BEFORE: Third Connery film - but 5th Bond film in my enforced continuity. After spending some time with my parents, I'm realizing that my mother probably kept these films away from me when I was growing up. God forbid that I saw a half-naked woman covered in gold, or dancing in silhouette during a credits sequence during my developing years. Just imagine how I would have turned out...
THE PLOT: Investigating a gold magnate's smuggling, James Bond uncovers a plot to contaminate the Fort Knox gold reserve.
AFTER: I'm still feeing underwhelmed by these early Bond films, though there are clearly signs in this film that the franchise was kicking into higher gear. But the tone is still that cheeky almost-comedy spy stuff - when did they turn serious? It wasn't until the Pierce Brosnan films, right? Or maybe not until Daniel Craig?
The villainous plot, once again, was very nebulous. Goldfinger loves gold, smuggles gold, collects gold, so he wants to destroy the gold reserve? It doesn't really seem to follow logically. They do offer sort of a half-ass explanation, but I couldn't really follow it.
There's a nuclear bomb, and lasers, and nerve gas, all good stuff. And I'm trying really hard not to judge this in comparison with modern spy films - they really tried to do the best they could with the technology they had at the time. That's what Hollywood always does - but when we watch silent movies, for example, don't we look at them as sort of quaint and outdated? That's how I'm seeing the early Bond films, and I'm anxious to get to the ones from the late 70's and the 80's to see some improvements in the production values.
This is the one James Bond film that appears on the list of "1,001 Movies To See Before You Die", and I'm really not sure why - is it the definitive Bond film? What makes it stand out from the pack?
LOCATIONS: Miami Beach, Switzerland, Fort Knox
VILLAINS: Auric Goldfinger, Oddjob (the only Bond villain you could defeat by just ducking)
BABES: Jill Masterson, Pussy Galore (now we're getting somewhere...)
ALLIES: M, Q, Felix Leiter (damn, he got old fast - wait, another actor?)
PASTIMES: Gin rummy, golf
CARS: Aston Martin DB5, complete with smoke-screen, oil slick + ejector seats
GADGETS: Homing devices
THEME SONG: "Goldfinger" by Shirley Bassey (again, now we're getting somewhere)
Also starring Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Desmond Llewelyn (all carrying over from "From Russia With Love") Gert Fröbe, Honor Blackman, Shirley Eaton, Harold Sakata, Burt Kwouk.
RATING: 5 out of 10 bottles of Dom Perignon
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