Goldfinger

Guy Hamilton obviously has a very different vision for James Bond than Terrence Young had. For Goldfinger, Hamilton takes the driver's seat as director and the days of the gritty spy have been replaced by an impossibly sophisticated superspy in a world of spectacle. This is not actually a bad thing, but it is noticeable to how different the two directors portray James Bond's world.

There were two things that I forgot to mention in my From Russia, With Love review that I can mention now because they are equally applicable. The James Bond movies now have a structure of sorts. Maurice Binder's legendary gunbarrel opens the movie, followed by a pretitle sequence that, followed by the titles (sadly done by Robert Brownjohn again, and once again particularly ordinary - this time we get images of the film projected onto the golden woman; well I say images of the film, bizarrely there is a scene from From Russia, With Love in the mix as well), followed by the movie proper. At the end of From Russia, With Love, we were told that James Bond would be back in Goldfinger, and at the end of this movie we are told the next film will be Thunderball. It seems that the films are confident enough to tell us not only that there will be another but what the other will be.

The other point was John Barry's music. Barry in From Russia, With Love, seemed to be creating the consistency in the music that Young was doing for the film in general, and even introduced to a variety of music that all seemed in keeping with the James Bond Theme. Barry has done it again for Goldfinger, giving us a new sound that is unique to the Bond films, in much the same way that John Williams' Star Wars scores are uniquely Star Wars. For Goldfinger we get our first title theme that is song, with the lyrics provided by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, and the theme is given a rousing rendition by Shirley Bassey. It is the theme, rather than the actual title sequence that brings the titles alive. Happily Barry latches onto that theme and it shows up throughout the movie giving us even more consistency. Also of note is the fight scene at the climax in which Barry chooses to have no music at all, giving the scene a tension that is rarely created by sound.

As I said, spectacular seems to be Guy Hamilton's watchword, and the movie, while following Fleming's original book relatively closely, seems to rely on giving us memorable moment after memorable moment - a stunning pretitle sequence that has nothing to do with the film but clearly shows us in which direction the movie is headed when Bond strips off his wetsuit to reveal a white dinner suit beneath; the Miami scene giving us the unforgettable image of the beautiful Shirley Eaton painted gold; Bond and Goldfinger's golf game culminating in Oddjob decapitating a statue with his bowler hat; Bond about to be cut in half by a laser...the list goes on.

There are even scenes in the movie that provide unforgettable images but seriously serve not only no purpose to the plot overall, but make you question exactly what is going on at all. Goldfinger assembles a group of criminals who have helped him in some form to explain how he plans to invade Fort Knox. One man - Solo - is not interested and so Goldfinger pays him one million dollars and Oddjob drives him to the airport. Meanwhile, Kish gasses the entire criminal group and then Oddjob shoots Solo and then takes him to a wreckers yard where the vehicle with Solo in is compressed to a cube, and then he drives back to Goldfinger for Goldfinger to separate his gold from the mess. Does any of this make sense? He gets his criminals together to kill them - OK, so why explain his plot? Why not then kill Solo with the rest of them? Why shoot Solo and then compress him when you know you have to get the gold back again? It's a bizarre sequence that looks fantastic, but fails to stand up to any scrutiny whatsoever.

After Robert Shaw as the cold Donald Grant in the previous movie, the villainious Goldfinger (brought to life fantastically by Gert Frobe) has two henchmen - Kish and Oddjob. Kish is the standard boss of Goldfinger's army, but Oddjob - played by wrestler Harold Sakata - is bound to be one of the most enduring characters ever to appear in a movie. A mute Korean with a bowler hat that has a blade in the rim. It's a fantastic creation of Fleming's, and one that the producers of the Bond movies have brought to life with aplomb.

Also of note is the return of Desmond Llewellyn as Major Boothroyd, now renamed "Q". This time around "Q" has a large number of gadgets for Bond (there is a mention of Bond's attache case but it has been destroyed, apparently), and chief of these is the amazing Aston Martin DB5 - a car that has as much character as its creator. "Q" seems to just tolerate Bond's attitude, and this is something that is starting to be reflected in "M". Hamilton has changed the Bond/"M" dynamic a little so that Bond is now something of a showoff that "M" has little time for. The chemistry between MOneypenny and Bond, however, is electric, and the two have a beautiful moment where Bond can't take her out for dinner, only for Moneypenny to discover that he has to meet with "M". Also returning this movie is the character of Felix Leiter, sadly played by Cec Linder. Gone is the ultra-cool CIA agent of Dr No, instead he is replaced by a guy who looks like a cliched CIA agent and seems to spend most of the movie at Kentucky Fried Chicken. It is a terrible casting decision and if it weren't for the fact Bond makes an allusion to Felix being in trouble in Dr No (when exactly is a bit curious) you could be forgiven for thinking this was a new character.

It would of course be remiss of me to not mention the beautiful ladies in the movie - Shirley Eaton is stunning as Jill Masterson, and Tania Mallet is acceptable as her sister Tilly. It is, though, Honor Blackman who has the power in the movie playing the suggestively named Pussy Galore, a woman who is immune to Bond's charms. And Bond himself shows sexism for the first time, concerned that Jill and Pussy might be giving more to Goldfinger than just their personality and woefully slapping a woman on the bum at the beginning of the movie before telling her that he and Leiter had "men's business". Very nice. Although the racism is back as well, with Solo at one point calling a Korean guard "boy". Cringeworthy.

The subtle changes to Goldfinger make it a very different movie to its predecessors, and one wonders if this is the direction the series will progress in. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

"A"