I Watch Films: Goldfinger

Goldfinger

So, the ur-James Bond film. The pre-credits sequence has Bond coming out the water in a wetsuit with a bird on his head. Beating up some guards, finding a secret door into a building, setting a bomb there, taking off his wetsuit to reveal an immaculate white dinner jacket, going to a bar, snogging the resident dancer, being attacked and killing the assassin with electricity, commenting “Shocking. Positively Shocking.”

You hardly need to watch the rest of the film.

In brief: Bond is investigating the gold smuggler Auric Goldfinger (“sounds like a French nailpolish brand”) He manages to get two sisters killed and is then captured. Goldfinger almost kills him but is convinced otherwise following which Bond seduced the deliciously named Pussy Galore whose all-female flying circus are part of Goldfinger’s actually interesting Fort Knox plot.

Bond stops it.

There’s a couple of good bits, Goldfinger wearing a general’s uniform under his coat to make an escape is a nice mirror of Bond’s wetsuit/tuxedo at the start. The Fort Knox plot is ridiculous but not absolutely absurd compared to some Bond films. Goldfinger double-crossing just about everyone at every opportunity is fun, and Oddjob, the Korean wrestler with the bowler hat, is an iconic villain.

There’s some local interest for me as Bond and Goldfinger play golf down on the Kent coast.

Watch This: A classic 60s adventure spy film
Don’t Watch This: It’s nonsense, Bond manages to get women killed and promptly forgets about them, quite a bit of sexism and a dash of racism as well