Daily Archives: July 13, 2009

Sunday Night Movie: Goldfinger

goldfinger_l You need three films to establish a franchise and for James Bond the frnachise was established with a bang with the release of Goldfinger.

Based on the novel of the same name by Ian Flemming Goldfinger saw James Bond, agent 007, matching wits against international criminals Auric Goldfinger, Odd Job, and Pussy Galore and her all girl team of flying thieves. Suprisingly some of the more outraheous aspects of the book were deleted from the film version. (Quite the opposite of the Hollywood normally practice.)
This is the film that established many of the cliches that became a part of the Bond Franchise. The walk through Q-Section with gadgets and death all around, the realtionship between Bond and Q, the verbal sparing match with the lead villain were all established in this film.
Yes I am aware that Bond traded quips with Dr No in the film of the same name, but that occured in the final act of the film. In Goldfinger Bond encounters Godlfinger in Miami, againt on teh Glaf Course and of course in Switzerland in that most famous scene with the laser all before teh big climax in teh final act. The became a template and fianlly a formula for later Bond movies. As with all franchises, books or movies, when it devloves to formula it’s get tired old and bad.
I’m glad that the film-makers removed from the plot that Pussy galore was gay and turned straight simply because Bond was THAT good.
This is a film well worth watching and particularlly on Blu-Ray as I did.

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