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Goldfinger (1964)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 9:29 pm    Post subject: Goldfinger (1964) Reply with quote



The James Bond series peaks right here, skillfully combining the suave, world-hopping, girl-hopping charm of From Russia With Love with the gadget-in-every-pocket whimsy that typified the secret agent craze. Sean Connery remains the ultimate James Bond persona, Gert Frobe is the totally believable villain, Harold Sakata's "Oddjob" is the perfect evil henchman, and Honor Blackman is the sexy Pussy Galore.

Honorable mention goes to Shirley Eaton, the gorgeous girl whom the vindictive villain kills by coating her body with gold paint.

Ironically, the girl used in the posters, album covers, and opening credits is the actress who played "Dink", Bond's pool-side playmate in one brief scene at the film's beginning.

Shirley Bassey's rendition of the hit title song became as much a "James Bond Theme" as the steel guitar piece which composer John Barry wrote for the first film and reused for all the others.

The plot is a doozy; Frobe wants to explode an atomic bomb in the gold vaults at Fort Knox so that America's gold reserve will be radioactive and useless, driving gold prices sky high. Bond is formidably armed for his battle with Goldfinger; he has a weapons-laden Aston Martin DB-5 which features built-in machine guns, oil-slick sprayers, smoke-screen blowers, extendable tire-shredders in the wheels, multiple license plates, and of course the famous ejection seat on the passenger side for removing unwanted passengers.

Goldfinger even offers sci-fi fans one of the first laser beam special effects ever done in a movie. The climactic fight between Oddjob and Bond inside the gold vault is almost as exciting as the one with Robert Shaw in From Russia With Love.

Directed by Guy Hamilton.

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scotpens
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 10:44 pm    Post subject: Re: Goldfinger - (1964) Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
Honorable mention goes to Shirley Eaton, the gorgeous girl whom the vindictive villain kills by coating her body with gold paint.

The "gold paint" was actually a heavy, greasy skin lotion with faux-gold powder mixed into it. It had a realistic metallic sheen under the studio lights but was very messy. In some of the dozens of publicity photos of the gilded Ms. Eaton reclining on a red couch, you can see the gold stuff getting all over everything she touched.

Bud Brewster wrote:
Shirley Bassey's rendition of the hit title song became as much a "James Bond Theme" as the steel guitar piece which composer John Barry wrote for the first film and reused for all the others.

According to Wiki (emphasis added):

Quote:
Monty Norman has been credited with writing the "James Bond Theme", and has received royalties since 1962. Norman collected around ??485,000 in royalties between the years 1976 and 1999. For Dr. No, the tune was arranged by John Barry, who would later go on to compose the soundtracks for eleven James Bond films. Courts have ruled twice that the theme was written by Monty Norman, despite claims and testimony by Barry that he had actually written the theme. Norman has consequently won two libel actions against publishers for claiming that Barry wrote the theme, most recently against The Sunday Times in 2001.


Bud Brewster wrote:
Goldfinger even offers sci-fi fans one of the first laser beam special effects ever done in a movie.

That sequence also contains one of the best brief dialogue exchanges in the James Bond series:

Bond: "Do you expect me to talk?"

Goldfinger: "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!"


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 12:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Thanks, Scotpens! Fascinating info.

On the matter of famous dialog, the first exchange between Sean and Honor Blackman which goes like this in the movie —

"My name is Pussy Galore."

" . . . I must be dreaming."

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— was originally written like this.
________________________________

"I'm Pussy Galore."

"I know you are . . . but what's your name?"


According to IMDB trivia, it was changed because it was deemed "too suggestive".
Very Happy
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 2:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Goldfinger has always been my personal gold standard for judging other James Bond films.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 10:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

orzel-w wrote:
Goldfinger has always been my personal gold standard for judging other James Bond films.

I agree, Wayne. They got it right in Goldfinger, but they never quite got it right again. The recipe was perfect in that 1964 movie, a brilliant blend of action, romance, humor, and the promotion of an outrageous cultural trend that was at its peak.

But the cultural trend passed, and movies about tuxedo-wearing, martini-drinking, bed-hopping secret agents just didn't have the same flavor they did before. It was a little like what happened to science fiction after the 1950s passed and the public's reverent attitude toward scientific advancement began to sour for various reasons.

The two Derek Flint movies came after the peak of the spy craze, and the first one was a brilliant spoof of that waning trend, perfectly delivered with a straight face and a wry wit. But the second one blew it by spoofing the first movie, and it was like a comedian telling us when to laugh by going yuck-yuck at his own jokes.

The Roger Moore versions of Bond were all like the second Flint movie, and they just didn't work for that very reason.

The Pierce Brosnan films actually recaptured the Sean Connery version of Bond to some degree, and they succeeded admirably by treading a fine line between too much and too little of the Bond staples: pretty girls, glitzy gadgets, slam-bang action, and fast-paced stories.

Daniell Craig's version of Bond is a whole 'nother smoke, and it doesn't even try to recapture the flavor of the by-gone spy craze. What it does instead is just too cynical and serious for my tastes, and I haven't like any of them very much.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 11:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Daniel Craig is the first Bond I've really approved of since Connery.
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Krel
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 12:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The "Goldfinger" song was originally sung by Anthony Newley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foypp2Kh6cY

David.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 4:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Krel wrote:
The "Goldfinger" song was originally sung by Anthony Newley.

Well, gee, it started out real nice — but about thirty seconds into it Anthony started doing what Anthony always does, and I started cringing and giggling, both at the same time.

Oh well . . . Rolling Eyes

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 12:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

__________________________________

I don't know exactly why, but this trailer for Goldfinger is a bit disappointing. It makes the movie look more like one of the Bond copies than a Bond original. The fast editing and rapid text blurbs make you think the trailer is promising more action than the movie really has.

And the announcer with the British accent just doesn't have the forceful authority of the announcers in so many American trailers.

Tell me what you guys think of it Confused
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_________________ Goldfinger Official Trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 12:37 pm    Post subject: Re: Goldfinger - (1964) Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
...the famous ejection seat on the passenger side for removing unwanted passengers.

"You're joking."

"I never joke about my work, Double-O Seven."

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Custer
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 1:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, that is a bit overly-hectic and scrappy. I prefer this trailer:

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 2:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

THAT is a masterpiece! Is it a fan-made trailer, or is it something done for the Blu-ray release perhaps?

Thanks, Custer. It put me in the mood to watch that movie before it half over. Very Happy

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Custer
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 4:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just going by the comments on the YouTube page, it looks as if it was made by a fan - but 195,589 views can't be bad! Wink
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2017 11:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

__________________________________

Enjoy this very well-done and imformative "making of . . . " documentary about Goldfinger. For example, I learned for the first time that Gert Fröbe spoke no English, and all his dialog was dubbed! Very Happy

This documentary will put you in the mood to watch the movie just as well as the great fan-made trailer above!

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____________Goldfinger Making-Of Featurette


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Custer
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2017 2:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
. . . all his dialog was dubbed! Very Happy

Well, almost all, if we can trust Wikipedia. "Gert Fröbe, who spoke little English, said his lines phonetically, but was too slow. To redub him, he had to double the speed of his performance to get the right tempo. The only time his real voice is heard is during his meeting with members of the Mafia at Auric Stud. Bond is hidden below the model of Fort Knox whilst Gert Fröbe's natural voice can be heard above. However, he was redubbed for the rest of the film by stage actor Michael Collins."
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