It’s GF this week and it seems only me and Barbel are still here. Anyway, let’s see how far we get.
Guy Hamilton takes over from Terence Young in the directors chair and we get an adventure with a lighter touch than the previous two. Sean is more polished and the food and drink snobbery increases with a very amusing scene with M and a decanter of brandy. The Q scene has the introduction of the famous Bond Aston Martin and some gadgets being developed in the background, which would become a staple.
The casting was once again excellent, Gert Frobe and Harold Sakata as Goldfinger and Oddjob were superb, Honor Blackman and Shirley Eaton are memorable Bond girls. The only real error is Cec Linder replacing Jack Lord as Felix Leiter, he’s far too old.
The plot is admirable, the writers coming up with a far better story by blowing up Fort Knox rather than robbing it as in the novel.
The increase in budget shows onscreen and Barry’s score is powerful and memorable with Shirley Bassey belting out the theme song.
There are some passages where Hamilton’s lightness of touch let’s the film down, especially with the gassing of the soldiers where they fall down (playing) dead fractions of a second after the gas is released. The countdown of the bomb is ludicrously out of sync too, but that’s an editing error.
GF is often placed in lists as the best Bond film of all, I don’t think it is, but it is up there with the best of the bunch.
I’m starting my own list as below, from top to bottom.
FRWL - GF - DN
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I just rewatched all the films about a year ago so I don't think I have it in me to watch them again and contribute, apart from maybe cutting/pasting what I wrote last time.
Quite understandable, and please cut/paste if you like.
I was going to watch GF last night but a friend came round and insisted on watching "Dracula" (1958) and "Brides of Dracula". I happily obliged. Will manage GF before Sunday night
The last time my wife and I watched the entire franchise was before NTTD came out. We felt it was time to do another rewatch, especially with the Amazon purchase. We started on DR. NO on Saturday.
I've always 'liked' this film and appreciated just how well it kicks things off for the franchise, and I've always admired just how fully formed Connery is as Bond from the beginning. For some reason, this viewing really clicked for me and I now place it much higher in the overall franchise rating. I now put it as the second best Connery Bond film (after FRWL) with the caveat that my full rewatch might make me reevaluate the other films. Budget and a few pacing issues aside, this is pretty much flawless, and all of my perceived flaws are rectified in the superb FRWL. DN walks so that FRWL can run.
I also appreciate just how raw and serious Bond is in both DN and FRWL. There's no winking at the camera or playing things strictly for laughs, like in GF onwards. I can now really see and acknowledge the formula established here that would be reintroduced with the first two Craig era films.
FRWL holds up beautifully as a strong 'spycraft' film. It's wonderfully executed, well paced, and funny when it needs to be without being forced. There's nothing in there that feels like a meta wink to the audience.
GF did not hold up beautifully, especially immediately following FRWL. All of the serious spycraft is jettisoned in favor of fantasy. There are a lot of fun elements in there but the overall feeling of plausibility is completely absent. It's still a 'good' film but it's a definite tonal change from what came before.
Current ranking:
FRWL
DN
GF
Added now: I still think that GF is highly, highly overrated in the Bond franchise. I think it benefits greatly from being 'the right film at the right time' when it came out and also benefits from having a lot of franchise 'firsts'.
It’s good to read your comments again @HarryCanyon it will be interesting to see how your rankings compare to mine, there’s a difference already!
@HarryCanyon I think it benefits greatly from being 'the right film at the right time' when it came out and also benefits from having a lot of franchise 'firsts'.
That’s a good assessment.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
A personal view of this film for me is not a set thing. My thoughts of it have changed over the 60 years since I first saw it. In the 60s I thought it in the best five or so movies I had ever seen (no surprises what the others were) – Sean Connery as the perfect James Bond, John Barry’s music boosting every scene where it was heard, and so on. I haven’t changed my mind about either of those.
Over the years other films, some of them not Bond movies (!), have pushed it down that hypothetical list. I’m not a listmaker, I’m just trying to make a point. It’s not one of the best films ever made, though it is one of the best James Bond films. There are others I’d rather watch at this time, and those others have of course changed over the years. Some of the more recent films (Eg “Casino Royale” 2006) are better movies. The plot holes (you know them as well as I do) become more evident with each viewing. I wince at Bond slapping Dink’s bottom and saying “Man talk”, although I have defended the barn scene with Pussy more than once here and will probably do it again.
And yet … Gert Frobe as Goldfinger (ably assisted by Michael Collins) remains one of the best Bond villains ever. Harold Sakata as Oddjob remains one of the best henchmen. Go on, read the book and try not to picture them. That moment when Connery says “Shocking” and slams the door which instantly cuts to the opening fanfare of the title song never fails to cause excitement (I believe there is at least one edition where that doesn’t happen. Shame on whoever edited that.). The classic lines which I’m sure everyone here can recite by heart (“Do you expect me to talk?” … ) still please.
The car. That is all.
So I watched again, waiting eagerly for those moments and savouring them like a fine wine (without an overdose of bon bois) as I have done for decades and hope to do many times more. “Goldfinger”; in the 1960s a classic James Bond film, and in the 2020s it still is.
I think it's the only Bond movie which classifies as an actual classic movie, worth putting in a library of the best films ever; it kind of rises above just being a Bond film. Well, maybe the only one: I actually think Casino Royale might be the only other one which possibly does that too.
Silly me. I wrote that on the same page I write my Imaginary Conversations, then copied it (recommended method for longish posts; avoids them being described as spam due to time taken writing them) without realising it was in bold.
Like pretty much anyone I consider GF a classic. The movie isn't as much about the thriller aspects, great dialogue and the general mood of it all. The drive to Switzerland for example is joy to just sit back and enjoy. Connery has never been better. AS we know it was in GF they found the James Bond formula, a formula that has kept the series alive and well for decades. I do hope Villeneuve and other future directors will get back to including scenes where we just enjoy spending time with a situation and a location.
Is GF perfect? No. While the screenwriters improved on the general plot from the novel, Fleming had a much better solution for turning Pussy Galore to the good side. The movie should've had her turning against Goldfinger when she discovers the gass is poison gass and not sleep inducing. Instead we got an uncomfortable semi-rape. Ideally they should've kept her flirting with Bond while we got more or less subtle hints that she's a lesbian. I also think the editing in the third act needed more editing. Examples are the crushing of the car. I think they should just show the car leaving the farm while Bond, Goldfinger and Pussy Galore talked. later we see the car in cube form being delivered back at the doorsteps of the house. Or the drive to fort Knox: I'd love to see Just show the cars leave Goldfinger's farm and then cut. Instead of watching Godlfinger's gang to the fort we should've had a scene where we see soldiers guarding the base, ending up with a couple of them standing guard inside the gold depository. The guard and the audience experience the attack from inside that room, including watching the steel door getting cut open and pulled away by the truck. Only then we go back the the movie we got.
To sum up: GF is a classic I enjoy watching, but it's not perfect.
Look Up! Look Down! Look Out! Here Comes The Biggest Bond Of All! ran the tagline. And they weren’t kidding. A huge budget saw the return of the Aston Martin, a jet pack, gadgets galore, Sean Connery’s best performance as Bond, and the best line up of Bond girls ever to grace the series.
Terence Young returned to helm the action and John Barry’s score is absolutely stunning. How much influence Kevin McClory had on the production is debatable (I’ve never read a great deal about his input) but seeing the mess he made of NSNA, I’m guessing not a lot, this seems to be solely a Broccoli/Saltzman affair.
My own recollection of seeing it at the cinema was one of wonderment, I loved it…and still do and as such shoots to the top of the chart, for now.
I watched this with my housekeeper who had never seen a Bond film before. She loved it and said that Sean was gorgeous and the sexiest actor she had ever seen.
TB - FRWL - GF - DN
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I watched the new 4K of this a month or two back and it looked absolutely gorgeous: it's like having a beach holiday.
I think it's got a lot of pluses but also a lot of faults: it doesn't feel like a sequel to Goldfinger- that really felt like it was entering the 60s and doing something new, whereas TB feels a bit backwards in some ways. Where's the amazing lair and crazy gadgets? Bond gets given a pill and a camera which works underwater... There's no exotic henchman, the villain's plan is pretty dull... it just doesn't feel like they've learned all the lessons from GF's success. Plus of course the underwater bits, as stunning as they look, do tend to drag: I noticed a bit in the big underwater battle last time where you would naturally cut and keep focus on Bond, I think it's just after he turns up. But for some reason the editor cuts back to the general fight and we get more shots of goodies and baddies hitting each other slowly and their masks falling off: it could be tightened up but feels slack.
Loads that's great though: for me Sean is at the height of his powers here, despite an unflattering wig. You totally believe all those women staring at him as he walks by, and there's loads of great lines. Fiona is brilliant too: I always say she should have been the main villain as Largo is rather lacking.
Ok, back to normal font, Napoleon. A film I’ve watched countless times, many times in the cinema before home video came about and even more since. Always a pleasure and an audiovisual antidepressant, and often simply beautiful to watch.
John Barry is the star, and only recently was the full score made available - in film order, no less, plus some extras. Unlike "Goldfinger" he has a whole bunch of themes on hand – “Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” in various forms and tempos, “Thunderball” almost as much (it was composed later into the production, so there was less time to use it), “007” gets hinted at during the Junkanoo scene then later builds up until blasting out in all its glory during the underwater climax, and the “James Bond Theme” crops up too of course. He carries the film, bringing interest and excitement to many scenes (such as the Shrublands sequence) which might have fallen a bit flat otherwise – especially important in a film with so many underwater scenes, where there can be no dialogue and limited sound effects. Tom Jones belts out the song over the titles with all the power his testosterone-fuelled vocal cords can supply while swimmers (the women naked, the men not) move as in a silhouetted ballet.
Well, we did TB. It played pretty great for both of us last night and even the underwater stuff...which normally feels unending...played nicely.
A few things I noticed this time around:
What's the point of Bond going back to Palmyra? He breaks in but apparently has no agenda because he does nothing but find Paula dead. It's like the entire sequence exists simply for the sharkpool sequence.
The concept of time is wonky. Bond is at Shrublands massaging the one lady with the mink glove...cut to Derval getting killed and replaced. 'Derval' then goes to the NATO headquarters, gets the mission briefing, and takes off in the Vulcan. The plane crashes in the water. There's a feeling that a lot of time has gone...except that, after the Vulcan crashes in the water, the movie cuts back to Bond still massaging that lady with the mink glove. What????
Regardless, we had fun with it.
Ranking:
FRWL
DN
TB
GF
Additional thoughts:
Connery's meeting with Largo at Palmyra might just be Connery's single best scene as James Bond. The writing and the acting from everyone is absolutely on point.
To me TB is the Bond film I wish I liked a lot,but I simply can't bring myself to really enjoy it. The music is great, Fiona Volpe, the 00 agents briefing room, Sean Connery,the title sequence and the lifestyle side (lounging around in exotic locations) really are enjoyable.
But there are far too many negatives for me. While in for example GF we get to discover the villain's plan together with Bond, here the plan is explained to us very early on. Then we get to watch what was explained actually happening and Bond finding out what we already know. That's bad storytelling. The nurse getting blackmailed into sex and the rack tortures scenes are also negatives to me. As many has said before the diving scenes are too long and slow. I understand underwater scenes were sensational back then, but I found the diving scenes in the lower budget 1951 film "The Frogmen" much more exciting and effectively filmed. The "boss fight" between Bond and Largo is edited really badly and it falls flat. In general I find the plotting is bad and the the action scenes are badly done in my opinion, making Connery's most successful Bond movie the least good one to me.
After the success of Goldfinger, the world of Bond should have opened up and it was there for the taking. So who should step in to take it, but Kevin McClory.
Though one of the first stories to be written with a film in mind, there's no getting around the fact that shorn of Sean, the promising composer John Barry, or the gun barrel, it doesn't pass muster.
Laurence Harvey - seen in tonight's Talking Pictures TV spy movie A Dandy in Aspic - might have made a great 007 - but he lacks the charisma or ability with a one-liner that Connery had made his own, and which audiences were expecting. The Lithuanian born actor would have made a fine assassin, a Red Grant type, instead. Julie Christie wasn't able to fill out a bikini for the Nassau scenes and without those superior editing skills of Peter Hunt, the whole thing came across like a B-movie, or one of those lukewarm spy spoofs of the 60s.
One can only speculate what might have happened had Broccoli and Saltzman seen sense and offered to a dual movie with McClory. 'We have the established Bond,' said Broccoli and the time. 'They have to establish theirs'. But a joint enterprise might have saved the series and surely Thunderball would have had that modish cool that the official series was packaging so well.
Instead, put off by McClory's intellectual property links to Spectre, EON eschewed all attempts to film the Blofeld books (we can only imagine what might have been) and instead opted for another Fleming novel originally written with a film in mind, Moonraker, with Vincent Price borrowed from Hammer to play Sir Hugo Drax. Early scenes set in Germany to pad out the UK-bound novel aimed to explore Drax's backstory but only served to alienate German audiences and despite the large-scale nature of the plot, critics carped that this 007 seemed to lack the exotic aspiration of previous films. 'This rocket is a misfire,' complained one critic. 'It feels like Connery's Bond has had his wings clipped.' Jean Kent, brought in to play Gala Brand, had her limitations exposed, though there was a comeback for Eunice Gayson as Sylvia Trench, in an expanded role.
Like the demise of the Beatles in a plane crash in late 1965, it is tempting to wonder what might have been, or in reality were they already past their peak? Confusion over two Bond films, neither particularly good, arriving in late 1965 put paid to the franchise, and Sean Connery was let go from his contract, eventually ending his acting career in television outings like Z-Cars.
I love alternative universe stories, as readers of "Imaginary Conversations" will know, and that's one of the best, if saddest. Nice subtle touch in having Vincent Price work for Hammer, which of course he never did.
One shouldn't forget that while Where Eagles Dare and The Wild Geese are traditional action staples, it is unlikely that one of Britain's most celebrated actors would have considered mainstream action films were it not for Ian Fleming's liaison with Jack Whittington and Kevin McClory on a James Bond film project.
Of course, Richard Burton was said to be in the running for the Bond role when Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman acquired the rights to all but two of the Bond novels, but by 1961-2 he demanded too big a salary to be considered, and would not have committed to a seven-picture deal.
All this changed when Kevin McClory - taking advantage of the newfound popularity for all things 007 following the release of Goldfinger, decided to press ahead with his own rival movie. Given that Bond was now a highly lucrative option for any studio, and given that Burton would most likely only be required to do just one film, or two, it would be relatively easy to meet his salary demands.
McClory moved fast. ' We know they intend to release the movie in early 66, they're not wasting any time on it,' said the EON producers. 'We have one of Fleming's best novels to consider, however, and we will offer it up for the public's approval.'
That novel, of course, was the one that had long been in development while Goldfinger was in post-production - On Her Majesty's Secret Service, with Sean Connery in his forth appearance, and location work taking place in the South of France and Austria. Brigitte Bardot was cast as Connery's tempestuous love interest Tracy, but the heartbreaking finale - while originally in the script - was held over for the next film, You Only Live Twice, to avoid a downbeat ending that would have been unable to compete with the upbeat climax of its box office rival.
Magazines trumpeted 'the biggest Bond year of all' and with Elizabeth Taylor joining the film as Bond's love interest Domino ('We enjoy each other's company and she'll do it cheap,' commented Burton drily) the paparazzi did not know which way to turn, given rumours of a behind-the-scenes romance between Connery and Bardot.
Above: Burton and Taylor at a press junket for the upcoming Thunderball.
The results did indeed live up to Bond fans' expectations though some argued that Connery's physique was better suited to bathing trunks than the thick-set Burton. 'He looks like a Welsh navvy on a budget package holiday' sniffed one critic, while another woman critic opined 'Connery hardly gets a chance to get his kit off in his movie, it's a wasted opportunity - or is this the new chaste Bond we are seeing?'
Above: Liz Taylor as Domino in Thunderball.
Rumours that on the eve of shooting McClory offered to switch roles, so Connery would appear in Thunderball, while Burton starred in the EON outing, have never been substantiated nor put to rest. 'There was a meeting between McClory and Broccoli and Saltzman at a Dublin Airport in the week before shooting began,' revealed one insider. 'It was a genuine possibility, not least because it was felt that Burton would be better suited to play an older Bond, ready to settle down.' Thunderball would have allowed Connery to film outside of Europe for the first time, and to escape the Pinewood sets. But if fell through because, it was said, no way would Connery allow himself to be offered up in a straight swap 'like a bloody chattal'. Some say the deciding factor was the use of Robert Vaughn as Felix Leiter, it was felt he might be overshadowed by the Man from UNCLE star, though in the event Vaughn pulled out and was replaced by George Segal - the two got on so well, Burton recommended him for another Burton-Taylor film, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Above: Bond's gadget-equipped Aston Martin returned for key scenes in On Her Majesty's Secret Service but fans were distraught when it was ditched in the Alpine snow with a self-destruct timer to evade Spectre agents
Bond fans may find it intriguing to consider Burton in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, in particular its famous pre-credits, seen at the wheel of the gunmetal grey Aston Martin DB5, using its array of gadgets to take out a fleet of black Spectre vehicles as they attempt to kidnap Tracey and demand a ransom from the head of rival crime syndicate Union Corse. This, of course, is a more exciting opening than Fleming's account in the novel where Bond saves her from suicide, and allows a grateful Draco a more credible opportunity and motive to to assist Bond in his search for Blofeld.
Above: Bardot as Tracy in OHMSS.
Ironically, Burton would have been well-suited to the cable car antics of that film, as he would later appear in similar scenes in Where Eagles Dare that same decade. 'I was envious of Connery on his gig,' Burton later recalled. 'In Nassau I got stuck with interminable underwater filming and got myself a dose of sunstroke. It's no place for a Welshman.' What really worked about both movies is that one conveniently followed the other in the series. In Thunderball, we see Burton's bond meet Spectre for the first time. In OHMSS, Connery appears in the follow-up, where he meets Blofeld for the first time - and fans could see both within the space of a month. It also meant the Christmas airplay of 1965 was dominated by two Bond hits. 'Tom Jones was a natural choice for Thunderball, owing to his Weshness,' said McClory of the Bert Bacharach number. Unable to find a song to fit their title, Broccoli and Saltzman pulled out the stops to get Frank Sinatra on board for the romantic ballad, Love in the Alps. 'Had we got Burton for that part, I could have written something better,' said composer John Barry. 'With all due respect to Connery, he just didn't have the acting pedigree at that stage that the role required. He was still playing it loose.' This overlooks the fact that neither Connery nor Burton were strangers to Shakespeare, with Connery having played Macbeth in a Canadian production but a few years earlier.
'The skiing scenes took me back to my time delivering milk in Edinburgh' recalled Connery.
Thunderball and On Her Majesty's Secret Service were the high watermark for Bond, as fans were thereafter split over which actor they wanted to see in the role. 'We married off Bond too soon,' said an EON insider. 'We could have left it until 1969 and spun out his playboy antics for a bit longer; instead when England was entering its free love era in 1967, we had a depressed Bond looking for vengeance; we found ourselves out of step.' With Connery now tiring of the role, he decided to quit. 'The producers have an equally viable option in Richard,' he said. 'If he wants to return to the gig, it's his for the taking. Personally, I'm done with it.' Burton demurred, and while newcomer George Lazenby made a decent fist of both Diamonds are Forever, his follow-up Live And Let Die proved to be the last. 'By that point, they'd mostly run out of Fleming titles anyway,' said Lazenby in a recent interview. 'Only Moonraker was really viable, and most of that was set in England, so it didn't appeal to me.'
Burton's Thunderball and Connery's OHMSS would be double-bill staples on UK Christmas TV in the mid-to late 70s, though the Thunderball film would be snapped up by the BBC for subsequent viewings.
Saw this question above: What's the point of Bond going back to Palmyra? He breaks in but apparently has no agenda because he does nothing but find Paula dead. It's like the entire sequence exists simply for the sharkpool sequence.
Well, he returns to Palmyra to rescue Paula. It's as simple as that, imo. He gets summoned away from the Poinciana restaurant during the Junkanoo by Felix, then they plan to cut the power to Palmyra because it's assumed Paula's being held hostage there.
Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
Comments
It’s GF this week and it seems only me and Barbel are still here. Anyway, let’s see how far we get.
Guy Hamilton takes over from Terence Young in the directors chair and we get an adventure with a lighter touch than the previous two. Sean is more polished and the food and drink snobbery increases with a very amusing scene with M and a decanter of brandy. The Q scene has the introduction of the famous Bond Aston Martin and some gadgets being developed in the background, which would become a staple.
The casting was once again excellent, Gert Frobe and Harold Sakata as Goldfinger and Oddjob were superb, Honor Blackman and Shirley Eaton are memorable Bond girls. The only real error is Cec Linder replacing Jack Lord as Felix Leiter, he’s far too old.
The plot is admirable, the writers coming up with a far better story by blowing up Fort Knox rather than robbing it as in the novel.
The increase in budget shows onscreen and Barry’s score is powerful and memorable with Shirley Bassey belting out the theme song.
There are some passages where Hamilton’s lightness of touch let’s the film down, especially with the gassing of the soldiers where they fall down (playing) dead fractions of a second after the gas is released. The countdown of the bomb is ludicrously out of sync too, but that’s an editing error.
GF is often placed in lists as the best Bond film of all, I don’t think it is, but it is up there with the best of the bunch.
I’m starting my own list as below, from top to bottom.
FRWL - GF - DN
I just rewatched all the films about a year ago so I don't think I have it in me to watch them again and contribute, apart from maybe cutting/pasting what I wrote last time.
Quite understandable, and please cut/paste if you like.
I was going to watch GF last night but a friend came round and insisted on watching "Dracula" (1958) and "Brides of Dracula". I happily obliged. Will manage GF before Sunday night
My thoughts on DN:
The last time my wife and I watched the entire franchise was before NTTD came out. We felt it was time to do another rewatch, especially with the Amazon purchase. We started on DR. NO on Saturday.
I've always 'liked' this film and appreciated just how well it kicks things off for the franchise, and I've always admired just how fully formed Connery is as Bond from the beginning. For some reason, this viewing really clicked for me and I now place it much higher in the overall franchise rating. I now put it as the second best Connery Bond film (after FRWL) with the caveat that my full rewatch might make me reevaluate the other films. Budget and a few pacing issues aside, this is pretty much flawless, and all of my perceived flaws are rectified in the superb FRWL. DN walks so that FRWL can run.
I also appreciate just how raw and serious Bond is in both DN and FRWL. There's no winking at the camera or playing things strictly for laughs, like in GF onwards. I can now really see and acknowledge the formula established here that would be reintroduced with the first two Craig era films.
My thoughts on FRWL and GF:
We did FRWL and GF last night, back to back.
FRWL holds up beautifully as a strong 'spycraft' film. It's wonderfully executed, well paced, and funny when it needs to be without being forced. There's nothing in there that feels like a meta wink to the audience.
GF did not hold up beautifully, especially immediately following FRWL. All of the serious spycraft is jettisoned in favor of fantasy. There are a lot of fun elements in there but the overall feeling of plausibility is completely absent. It's still a 'good' film but it's a definite tonal change from what came before.
Current ranking:
Added now: I still think that GF is highly, highly overrated in the Bond franchise. I think it benefits greatly from being 'the right film at the right time' when it came out and also benefits from having a lot of franchise 'firsts'.
It’s good to read your comments again @HarryCanyon it will be interesting to see how your rankings compare to mine, there’s a difference already!
@HarryCanyon I think it benefits greatly from being 'the right film at the right time' when it came out and also benefits from having a lot of franchise 'firsts'.
That’s a good assessment.
GOLDFINGER (1964) Director Guy Hamilton
A personal view of this film for me is not a set thing. My thoughts of it have changed over the 60 years since I first saw it. In the 60s I thought it in the best five or so movies I had ever seen (no surprises what the others were) – Sean Connery as the perfect James Bond, John Barry’s music boosting every scene where it was heard, and so on. I haven’t changed my mind about either of those.
Over the years other films, some of them not Bond movies (!), have pushed it down that hypothetical list. I’m not a listmaker, I’m just trying to make a point. It’s not one of the best films ever made, though it is one of the best James Bond films. There are others I’d rather watch at this time, and those others have of course changed over the years. Some of the more recent films (Eg “Casino Royale” 2006) are better movies. The plot holes (you know them as well as I do) become more evident with each viewing. I wince at Bond slapping Dink’s bottom and saying “Man talk”, although I have defended the barn scene with Pussy more than once here and will probably do it again.
And yet … Gert Frobe as Goldfinger (ably assisted by Michael Collins) remains one of the best Bond villains ever. Harold Sakata as Oddjob remains one of the best henchmen. Go on, read the book and try not to picture them. That moment when Connery says “Shocking” and slams the door which instantly cuts to the opening fanfare of the title song never fails to cause excitement (I believe there is at least one edition where that doesn’t happen. Shame on whoever edited that.). The classic lines which I’m sure everyone here can recite by heart (“Do you expect me to talk?” … ) still please.
The car. That is all.
So I watched again, waiting eagerly for those moments and savouring them like a fine wine (without an overdose of bon bois) as I have done for decades and hope to do many times more. “Goldfinger”; in the 1960s a classic James Bond film, and in the 2020s it still is.
That's rather a bold statement, Barbel.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Yeah, you're probably right there. I've changed it a bit.
I think it's the only Bond movie which classifies as an actual classic movie, worth putting in a library of the best films ever; it kind of rises above just being a Bond film. Well, maybe the only one: I actually think Casino Royale might be the only other one which possibly does that too.
I meant the font.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Oh. 🤢
Silly me. I wrote that on the same page I write my Imaginary Conversations, then copied it (recommended method for longish posts; avoids them being described as spam due to time taken writing them) without realising it was in bold.
I'll change it back.
It's still in bold.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I meant the changes.
And it proves I’m a dinosaur, I think the Dink scene is hilarious 😆
Like pretty much anyone I consider GF a classic. The movie isn't as much about the thriller aspects, great dialogue and the general mood of it all. The drive to Switzerland for example is joy to just sit back and enjoy. Connery has never been better. AS we know it was in GF they found the James Bond formula, a formula that has kept the series alive and well for decades. I do hope Villeneuve and other future directors will get back to including scenes where we just enjoy spending time with a situation and a location.
Is GF perfect? No. While the screenwriters improved on the general plot from the novel, Fleming had a much better solution for turning Pussy Galore to the good side. The movie should've had her turning against Goldfinger when she discovers the gass is poison gass and not sleep inducing. Instead we got an uncomfortable semi-rape. Ideally they should've kept her flirting with Bond while we got more or less subtle hints that she's a lesbian. I also think the editing in the third act needed more editing. Examples are the crushing of the car. I think they should just show the car leaving the farm while Bond, Goldfinger and Pussy Galore talked. later we see the car in cube form being delivered back at the doorsteps of the house. Or the drive to fort Knox: I'd love to see Just show the cars leave Goldfinger's farm and then cut. Instead of watching Godlfinger's gang to the fort we should've had a scene where we see soldiers guarding the base, ending up with a couple of them standing guard inside the gold depository. The guard and the audience experience the attack from inside that room, including watching the steel door getting cut open and pulled away by the truck. Only then we go back the the movie we got.
To sum up: GF is a classic I enjoy watching, but it's not perfect.
It’s THUNDERBALL this week.
THUNDERBALL (1965)
Look Up! Look Down! Look Out! Here Comes The Biggest Bond Of All! ran the tagline. And they weren’t kidding. A huge budget saw the return of the Aston Martin, a jet pack, gadgets galore, Sean Connery’s best performance as Bond, and the best line up of Bond girls ever to grace the series.
Terence Young returned to helm the action and John Barry’s score is absolutely stunning. How much influence Kevin McClory had on the production is debatable (I’ve never read a great deal about his input) but seeing the mess he made of NSNA, I’m guessing not a lot, this seems to be solely a Broccoli/Saltzman affair.
My own recollection of seeing it at the cinema was one of wonderment, I loved it…and still do and as such shoots to the top of the chart, for now.
I watched this with my housekeeper who had never seen a Bond film before. She loved it and said that Sean was gorgeous and the sexiest actor she had ever seen.
TB - FRWL - GF - DN
I watched the new 4K of this a month or two back and it looked absolutely gorgeous: it's like having a beach holiday.
I think it's got a lot of pluses but also a lot of faults: it doesn't feel like a sequel to Goldfinger- that really felt like it was entering the 60s and doing something new, whereas TB feels a bit backwards in some ways. Where's the amazing lair and crazy gadgets? Bond gets given a pill and a camera which works underwater... There's no exotic henchman, the villain's plan is pretty dull... it just doesn't feel like they've learned all the lessons from GF's success. Plus of course the underwater bits, as stunning as they look, do tend to drag: I noticed a bit in the big underwater battle last time where you would naturally cut and keep focus on Bond, I think it's just after he turns up. But for some reason the editor cuts back to the general fight and we get more shots of goodies and baddies hitting each other slowly and their masks falling off: it could be tightened up but feels slack.
Loads that's great though: for me Sean is at the height of his powers here, despite an unflattering wig. You totally believe all those women staring at him as he walks by, and there's loads of great lines. Fiona is brilliant too: I always say she should have been the main villain as Largo is rather lacking.
Do watch the 4K if you can though, just gorgeous.
THUNDERBALL (1965) Dir: Terence Young
Ok, back to normal font, Napoleon. A film I’ve watched countless times, many times in the cinema before home video came about and even more since. Always a pleasure and an audiovisual antidepressant, and often simply beautiful to watch.
John Barry is the star, and only recently was the full score made available - in film order, no less, plus some extras. Unlike "Goldfinger" he has a whole bunch of themes on hand – “Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” in various forms and tempos, “Thunderball” almost as much (it was composed later into the production, so there was less time to use it), “007” gets hinted at during the Junkanoo scene then later builds up until blasting out in all its glory during the underwater climax, and the “James Bond Theme” crops up too of course. He carries the film, bringing interest and excitement to many scenes (such as the Shrublands sequence) which might have fallen a bit flat otherwise – especially important in a film with so many underwater scenes, where there can be no dialogue and limited sound effects. Tom Jones belts out the song over the titles with all the power his testosterone-fuelled vocal cords can supply while swimmers (the women naked, the men not) move as in a silhouetted ballet.
Oh, and Sean Connery is good, too.
It's also the only Bond movie to feature someone dressed as Superman, as far as I'm aware.
From my post on TB last year:
Well, we did TB. It played pretty great for both of us last night and even the underwater stuff...which normally feels unending...played nicely.
A few things I noticed this time around:
Regardless, we had fun with it.
Ranking:
Additional thoughts:
Connery's meeting with Largo at Palmyra might just be Connery's single best scene as James Bond. The writing and the acting from everyone is absolutely on point.
It's wonderful 😁
To me TB is the Bond film I wish I liked a lot,but I simply can't bring myself to really enjoy it. The music is great, Fiona Volpe, the 00 agents briefing room, Sean Connery,the title sequence and the lifestyle side (lounging around in exotic locations) really are enjoyable.
But there are far too many negatives for me. While in for example GF we get to discover the villain's plan together with Bond, here the plan is explained to us very early on. Then we get to watch what was explained actually happening and Bond finding out what we already know. That's bad storytelling. The nurse getting blackmailed into sex and the rack tortures scenes are also negatives to me. As many has said before the diving scenes are too long and slow. I understand underwater scenes were sensational back then, but I found the diving scenes in the lower budget 1951 film "The Frogmen" much more exciting and effectively filmed. The "boss fight" between Bond and Largo is edited really badly and it falls flat. In general I find the plotting is bad and the the action scenes are badly done in my opinion, making Connery's most successful Bond movie the least good one to me.
It's with mixed feelings I turn to Thunderball.
After the success of Goldfinger, the world of Bond should have opened up and it was there for the taking. So who should step in to take it, but Kevin McClory.
Though one of the first stories to be written with a film in mind, there's no getting around the fact that shorn of Sean, the promising composer John Barry, or the gun barrel, it doesn't pass muster.
Laurence Harvey - seen in tonight's Talking Pictures TV spy movie A Dandy in Aspic - might have made a great 007 - but he lacks the charisma or ability with a one-liner that Connery had made his own, and which audiences were expecting. The Lithuanian born actor would have made a fine assassin, a Red Grant type, instead. Julie Christie wasn't able to fill out a bikini for the Nassau scenes and without those superior editing skills of Peter Hunt, the whole thing came across like a B-movie, or one of those lukewarm spy spoofs of the 60s.
One can only speculate what might have happened had Broccoli and Saltzman seen sense and offered to a dual movie with McClory. 'We have the established Bond,' said Broccoli and the time. 'They have to establish theirs'. But a joint enterprise might have saved the series and surely Thunderball would have had that modish cool that the official series was packaging so well.
Instead, put off by McClory's intellectual property links to Spectre, EON eschewed all attempts to film the Blofeld books (we can only imagine what might have been) and instead opted for another Fleming novel originally written with a film in mind, Moonraker, with Vincent Price borrowed from Hammer to play Sir Hugo Drax. Early scenes set in Germany to pad out the UK-bound novel aimed to explore Drax's backstory but only served to alienate German audiences and despite the large-scale nature of the plot, critics carped that this 007 seemed to lack the exotic aspiration of previous films. 'This rocket is a misfire,' complained one critic. 'It feels like Connery's Bond has had his wings clipped.' Jean Kent, brought in to play Gala Brand, had her limitations exposed, though there was a comeback for Eunice Gayson as Sylvia Trench, in an expanded role.
Like the demise of the Beatles in a plane crash in late 1965, it is tempting to wonder what might have been, or in reality were they already past their peak? Confusion over two Bond films, neither particularly good, arriving in late 1965 put paid to the franchise, and Sean Connery was let go from his contract, eventually ending his acting career in television outings like Z-Cars.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I love alternative universe stories, as readers of "Imaginary Conversations" will know, and that's one of the best, if saddest. Nice subtle touch in having Vincent Price work for Hammer, which of course he never did.
Oh, alright piss off Barbel! 😁 Why didn't Price work for Hammer, was he American? What about Pleasance, was he a Hammer regular?
Roger Moore 1927-2017
(A) Last time I give YOU a compliment 😝
(B) Too expensive
(C) No
One shouldn't forget that while Where Eagles Dare and The Wild Geese are traditional action staples, it is unlikely that one of Britain's most celebrated actors would have considered mainstream action films were it not for Ian Fleming's liaison with Jack Whittington and Kevin McClory on a James Bond film project.
Of course, Richard Burton was said to be in the running for the Bond role when Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman acquired the rights to all but two of the Bond novels, but by 1961-2 he demanded too big a salary to be considered, and would not have committed to a seven-picture deal.
All this changed when Kevin McClory - taking advantage of the newfound popularity for all things 007 following the release of Goldfinger, decided to press ahead with his own rival movie. Given that Bond was now a highly lucrative option for any studio, and given that Burton would most likely only be required to do just one film, or two, it would be relatively easy to meet his salary demands.
McClory moved fast. ' We know they intend to release the movie in early 66, they're not wasting any time on it,' said the EON producers. 'We have one of Fleming's best novels to consider, however, and we will offer it up for the public's approval.'
That novel, of course, was the one that had long been in development while Goldfinger was in post-production - On Her Majesty's Secret Service, with Sean Connery in his forth appearance, and location work taking place in the South of France and Austria. Brigitte Bardot was cast as Connery's tempestuous love interest Tracy, but the heartbreaking finale - while originally in the script - was held over for the next film, You Only Live Twice, to avoid a downbeat ending that would have been unable to compete with the upbeat climax of its box office rival.
Magazines trumpeted 'the biggest Bond year of all' and with Elizabeth Taylor joining the film as Bond's love interest Domino ('We enjoy each other's company and she'll do it cheap,' commented Burton drily) the paparazzi did not know which way to turn, given rumours of a behind-the-scenes romance between Connery and Bardot.
Above: Burton and Taylor at a press junket for the upcoming Thunderball.
The results did indeed live up to Bond fans' expectations though some argued that Connery's physique was better suited to bathing trunks than the thick-set Burton. 'He looks like a Welsh navvy on a budget package holiday' sniffed one critic, while another woman critic opined 'Connery hardly gets a chance to get his kit off in his movie, it's a wasted opportunity - or is this the new chaste Bond we are seeing?'
Above: Liz Taylor as Domino in Thunderball.
Rumours that on the eve of shooting McClory offered to switch roles, so Connery would appear in Thunderball, while Burton starred in the EON outing, have never been substantiated nor put to rest. 'There was a meeting between McClory and Broccoli and Saltzman at a Dublin Airport in the week before shooting began,' revealed one insider. 'It was a genuine possibility, not least because it was felt that Burton would be better suited to play an older Bond, ready to settle down.' Thunderball would have allowed Connery to film outside of Europe for the first time, and to escape the Pinewood sets. But if fell through because, it was said, no way would Connery allow himself to be offered up in a straight swap 'like a bloody chattal'. Some say the deciding factor was the use of Robert Vaughn as Felix Leiter, it was felt he might be overshadowed by the Man from UNCLE star, though in the event Vaughn pulled out and was replaced by George Segal - the two got on so well, Burton recommended him for another Burton-Taylor film, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Above: Bond's gadget-equipped Aston Martin returned for key scenes in On Her Majesty's Secret Service but fans were distraught when it was ditched in the Alpine snow with a self-destruct timer to evade Spectre agents
Bond fans may find it intriguing to consider Burton in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, in particular its famous pre-credits, seen at the wheel of the gunmetal grey Aston Martin DB5, using its array of gadgets to take out a fleet of black Spectre vehicles as they attempt to kidnap Tracey and demand a ransom from the head of rival crime syndicate Union Corse. This, of course, is a more exciting opening than Fleming's account in the novel where Bond saves her from suicide, and allows a grateful Draco a more credible opportunity and motive to to assist Bond in his search for Blofeld.
Above: Bardot as Tracy in OHMSS.
Ironically, Burton would have been well-suited to the cable car antics of that film, as he would later appear in similar scenes in Where Eagles Dare that same decade. 'I was envious of Connery on his gig,' Burton later recalled. 'In Nassau I got stuck with interminable underwater filming and got myself a dose of sunstroke. It's no place for a Welshman.' What really worked about both movies is that one conveniently followed the other in the series. In Thunderball, we see Burton's bond meet Spectre for the first time. In OHMSS, Connery appears in the follow-up, where he meets Blofeld for the first time - and fans could see both within the space of a month. It also meant the Christmas airplay of 1965 was dominated by two Bond hits. 'Tom Jones was a natural choice for Thunderball, owing to his Weshness,' said McClory of the Bert Bacharach number. Unable to find a song to fit their title, Broccoli and Saltzman pulled out the stops to get Frank Sinatra on board for the romantic ballad, Love in the Alps. 'Had we got Burton for that part, I could have written something better,' said composer John Barry. 'With all due respect to Connery, he just didn't have the acting pedigree at that stage that the role required. He was still playing it loose.' This overlooks the fact that neither Connery nor Burton were strangers to Shakespeare, with Connery having played Macbeth in a Canadian production but a few years earlier.
'The skiing scenes took me back to my time delivering milk in Edinburgh' recalled Connery.
Thunderball and On Her Majesty's Secret Service were the high watermark for Bond, as fans were thereafter split over which actor they wanted to see in the role. 'We married off Bond too soon,' said an EON insider. 'We could have left it until 1969 and spun out his playboy antics for a bit longer; instead when England was entering its free love era in 1967, we had a depressed Bond looking for vengeance; we found ourselves out of step.' With Connery now tiring of the role, he decided to quit. 'The producers have an equally viable option in Richard,' he said. 'If he wants to return to the gig, it's his for the taking. Personally, I'm done with it.' Burton demurred, and while newcomer George Lazenby made a decent fist of both Diamonds are Forever, his follow-up Live And Let Die proved to be the last. 'By that point, they'd mostly run out of Fleming titles anyway,' said Lazenby in a recent interview. 'Only Moonraker was really viable, and most of that was set in England, so it didn't appeal to me.'
Burton's Thunderball and Connery's OHMSS would be double-bill staples on UK Christmas TV in the mid-to late 70s, though the Thunderball film would be snapped up by the BBC for subsequent viewings.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Saw this question above: What's the point of Bond going back to Palmyra? He breaks in but apparently has no agenda because he does nothing but find Paula dead. It's like the entire sequence exists simply for the sharkpool sequence.
Well, he returns to Palmyra to rescue Paula. It's as simple as that, imo. He gets summoned away from the Poinciana restaurant during the Junkanoo by Felix, then they plan to cut the power to Palmyra because it's assumed Paula's being held hostage there.