“Goldfinger” (1964)

Genre: Thriller
Director: Guy Hamilton
Starring Cast: Sean Connery, Honor Blackman, Gert Frobe

“Goldfinger,” the third film of the Bond era, is thought by many fans to be the best of the bunch. This time around, James Bond, the smooth, sophisticated spy about town has to stop Goldfinger, who plans to pollute the gold reserves at Fort Knox. The story, as usual, takes Bond around the world via the beds of numerous young women before he saves the day at the last minute.

This Bond movie was the first to make those extraordinary gadgets an essential part of the film and introduced us all to the Aston Martin DB5. It also signalled a difference from the earlier films in that it contained more humour and was all together more laid back. For better or worse, this is when the cheesy one-liners became entrenched into Bond folklore.

Goldfinger is a comparatively low key bad-guy, but his silent hat hurling sidekick, Oddjob, could well be one of the more infamous henchmen in Bond history.
Even for the present day, “Goldfinger” is rather saucy with its nudity, sex and the feisty exchanges of Bond and Pussy Galore. Pussy Galore was one of the Bond Girls who had real class and intellect, and clever writing made her strong personality rather memorable.

The real attraction of course is Bond. Sean Connery is unbelievably good as 007, with a sparkle in his eye, he is adored by the ladies and applauded by the men. All James Bond movies are memorable, but “Goldfinger” set the standard for most of the films to follow.