Goldfinger [M]

Auric Goldfinger, renowned smuggler and owner of quite a large stockpile of gold, plans to break into Fort Knox, not to steal anything, but to irradiate it and substantially increase the net value of his own stocks, creating nuclear panic and crippling the Western economy in the process. Armed with razor sharp wit and even sharper gadgets, Special Agent 007, James Bond, is here to learn Goldfinger’s plan and bring him to justice. 

I’m going to admit this right now and get it out there in the open: I have never seen a James Bond movie. Goldfinger was my first. Yes, I know that snippets of these movies are sampled and imitated everywhere, I am aware that the entire Austin Powers trilogy was a spoof of the films, and I realise that it’s practically considered blasphemy if you say the line “shaken no stirred” without having seen the film that it’s from. But the truth is that, although the films have pretty much become their own genre and the charming and handsome Sean Connery has starred in a fair few of them, they just never really appealed to me. Being that Goldfinger is featured in The Book, I figured that I may as well lose my “Bond-virginity” to it, and I have to say that I’m glad that I did. A perfect balance of action, gadgets, and romance James Bond is up there with Star Wars and Indiana Jones as having no expiration date. Fantastically rollicking fun for the whole family! 

Auric Goldfinger, renowned smuggler and owner of quite a large stockpile of gold, plans to break into Fort Knox, not to steal anything, but to irradiate it and substantially increase the net value of his own stocks, simultaneously creating nuclear panic and crippling the Western economy in the process. Armed with razor sharp wit, impeccable style, and fantastic gadgets, Special Agent 007, James Bond, is sent to find out Goldfinger’s plan and bring him to justice before it’s too late. 

In a way, the James Bond adventures are not that dissimilar to Sherlock Holmes. You’ve got memorable characters that battle through a series of mysteries, each one a new and different story. I think that’s what’s nice about James Bond, that it doesn’t really matter if you don’t go in sequence, they’re just there to watched and enjoyed. 

Sean Connery stars as 007 and he was great. Very suave, handsome, charming, witty, cheeky, and he had such a magnetism about him. He delivered a great performance and gave us that immortal line “a martini shaken not stirred.” 

Starring Honor Blackman (it simply has to be said) as Pussy Galore, Gert Frobe, Shirley Eaton, Tania Mallet, Harold Sakata, Bernard Lee, Martin Benson, Cec Linder, Austin Willis, Lois Maxwell, Billy Nagy, Michael Mellinger, Peter Cranwell, and Nadja Regin, Goldfinger was a perfect action movie armed with great technological effects, action, romance, and a light comedy script. It’s simply packed with action, adventure, cool gadgets, dazzling dames, plane rides, and a debonair hero at the centre of it all. It had me hooked from start to finish. 

Go-o-o-old-finger. He's the man, the man with the Midas touch. A spider's touch.