My Favorite James Bond Movie

 By Bruce Shawkey

My favorite James Bond movie, by far, is Goldfinger. The 1964 film stars my favorite Bond actor, Sean Connery. It features the best Bond villains, Auric Goldfinger (played by Gert Frobe) and Odd Job, played by Harold Sakata. It is based on the 1959 novel by Ian Fleming. Also joining the villain cast is Pussy Galore, played by Honor Blackman.

It has one of best lines when Bond asks Goldfinger if he expects him to talk, and divulge secrets of his mission. "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die," replies Goldfinger.

Bond manages to "turn" Blackman to the good side during a romp in a hay barn with a passionate kiss. He also turns Blackman from lesbian to straight. Blackman's sexual orientation is never stated, but implied. At one point, she tells Bond, "You can turn off the charm; I'm immune." In the Fleming novel, Pussy was born into poverty in the rural Southern United States and fell into juvenile delinquency. Attempting to go straight, she joined the circus and became an acrobat. In the novel, Pussy tells Bond that she became a lesbian after she was sexually abused by her uncle at the age of 12. In the movie, she is now head of Pussy Galore's Flying Circus, composed of five women who fly single-engine planes. At one point in the movie, they land their airplanes and emerge in their "uniforms" looking as though they sharpened their ample bosoms in a giant pencil sharpener.

There is also a great supporting cast, including Desmond Llewelyn, who plays "Q," who issues Bond all his equipment for the field, including the awesome Astin Martin DB5, with its rear bullet shield, ejector seat, machine guns, smoke screen, oil slick, and tire slasher. His gun is a Walther PPK, and his watch is a Rolex Submariner, both of which have become highly collectible. Also supporting is Miss Monepenny, played by Lois Maxwell.

Shirley Eaton plays Jill Masterson, who gets painted with gold paint and dies of suffocation because her skin can't breathe.

The movie ends in the "vault" at Fort Knox, which is totally fictitious. The fort and its vault were created on a studio backlot. The actual vaults are very plain and very few photos exists of them. Here is one, shot in 1974 during a visit by Numismatic News magazine. I recall other images existed, but I don't doubt they were removed at the behest of the government after 9-11, lest they reveal any details of the vaults' construction. 




In the end of the movie, Bond and Odd Job get locked in the "vault" with the dirty A-bomb, which is deactivated with just 007 seconds left on the timer. Odd Job, meanwhile, is electrocuted. Goldfinger is sucked out the window of an airplane. Bond and Pussy Galore end up on an island, and hide from a rescue helicopter, Bond declaring, "This is no time to be rescued" as he makes out with Ms. Galore. I have watched this movie again and again, and never get tired of it.

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