James Bond
Goldfinger
Philip French
Sunday 29 July 2007
M
ade in 1964 and now back on the big screen, Goldfinger is a crucial work in the development of the Bond legend. For the first time Connery was truly relaxed and drove the Aston Martin DB5, that year's must-have toy for every boy in the land. Ken Adam came from creating one iconic American set (the War Room in Dr Strangelove) to another (the interior of Fort Knox), and established himself as co-auteur of the Bond movies. Screenwriter and ex-movie critic Paul Dehn (who the following year co-scripted The Spy Who Came in From the Cold) helped to establish the franchise's special combination of suspense and tongue-in-cheek schoolboy sophistication, though it was Fleming, of course, who came up with the name Pussy Galore. The name Goldfinger led to a threatened libel action by architect Erno Goldfinger (he of the controversial high-rise council house block), and the film was briefly banned in Israel because of Gert Frobe's one-time membership of the Nazi party. And of course Shirley Bassey belted out the title song, the first of her three 007 assignments.
THE GUARDIAN
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