Goldfinger (1964)

Directed by: Guy Hamilton
Starring: Sean Connery, Gert Fröbe, Honor Blackman, Shirley Eaton, Bernard Lee 
Duration: 110’

The glittering Aston Martin. The woman named Pussy Galore. A naked female body dipped into gold. Gert Fröbe as a fatally cool rival. The first-class combination of cosmopolitan adventure, spy action and witty screenplay. Sean Connery as more irresistible a James Bond as ever. Shirley Bassey and her prominent voice in the theme song. Humour which becomes a necessary addition to an on-screen cocktail that is always served «shaken, not stirred»…

There are several reasons to mention this film and numerous remarkable scenes upon which «Goldfinger» based his timeless charm. Like the brilliant engine on the spinning Aston Martin’s steel viscus that the leading actor drives, so the film’s frame is based on an infallible entertainment mechanism. With all its ingredients in the right place and in the most appropriate proportions, «Goldfinger» inserts in the popular spy mythology a factor of quick and intense emotions, offers one of the two or three best Ian Fleming’s book adaptations in cinema and stands until today as the ultimate archetype on which the subsequent James Bond films saga was built and cultivated. For many it is regarded as the British agent’s top film adventure. Loukas Katsikas

«Classics Illustrated» tribute in collaboration with the British Council