For Conservative Movie Lovers: Ian Fleming, Sean Connery, and ‘Goldfinger’ Part 1
by Leo GrinIt’s the kind of movie “best” lists were made for, and over the years it’s been on plenty of them: Best Movie Quote, Best Song, Best Villain, Most Thrills. It boasts both the most famous car in movie history and what novelist Anthony Horowitz once called “perhaps the most bizarre murder in literature.” It spawned both 1964’s best-selling toy among tots and that year’s “sexiest man alive” among adults. It remains the most beloved entry in the single most profitable cinematic series of all time — adjusted for inflation, the movie cost only twenty-four-million dollars to make, yet brought in an epochal 853 million at the box office.
It’s Goldfinger (1964), and a half-century on the thrills, chills, eroticism, adventure, and luster invoked by that name all remain undimmed. According to one estimate, over a quarter of the world’s population has seen a James Bond film. That marks Goldfinger as not only a blockbuster, but as the harbinger of a profound cultural phenomenon.
Secret agent James Bond was introduced to the British public in 1953 via the novel Casino Royale, published in an initial print run of less than five-thousand copies. Author Ian Fleming quietly cranked out a novel a year for nearly a decade, with each languishing on the mystery-novel midlist alongside dozens of other now-forgotten titles from other writers. Sales were reasonable, but hardly spectacular.
Then on March 17, 1961, an article appeared in Life magazine called “The President’s Voracious Reading Habits.” Included on a list of “Ten Kennedy Favorites” was the 1957 Bond novel From Russia, With Love (over thirty years later, some choice praise from President Bill Clinton would deliver a similar jump-start to the career of African-American mystery writer Walter Mosley). The Kennedy Bond-boost, combined with the appearance of the first film (1962’s Dr. No), served to increase Fleming’s sales exponentially. By 1964 he had some forty million books in print. But the movie version of Goldfinger changed everything. In just the first year after it rocketed into theaters, an astonishing twenty-seven million more Bond books flew off the shelves.
Published in 1959, Goldfinger was chronologically the seventh novel in the series, yet only the third film. In every way it far exceeded its two predecessors, Dr. No (1962) and From Russia, With Love (1963) — its budget was larger than both of the previous two combined. Riding the crest of the same British invasion that introduced The Beatles to the States (Bond even playfully disparages the Fab Four at one point), it was the first installment to have large parts of the plot staged in America. It was also the first to have a pop star sing the theme song, and the first to use a famous actress as a Bond girl (Honor Blackman was already well-known to TV audiences from The Avengers). Although Goldfinger was the second film to feature actor Desmond Llewelyn as Bond’s equipment officer, it was the first to call him by his now-immortal name: Q. It was even the first film in movie history to use a laser, which at that time was a fresh, newfangled invention (the novel has a tied-down Bond threatened with a buzzsaw).
YouTube -- click here to watch in full-screen
In a series chock-full of memorable characters, gadgets, action scenes, and set pieces, Goldfinger reigns atop the list as the most innovative, inventive, and satisfying. From the wondrous set designs of Ken Adam (Fort Knox, Goldfinger’s sanctum) to Robert Brownjohn’s now-classic golden-girl title sequence and marketing imagery, to John Barry’s brassy, lush score, everyone seemed to be firing on all cylinders.
For this third chapter the series also had a new director, as Terrence Young (the man widely credited with having taught Sean Connery the ins and outs of Bondian cool) was replaced by Guy Hamilton. It was Hamilton who introduced the humorous relationship and banter between Q and Bond, who strove to tone down 007’s super-heroics in favor of a more realistic action palette, and who worked on making Auric Goldfinger and Oddjob far more compelling and formidable villains than any that came before.
Underwhelmed by the version of Bond’s car found in the script (as written, it only sported a smokescreen defense), and thinking about some traffic tickets he had recently acquired, Hamilton came up with the idea of adding revolving license plates to the Aston Martin DB5. He also encouraged the crew to come up with their own improvements, and soon the vehicle was chock-full of gadgets and weapons destined to thrill audiences worldwide. Clearly, Hamilton punched way above his weight in this film. Although he would ultimately direct three more Bond pictures — Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), plus other Hollywood action fare like Force 10 From Navarone (1979) and Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985), he would never again come close to equaling the potent cinematic alchemy of Goldfinger.
And yet even a movie with the esteem and cultural impact of Goldfinger has its enemies and party poopers. Anyone who’s made a cursory study of the Bond phenomenon is familiar with many of the early critical bashings. The most infamous came from the (then young and liberal, now old and conservative) historian Paul Johnson, who in 1958 wrote a New Statesman review of the novel Dr. No titled “Sex, snobbery and sadism,” in which he wildly attacked Fleming’s achievement: “I have just finished what is without a doubt the nastiest book I have ever read. . . Fleming deliberately and systematically excites, and then satisfies the very worst instincts of his readers. This seems to me far more dangerous than straight pornography.”
You might assume that Johnson’s half-century-old opinions were superseded long ago by more modern tastes. Not so — mainstream critics and bloggers continue to lament the perpetual popularity of the Bond franchise. Over at BBC News Finlo Rohrer asks “Is James Bond loathsome?” Techland’s Matt Selman accuses Fleming’s stories (and, to the degree they adhere to them, the films) of being “packed with outdated, but probably deeply-felt, sexism, racism, and, yes, even homophobia. . . a recent re-read of Goldfinger revealed the hate-speech was hilariously explicit.” He also condemns Bond’s successful seduction of Goldfinger’s lesbian pilot, the aptly named Pussy Galore, as “every idiot male moron’s fantasy.” Even Fleming fans grant, as Bond expert Bob Chapman does in the above-mentioned BBC article, that the stories are “sexist, heterosexist, xenophobic, everything that is not politically correct.”
My opinion is that Bond continues to be one of the most profitable franchises in history for good reasons — ones that have little to do with theaters and bookstores being filled with “idiot male morons” indulging in their penchant for “deeply-felt, sexism, racism, and, yes, even homophobia.” We live in an era where ostensibly sane people are busy trying to protect us from horrors like soda pop and table salt. In such a loony world, it’s no surprise that we now get a non-smoking Bond who takes his marching orders from a hectoring Hillary Clinton/Madeleine Albright-style “M” (remember Judi Dench’s quiet tirade in Goldeneye (1995) about Bond being a “sexist, misogynist dinosaur”?) In such a hostile cultural/political environment, it’s heartening that Fleming’s writings haven’t been widely banned as hate-speech, and that Goldfinger still ranks in most polls as the best Bond adventure, better even than the slicker, bigger-budgeted, more politically correct ones of recent times.
The public’s continuing regard for Goldfinger begs a question: what do modern-day movie lovers take away from this early incarnation of James Bond as envisioned by Ian Fleming, and brought to life on celluloid by Sean Connery? What do we glean from that misogynist dinosaur world of sex, snobbery and sadism?
Next week in For Conservative Movie Lovers, we begin to answer that question by delving into the life of the creator of James Bond: Ian Fleming.
FURTHER READING and VIEWING
“Another ’60s Anniversary: The Ur-Action Blockbuster Goldfinger” by William Bradley. This Huffington Post article does a good job of amassing information and anecdotes about Goldfinger, covering the production of the 1964 film and its cultural impact.
James Bond — Part 1: The Connery Years. A good homemade video, which gives a younger fan’s rundown of the first five Connery Bond movies:
YouTube -- click here to watch in full-screen
“Gooooldfingah!” Performed by Shirley Bassey. This rendition appeared on The Muppet Show, of all places (the cultural reach of Fleming’s creation truly knows no bounds). Come on, you know you want to give it a listen before heading out for the weekend. (scroll to 5:45 if you want to skip directly to the song):
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Got a Tip?
161 Comments
Is there any better scene than Bond and the laser?
BOND: Do you expect me to talk?
GOLDFINGER" Noooo, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!
Excellent article! Goldfinger has long been one of my favorite Bond adventures, along with the also-Hamilton-directed Live and Let Die.
Bond, James Bond.. This really brings back very special memories. Think back to the early sixties. Rock Hudson and Doris Day were the height of on screen sex for the masses (movie fantasy after all). Bond was something else. in 63 or 64 I was all of 12 or 13 and my parents allowed me to read their paper back of Dr No. Most kids my age had to hide a book under the mattress like hand me down copies of Playboy.
One night my dad said we were going to a movie, just the two of us.
I digress for a moment – movies were a special event – My first was Kiss me Kate as an infant and they swore that was the last movie they would ever take me to — babies a movies — BAD idea. Damn Yankees, because as it turned out later my father had seen it on Broadway and was deeply in love with Gwen Verdon. DY was also the last video my father and I 'watched' an hour before the lord took him to his rest.
And NOW in glorious outdoors color — From Russia With Love.
I was the only kid (child) at Sacajawea Jr. High who had actually seen James Bond. This began a long family tradition through Connery, Moore, Lazenby (my favorite because a girl I was dating though I looked a lot like him) and the rest.
This was a tradition I treasured and looked forward as long as he was able. Even today when my wife and I go to the next Bond film (Connery is still the only one in here brilliant opinion) When the music starts and I drift off to another world of spies and adventure, for a moment I miss and thank my father. Special memories are forever linked to very special times and people.
Just how un-PC was Fleming?
“Bond came to the conclusion that Tilly Masterson was one of those girls whose hormones had got mixed-up. He knew the type well and thought they and their male counterparts were a direct consequence of giving votes to women and ‘sex equality.’ As a result of fifty years of emancipation, feminine qualities were dying out or being transferred to the males. Pansies of both sexes were everywhere, not yet completely homosexual, but confused, not knowing what they were. The result was a herd of unhappy sexual misfits — barren and full of frustrations, the women wanting to dominate and the men to be nannied. He was sorry for them, but he had no time for them.” (Ian Fleming, Goldfinger, 1959)
Strangely, he populates his books with some very strong women!
Nearly 900 million dollars adjusted with inflation BUT also on just 20% of the number of screens a Bond movie gets today. So now adjust for inflation again and the numbers are crazy!
I'm always amazed how dated the gadgets look now compared to the average cell phone.
" What do we glean from that misogynist dinosaur world of sex, snobbery and sadism?"
At 16, I watched Bond on those huge screens and asked, "Where are these women?," meaning the ones who wanted to be grabbed and kissed? As an adult, I realized that they're in the same place Bogart and John Wayne found them. They were in a era in which inferior individual rights of females were the planted axioms that our sense of freedoms is leading the world out of.
However, back then was also an era when Bond knew how to straight up win the cold war, with no apologies.
Today, Daniel Craig wants Bond to get his prostate tickeled on-screen by another man, and I am a lot less certain of whether or not we are winning the wars.
OK… The article was great at reminding me of my crush on all the Bond Men (except G. Lazenby). Every girl secretly had to have a crush on the sexist Bond dude, he was just so HOT !!!! Loved the Shirly Bassey on the muppet show. Now thats entertainment. ;0)
Hopefully, in the next couple of articles Leo will mention the golf sequence of GOLDFINGER. It's one of the best and most underrated set-pieces in the whole Bond series. No car crashes or special effects, just Connery's Bond showing how great an agent he is by finding a way to take an unwinnable situation and making Goldfinger come out the fool.
I hadn't realized that Ted Kennedy was president back in '61, but I was just a young kid back then. Congrats, Ted.
I just can't warm up to Daniel Craig as James Bond. I've even made peace with George Lasenby, but Craig doesn't come off at all. Maybe I'm a Neanderthal who needs my Bond to be one, too. And Judi Dench is a crabby old schoolmarm who wants to put Bond in a museum and people the British secret service with metrosexuals. Go back to the old Bonds or drop the series all together, I say.
Sean Connery is with uot a duobt the best Bond to grace the screen. All of the other actors that have played James Bond don't even begin to measure up. If you read the description of Bond in the beginning of Casino Royale, it is as if Ian Fleming was describing Sean Connery's mannerisms and looks. I love the Bond series and i have been a fan since the 60's. I have to admit that President Kennedy's endorsement sparked my interest in the books and then the movies.
Techland's Matt Selman is a fey, limp-wristed, sour-faced, politically-correct squish – there, I said it.
Disparage the Craig version all you want, he's still closer the the Bond of the novels than the smarmy-caricatures of Moore, Dalton, and often, Brosnan. The Bond in the novels wasn't chaste, by any means, but neither did he turn every other line into a greasy double entendre. I'm glad to see that erased from the films.
"No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to…die".
I agree. Bond should be a "man" not a foppish dandy like Craig. While I like Judi Dench as an actress in most things she does (even Chronicles of Riddick /shudder) her role as M leaves a bit to be desired. I blame a poor script because she really does know her craft.
"Goldfinger" had it all – Connery at the height of his powers, a great, great villain, one of the 60's hottest babes, the superb Ken Adam sets, and John Barry's unforgettable score. I still get a Chris Matthews tingle whenever I hear Dame Shirley belt out the Barry and Black title tune. The tightly written script (by Richard Maibaum and Paul Dehn) is actually much better and makes much more sense than Fleming's novel. And dammit, I want to work for a guy like Bernard Lee someday. Still the best of the Bond films and the gold standard (bad pun) for 007's ever since.
Leo, thanks for the start of another great series.
Of course Connery was a great Bond, but I appreciate Daniel Craig too. If anything, his version of Bond is even more of a primitive uber-male than the Connery version was. It isn't Craig's fault that Quantum of Solace was poorly written & directed. Casino Royale was very good.
How different is the disdain of the Judi Dench version of M from the disdain Bond got from the Bernard Lee version of M? When she told him he's a misogynist dinosaur (1995), wasn't that the movie's way of shrugging off PC criticism, giving an oblique cheer for his classic qualities?
If a big part of the popularity of the James Bond character/stories is that it's from the school of thought saying
'Let men be men and let women be women' (ie, Let's celebrate what's great about masculinity & femininity. Let's reslish the strong contast.) … then we might see the James Bond mythology belonging in a group with the films of Howard Hawks and the writings of Ernest Hemingway.
so much here to comment on…
First of all there's this- literally all of the people who exist in the world of Special Operations have not only seen, but actually lived a good deal of what 007 does cinematically. Early in the film series history the US military- highly charged by what they saw- got involved behind the scenes. Charles Russhon- a US Army officer who has a bit in 'Goldfinger'; he's the General at the end seeing Bond off- started 'suggesting' certain, ahem, 'devices' the producers might find interesting.
In 'Thunderball' the H-bombs portrayed were based on the still classified US Mk II. Somehow the Bond crew got photos of them surreptitiously. This happened with increasing frequency. The 'aquaparas' in the same film were the precursor to the SEAL's; their spectacular appearance pu them on the fast track.
So much here- this is just a taste,,,
Sorry Leo, I couldn't resist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRmLjheB16Y
For me, the trailer captures all the coolness of the film. As corny as it may seem to others today. The look, the sound, the voice-over, the bold colors used in the graphics, it's all there. How could anyone not love it?
Great entertainment!
And while Goldfinger is the villain and Bond's chief nemesis, it's 'Oddjob' who steals the show, going toe to toe with 007 right up to the very end. 'Shocking'. The black derby will never be the same again.
If true, it certainly illuminates Ted's relationships with women.
Great article, but the life article was about JFK not the swimmer. Also, Matt Monro, who sang From Russia With Love, was a pop star in the UK at the time. So he was the first pop star singer in a Bond film.
And to all you Lazenby bashers, most Bond fans consider OHMSS the best Bond movie. It has the most character development and Lazenby did a very credible job for someone with no acting experience. He was also more fit than even Connery. He did all his own stunts. Connery had Bob Simmons as his stuntman, who was the guy in the gun barrel sequence in the early Bond.
Excellent post. Your articles are one of the primary reasons I enjoy Big Hollywood
"If you read the description of Bond in the beginning of Casino Royale, it is as if Ian Fleming was describing Sean Connery's mannerisms and looks."
Interestingly enough, Fleming said that when writing Bond he *envisioned* him as David Niven- who would play Bond in the 1967 spoof version of Casino Royale. Fleming of course had never heard of Sean Connery before 1962 (he subsequently made 007 half-Scottish to account for Connery's accent).
Just as interesting, though, is Fleming's own drawing of Bond- who looks remarkably like Timothy Dalton! (Although the Dalton films suffered from poor scripts, I always liked him as Bond: a stone killer.)
"Once is happenstance; twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action." Classic.
Matt Munro, the singing bus driver, as he was titled in Great Brittain. I believe he was heard here in the U.S.
prior to the movie tho to what degree of success he enjoyed I don't know. Not to get off track but
those were the days of applying descriptive phrases to the singers name during radio introductions i.e.
Mel Torme…….The Velvet Fog Perry Como… The singing Barber and others that escape me now.
I believe the singers generally hated them but may never said so publically.
I
"Ten Kennedy Favorites"…
Please pay attention…
Great piece, Leo. My earliest film memory is of sitting through Dr. No in wide-eyed fascination – with Connery, the music, the action, the gadgets, and the women, all of it larger than life. It transformed me as a kid, and to this day I still look forward to a Bond film with more childlike eagerness than I can muster for any other film.
The "Goldfinger Laser Scene" is a great candidate for over-dubbing. The current "Hitler talks to his staff in the bunker scene" is over-used and a bit long.
Loved the positioning of "Bond, James Bond," as the last line of the movie.
Yeah, Oddjob is the guy we all talked about in high school.
I'm not going to disparage any of the other Bonds. They all did their best to fill and live up to the role,but for me there will only be one James Bond and that's Sean Connery. Connery's portrayal of Bond reminds me of Errol Flynn's swashbuckling persona. Their are actors who have come close but something eludes them . They have this but they lack that at least for this old school guy. Besides who but Connery could say Ms. Pussy when referring to Honor Blackman's Character "Pussy Galore" and have a dozen connotations and every one of them loaded. Not me… but then again that's why Sean Connery is James Bond and I'm just ALLAMERICAN. Terrific Article
My favorite was "From Russia with Love" Minimal gee whiz, a serious KGB villian, brutish and nasty, wonderous scenery and taking place in areas of major Cold War intelligence combat. Roger Moore was Broccoli's initial pick but was contractually obligated to the TV series, the Saint. sort of like Pierce Brosnan 2 decades later.
You can watch stuff that's archaic, sexist, etc. and still enjoy it. It's like having an alcoholic relative–you know they're doing wrong, but you've known & loved them all your life.
Terrific story. One more un-PC element to movie I thought of was Bond taking a poke at psychology. The dancer at the beginning is irritated with the handle of Bond's gun. "Why do you always wear that thing?"
"Forgive me, I have a slight inferiority complex."
Right. Classic.
Sorry, but the best line from Goldfinger – my second favorite Bond film behind Thunderball – was, "I must be dreaming."
I agree, Connery allowed Himself to be seen. Therefore we see and connect and care about Bond. Good point PDA.
I have no problem with Dame Judi Dench…
As long as she skewers everyone, I don't care…Like she did the Admiral in "Tomorrow Never Dies"…
"What's he doing…?"
"His job…!"
It would help if someone actually decided to make terrorists and such the villains in these movies…Daniel Craig could do a better Bond if he wasn't being tossed into these wild-eyed situations…his transition from physical superman jumping around in "Casino Royale" to suave superspy with the MP-5SD at the end was perfect…then they went back to wild-eyed guy…the physical stunts were great amazing fun, just less freakout on his face in the closeup…after all, he is Bond, and does this stuff on a routine basis…
A few more puns, lose that dratted PPK popgun right now and stick with the Walther P99 or the PPS (my choice), in the large cap mag and .40 S&W…the super iPhone stuff works, as well as the hacker persona, but some small tech toys would help; just not those wretched excesses late Connery, Moore, or Brosnan were saddled with…Bond is Bond, after all…
He needs some breasty bubblehead bimbos, smart and extremely hot love interests, and less political correctness…even to the point he punches out some out of control PC smarmy guy…audiences would go out of the way just to watch that…
If they insist on this nebulous enemy stuff, start giving it a name…SPECTRE…I always thought Spectre was given short shrift in the other movies, made more comical than malevolent…and definitely stay away from the "Dr. Evil" types…Mike Myers ultimate contribution to society is that he finally ended Blofeld as a cliche…
James says,
"the life article was about JFK not the swimmer."
I wrote "TEN Kennedy Favorites," not "TED."
James also says,
"Also, Matt Monro, who sang From Russia With Love, was a pop star in the UK at the time. So he was the first pop star singer in a Bond film."
I should have been more clear — I meant to point out that Bassey was the first pop star to sing a theme song OVER THOSE STYLIZED OPENING TITLES. In FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE, Monro's voice comes in during the END credits, with the opening titles instrumental-only.
This was one of those articles where I suspected I had been too sloppy with my words as soon as it left my hands (especially given the supremely knowledgeable Fleming fans lurking out there). Given a re-do, I would have made such minor but important changes as saying that the Bond books were languishing on the "action/thriller" and not the "mystery" midlist, and would have referred to him as a "special agent" instead of a "secret" one. Oh well, them's the perils of the mad rush to keep up with M's — er, Nolte's — unforgiving deadlines!
Munro was a bus driver until he broke out as a singer. he had an excellent snging voice. His music is mostly the standards kind, rather than rock. But that's true of Bassey as well.
Oops on the Kennedy thing. I misread it. Sorry.
Another fact of interest about Fleming. He didn't become a novelist till he was 50 years old. A inspiration to late bloomers. (James Michner was also over 50 when he started). JRR Tolkien was 60 when Lord of the Rings was published.
Our last name is pond and my dad offered us $100 if we would name our son, or any of them James. We said no. We named our first son Marcus, after Marcus Allen.
Now, 4 sons later, some of them wished we had agreed. I tell them to ask their grandfather for the same deal. Only one is married, with no kids. We shall see.
Mike says,
"Is there any better scene than Bond and the laser? BOND: Do you expect me to talk? GOLDFINGER: Noooo, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!"
Herculean restraint was employed in resisting the quoting of all those great lines just so you guys could have some fun with them.
Nut says,
"BUT also on just 20% of the number of screens a Bond movie gets today."
Great point. Having lived through the original STAR WARS phenomenon at exactly the right age, I can well imagine how much more culturally potent something like GOLDFINGER was compared to, say, AVATAR today. GOLDFINGER played for over a year in theaters, and was seen by many more millions than will ever see AVATAR, and at a time when the world population (especially the first-world moviegoing population) was much smaller. Add in the other movies and the books, all playing off each other, and the cultural saturation was immense.
Tempus_Fugit_ says,
"I'm always amazed how dated the gadgets look now compared to the average cell phone."
It's sobering to think that all of the state-of-the-art stuff being released today will look just as hokey in fifty years. LED hi-def televisions, iPhones and iPads, you name it. Some day the 2010s will look to them like the 1910s look to us.
Given that truth, GOLDFINGER holds up pretty well after almost a half-century.
I didn't realize until the last time I watched From Russia With Love that the blond piano wire Rooskie in the opening sequence was the talented Robert Shaw.
bahiabob says,
"I have to admit that President Kennedy's endorsement sparked my interest in the books and then the movies."
Yep, it did for a lot of people, just as Clinton's endorsement sent me scurrying to real all of the Walter Mosley I could find. One of the only things I liked about Slick Willy was that you knew his gestures to the nanny-state were calculated poses more than true-believer policy. He did more to destroy feminism than anyone else in my lifetime, simply by duping the herd into defending behavior that by their oft-stated standards were heretical offenses.
The Bond series were classics where there was good and evil and it was cool to fight evil.
George Soros is the neo-Goldfinger seeking world domination through economic chaos.
Does anyone here think the current extremist PC environment in LaLa Land would have permitted the name "Pussy Galore" to appear anywhere in this film were it to be produced today?
I reread a couple of the old Bond novels recently, and was surprised at how dated they are. No doubt they were cutting edge in their day, but they have not held up well. And yes, they are definitely racist (at one point a black porter is described as swinging his arms like an ape), homophobic, sexist, etc.
On the other hand, the baccarat scene in Fleming's "Casino Royale" is a tour de force.
Overall, I'd say the movies, especially Connery's, have stood the test of time much better than the books.
The early Bonds are terrific, before they went PC.
Goldfinger is one of the best, but all the Connery movies except his last Bond were great. Some of Moore's were also good with a few clams tossed in. Lazenby, IMO, was the best and the story, of course, closest to Fleming's book.
Phrases like, "you've had your six" have become legend in world vocabulary. Not to mention the infamous, "hooston we have a problem" gaffe. Darn those brits
The double-entendre lines and the out-and-out sexy stuff makes them great movies.
Sadly, movies like these can no longer be made. We lack the talent these days. We have nothing but lightweights who could not conceive of or act in such a long string of hit movies. The most recent Bonds were not to my liking. The last guy could not even drive a car. Roger Moore actually learned to ski just to make the movies because he knew that you could not fool the viewers in the closeup shots.
Goldfinger best Bond flick with the best Bond Connery. I did not know Pussy was a lesbian Huh learn something every day. The new Bond sucks. My wife calls him the ugly Bond LOL. Figures the idiots in Hollywood would cast a short ugly man as Bond who talked about Bond having a homosexual affair with a Bull Dyke M. Next thing we know Q will be dressed in drag to let out his inner woman. Ewwwww got to go scrub out my minds eye….
I saw the movie first run, during the 60s, I always viewed Bond films as just good fun but Robert Shaw
was a frightening character. During the cold war and all I got into that portion of the film a bit too much.
"My dear girl, there are some things that just aren't done, such as drinking Dom Perignon '53 above the temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit. That's just as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs!"
Leo, thank you kindly, for doing a series on "Goldfinger. This is my favorite Bond movie, w/"Live and Let Die" being my favorite non Sean Connery version.
I have to disagree with Tempis, here, as I think the gadgets to not only be before their time, as continuing evidence suggests, but to be, for lack of a better word, cool.
Thank you for this wonderful walk down 47 years shaken not stirred memories.. I will be up early next Saturday for the next installment.
I believe Steve Reeves was first offered the part, but he wanted $100,000 and they wouldn't go that high.
Yes, Goldfinger is a classic, lazer scene is a peach, although the round of golf is also a perfect way to show Goldfingers lack of character, he's a cheater, liar, and probably a democrat.
Casino Royale was initially a disappointment for me, where is the theme music, the ubiquitous, Bond-James Bond pronouncement somewhere in the beginning, nothing. Oh, there was a slight smattering of a hint of theme music throughout the movie, but I'd given-up, some James Bond movie this was. Well was I in for a surprise. At the end of the movie when Bond finally corners the bad guy at his Swiss villa, makes the phone call from that all important phone # to confirm his guilt, shoots him, intercepts the guy crawling up to the front door. At that moment the bad guy looks up and asked, "Who are you," Bond answers, Bond-James Bond and the Bond music starts, at the end of the movie. Still gives me chills, perfect!!!
Yeah, my first Bond movie was Dr. No, although a high school friend and myself went to the movie soused and had no idea what it was we were watching. I had to spend most of the movie telling my friend to shut-up, be quiet. The theater was packed, we were drunk and there's Ursula Undress in all her glory and we are 15 and remember we're lit-up, thankfully we sat through the whole thing. I still watch it just to see what I missed…
Furthermore, Goldfinger the other classic Bond films have all aged quite well. Avatar on the other hand already feels a full decade out of date. All that new age silliness is so 90's.
My problem with Craig is that he always come across as a classless slob. Connery, Moore, Brosnan, and even Dalton all knew when to turn on the charm but Craig always carries a Eurotrash presence to the screen. Outside of Lazenby, he is the worst Bond ever.
"Even Fleming fans grant, as Bond expert Bob Chapman does in the above-mentioned BBC article, that the stories are “sexist, heterosexist, xenophobic, everything that is not politically correct.”"
That's why they are so good.
Not to be a pedant, but this isn't quite true. Fleming published his first novel when he was 45. The reason I know this is because Fleming actually died quite young at age 56. In fact, he passed away while Goldfinger was being filmed in 1964.
That's what they say in Chicago!
Even the simpsons threw this scene in to one of their plots (right before Homer gets Bond killed…)
Great start on what I anticipate will be another terrific and informative series of articles on another awesome movie we love. I proudly own Goldfinger along with the two more recent Daniel Craig outing.
Why the continuing appeal of James Bond, particularly as embodied by Goldfinger and Sean Connery? Without precluding the article author's own analysis, I would submit that the success of James Bond is the sheer originality and audacity of the character as portrayed Connery. Bond and Connery share this originally with other screen icons like John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Betty Davis or Katharine Hepburn. You can try to imitate but never recapture or repackage this elusive, one in a lifetime phenomenon.
What does you no mean?
Hard to believe the guy who invented Bond also invented Chitty Chittty Bang Bang.
It originally said "Ted". We were, that's why we mentioned it.
My name is Potts
Caractacus Potts
This is an example of "early" Hollywood (OK, Brittywood) in which the screen adaptation bears little resemblance to the story, but it every bit as good. I have all the "classic" Bond movies on DVD and also all the books. Reading the books provides an unexpected treat for those who have never done so. It's a completely different Bond – much more human and frail, in many ways. I treasure the books as much as the movies. Actually while the movies usually make me laugh, some of the books almost bring me to tears. If you have read then, you understand.
I always use the Bond movies as examples to those "purists" who demand that the movie be a clone of the book.
If they enjoy the Bond movies, I point out to them that they are very different from the book and that settles that argument.
I don't think this is possible to do anymore. So we stick with our Bond "Paris" and enjoy.
I agree. On Her Majesty's is my favorite movie, and also one of my favorite Bond novels. The skiing scenes are spectacular, the skating episode and car chase simply maahhvelllous. And who but Telly could play the evil one in this movie? For a man who never acted before, Lazenby certainly did yeoman's work.
The classic comment in this one is actually a Bond rarity – an aside to the audience – when he says, "This never happened to the other guy" which cracks me up every time I watch it.
Dame Shirley Bassey could sing the ingredients on a box of cereal and make it sound sexy.
I loved the older Bond movies. I, too, was all of 12 when I first saw Dr. No. But if someone in Hollywood really wanted to set the P.C. crowd's teeth on edge, they would do what my Dad did back then…introduce them to Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm. Not the Dean Martin version, but one that actually follows the plot lines and characterizations of Hamilton's All-American Assassin. He was much tougher than Bond, Imagine a scene from Death of a Citizen, the first Helm book, with Helm walking out of a room cleaning blood off his hands, after torturing an enemy female agent to death to find the location of his kidnapped daughter.
"And to all you Lazenby bashers, most Bond fans consider OHMSS the best Bond movie."
I don't. It's a long, dull movie in which very little happens. And Lazenby was a wimply little nancy-boy who had no business playing Bond. OHMSS is easily the WORST Bond movie out there.
[...] [...]
I'm sort of surprised at all the hatred of Daniel Craig here. True, he isn't and never will be as good as Sean Connery, but surely we can agree he's more manly than Pierce Brosnan, right?
The only decent Bond movie before the producers and directors began to cash in on the character’s value to the public as a hero was Dr. No. I excuse Sean Connery as an accomplice to the destruction of Bond; he was an actor, and most actors, especially at that point in their careers, don’t have the discretion or discrimination or the wallop to say “no” to scripts that mock the hero they are expected to play. Connery has matured in his outlook since then; most modern actors don’t progress much at all.
Fleming’s novels, however, are superior to all the Bond movies, including Dr. No, and having read the novel long before seeing the movie, when I saw the movie I was certain what Albert Broccoli, Harry Salzman, their directors and hack scripters would do with the rest of the series — turn them increasingly into tongue-in-cheek, whiz-bang, gadget-rich chase’ems and cheesecake. Perhaps the only saving grace of the films has been the theme songs.
This is from a Bond fan site: “In 1962 the first of the Bond films hit the screen with Sean Connery in the leading role as 007, and I have to admit…Connery brought a real sense of magic to the role. However Ian Fleming’s choice for the role was David Niven who was much more high brow than Connery….However Ian Fleming’s choice for the role was David Niven who was much more high brow than Connery…” Notwithstanding Niven’s distinctive moustache. http://www.fanboy.com/2008/11/best-james-bond-pat...
Patrick McGoohan turned down the role (he looks more like Fleming’s real-life model for the character of Bond, Hoagy Carmichael). McGoohan would have made a far more credible Bond than either Niven or Connery.
All the Bond novels, including all the Bond short stories, are so superior and so far removed from what has
All the Bond novels, including all the Bond short stories, are so superior and so far removed from what has been lifted, twisted, and bowdlerized, and amputated from them that they may as well have been produced in another universe. And, don’t get me started on the bogus Bond novels that Kingsley Amis, John Gardner, Raymond Benson and others have churned out to also cash in on Fleming’s creation, and which turned Bond into a boring social worker with a gun. They’re as awful and contrived as the movies. I’m not so desperate for romanticism in film that I’d champion the Bond films.
The best line is Goldfinger's response to Bond's "Do you really expect me to talk?"
Goldfinger: "No, Mr Bond. I expect you to die!".
(The laser scene)
As tough and as suave as Connery's Bond was, he was also always recognizably vulnerable when captured by a mastermind enemy. His worries translated to our worries watching him. I don't think any other Bond has accomplished that as well as he did.
Being repetitive makes your point dull.
When they first came out Bond moview were always entertaining. To some extent they were possible becuase the Cold War was real and Bond won for our side. I don't see how you could have been too deeply into it.
Maybe the second best Bond, but I still don't want to watch Craig turn Bond into an ankle grabber.
A bit of Goldfinger trivia. I am a car nut and love history. In 1961, Sir William Lyons, who guided Jaguar from the Swallow Sidecar Company to a decent manufacturer, came out with the sensuous E-Type. It was a sensation in 1961, and today still a sensation – any pre-federalized E type from 1961-1967. "The finest crumpet collector known to man", the automotive journalist Henry Manning said 30-40 years ago, and still true today.
So (I believe it was Goldfinger) the Producers approached Sir William and asked for the use of 2 or 3 E-Types. This is before the concept of "product placement" in movies came into being – where manufacturers would gladly PAY the producers to show THEIR product (can you say BMW?) in their production.
Sir William, being the businessman that he was, told the producers to buy their E-Types just like everyone else.
So the producers tried a 2nd car maker – the seemingly always-in-financial-trouble Aston Martin. They were on the verge of bankruptcy – they always made cars in the 100s per year – maybe a few thousand.
So the loaned the producers 2 or 3 silver DB5 coupes and the rest, as they say, was history.
I believe the James Bond of Ian Fleming's books favored a Bentley but the movie Bond will always be associated with that beautiful silver DB5.
When I suspend reality for 2 hours I really suspend reality. LOL
Robert Shaw, played a very cold, extremely efficient killer and……….
I'm just making it more ridculous. I'll just say Robert Shaw is one
of my all time favorite actors and that was the first movie I ever saw him in.
Maybe we should forget I brought it up.
Um, no. They were in fiction.
I appreciate that! Figured since that was the first response, what better way to get started.
BTW, I enjoy reading your stuff.
Leo – would love to see you write a piece (or series) on the political and social undertones of Robert E. Howard's work sometime for this site.
Regarding this article, Matt Daaaamon has made comments about James Bond similar to that of Matt Selman re: Bond as racist, misogynistic, imperialistic, etc. One can only hope that future film historians and social critics will consign the dreck which Damon and his Proglodyte ilk vomit forth to the cultural dung heap where it rightly belongs.
Shirley Eaton. Be still my heart.
I was seven when Goldfinger came out. (yes, I was probably too young to see it, but it was at a drive-in theater and my parents took me and my two older brothers). We used to play "Goldfinger's butler" before driving to school; using a frisbee if we didn't have a hat to throw.
Someone tell me if my memory is off, but I recall that in the orignal version, when he tells the blond woman to run in the woods, Oddjob chops her head off with his hat (her head is shown being carried separately). I have seen the movie several times in the past 20 years, but that isn't how it is shown. Is it possible there were alternate takes of this scene, and due to political correctness (beheading are too much associated with Muslim terrorists), a version of the scene without a beheading is now used?
The only real plot error that I wish they hadn't made is when the planes fly over with the gas, the soldiers immediately keel over. It would take several minutes, at least, for spray from several hundred feed overhead to affect people on the ground.
Actually, I think that line was – "I muhh-sshht be dreaming.".
Every Bond man was liked except for poor old George.
The 2nd Danial Craig bond movie was a load of PC crap I thought but the first – well, if anyone could challenge Sean as THE Bond it had to be Daniel Craig in Casino Royale.
Yeah but Pussy Galore's Flying Circus (in slow Piper Cherokee 140s no less) spraying sleeping gas all over Ft KNox was a bit far fetched. And watching them drop like flies…
He did a number on the golf ball!
Man I almost forgot – this is where I was introduced to Margaret Nolan – wow…
Leo – thank you for these informative articles – I really enjoyed Hal Needham and now – on to Bond
Yeah but "Pond…..James Pond" just doesn't have the same ring to it
That is a rhetorical question isn't it?
You must be logged in to post a comment.