Fort Knox to make himself even richer.) His henchman played by Olympic weightlifter and wrestler Harold Sakata is very memorable as Oddjob who never speaks but has an ominous presence and only uses his hat as a weapon. Felix Leiter returns but is now played by Cec Linder. Other cast members return also including Desmond Llewelyn as Q who gets a memorable line and gadgets to introduce to 007(James Bond), which would happen regularly in every Bond movie afterwords.

Guy Hamilton's take on 007 is very tongue-in-cheek which tries to balance action and comedy but works perfectly and would become a staple of the series.

"Goldfinger" is one of the most memorable, often quoted and just downright entertaining and quintessential movies of the series solidifying James Bond as a pop cultural phenomenon.