Goldfinger (1964) Facts
| Director(s) | Guy Hamilton |
| Producer(s) | Harry Saltzman, Albert R. Broccoli |
| Featured Cast | Sean Connery, Honor Blackman, Harold Sakata, Bernard Lee, Martin Benson |
| Total Facts | 101 |
(27 October 2010) The Aston Martin DB5 used in this movie (and Thunderball) was sold (fully "loaded") to American classic car collector, Harry Yeaggy, for a reported $4.6 million by London's RM Auctions. The car had only one previous private owner, an American radio station owner named Jerry Lee, who purchased the car directly from the Aston Martin factory for $12,000 in 1969. Lee had kept the car at his Pennsylvania home for over forty years.
Milton Reid lobbied unsuccessfully for the role of Oddjob. He would later be successful in gaining the part of the henchman Sandor in The Spy Who Loved Me, a character based on the hood Slugsy from the novel. His part was similar to that of Oddjob in that they both are stocky and rarely talk. Reid also played a guard in Dr. No, but was uncredited.
Theodore Bikel and Titos Vandis were both screen tested for the title role of the villain Goldfinger. Both their screen tests can be seen on the DVD Ultimate Edition.
Sean Connery hurt his back during the fight sequence with Oddjob in Fort Knox. The incident delayed filming and some say that Connery used the injury to get a better deal out of the producers for the next 007 film.
Sean Connery never traveled to the United States to film this movie. Every scene in which he appears to be in the USA was filmed in Pinewood Studios outside London. This explains why Bond flips a light switch down to discover the golden corpse of Jill, as English light switches are generally turned on by flicking them down instead of up.
Sean Connery, who was married to actress Diane Cilento at the time, wore a flesh-colored bandage (clearly seen in some production stills) over his wedding ring while filming.
Sean Connery's first day of filming was 19 March 1964 at Stage D, Pinewood Studios for shooting of the South American El Scorpio Nightclub opening sequence.
Steven Spielberg cites this as his personal favorite of all the Bond movies and even owns an Aston Martin DB5 due to the impact Goldfinger had on him. The Aston Martin DB5 that was seen in Catch Me If You Can was a personal prop loaned to the production by Spielberg himself. The car is the same make and model. A clip of the movie is seen in Catch Me If You Can in the scene in the cinema where we see Leonardo DiCaprio watching this movie.
Michael G. Wilson: The future Bond producer as a Korean Soldier at Fort Knox. This is the first of Wilson's now-famous cameos in the series which occur as regular appearances in every film starting from The Spy Who Loved Me.
Harold Sakata (Oddjob) severely burned his hand while reaching for his hat when filming his death scene, but he was determined to do it right, he held on until Guy Hamilton yelled: "Cut!"
Gert Fröbe had serious reservations about Goldfinger using nerve gas to get rid of his witnesses. Frobe felt that with him being a German, this scene would have Nazi concentration camp implications. Indeed, the film was banned in Israel for many years after Gert Fröbe revealed he had been a member of the Nazi Party. The ban was lifted after a Jewish family came forward to praise Fröbe for protecting them from persecution during World War II.
Gert Fröbe once said of his role as Goldfinger: "I am a big man, and I have a laugh to match my size. The ridiculous thing is that since I played Goldfinger in the James Bond film there are some people who still insist on seeing me as a cold, ruthless villain - a man without laughs."
Gert Fröbe spoke very little English, so Michael Collins dubbed his voice. Director Guy Hamilton instructed him to speak quickly which would assist the looping. A line in the film says of Goldfinger: "He's a Brit, but doesn't sound like it." Due to the dubbing, this is not accurate. In the Switzerland factory scene, Fröbe's mouth does not move, thereby making the dubbing obvious. Reportedly though, Fröbe was acting in some English which reduces the awareness of the dubbing. In the film's trailer, however, Fröbe's own voice is heard when Goldfinger tells James, "Choose your next witticism carefully, Mr. Bond, it may be your last," and when meeting with the mobsters, when he says, "Except crime!" Fröbe's own voice can be heard in the German dubbed version of the film, too.
Honor Blackman is the oldest ever Bond Girl, being 37 years of age at the time of filming.
Honor Blackman quit her role as Cathy Gale on The Avengers to appear in Goldfinger. A 1965 episode of The Avengers made sly reference to this by having John Steed receive a Christmas card from Cathy Gale - sent from Fort Knox.
Honor Blackman was the first Bond girl actress with a prior acting career.
Shirley Eaton already had an association with the James Bond series before Goldfinger. She made three appearances in The Saint with future James Bond Roger Moore.
Shirley Eaton was dubbed by Nikki Van der Zyl, who also worked as dialogue coach to Gert Fröbe.
Shirley Eaton, gilded completely in gold, featured on the cover of Life Magazine on 6 November 1964. The headline read: "A Matter for James Bond - Shirley Eaton, Gilded Victim in Goldfinger, Funniest and Money-Makingest of the OO7 Movies".
Nadja Regin (Bonita the nightclub dancer) previously appeared in From Russia with Love as Kerim Bey's girl.
Cec Linder was the only actor from the cast who was actually in Florida for the Miami sequences. Sean Connery was in the midst of shooting of Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie and was unable to be on the Goldfinger set at the time.
Garry Marshall: the successful future producer/director as one of the American gangsters gathered to hear about "Project Grand Slam."
Bob Simmons: The series regular stuntman is the actor appearing as James Bond in the opening gun barrel sequence. The same footage was used in Dr. No and From Russia with Love.
Terence Young, the director of the first two James Bond movies, worked on the film during the very early stages of pre-production, including early drafts of the screenplay. However, an agreement could not be reached regarding the terms of his contract, and he left the production.
Jack Lord was approached to return as CIA agent Felix Leiter, but he declined. He had played him in Dr. No. The role was recast, beginning a succession of different actors in the role (only David Hedison and Jeffrey Wright would play the role more than once). In Goldfinger, Austin Willis was originally cast as Felix Leiter and Cec Linder as Simmons. However, they were asked to swap parts shortly before production.
The Beatles and James Bond have long had a strange relationship. In Goldfinger, Sean Connery's Bond says that serving Dom Perignon above 38 degrees Fahrenheit would be "almost as bad as listening to the Beatles without ear muffs". Paul McCartney doesn't seem to have been overly offended by this remark, as his later band Wings contributed the theme tune to Live and Let Die. Barbara Bach, who starred in The Spy Who Loved Me ended up marrying Ringo Starr, the Beatles' drummer.
Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli wanted to cast Gert Fröbe after seeing him in a German thriller, Es geschah am hellichten Tag. In that film, Frobe played a psychopathic serial killer.
Albert R. Broccoli once named this film along with The Spy Who Loved Me and From Russia with Love as his three favorite James Bond movies, according to an interview with the Hollywood Reporter's Robert Osborne.
Ian Fleming got the name "Goldfinger" from his alleged dislike of Hungarian modernist architect Erno Goldfinger. Among other things Erno Goldfinger designed London's Trellick Tower, built in 1968. When Ernö Goldfinger sought legal advice in regard to Ian Fleming using his surname in the "Goldfinger" novel, Fleming allegedly considered re-naming the character "Goldprick". The parody Austin Powers in Goldmember revives the idea.
Goldfinger was adapted as a comic strip and published in the English "Daily Express" newspaper from 3 October 1960 to 1 April 1961. It was written by Henry Gammidge and illustrated by John McLusky. It has had world-wide syndication and was reprinted in 2004. The villains Goldfinger and Oddjob also feature in a story in Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentleman comic book.
Goldfinger was intended to be lighter in tone and less political than the first two Bond films. It was released in the UK and USA the same year.
Alf Joint: The stuntman played Capungo, the henchman in the opening sequence due to the original actor not being able to do the role at the last minute. This was because he was a cat-burglar and had just been arrested. Joint was burnt on the leg by a smoldering coil whilst filming this pre-credits sequence.
According to the film's CD Soundtrack sleeve notes, the movie's soundtrack album was a No. #1 hit in the USA charting on 12 December 1964 and staying at No. #1 for three weeks. The title song "Goldfinger" single sung by Shirley Bassey charted in the UK on 15 October 1964 and went to the No. #21 rank. The single entered the charts in the USA on 30 January 1965 and peaked at the No. #8 position.
After their golf match, 007 follows Goldfinger to the airport. The map on the scanner clearly shows Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England.
Although many of the locations in the film are American, Sean Connery never set foot in America during filming. All scenes where he's apparently in America were shot at Pinewood Studios, London.
As with many car shots in movies, the sun visors have been removed from Bond's Aston Martin, but the mounting holes were not covered and they are visible on the car in shots above the windscreen.
As with the first two James Bond movies, creator and author Ian Fleming visited the set during April 1964. He visited D Stage at Pinewood Studios where they were filming the UK set of the Fontainebleu Hotel pool scene. Sadly, he died a little less than a month before the film's release on 12th August 1964.
Aston Martin were initially reluctant to part with two of their cars for the production. The producers had to pay for the Aston Martin, but after the success of the film, both at the box office and for the company, they never had to spend money on a car again.
At one point in the film, Bond states that "drinking Dom Perignon '53 above the temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit is as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs!" Ironically, Shirley Bassey's title theme song was produced by The Beatles producer, George Martin. Additionally, Paul McCartney would later record the theme song for another Bond film, Live and Let Die.
Author Ian Fleming borrowed the notion of someone being suffocated by being covered in gold paint from the horror film Bedlam. Shirley Eaton underwent two hours of make-up application which involved being gild painted to become a gold painted corpse. A doctor was on set at all times in fear of possible skin suffocation, and her stomach left bare for the same reason. Her shots lasted less than five minutes in the finished film and the filming of them was shot quickly, wrapped in a morning's work. Then she was scrubbed down by the wardrobe mistress and the make-up girl, and sweated off the remaining gold in a number of Turkish baths. After the film was released, rumors circulated that she had actually died on set, owing to the misconception that the gold paint caused asphyxiation.
Body count: 62
Bond tells Goldfinger that given the tremendous weight of all the gold of Fort Knox, removing it before the US military finds out what happened and stops him would be impossible. Goldfinger then tells him his actual plan is to detonate a radioactive device, multiplying the value of his own gold. In the original novel, Goldfinger's scheme WAS simply to steal the gold.
Despite her impressive film debut as Tilly, this was model Tania Mallet's only major film appearance. She had previously tested for the Tatiana Romanova part in From Russia with Love.
Due to the popularity and success of this movie and its spy car the Aston Martin DB5, the vehicle gained the nickname, "The Most Famous Car in the World". Sales of the Aston Martin DB5 increased by fifty per cent after the release of the movie. The Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me featured the Lotus Esprit and sales would also increase for that car after the movie premiered.
During the Fort Knox fight, the clock on the bomb was originally intended to stop at the time 003, but then the producers decided to stop it at Bond's ID number, 007.
During the opening titles sequence, all excerpts are scenes from this movie except some footage from the From Russia with Love helicopter chase sequence and the Crab Key explosion from Dr. No. All these scenes in the opening titles are projected onto the gilded body of Margaret Nolan who played Dink in the main film. Here, she appears longer than Shirley Eaton appears in the main film, and wears a blue bikini (also featured on the soundtrack cover) which Eaton does not wear in her scenes.
Equipment and gadgetry was developed for the Aston Martin car which was not used in the finished movie. This included: Front and back over-riders for jamming other vehicles; a weapon's tray under the driver's seat; a headlights chamber containing triple-spiked nail clusters for firing at enemies, a radio telephone inside the driver's door paneling, and a thermos with a built-in hand grenade.
First appearance of a laser beam in a movie. In the original script, the scene had a spinning buzzsaw (as in the novel) until it was decided that such an image had become commonplace and unoriginal.
First appearance of the Q-Branch workshop and its gadget testing gags.
First film in which Bond (not a look-alike we are made to believe is Bond) appears in the pre-credits teaser.