The best Bond wasn't first. Before Sean Connery--indeed, a decade prior to Goldfinger--the manager of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining (1980), American actor Barry Nelson, played the world's most famous secret agent in a 1954 episode of the titillatingly titled Climax Mystery Theater.
It went nowhere.
Then, eight years later, there appeared unto humanity the first James Bond feature film, Dr. No (1962), starring the guy from Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959). That, also, went nowhere.
Even so, the producers, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, remained undaunted. They improved on the first excellent spy action adventure eighteen months later with From Russia, With Love (1964). Later that same year, the filmmakers poured the budget of the first two movies combined into the seminal Agent 007 classic.
Like Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan, James Bond is an instantly recognizable and totally fictitious literary character known around the world. Yet whereas the creator of Holmes literally believed in magical fairies and the creator of Tarzan spent precious little time traipsing around African jungles, Ian Fleming did serve in WWII as an actual British Naval Intelligence spy.
Goldfinger is the first movie to show a laser, also the first Bond movie to show the spy gadget testing facility--featuring memorable exchanges between 007 and Q, who takes ejector seats very seriously and never jokes about his work. A box office first as well, it set records around the world.
Originally Orson Welles was considered for the role of the title character, but the part went instead to German actor Gert Frobe--who risked his life to save Jews during WWII, incidentally. (Welles did eventually play a Bond baddie in the 1967 parody film Casino Royale, with David Niven as Bond and Woody Allen as his nephew.) Because Frobe barely spoke English, the voice we hear for almost every line is dubbed by actor Michael Collins.
Whereas the first two films were directed by Terrence Young, Guy Hamilton's approach differs in several respects, not least of which being deft touches of humor. A fake seagull mounted on a helmet with a snorkel attached gets a laugh and is quickly discarded, but it sets the stage for outrageousness to follow, including peeling off a ninja-like full-body swimsuit to reveal suave evening attire.
Hamilton went on to direct three more Bond features: Diamonds are Forever (1971), with Connery, and Live and Let Die (1973) and The Man With the Golden Gun (1974) with Roger Moore.
Wrestler Harold Sakata plays Auric Goldfinger's unforgettable bodyguard, a squat mute called Oddjob who throws his steel-rimmed bowler hat with deadly accuracy and merely smiles when a bar of gold chucked at his chest bounces off.
Goldfinger's insidious plan is to take over the gold supply of Fort Knox, and do it with Pussy Galore. Unequaled in film's annals as a name, Pussy Galore may seem a stretch, but this didn't stop Honor Blackman from getting into her character.
Featuring an Aston Martin with spikes emerging from the wheels inspired by the bad guy's chariot in Ben-Hur (1959), moments of noir-ish mystery, and a soundtrack that outsold the Beatles, Goldfinger isn't just the iconic Bond film, it's one of the greatest movies ever made.
Stewart Kirby writes for
The Independent
and
Two Rivers Tribune
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