This should have been one of the first films we reviewed when we started this blog way back in 2016, given we watch it every year without fail.
The previous two films in the series,"Dr. No" and "From Russia With Love" had already begun to build up a loyal fan base.
But "Goldfinger", the brassy, sassy, action-packed, dryly humorous third entry, set the cinema world on fire, and set off a frenzied Bond fever that gripped the entire world. (The fever eventually lessened to low-grade, but for many long time fans, has never completely disappeared.)
Think we're exaggerating? How about big city theaters forced to show the film 24/7 around the clock to meet the demand.
'Goldfinger', with its outrageous, charismatic villain, his bonkers plot to decimate Fort Knox, and his penchant for suffocating beautiful girls in gold paint, captured the world's imagination like no other film in history.
Add to that the explosive, sexy and dangerous portrayal of Agent James Bond by Sean Connery, the film promised (and delivered a monumental hero-villain Clash Of The Titans......not to mention former 'Avengers' TV star Honor Blackman as the first of the don't-mess-with-me Bond girls....Pussy Galore.
Very few moviegoers in 1964 could resist that glittering package of violence, deadpan spoofery and smoldering sexual innuendo.
A rundown of whom we think of as the film's MVP's and responsible for it becoming a culture shattering global phenomenon....
Ian Fleming - let's not forget it all started with an author creating a character and his world.
Alfred Hitchcock's "North By Northwest" - when penning his first Bond screenplay, Fleming and his co-writers were greatly inspired by Hitchcock's breathless cocktail of cross-country suspense, action and laugh-out-loud moments. Consider 'NXNW' as the ancestor of all Bond films.
Sean Connery - Do we really need to elaborate?
Shirley Bassey - Her belting out of that in-your-face title song perfectly matched what audiences were in for when credits stopped.....and Dame Shirley raised the bar high for all subsequent Bond song performers.
John Barry - Here's where he truly fashioned the definitive Bond soundtrack, punctuated with wailing horns and sometimes erupting into propulsive jazz.
Ken Adam - What Barry did for Bond music, Adam did for for the signature production design of Bond-world.....sleek, almost futuristic sets, accentuated with gleaming chrome and metal. His eye-popping Fort Knox is still a golden feast for the eyes.
Robert Brownjohn and Margaret Nolan - Main title designer Brownjohn doubled down on his striking 'From Russia With Love' visuals (the credits projected on to belly dancers). This time film clips played on the gold painted skin of delectable actress-model Margaret Nolan (who then appears in the film proper as Bond's masseuse.) Unlike today's airbrushed and digitally enhanced photographs, Brownjohn's camera slowly drifts so close across Nolan's sculpted body, audiences could make out the peach fuzz on her legs.
Shirley Eaton - the va-va-voom British Bombshell became forever enshrined as Bondom's first official sacrificial babe, slathered in gold paint and looking like the dead girlriend of 'Oscar', the Academy Award statuette.
The Frickin' Laser Beam - No explanation needed.
Gert Frobe - known in his home country Germany as mostly a roly-poly comic actor, Frobe created a cold-hearted, yet affable megalomaniac that served as a template for future Bond villains. (Unlike Joseph Wiseman's inscrutable 'Fu Manchu'-like Dr. No, Frobe's Goldfinger enjoys his own villainy - gifted with the best line ever when Bond asks him if he expects Bond to spill vital info..."No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to DIE!") And tip of the hat to actor Michael Collins, who not only expertly dubbed in Frobe's dialogue, but did it in an uncanny imitation of the actor's real speaking voice.
Peter Hunt - another invaluable member of the Eon Productions Bond filmmaking team. Hunt's groundbreaking use of cut-right-to-the-action film editing became a hallmark of the films....and this distinctive style would reach its absolute pinnacle in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service', which he directed.
Harold Sakata - as Goldfinger's nearly indestructible manservant Oddjob, Sakata and his lethal metal-rimmed bowler hat became instant cinema icons.....not to mention the model for future Bond henchmen who were ridiculous, funny and frightening all at once (such as Richard Kiel's 'Jaws' ) His thrilling, clever fight scene with Connery still provokes jolts and laughs today.
Guy Hamilton - one of those tough British Field Marshall directors who accentuated all the over-the-top Bond tropes that audiences came to expect. (He's responsible for turning the Bond-Q relationship into the Cranky Dad versus Wayward Son dynamic that's lasted through the rest of the series.) But his other, later Bond films ("Diamonds Are Forever", "Live and Let Die", "Man With The Golden Gun") had none of the snap, crackle and pop he brought here
Combine all these talents and craftspeople together gave entire world a movie (and genre) to go crazy over. And we did indeed....
The remainder of the 1960's became inundated with movies and TV shows that followed in 'Goldfinger's wake......all of them desperately trying to capture the film's unique lightning-in-a-bottle mixture of escapist adventure mixed with borderline tongue-in-cheek satire. Secret Agents, vile villains and sexy babes clogged the theaters and TV, provoking producer Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli to spend lavishly on more spectacular Bonds like "Thunderball" and "You Only Live Twice".
We could go on and on, but you probably get the drift by now. BQ loves 'Goldfinger' to the moon and back. 5 golden stars (*****).
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