I don't doubt that for nostalgia fans, Sean Connery could be the best James Bond ever, or that "Goldfinger" might qualify as the best in the Bond series. But nostalgia only goes so far, and my viewing of the film last night turned out to be a bit of a letdown. Agent Bond himself comes across as somewhat incompetent at times, what with getting captured by the bad guys more than once, and his one on one with villain Oddjob appeared awkwardly clumsy. I hate to say it, but almost the entire picture seems somewhat cheesy today, though I have to say, the gold painted first victim was a pretty creative touch.It was right during this era of the mid-Sixties that I became a huge fan of professional wrestling, so the appearance of Harold Sakata was a big bonus for the film as far as I was concerned. I knew him then as Tosh Togo, taking his villain persona from the ring into this picture. One thing the filmmakers could have capitalized on that was missing here was having Oddjob throw salt into Bond's eyes during their little set-to. That was one of Tosh Togo's trademarks. And even now I blush a little when I think of the Bond femme fatale in this flick - who can ever forget the name - Pussy Galore? I thought that was absolutely scandalous at the time, but then again, I was thirteen years old in 1964. Today, yeah, it still sounds kind of scandalous, but who's complaining? The kicker for me though, was when the movie's title character, Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe) has the body of Solo (Martin Benson) eliminated by the car crusher. You get to have a pretty clear view of the inside of the car while it's suspended in mid-air, and Solo's body is nowhere to be found. Like I say, cheesy, but not without it's half century old, James Bond charm. Just call me shaken, but not stirred.

Movie Review: "007: Goldfinger" (1964)Production Company Eon Productions LLC does not lose time to build on the worldwide phenomenon "James Bond" finding its target audience when "Goldfinger" gets presented just 11 months after "From Russia With Love" on September 17th 1964 and finally establishes itself with even more sophisticated Academy-Award-Winning special effects scenes as a spy-driven car with integrated machine guns, oil slick decoy and passenger ejection seat.The production design by Ken Adam (1921-2016), just returning from working on Stanley Kubrick's production of "Dr. Strangelove", creates stunning wide shots of symmetric shapes in an balanced image system by reprising cinematographer Ted Moore (1914-1987). Leading Actor Sean Connery, still enjoying cigarette-smoking on screen, sharing magnificient punchlines and the ease as charms of a true movie star, when the picture gets into action on the ground with one of first already-legendary product placement budget-benifiting Aston Martin DB5 car chases and in the air with a showdown-bringing antagonist's private jet.Eon-staff-screenwriter Richard Maibaum (1908-1991) presents the perfect acceleration of an action script. Gadget surprises, new female character introductions and suspenseful story twists as an highly entertaining party of Golf between James Bond and Goldfinger, performed by menacing Spy-out-smarting German actor Gert Fröbe (1913-1988), who gives a stand-alone performnce as refreshing Bond nemesis beside the usual "Spectre" employees by planning the heist of a life-time at Fort Knox, Texas, USA along with a metal-hat throwing Asian sidekick and the character of Pussy Galore, portrayed by feminine Bond-contra-giving actress Honor Blackman.Director Guy Hamilton (1922-2016) handles the directions with patience, skill and vision for "007" pictures to come by shaping further on the Quartermaster's MI6-chamber ("Q") in favor to the spy-mission-fulfilling character of James Bond.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

This grabs you right away even before Dame Shirley Bassey starts singing the title song over the credits, probably the most beloved Bond theme ever. "Shocking!", Sean Connery says after dispatching one villain in the most sizzling death scenes, and that's within the first few minutes. He'll have his hands full as he takes on the most notorious of all Bond villains, a vile man obsessed with Gold and able to turn a woman into gold, literally suffocating her to death. Connery finds himself at the mercy of that character, played with delicious malevolence by Gert Frobe. At one point, the use of gold gets a little to hot as it nears a very precarious place on Connery's body.Then there's the character of Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman) who works as Frobe's pilot and could literally be out to un- Bond 007. Another villain is a silent Asian strongman, who like the much later Jaws (Richard Kiel) opposite Roger Moore seemed unbeatable. The battle of the will and strength between the two is often both chilling and funny. Even as bizarre and far fetched as these can be, that often makes them even better. And we all know nobody does it better!

By the last couple of decades of the 20th century and into the first decades of the 21st century, action films became the highest grossing offerings from Hollywood. Prior to circa 1960, period dramas were more often the pictures which brought movie-goers into the theater seats with their popcorn: "Gone with the Wind", "Spartacus", "Ben Hur", etc. A few action-suspense films, such as those directed by Alfred Hitchcock and film noir, did also bring in the box office bucks. Westerns were probably the most prevalent action movie prior to James Bond but many of them were lower-budgeted B-films. In 1956, the only action movie among the top-10 grossing films was "The Searchers", a western starring John Wayne. All others in the top-10 were epic period pictures and dramas. However, by circa 2000, the reigning king of film genres became the action film. By 2014, 50 years later, all the top-10 grossing films were action-oriented including science fiction, fantasy and/or superhero. Unlike decades gone by, the highest-grossing films and best picture winners are almost never the same. The original James Bond films of the 1960's, particularly "Goldfinger", paved the way and included so many of the elements currently found in the genre. Firstly, the James Bond films were the first action films outside of detective films/series and Westerns to feature a recurring character in multiple offerings. Secondly, much of the genre's formula was established with "Goldfinger" and other Connery-Bond installments. The action doesn't begin with the main plot but instead begins with Bond engaged in another mission as a kind of "prelude" to the main story. This device has been used ever since ad infinitum, such as in some of the later Die Hard films with Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) which began in the late 1980's and even up to the Mission Impossible films starring Tom Cruise in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Thirdly, Bond makes little funny comments which has become such a trademark in entertainment action films. Often these comments are in the wake of a kill. For example, in "Dr. No", Bond kills a man with a bow and arrow and says, "I think he got the point.""Goldfinger" became the second-highest grossing film of 1964 behind "My Fair Lady" and is probably one of the two best Connery/Bond films, the other "From Russia with Love". The plot is typical of many of the Bond stories: a kingpin criminal magnate, called simply Goldfinger, is suspected of smuggling large amounts of gold out of first-world nations and possibly reselling it to third world nations who pay more. (This couldn't happen today since international markets constantly track the price of gold.) James Bond (Sean Connery), Agent 007, is sent on a mission to find out about Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe). Turns out he's vacationing at the same hotel in Miami Beach as Bond! Then Bond turns up at a golf course where Goldfinger just happens to be playing. The informal gold, I mean golf competition, is worth the price of admission alone.The trail leads to a complex in Switzerland where Bond finds out about an operation called "Grand Slam". Bond doesn't know what Grand Slam is but is apprehended by the baddies in which Bond is shackled to a table and going to be sliced into pieces for 007 sandwiches by a laser. Bond must find out the nature of Goldfinger's scheme, but if he doesn't somehow get off the table, it will be Bond mince pies. Eventually he also meets Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman), a beautiful blond who knows automatic weapons, judo and airplane flying. She is part of Goldfinger's operation for the money and immune to Bond's "charms".A very enjoyable installment in the Bond canon and does uphold relatively well. Some of the sequences were a bit unbelievable by today's standards, such as Goldfinger puts only one guard on Bond initially. Of course the guard is not given reinforcements and Bond easily subdues him! (Goldfinger should be smart enough to use a lot more manpower to guard a hired assassin!) Although we may expect a bit more from action pictures (or may we don't!), the Bond cycle was the original blueprint which has influenced so many action films for over the next half-century. The series itself has continued at this writing with Daniel Craig as 007, for my money the best Bond since Connery. Still the Connery-Bond installments still provide good escapist entertainment. Pass the popcorn.