Goldfinger

Director: Guy Hamilton

Starring: Sean Connery, Gert Fröbe, Honor Blackman

Sean Connery is back, with eyebrow cocked, gun loaded, and gadgets ready for another action-packed adventure. Goldfinger sees Bond face-off against ruthless gold-dealer Auric Goldfinger (Fröbe), and the fight is soon on to save the world-economy from collapse. We first see the infamous Auric as an over-rich card cheat, but the stakes soon become higher, and when the tycoons are fighting with guns and not with stocks, finance can be deadly.

Believed by many to be the finest Bond film ever made, Goldfinger truly cemented the Bond film-genre as a movie phenomenon, not just another series of spy flicks. Sean Connery’s Bond is the quintessential man of style; his slick one-liners and put-downs are the height of cool. On top form from the opening bomb blast till the classic closing scenes, Connery shows why his Bond is seen as definitive by so many.

Goldfinger is also the film featuring the famed laser-scene which has achieved iconic status, along with Honor Blackman’s classic turn as bond-girl Pussy Galore. It is the first film in director Guy Hamilton’s Bond portfolio, which also includes such classics as Diamonds are Forever and Live and Let Die.

Goldfinger is based on an original Ian Fleming novel, written in 1959 and, like Casino Royale, this sets the scene for a film which is more about plot, drama and suspense than about the explosions and effects. Perhaps this explains why this film, now 43 years old, has stood the test of time so well. Especially when the bad-guys are as originally conceived as Oddjob and his deadly bowler…

With even the wardrobe department out to get him, can Bond really win the day and get the girl?

In the words of the great man himself, “Shocking”.

Rachael Marshall