81 replies to this topic

[Turn]

Goldfinger has been hailed as the totem pole for decades in the general public's mind and it warrants every bit of praise it receives. I always wondered why this is the one shown and not FRWL or OHMSS in best movie lists, especially in a book like 1001 Movies you Should See they have this but no other Bond, they actually mention the first two, Dr. No being a Sputnik era Fu Manchu movie, FRWL being an Eric Ambler adventure, while with Goldfinger, the Bond movie gains its own singular identity with this movie and that's why this is the Bond movie that's seen on a different plane from the rest. This was one of the 15 movies picked by TCM's 15 greatest movie soundtracks and with good reason. This was the first Bond movie that really infuzed the music with the images, when it's suspensful in the opening until Bond drops on the guard and it switches to loud, or when he's shaving and each time he blocks the peep holes a cling sound hints during the music, every Bond movie from then on knew the course it had to take with this. I read somewhere before this movie best captures the mood and strange atmosphere of the year 1964 itself. I also like the camera work which would really get inside spaces and the screen would be filled by someone's eyeball or face. I now really appreciate the new ground Goldfinger broke for cinema as a whole.

Excellent post, Colossus. It gives me some new ways of looking at Goldfinger next time I spin the Blu-ray, which I appreciate since I've seen these films dozens of times over the years.

[Turn]

ABC edit? I didn't know such a thing existed.

As I recall they totally removed the gunbarrell scene when I read it from this article quite some time ago.

Not just that, they removed the entire precredits sequence. I remember being fired up to tape it for the first time during a broadcast way back in the early '80s. The United Artists logo comes on, that anticipation of the Bond theme is giving me chills and suddenly it cuts to the Shirley Bassey theme song.

Other sad edits in that version were removals of the Aston Martin being loaded onto the plane as Bond trails Goldfinger to Switzerland, part of the sequence when the flight attendent spies on Bond on Goldfinger's jet, several parts of the fight with Oddjob and the deaths of Kish and Oddjob are both cut down severely.

On other broadcasts, they removed the gunbarrel from Thunderball and the entire gypsy camp sequence from FRWL.

[Colossus]

Excellent post, Colossus. It gives me some new ways of looking at Goldfinger next time I spin the Blu-ray, which I appreciate since I've seen these films dozens of times over the years.

Thanks Turn.. i might have overblown the praising there... but yeah it brought new stuff, reminds me of Sergio Leone's movies how they also infuzed their sound and brought a new visual style.

on the ABC opening cuts it does say on my 1996 Video Movie guide that the opening sequence was cut out of TV versions.

[Publius]

Some of us like it A LOT while still thinking it's overrated. Third best Connery for me, and probably #8 overall, which is damn good in my book. It's always seemed to me like more of a vacation for Bond than even Thunderball was, considering he's just leaning back and letting his magnetism and good humor do all the work. I pop it in when I want an easygoing yet classic Bond film, and it doesn't get much more easygoing or classic than Goldfinger.

[Qwerty]

[Moderator's Note: Topics merged]

[john.steed]

Goldfinger was the only Bond film that I saw for the first time on TV and it was the edited version people have been talking about. I actually taped it on my old cassette recorder. (This was several years before the VCR.) It was not for many years until I finally saw the Goldfinger, which was actually kind of nice to find out that there were classic Bond scenes that were new to me.

[Colossus]

Shouldn't the other "fans of the ___ Bond" be merged with their review topics too? the FRWL and TB ones.

[O.H.M.S.S.]

Shouldn't the other "fans of the ___ Bond" be merged with their review topics too? the FRWL and TB ones.

Yeah, that thought crossed my mind as well.

Edited by O.H.M.S.S., 07 February 2010 - 08:43 PM.

[john.steed]

Shouldn't the other "fans of the ___ Bond" be merged with their review topics too? the FRWL and TB ones.

Yeah, that thought crossed my mind as well.

For my part, I do not see why each of the films, including Goldfinger, should not have seperate threads for general review and comments and for fans of the film. That had seemed to work fine for quite a while.

[Lachesis]

It gets a 9 from me, stylish, ingenious and polished, the definition of the Bond experience although I actually rate OHMSS and FRWL as better films, Goldfinger (and the next film TB) really see Connery at his best in the central role. Quitessential Bond and absolutely essential Cinema.

[Attempting Re-entry]

Watched this one last night - I give it a 10. Revisiting this movie was an absolute joy from start to finish.

I really think that the last time I saw this movie in its entirety was in the mid 80's, watching as a nine or ten year old with my late Grandfather.

Incredible gadgets, impressive villains, great music, and a fantastic Sean Connery aside, Caron Gardner bouncing past as one of Pussy's girls was a delightful treat (have you seen her in Hammer's Evil of Frankenstein? - what a magnificent sight!).

I could do without the fat little man that walks across the screen om the early gunbarrels, however.

[Double-Oh Agent]

Caron Gardner bouncing past as one of Pussy's girls was a delightful treat (have you seen her in Hammer's Evil of Frankenstein? - what a magnificent sight!).

Just out of curiosity, which one is she?

[Attempting Re-entry]

She's the one nearest the camera as they walk by (and, unfortunately, cut out of shot as Pussy then addresses the girls.)

Edited by Attempting Re-entry, 12 February 2010 - 08:50 AM.

[Double-Oh Agent]

Thanks Re-entry.

[Cuish]

10/10

While it's a great, classic film, it is without a reasonable doubt that it's the most overated Bond film out there.

There is alot to like about the film; Connery is at his peak here, the DB5 is the ultimate Bond car, Goldfinger and Oddjob are two of the best villains ever and the Q scene ("I never joke about my work, 007"), the laser table scene and the image of Jill Masterson painted in gold are the best, most iconic moments in the film. Furthermore, it vastly improves on Fleming's novel by changing Goldfinger's plan to something much more plausible plus omitting the part of the book which Bond and Masterson are both Goldfinger's secretary for operation Grandslam and killing Tilly Masterson early on, who I found completely useless in the novel. Lastly, the score is another winner by Barry and of course, Bassey's song sets the standard of which all future Bond songs will be judged.

However, there are some flaws; Cec Linder is miscasted as Felix Leiter and at the film's climax, all personal on the site drop dead all at once, etc., etc.

As I said above, it's a great film but it certainly doesn't deserve it's status as the #1 Bond film that so much of the general public and many fans like to claim.

[Guy Haines]

It was the second Bond film I watched, and the first featuring Sean Connery (my first Bond was George Lazenby). It is in the top three of my personal Bond film league table. I like it because of Connery, Honor Blackman, Shirley Eaton and Harold Sakata. And because of Gert Frobe as Goldfinger - still my favourite Bond villain, and if he was dubbed all the way through then the film makers did a good job of hiding the actor's allegedly limited command of English.

Plus it was one of the few occasions when the film's plot improved upon that of the book, in one important respect - having broken into Fort Knox, how exactly was Goldfinger going to steal all that gold? Fleming's scheme seemed highly unlikely to succeed. Richard Maibaum and Paul Dehn just ditched it altogether in favour of an "atomic device" and a 58 year wait before the gold reserves of the US would be worth anything, if ever.

(I've noticed on the Bond 23 threads that a number of members want Craig's next film to be his "Goldfinger" episode. Given the parlous state of the world economy it would be apt if Craig's Bond had to prevent a plot to send an already weak economic system into total freefall and depression just so that an arch villain and his associates could profit massively. Exactly what would take the place of the plan to irradiate Fort Knox I don't know, but we have screenwriters to consider that!)

And I almost forgot. Goldfinger features that theme song from that music score.

Edited by Guy Haines, 18 February 2010 - 12:20 AM.

[Gothamite]

Can't find a suitable thread for this.

Anyway, Goldfinger was just on TV as my brother was flicking through channels. Specifically the scene where Bond spots Goldie cheating at Gin Rummy in Miami and confronts Jill Masterson.

Right there is probably the coolest moment in the franchise. Even though Connery is wearing a weird, dated onesie, his delivery of "Bond, James Bond" with Barry's theme tune backing him up is Earth-shattering. "Now hear this, Goldfinger!" just continues the onslaught of awesomeness. I don't think I've ever noticed how well done that scene was. It almost seems like the true birth of the franchise.

And for one of the few times in a Bond film, I truly believed Bond would have no trouble at all pulling a girl as fast as he pulled Jill Masterson. I would have had sex with Bond after that.

I went back upstairs to work on my assignments for a while and then later while getting a cup of coffee, I switched the TV back on. Bond was imprisoned and Goldfinger was telling the local mob bosses about his plan to raid Fort Knox. It was only then that I realised why this would never be my favourite Bond movie. Everything after Bond gets captured is pedestrian, uninteresting and boring. The movie falls flat on its face and saying that Bond "saves the day" is almost wholly inaccurate.

So really, Thunderball is a fuller, more consistently good Bond film, while GF just has a handful of truly masterful moments.

[right idea, wrong pussy]

7/10 - Recommended, and a good introductory movie to show people not yet familiar with Bond

Pros:
Hamilton's direction has a great deal of polish and style that Young always lacked. This is at the cost of Young's drive and force though.
The whole thing is a well-executed fantasy. So much so that's not hard to see how it captured the public's imagination in ways the first two films did not. It is a fun movie overall.
John Barry's score is not his best, but it fits the movie like a glove.
Frobe's dubbing is distracting, but he still manages to work well as the villain.

Cons:
A great deal of clumsy editing, which may be partly Peter Hunt's fault but is a constant weakness in all of Hamilton's films.
This is the first Bond film that doesn't bear much close inspection in the rational motivations department (in scenes like Goldfinger gassing the gangsters), which wouldn't be a problem except that the film tries so hard to be rational, as when Bond calculates that Goldfinger will not have time to steal all the gold.
Honor Blackmun may be the most overrated Bond girl ever. She is neither a 'looker' (as Andress and Bianchi were before her), not is she a very good actress. Notice her introduction (the scene where Bond wakes up) - she can't even keep her mouth in one position. It looks like she's trying on different smiles in front of a mirror, rather than watching a prisoner wake up.

Edited by right idea, wrong pussy, 15 July 2011 - 05:20 AM.

[Andy Bond]

The most iconic Bond film and for good reason. It's deliciously over the top and is such an entertaining film. It's a complete contrast to the two films that came before it in terms of tone.

So many of the films tried to emulate afterwards this but there weren't many that got so much right. Most of the film is very memorable and everything just seemed to click here and everything from the villain, to the Bond girl, to the famous Aston Martin DB5 have become part of Bond folklore.

9/10.

[AStupidPoliceman]

Goldfnger is one film that, unlike most, I cannot truly enjoy. The first 30-45 minutes I think it sets itself up to be an excellent Bond film. The PTS is just fine, the scene In Miami is GREAT and it's generally very enjoyable until we reach Goldfinger's stud farm. At that point, the film becomes uninteresting and rather blasé. It's not that I dislike it, I just don't find it exciting or enticing: I don't find myself wanting to watch it, just sort of going along for the ride. If I may quote Gothamite, "Everything after Bond gets captured is pedestrian, uninteresting and boring."

I also have a problem with Gert Forbe as Goldfinger because I tend to not like obese villians- I don't find them intimidating. I want to see a villian who looks like they can handle themselves and really give the hero a run for his money physically. Not so with Goldfinger. And Pussy Galore....absurd name, and hardly a "Bond girl." He beds her, that's about it. She's a henchmen until the last few minutes of the film. Bond makes a good girl out of her and then they shag on a parachute. Blah.

The charm of the first half of the film is equaled by the bore that is the second half, so I score it right in the middle. 5/10

[SecretAgentFan]

Funny, the bit about "obese villains"...

[DR76]

Well Pussy gave in willingly and it wasn't a violent scene, rape isn't the right word.

She's lucky that she eventually gave in. Because that scene sure started out as rape.

As for "GOLDFINGER", I give a "3". I would have given it a lower rating, if it were not for John Barry's score, the theme song, Gert Frobe and Honor Blackman.