A Reel 50: GOLDFINGER

“No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!”

 

This month marks the 50^th anniversary of Guy Hamilton’s GOLDFINGER.

Based on the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, GOLDFINGER was the third film in the James Bond series and the third to star Sean Connery as the fictional secret agent, James Bond/007.

After the moderate success of the previous Bond films, DR. NO (1962) and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963), GOLDFINGER was approached with a focus on American audiences. The plot, in which the villainous Auric Goldfinger seeks to contaminate the U.S. gold-supply, was changed from the novel…in which Goldfinger actually schemes to steal all of the gold. The original draft of the script was written by Richard Maibaum, who had penned the previous Bond films. After much back-and-forth over the script, screenwriter Paul Dehn was brought in to revise, and this is where the path of James Bond truly began. It was Dehn who suggested a pre-credit sequence with no relevance to the actual plot, and this was the beginning of the Bond Template.

GOLDFINGER would ultimately set the template for future Bond films over the next five decades. Elements such as the pre-credits scene, and 007’s extensive use of gadgets and technology would be used first in GOLDFINGER and they would become the pillars of the franchise. Although it was the third film in the series, GOLDFINGER is truly where James Bond began.

GOLDFINGER was a success with critics and at the gate; earning stellar reviews and breaking box office records in multiple countries despite the film’s setting in the U.S. It made back its production budget of $3 million in just two weeks. At the 37^th Academy Awards, it would win Best Sound Editing, making GOLDFINGER the first Bond film to win an Oscar. Composer John Barry was nominated for a Grammy for Best Score for a Motion Picture. The American Film Institute honors the film in their lists for Best Quote, Best Song, Best Villain, and Most Thrilling Film.

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This Blogger’s first encounter with GOLDFINGER came in the early 1970’s, when the startling image of Jill (played by Shirley Eaton), covered completely in gold paint, was run in a magazine. The image was tragic and beautiful at the same time, and immediately sparked an interest in this newly discovered world of secret agents and spies. Years later, as an appreciation for film grew, GOLDFINGER could easily be viewed as a textbook James Bond film, with all of the elements essential to the series working as a perfect formula. It is the film you would use to introduce James Bond to a newcomer, and the film to be shown whenever the best of Bond is discussed.

“We must have a few fast falls together some time.”