Goldfinger
Everything he touches turns into excitement!
Country
Production
Budget
$3 000 000
Revenue
$124 881 062
Director
Actors
Sean Connery, Gert Fröbe, Honor Blackman, Harold Sakata, Shirley Eaton, Tania Mallet, Bernard Lee, Martin Benson, Cec Linder, Austin Willis
All actors and roles (10)
All actors and roles (10)
Scenario
Producer
Operator
Ted Moore
Composer
Artist
Ken Adam, Maurice Pelling, Michael White
Audition
Editing
Short description
Goldfinger is a 1964 spy adventure in which James Bond, agent 007, is assigned to look into the dealings of Auric Goldfinger, a wealthy man suspected of smuggling gold. What begins as an investigation turns into a direct confrontation when Bond is captured by Goldfinger, who is preparing a large-scale criminal operation against the United States gold reserve at Fort Knox. Bond works to stop the scheme, aided by the pilot Pussy Galore, while Goldfinger's bodyguard Oddjob stands in his way.
The film is the fourth directed by Guy Hamilton, following An Inspector Calls and preceding Funeral in Berlin. Sean Connery plays Bond, with Gert Fröbe as Goldfinger, Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore, Harold Sakata as Oddjob, and Shirley Eaton and Tania Mallet among the credited cast. Richard Maibaum and Paul Dehn wrote the screenplay, and Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman produced. It was made for about 3 million dollars and took roughly 125 million dollars worldwide, a return far larger than its production cost.
Audience response has been consistently strong: on IMDb it holds 7.7 from over 217,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.4 from a much smaller pool of voters. A critics' rating of 8.7 from 75 reviews places it above both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The replica of the US gold reserve vault at Fort Knox, constructed at Pinewood Studios, was surprisingly accurate, especially considering that no filmmakers were allowed access to the real vault for security reasons. The replica looked so convincing that security had to be stationed around it to prevent anyone from attempting to steal the prop gold bars in the dark. After the film's release, production designer Ken Adam received a letter from Fort Knox personnel congratulating him and the entire team on the accuracy of the vault's reproduction. A three-dimensional model of the Fort Knox surroundings, which Goldfinger showed to the heads of criminal organizations, is now on display for visitors at the actual Fort Knox.
- Harold Sakata (who played Goldfinger’s bodyguard) suffered a serious burn to his hand while filming the scene of his character’s death, but he remained in character and continued acting until director Guy Hamilton shouted: “Cut!”
- Actor Gert Fröbe did not speak English well, so he was dubbed by Michael Collins.
- Sean Connery, the actor playing Agent 007, didn't even have to travel to the United States for filming. All the scenes in which his character is supposedly in the US were filmed in the Pinewood Studios pavilions near London. This explains why, when switching on the light, Bond flips the light switch down instead of up (this refers to the scene where Bond, regaining consciousness, returns to the bedroom and discovers Jill, played by Shirley Eaton, whose entire body was painted gold, which caused her death). According to director Guy Hamilton, only Seka Linder (who played Felix Leiter) filmed directly in Miami from the main cast. All other actors involved in scenes set at the Miami resort filmed in the UK. This includes Connery, Gert Fröbe (who played the main antagonist, Auric Goldfinger), Eaton (who played Jill, Goldfinger's girlfriend), Margaret Nolan (who played the masseuse, Dink), and Austin Willis (Simmons, whom Goldfinger played cards against). Rear projection was used for filming these scenes (a combined filming technique based on projecting actors and elements of the scenery onto an arbitrary background), and when Fröbe and Simmons were in focus, long shots were used with stand-ins.
- While filming scenes in cars, Sean Connery often took off his trousers, leaving only the upper part of his suit: it always got hot in the confined space, and sweat would appear on his face despite the makeup artists' efforts.
- Actress Honor Blackman specifically left the television series “The Avengers,” where she played Cathy Gale, to appear in “Goldfinger.” In one episode of “The Avengers” from 1965, its creators jokingly alluded to this circumstance: John Steed receives a postcard from Cathy Gale, sent from Fort Knox.
- The sign at Fort Knox reads "General Rasion." Charles Rasion was the film's technical consultant.
- The idea of the "golden girl" was based on a real event. A Swedish model painted herself with gold paint and ultimately died of asphyxiation.
- Initially, Aston Martin (a British manufacturer of luxury cars) was reluctant to lend their cars to filmmakers, and the film’s producers (Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman, Stanley Sopel, Terence Young) had to pay for them. The film proved so successful at the box office that subsequently, the producers of the Bond films received the cars used in filming exclusively for free.
- All scenes with James Bond in America were filmed in London – in the Pinewood Studios pavilions.
- The footage of the circling helicopter appearing in the opening credits is taken from the film "From Russia with Love."
- In the original script, the first dialogue between Bond and Pussy Galore was as follows: "Hello. I'm Pussy Galore." - "That much is obvious. What's your name?" (Pussy Galore can be translated from English as 'Kitty-for-All').
- Gert Fröbe had certain doubts regarding Goldfinger's use of nerve gas in the Fort Knox robbery scene. Fröbe feared that this nuance would inevitably lead viewers to contemplate concentration camps, especially considering he himself was German. In reality, 'Goldfinger' was banned in Israel for many years after Fröbe admitted he had once been a member of the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party). The ban was lifted after a Jewish family came forward, claiming that Fröbe had saved them from execution during World War II.
- Nadia Rejean, who played a dancer in the nightclub, had previously appeared in another James Bond film – “From Russia with Love” (1963).
- In one episode, future renowned director Garry Marshall (“Pretty Woman”) played one of the American gangsters.
- The gold in Fort Knox is stacked too high in the film – in reality, the lower rows would be crushed by the weight above.
- Bond tells Goldfinger that, considering the weight of the gold, it would be simply impossible to remove it from Fort Knox, so Goldfinger will simply subject it to radioactive contamination, which will multiply the value of his personal gold reserves many times over. In the 1969 novel, Goldfinger planned to remove the gold, which, as critics rightly pointed out shortly after the book's release, was impossible. In Hamilton's film adaptation, Goldfinger's plan was accordingly changed, incorporating the critics' objections to the novel into Bond's reasoning.
- This is the only Bond film starring Connery in which the SPECTRE organization does not appear.
- Ian Fleming borrowed the idea of a person dying after being covered in gold paint from the horror film 'Bedlam' (1946) by Mark Robson. In reality, death from the so-called 'cutaneous asphyxiation' as a result of covering the skin with paint is a work of fiction. This assumption is based on the incorrect premise that a person breathes – even partially – through their skin, a fallacy disproven as early as the Renaissance. The myth of 'cutaneous asphyxiation' still persists, although it is occasionally debunked. It exists, in particular, thanks to an 'urban legend' claiming that Shirley Eaton (who played Jill Masterson) died of asphyxiation on the set. In fact, nothing like that happened; precautions were taken during filming, a doctor was constantly present, and the actress's stomach was not painted to avoid even the slightest possibility of the 'cutaneous asphyxiation' theory being true. Although 'cutaneous asphyxiation' as such is simply impossible, a person can die from overheating if the pores of the entire skin are blocked for a long time, as this will prevent sweating, which is an essential element of body temperature regulation.
- During the filming of the fight scene between Bond and Oddjob at Fort Knox, Sean Connery injured his back, which temporarily delayed production. Rumor has it that this injury allowed Connery to negotiate more money from the producers for the next installment.
- The first Bond film to feature the legendary Aston Martin DB5, which would appear in at least four more Bond films. Specifically, in Casino Royale, Bond refers to the car as an "Aston Martin from 1964," referencing the release year of Goldfinger, even though the model was produced starting in 1963.
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