Books - Goldfinger

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Goldfinger, published in 1959, is the seventh James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming. It is also the third James Bond film in the official EON Productions series, and the third to star Sean Connery as the suave and sophisticated British Secret Service agent James Bond. Released in 1964, the film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and directed by Guy Hamilton.

The film is one of the most critically acclaimed of all the James Bond films. In 1965 Norman Wanstall received an Academy Award for Sound Editing for work on the film. The American Film Institute has also honoured the film four times ranking it #90 for best movie quote ("A martini. Shaken, not stirred."), #53 for best song ("Goldfinger"), #49 for best villain, and #71 for most thrilling film.

Goldfinger was the first James Bond film to be shown on U.S. television, which occurred on September 17, 1972 on ABC. At the time, it garnered the highest Nielsen Ratings of any film broadcast on television with 49% of all viewers.

The novel

Plot summary

The novel begins in a similar fashion to Moonraker
with an acquaintance of Bond (Junius Du Pont from Casino Royale
) meeting him in Miami and requesting that he observe a Canasta game between him and the eponymous villain of the novel, Auric Goldfinger. Du Pont suspects Goldfinger of cheating and offers to pay Bond to confirm his suspicions. It turns out that Goldfinger is indeed cheating and Bond forces him to admit his guilt and pay back Du Pont due compensation.

After Bond returns to London he inquires into the background of Goldfinger to find that he's the world's top gold smuggler, the richest man in England, and after further investigation Bond learns Goldfinger is a communist criminal working as the treasurer for the Soviet assassination agency SMERSH.

Bond learns that Goldfinger intends to finance SMERSH's schemes by stealing fifteen billion USD worth of gold bullion from the American bullion depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, an operation codenamed "Operation Grand Slam". Bond, along with Felix Leiter work to prevent the villain from executing his plan, which involves killing the soldiers of Fort Knox with a water-borne toxin and then using an atomic bomb to break into Fort Knox's impregnable vault.

In the novel, Pussy Galore is the head of a criminal organisation from New York City called the Cement Mixers. Her group, as well as various other mobs including the Mafia and the Spangled Mob from Diamonds Are Forever
, have been employed to aid Goldfinger in the planning and execution of "Operation Grand Slam".

In terms of gadgets, this Fleming novel is closest to the Bond films technological underpinnings. The secret agent is issued a battleship grey Aston Martin DB Mark III with lethal accessories, as well as a homing device similar to that seen in the movie; however, Q is not in the book.

ISBN numbers

ISBN 0142002046 (hardcover, 2002, reprint)
ISBN 0685112179 (paperback)

Trivia

In the story Goldfinger's gold ingots are distinguishable by a small Z etched somewhere on the bar. In alchemical symbolism, the Z is one of the symbols for gold.

Comic strip adaptation

Fleming's original novel was adapted as a daily comic strip which was published in the British Daily Express newspaper and syndicated around the world. The adaptation ran from October 3, 1960 to April 1, 1961. The adaptation was written by Henry Gammidge and illustrated by John McLusky. It was reprinted by Titan Books in 2004.

The film

Plot summary

In the film, which deviates somewhat from Fleming's novel but still contains many similar plot points, James Bond discovers "Operation Grandslam", a plot by Auric Goldfinger and his organisation, sponsored by the People's Republic of China, to apparently steal the gold from the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Bond later learns that Goldfinger's intention is not to steal the gold, a completely unfeasible goal, but to devalue it by detonating an atomic bomb within the depository and contaminating the United States's gold reserve thus making all that gold unusable, thereby increasing the value of his own gold.

After a separate mission during the pre-title sequence in which Bond destroys the base of a drug lord and defeats a thug in a bathroom brawl, the film proper begins in Miami with Bond foiling the plan of Goldfinger to cheat at gin. Bond learns that a girl, Jill Masterson, is watching the card game through a telescope and reporting to Goldfinger his opponent's moves. After foiling Goldfinger and forcing him to lose, Bond and Jill consummate their new found relation and afterwards, as Bond goes into the kitchen to get some fresh champagne, he is knocked unconscious by Goldfinger's henchman, Oddjob. When Bond comes to, he discovers that Jill has been covered with gold paint and is dead.

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Books - Goldfinger

The novel

Plot summary

ISBN numbers

Trivia

Comic strip adaptation

The film

Plot summary

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