Review: Goldfinger

James Bond, agent 007 (Sean Connery) is assigned the task of investigating suspected gold smuggler Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe). He eventually uncovers a dastardly plan to break into the famed Fort Knox to detonate a bomb so destructive it destroys the gold reserve in the US to make people more reliant on his own gold. Honor Blackman plays Pussy Galore, Goldfinger’s personal pilot who is seemingly immune to Bond’s charms. Harold Sakata plays Oddjob, Goldfinger’s hulking chief henchman. Shirley Eaton appears briefly as Jill Masterson, an ill-fated person in Goldfinger’s employ.

The two films most people cite as the pinnacle of the 007 franchise are “From Russia With Love” and this subsequent 1964 film from director Guy Hamilton (“Diamonds Are Forever” and the underrated “Live and Let Die”). Personally, I prefer “Russia”, and place several other Bond films above even that fine film (“Dr. No” being my favourite), and certainly ahead of this overrated entry. I like it well-enough, but I’m a lot milder on it than most of you probably are. I’m not keen on some of the casting/characters, and I also think it’s pretty bloated. It doesn’t surprise me that the editor is Peter Hunt, because he never did know when to quit whether as editor or director (The otherwise excellent “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, for the latter). It will always be known as the Bond that really defined what the series would become, and for that it has a great deal of my respect.

The gun barrel theme is one of the best, even if it’s a little heavy on the hi-hat for my liking. In fact, the score by John Barry (“You Only Live Twice”, “Robin and Marian”) is one of the series’ best overall. We also get a nifty bit of nonsense early on where Bond spies an incoming threat in the reflection in a girl’s eye, leading to a scuffle, and one of Bond’s best-ever one-liners: ‘Shocking’. Of course this leads us to one of the all-time best Bond theme songs as well, even if I prefer Paul McCartney and Wings’s contribution to “Live and Let Die” a bit more than Dame Shirley Bassey’s title song here. The Newley-Bricusse lyrics are awesome kitsch, and the song still manages to be the highlight of the entire film if you ask me. The requisite Maurice Binder title design is pretty close to a series high point too, appropriately gold throughout. Miami provides lovely scenery early on (the rest of the locales are bland and forgettable), but Sean Connery’s light blue terry cloth ‘playsuit’ is absolutely ghastly. Does he know that sort of thing is for chicks, not dudes? Just sayin’, Jimmy. Margaret Nolan (whose strangely named Dink provides the torso seen in the titles design) is pretty damn hot, but for my money the highlight among the Bond girls in this film is Shirley Eaton’s ill-fated, gold-painted Jill Masterson. She’s incredible and far more charismatic and beautiful than main Bond Girl Honor Blackman, as the infamous (and overrated) Pussy Galore. Sadly, Eaton leaves the picture after about 15 minutes. We later get Tania Mallet as sister Tilly Masterson, but while OK she’s no Shirley Eaton that’s for sure. I wasn’t overly fussed with Bond’s patented flirty interplay with Lois Maxwell’s Moneypenny in this film. That’s mainly because it’s a lesser version of what we saw in the previous “From Russia With Love”, including M’s interruption of said flirtation. On the upside we get one of the series’ best cars, a cracking Aston Martin DB5 with revolving number plates and all kinds of other stuff. It’s definitely iconic, like the film itself. Also iconic? Harold Sakata’s henchman Oddjob and his deadly bowler hat. Easily one of the series’ best henchmen. What I love about Oddjob is that he never seems perturbed, angry, or vicious. Like wrestling’s late Mr. Fuji (whose albeit more diminutive visage was clearly modelled on Oddjob), he has a constant smile on his face, the devious bastard.

However, the first two times we see our title villain we’re privy to him cheating at cards and golf…so yeah, that’s a riveting bad guy right there. I’m sorry, folks. I’m just not impressed with Auric Goldfinger, as played by a dubbed Gert Frobe. He’s far from the worst villain the series has trotted out, but like the film itself, he’s overrated. He exudes no menace, charm, or much of anything. Goldfinger’s criminal scheme is relatively interesting, Goldfinger himself is not. The other big casting or character issue I have with the film is with Honor Blackman as the iconic, but underwhelming Pussy Galore. It’s a top shelf Bond Girl name, no doubt. However, she only turns up after an hour and she’s our main Bond Girl. That’s a big problem. A bigger problem is that when she does turn up, she fails to impress on any level whatsoever. At age 37, Blackman (like the inexplicably popular Angie Dickinson) just seems far too old and miscast in the role, unless the intention was for Pussy Galore to remind you of a middle-aged Aunt or something. Full disclosure: I’m 38 myself, but like it or not, Bond is by design escapist male fantasy and Blackman to me doesn’t seem to jive with that on an aesthetic/superficial level, especially for the time. In other kinds of films, that wouldn’t be a legit argument. For a Bond film? Yeah, I think it actually is, albeit a partly subjective argument, I can’t deny. Basically, I’m saying there’s very little difference between Pussy Galore and Lois Maxwell’s love-starved Miss Moneypenny, and in the world of Bond I believe that’s a significant problem. I like the idea behind the character somewhat in theory, but particularly in Blackman’s hands, the character itself is tedious. Meanwhile, all the ballyhoo around her sexuality pretty much culminating in a one line rebuff of Bond’s advances ‘I’m immune’. That’s the only real hint we get of her supposed lesbian sexual preference. Whatever. Whilst it’s a homophobic stereotype for the big manly man to eventually ‘convert’ the lesbian, the big ‘love scene’ between Bond and Pussy isn’t as offensive in the #MeToo era as some seem to be recently suggesting. At least from my completely irrelevant, ill-informed heterosexual male perspective. I don’t think it results in anything even close to rape unless you want to suggest that Pussy merely submits out of Bond’s sheer brute force. For me, the…er…climax of the scene suggests genuine romantic interest. I still hate the ‘gay conversion’ aspect of it, and the scene also softens the character of Pussy in a way similar to what happens in the later “A View to a Kill”. Other than that, I didn’t detect much to be offended about, though once again…it’s probably not my call to make and I openly admit that.

What I do love about the film is its gold motif, the filmmakers have definitely made an effort to put gold in the characters, plot, sets, song etc. to a degree that other Bond films haven’t gone to with their respective motifs. As for our hero, Sean Connery is exact: Cool professionalism with a bit of rugged action. Ken Adam (“Dr. No”, “You Only Live Twice”, “The Spy Who Loved Me”) also gives us his first really impressive production/set design for a Bond film that, along with Connery and the music score, is the highlight of the film. With the leading lady coming into the film at such a late stage, it’s clear that the film has another problem: pacing. It’s not as big a problem as the villain and Bond Girl issues, but this is one slow, overlong film where one’s interest does tend to dip in and out. You don’t feel the length quite as much as one does in say “A View to a Kill”, but nonetheless it’s still a problem. On the positive side, Hamilton is certainly at his best in the action department but that too does have a downside: There’s not quite enough action in it as one would like. Still, it’s certainly well-done when it does arrive. 

A solid film, and probably a bit better than I remembered from my previous viewing. However, with a tedious villain, an unappealing leading lady, and a deathly slow pace, the film doesn’t hold the greatest of interest for me. The music is iconic, as are several other elements coming into place here, but this for me is quite an overrated Bond film. Connery is terrific, however. The screenplay is by Paul Dehn (“The Spy Who Came in From the Cold”, “The Deadly Affair”, “Escape From the Planet of the Apes”) & Richard Maibaum (“Dr. No”, “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, “For Your Eyes Only”), from the Ian Fleming novel.

Rating: B-