2 replies to this topic

[Guy Haines]

I wonder if any Cbn members caught this rather odd story in The Guardian yesterday?

 

http://www.theguardi...ked-ian-fleming

 

You might imagine that in the 1960s, the FBI had enough on its plate, but it still found the time to look into the filming of "Goldfinger", and the portrayal in it of its members.

 

(You may have noticed, by the way, that no FBI personnel were portrayed in Goldfinger, but that didn't stop J. Edgar Hoover getting worked up about it!)

 

FBI files released recently show a rather curious interest in the film and concerns about the way the FBI would appear in it.  The Bureau had agents doing background checks on Ian Fleming, producer Harry Saltzman and screenwriter Richard Maibaum, and agents were told to "vigorously protest any mention of FBI or portrayal of its agents in his proposed movie." The Bureau even wanted to prevent the use of the initials "FBI" in the film, threatening the producers with a federal law prohibiting such use.

 

The article ends on a laugh, I think, with another memo describing the plot thusly; "Saltzman stated that the movie concerns a plan to rob Fort Knox, which robbery is solved by the FBI". Eh???

[Major Tallon]

I recall a story slightly to the same effect from many years ago.  This story was to the effect that Ian Fleming had embarked on research about Ft. Knox that was so detailed that their liaison office in London got wind of it and began checking Fleming out, based on concern that he might actually be hatching a scheme to rob the place. 

 

It's widely known that Hoover was extremely concerned about portrayals of the FBI, so the piece in The Guardian is plausible.

[Guy Haines]

Morning Major,

 

I can well understand why the authorities might get worked up about someone asking too many questions about Fort Knox the first time around. What I can't understand is, given that the novel Goldfinger was in the public domain for some years by the time filming had started,  the FBI still had concerns when it would have seemed obvious that the preparatory work was in connection to a film, not a real life heist.

 

I'm also puzzled as to why the FBI wouldn't want to be mentioned in the movie. Robbing Fort Knox - or rather irradiating it in the film - would surely be of extreme interest the national authorities in real life. Why wouldn't the FBI want to see fictional counterparts working with 007 to prevent this?

 

(On the subject of film scouting though - wasn't there a scene in the novel where Goldfinger assures the authorities that the flights made by his 'plane over Fort Knox were in connection with filming a movie? Maybe someone in the FBI had read the book and read more into reports of the filming schedule than he should?)