Goldfinger: Movie Review
This is a transcript of episode 37 of the Tailoring Talk podcast, in which Roberto Revilla, Alex Hansford and Philip Rahman reviewed and discussed the movie Goldfinger, as part of the Tailoring Talk James Bond ultimate rewatch. Enjoy!
Roberto Revilla
Welcome to the Tailoring Talk show with me your host, Roberto Revilla. This is the podcast where you drop in for the threads but often leave with something quite unexpected. If you haven't already, please support the show by subscribing. And if you're listening on Apple podcasts or Spotify, please help me out by leaving a rating and a review. It's time for part three of the Tailoring Talk James Bondathon, where we follow the James Bond series in order ticking off each movie as each month goes by. My guests and I will be deep diving into each film covering everything from our overall review, then digging into the clothes, the gadgets, the cast, our favourite moments from each instalment and much much more. You've probably already guessed that number three means we go back in time to 1964.. Yes, it is Goldfinger! And I'm joined in the Tailoring Talk madhouse once again by our very own Oddjob, Mr. Phillip Rahman. How are you sir?
Philip Rahman
Bobby, how you doing? I'm good. How are you?
Roberto Revilla
Good. Thank you. You're missing your bowler hat, Phil. I'm a bit disappointed.
Philip Rahman
I tried to add a little bit character tonight, you know, so I've got a little bit of memorabilia, which is in the background. And, you know, I thought I'd dress up a little bit for this evening as well.
Roberto Revilla
Yeah, you've got a white shirt. I might put a tux on for one of these actually.
Philip Rahman
Yeah, well, now I'm back at work. I'm back in the office. So I'm dressing up. When everyone else is still in dress down. I'm actually pulling on the suit. It just makes me feel so good, actually.
Roberto Revilla
Yeah, good for you. That's what we like to hear. We're also joined by a dear friend and colleague of mine from the Play Pause Turn podcast. Yes, it is the Voice of Reason. The kindest voice in podcasting. If we were the Ghostbusters, he would be our very own Ray Stantz. It's Alex Hansford! Alex, how are you?
Alex Hansford
Aw, shucks, thanks. Thanks, Bobby. I'm good. Thanks.
Roberto Revilla
You are The Voice of Reason. So when I edited From Russia with Love and the No Time To Die massive spoiler review that we did before Christmas, I listened back to some of our more lively Play Pause Turn episodes and you definitely are the voice of reason when everybody else is losing control. Everybody needs a bit of Alex Hansford. You're like a human safety harness.
Alex Hansford
Yes, that's right. I'm your safety harness.
Philip Rahman
Not the sexy voice.
Roberto Revilla
No sexy voice isn't here. Unfortunately Jon couldn't be with us today, you know as a teacher, and a very busy one at that, unfortunately he had some things come up. But he will return. So we're going to kick things off. Well, actually, firstly, I want to just say to our audience and our listeners, warning, spoiler alert. We are going to be spoiling Goldfinger. So if you have not seen it, and it has been out for 57 odd years. What have you been doing? I actually only saw it for the first time yesterday to be fair, Alex had you seen Goldfinger before?
Alex Hansford
I'd seen it before for sure. I've got the blu ray set. And obviously if you're going to start the blu ray set you start at the start and work your way through so yeah, I've seen it before and it's a bit of a classic. But if I needed to refresh my memory, there's more Bond girls.
Roberto Revilla
There are a lot of Bond Girls, they just amp everything up for this one! Phil, how far along are you because you're slightly ahead in in the Bond rewatch. Where are you now? Because last time we spoke you'd missed out a few. Goldfinger actually wasn't meant to be the next film in the series, it was actually going to be On Her Majesty's Secret Service. But I don't know what the reason was. I can't remember Alex will probably look it up on IMDb now, but they they basically switched and a script treatment for Goldfinger was submitted while they were still filming From Russia with Love. And that became the third film. But how far in are you now?
Philip Rahman
Well after Goldfinger, I went straight to Diamonds Are Forever, I think I was just following the Shirley Bassey soundtrack, essentially. And that's probably how I ended up going to that one. But I've missed out a chunk of films in between. So I'll have to catch up before next month, I guess.
Roberto Revilla
So now you'll be able to actually follow them in order. So yep, so anyway, that was our spoiler warning. So we're going to start with an icebreaker question which I borrowed from Play Pause Turn. I'm sure Jon won't mind, hopefully he will actually be rather proud. So here it is. If you were a Bond girl, what would your Bond girl name be? And we'll start in alphabetical order. We'll go with Alex first.
Alex Hansford
So if I was a Bond girl... this is an obscure request. I would be Miss Knightley. First name Ivana. Ivana Knightly.
Roberto Revilla
Ivana Knightly. Ivana. Knightly. I can't make anything dirty out of that.
Alex Hansford
Oh no, you do I mean, my middle middle name could be Twice!
Roberto Revilla
Brilliant. Phil?
Philip Rahman
Well, if I'm following the format that you gave me...
Roberto Revilla
That was actually The Graham Norton formula.
Philip Rahman
Okay, well based on the format you gave me my Bond girl name would be Goolies Dyer. But if I was going to choose it completely myself, I think I'd have to go for Miss Decor Radio.
Roberto Revilla
Again, I don't know if it's if it's just it's Monday evening, but I'm not getting anything from that.
Philip Rahman
Well, I think Alex has picked it up. If you look on the.. what is it? The dictionary, the Urban Dictionary. If you look up decorator's radio, you will figure it out.
Roberto Revilla
I have no idea. And considering I'm building a house at the moment, maybe I should. So I will go and look that up. And I will get my decorators radio. Oh... ok trying not to get an explicit rating on this episode. Moving on swiftly. Released in 1964, starring Sean Connery as James Bond, Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore and the inspiration for our ice breaker question today because I just couldn't get over that name, and how they got away with it as well.. Gert Frobe as Auric Goldfinger, Shirley Eaton as Jill Masterson. Tanya Mallet as Tilly Masterson, Harold Sakata as Oddjob, Bernard Lee as M. Cec Linder as Felix Leiter, replacing Jack Lord, who was Felix in Doctor No... Lewis Maxwell is Miss Moneypenny and the lovely Desmond Llewellyn as Q. Starting off, we get the full sort of adventure within an adventure opening sequence with a pigeon or a duck or something sort of making its way across the water. And then we see that it's actually attached to Bond's toupee, I mean his head, and then Bond gets out of the water and goes and blows something up. What did we think of this opening, compared to From Russia With Love, because From Russia With Love was full of intrigue, and it was really exciting. This one kind of seems like it was more the sort of traditional Bond formula that we know and love. So I'm using the Graham Norton formula, because I couldn't really think of anything. And so using the Norton formula, my Bond girl name would be Little Bobby No Idea. Because Little Bobby is what I used to call it. And No Idea because I have no idea what my grandmother's maiden name is. So there we go. And I'm sure after that example, I don't need to explain what the Graham Norton formula is. So as I mentioned before, I saw Goldfinger for the first time yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a lovely two hour romp. So these films were filmed pretty much back to back because we had Dr. No in 1962, From Russia With Love 1963, 1964 Goldfinger, then they start filming almost immediately after this 1965 Thunderball. I mean, for me, what I really liked about it when I first saw it was it was you got the sense of where sort of True Lies got their inspiration from the very beginning. And that's the sort of the thing that left me as soon as he sort of gets out of his you know, his diving suit, he's got a perfectly pressed white tux, and ready to kind of like, meet up with his, whoever he's meeting up with. It just looks the absolute business. There's so much more action, but there's only so much they could do, I guess back in 1964. Yeah. We also had the grappling hook as well, which I mean, that actually brought back memories of Enter the Dragon again for me, the bit where Bruce Lee is sort of sneaking around Hans compound. Alex, how's the opening for you?
Alex Hansford
Yeah, it was really good. It was really good to see this sort of throwing you into the action straightaway. It's justnice to throw him straight into the fray, which was good. I think we're going to talk about the hotel scene afterwards.
Roberto Revilla
Oh, yeah, for sure.
Alex Hansford
I think the hotel scene - what was good was that all of a sudden put it into context. It was like, it wasn't just throw away. It was like, oh, hang on a minute. You know, there's a consequence to you sleeping around. You might get someone killed.
Roberto Revilla
Yeah, no, exactly. But I mean, this sort of initial mission where I think it's a drug laboratory that he blows up. And then he's apparently on holiday in Miami Beach. And then M gets in touch with him via the CIA. And that's where we get the reintroduction of Felix Leiter. Jack Lords originally portrayed him in Doctor No. But this time they had to change the actor. Jack Lord wanted equal billing on the movie, a massive pay rise and everything else, he wanted to be treated like the star. And obviously, that wasn't really the deal. So they got rid of him replaced him. And this treatment of Felix was meant to be a more mature version of the character, he was meant to be older than the one that we'd seen in Doctor No. So yeah, I had to actually look it up during the film because I was sort of like, oh, is he Felix? Because I thought Jack Lord was Felix. And then that's where I kind of found out about all of this. So, we first get introduced to Goldfinger at the swimming pool at this swanky hotel in Miami, and Goldfinger comes down to play cards with this guy he obviously plays regularly with and he's got an earpiece, and I immediately knew what was going on. As soon as I saw that earpiece, even though I'd never seen the film before. I thought, ah, he's got someone watching the other guy's cards for him. And then it was obviously made even more obvious when he told the guy to switch places. Phil as an avid regular poker player. What were your thoughts about this particular example of gamesmanship?
Philip Rahman
I mean, first of all, if that's Miami... I mean, it looked more like West Wittering. There was the plane that came through that basically said, Welcome to Miami. That was the only thing that told people in 1964 in the UK, that this was Miami. People had no preconceived ideas clearly about what Miami should look like, first of all, but as far as the cards, I mean, it's gin rummy. You know, clearly the guy had the money to play. So basically, if he couldn't figure it out, from what was going on, then he deserves to lose his money, quite frankly. It's all I can say.
Roberto Revilla
It was definitely. What did you used to call people like that, back in the day? A chump?
Philip Rahman
I mean, by today's standards, he'd just be a fish. He basically is someone that just gives out all the money. So yeah, as far as I'm concerned, he deserves to lose the money if he couldn't figure out what was going on.
Roberto Revilla
Bond very quickly works out what's going on. And he goes up to Goldfinger's hotel room, manages to get in and that's where he finds Jill Masterson who's Goldfinger's escort for hire or whatever, feeding him the information on the other guy's cards. I thought she was very, very good looking. She was just the first of many Bond Girls in this film. So Bond interrupts her and then decides to take the direct approach with Goldfinger and blackmails him into losing. Otherwise, he would give him up to the CIA who are looking around the hotel. Then he has his way with with Jill, then he's knocked out by Goldfinger's, manservant, Oddjob. And we don't actually see Oddjob at this point, we just see his shadow and then the karate chop across the back of the neck. Bond wakes up, comes to and then that's where we find Jill dead. And it's a very, very iconic scene. I think anyone, whether you've seen Goldfinger or not knows the image of the girl lying dead on the bed covered in gold paint. And then the reason they gave for her death, I believe was skin suffocation. The actress: they covered her modesty and then they painted her back, but her front was left unpainted so that her skin could still breathe. And the actress actually said in an archive interview that some of the way that she interacts with Bond during their love scene was improvised. So the bit where he's on the phone, and she's sort of behind him with her arms around, then she's twirling her hair around his ear, she improvised all of that, which I thought was was quite cute, really. So then we go back to London, is it the Governor of the Bank of England, Alex? And they're slagging off the quality of the whiskey as well.
Alex Hansford
Yeah, that's why he can't go and spend the time with Miss Moneypenny as well. So that's the excuse as to why they met because Miss Moneypenny is like "Well come back for dinner" and then he's not allowed to because M and the Governor are gonna go to the Bank of England and have a posh slap up meal, aren't they?
Roberto Revilla
Yeah, because M pointedly tells him when he's being debriefed to turn up in black tie. And then we get a little bit of the continuing workplace inappropriateness shenanigans from Moneypenny and Bond. So the Governor of the Bank of England and M explained to Bond that price of gold or something... to be honest, I actually wasn't listening at this point.
Philip Rahman
As far as that basically what it's doing is telling everyone what the world was like in '64 and a sense that they were still very much living by the Gold Standard. What would happen is, you would basically buy and sell gold. So depending on what was going on in different countries, if there was a need for, you know, a redistribution of industry, because of say, recession or something like that the trick was, gold would be more expensive in other countries. So you'd sell back to get the cash that you need, so that you can restart your industries. And that's what they were talking about in this thing. But now the world doesn't work on a gold standard. We basically sold it all. But it's harking back to sort of simpler times when gold was just a simple way of actually redistributing wealth and getting back capital if you needed it, by selling it to other countries that would want it for a higher price than what you originally got it.
Roberto Revilla
I mean, the reason I wasn't paying attention is because I noticed a little kerfuffle with the whiskey and the quality of it or whatever. And I just found that highly amusing. And then by the time I'd sort of watched where the bottle was being passed between them, I'd completely missed all of that gold price standard, economic markets nonsense, just went straight over my head. But then we get to the fun bit, because then Bond has to be briefed by Q Branch. And this is Desmond Llewelyn's first proper sort of go as Q in the way that we came to know and love Q Branch. So we go into Q Branch, we see them testing various things. I mean, there's one guy, he shoots a machine gun at this other Q Branch employee, like riddles him with bullets, and then the guy opens his coat and he's got like body armour on so obviously, that's what they're testing. But you're kind of thinking, what if that failed? I mean, like, how many people before him did they go through? It was just all like a kid's toy shop. But run by adults highly irresponsibly. It was absolutely bonkers. And I absolutely loved it.
Philip Rahman
And after he shot him: "Oh, it hasn't been perfected yet." Hasn't been perfected yet!
Alex Hansford
Yeah, that's right. There was an interesting unveiling wasn't there as well. So that is the first time we saw the DB5.
Roberto Revilla
Yeah, I was gonna get to that. Iconic. So he gives him a couple of gadgets. First doesn't he give him a little transponder radio, which is for putting on to someone to tail them. And then there's an even smaller version of it, that will go in the heel of his shoe, which is for them to be able to track him, presumably if he gets into trouble of some sort, and so on. And then obviously, how do you track people? Well, then that's where we get to the unveiling of the DB5 and Oh. My. God. That car. I think it's got to be one of the most beautiful production road cars ever made.
Philip Rahman
It's a killer. There's no sense that they put any kind of safety features on it, it is purely designed for beauty. It was stunning that car.
Roberto Revilla
Just to kind of give you a little bit of background to the whole Q Branch thing. Desmond Llewellyn in an interview said that, at the rehearsal, he was working at a desk, and I'll just quote him: "Bond comes in and I got up to greet him. Guy (the director) said "no, no, no, you don't take any notice of this man. You don't like him." And I thought, but this is Bond. This is James Bond! And I'm just this ordinary civil servant. I must admire him like everybody else does. Guy says, "no, no, no, no, no, of course you don't, he doesn't treat your gadgets with any respect at all. I mean, the briefcase that you gave him in From Russia with Love, he just ignored it more or less, although it saved his life. So when you're describing the things on the car, you know perfectly well, he's not going to treat them with the respect they should get." And of course, the penny dropped. And then the whole thing fell together." And then that was basically the inspiration for Desmond Llewellyn's characterization of Q for evermore. And I just think it worked like a dream. You know, he played Q, all the way through to The World Is Not Enough. And I think the series was a worse place without him after he passed away. So I always get really emotional when I see him on screen now.
Philip Rahman
I do think that the new Q, I forget the name of the actor, but I do think he actually made it his own and put his own stamp on it and created something that was unique to him, which actually allowed it to grow and evolve. But yeah, that whole period when, you know, John Cleese was doing it, he was just trying to mimic what Desmond Llewellyn was doing and it just didn't work as well.
Roberto Revilla
So the car gave them a lot of problems. A lot of the stuff on it, the weapons on it were fully functioning, but the car itself wouldn't have worked in real life. So for example, the oil slick that comes out the back of the car there they put basically a container of oil in the back for that to be able to flow out. But then the bulletproof shield that goes up at the back, there was no room for that. So in order to get that in, they basically had to sort of take one out to do the other one. And then when they were shooting the scenes for the other bit, then put the other bit in. And the car just gave them all sorts of problems trying to figure out how to put all these amazing gadgets in but the car itself... should we do our little Bruce Forsyth game of "what gadgets the car had on it"? So starting with Alex, let's go round robin.
Alex Hansford
So they had machine guns in the front. Left and right.
Philip Rahman
Bulletproof windows at the front and sides.
Roberto Revilla
Okay. It had the revolving licence plates that were valid in whatever country they were for.
Alex Hansford
We've got to do the ejector seat...oh yeah, we were all waiting for that.
Philip Rahman
Machine gunfire from the side.
Roberto Revilla
Alex already had that one. That was from the side mirrors as well?
Alex Hansford
Don't forget the thing to blow out tires.
Roberto Revilla
Yeah, we'll talk about when he used that. But what an awesome thing, I could do with one of those driving around London, actually. What else? The sat nav, pretty sure we said the oil drum, bulletproof rear windshield, bulletproof glass at the front? I mean, a lot of things we should be able to remember from No Time To Die, because it was the same car. The smoke screen. I think that was it. Yeah, it's quite a lot of gadgets for one car. But I loved it.
Philip Rahman
I loved the way that they made it really cutting edge about the satellite navigation having a range of 150 metres. And that was supposed to be real cutting edge, you know, whereas now you just get a cheap sat nav, and that covers the whole of the world.
Alex Hansford
But then later in the film, it seems to have a range of several miles. Because they go off and get separated. And yet you still see that leaping. I just really wanted to see the map move. But I know that they couldn't do it at the time because it's just too much of an ask. So I've seen the bloody dots going on. I was going what happens when it gets to the end? Like do they need to get some little guys in the back? Just like turning the map? Anyway, it was just lovely, but not very practical.
Roberto Revilla
I think they did the map well, it definitely changed. Because if you look at it, when he first uses it in England, I think you could actually see North London and Hertfordshire around Pinewood Studios on the map. And then when he's in Europe, in Switzerland, then it changes to Geneva and all of that stuff. But I don't think there was any kind of navigation equipment on any cars back then. Then we meet Oddjob for the first time because then Bond goes to play golf with Goldfinger. By this time, I'd laughed out loud more than I did the sum total of Dr. No and From Russia With Love, because they definitely amped up the jokes in the script. It was definitely a lot more lively and there are a lot more quips. He had the earlier one liner in the opening action sequence when he electrocutes the guy in the bath and he says "shocking absolutely shocking"... I imagine a young Arnold Schwarzenegger was sitting there with his notepad just making loads of notes on the subject. So Goldfinger and Bond are playing a round of golf, and Goldfinger is cheating. The dirty little rotter is up to his tricks again, but Bond catches him out and tricks him into losing the last hole and giving up. I think it was £5000 or so. Goldfinger ended up writing out a check. Goldfinger kind of gives him a sort of threat and sort of tells Bond he basically knows what he's up to. And to show Bond what he's up against. That's where we're introduced to Phil's favourite Bond villain Oddjob. And then we get the scene where Oddjob takes off his bowler hat, and then swings it at that statue. And then the statue's head falls off. What do we think of Oddjob's entrance, because this is our first sort of proper Bond villain, I guess, in that sense of the word where, you know, you can almost see yourself buying the action figure and have him with all the accessories.
Alex Hansford
He's just got such a good screen presence. So what I liked is that he come across as very imposing even though he really doesn't say anything apart from "AH!" and points a few times. That's it. But yeah, he's just a really good screen presence. And he must have practised a lot to throw that hat in a pretty straight direction. Because that's that's really his card, isn't it? His card the special move, as it were, yeah. So yeah, so yeah, no, I loved it, I thought it was, is a very, very good presence.
Roberto Revilla
That actual scene of him throwing the hat and cutting the statue's head off, is actually three shots. So they had the hat on a wire. And then they had the head of the statue on another wire. As he throws it towards that's the first shot, then the hat in mid air is the second shot. And then the third shot is them pulling the wire away from the statue's head. So when they put it all together, it's just that one fluid movement, which I thought was absolutely brilliant. We've gotta remember this is 1964. So, you know, unlike today, where we'll just point and click with a mouse and sort of chop and move things around and cut things up. When we edited sound or video back then, editing was basically cutting 35 millimetre film, and piecing it back together again, it wasn't done in a computer. We'll get to some audio stuff that they had to do as well. In fact, we can talk about it now, because Gert Frobe was a German actor. And his English was really bad. He was learning English, but he was speaking so slowly, and the director said to speed up. But then when he was speeding up it just wasn't working at all. So they went and found another actor, an English actor to actually do the voice of Goldfinger. And so he's actually dubbed throughout the entire movie. And you'll notice that in the scene where Bond is captured, and is tied to the laser machine, when you look at the conversation that's going on there, because I thought it was the audio on my Apple TV, I thought there was a mismatch or something and I was about to dive into the settings. But then when I saw Connery talking, the audio was perfectly matched up, but then when Goldfinger was talking, it was just slightly off. And that's the reason why, so he basically a la David Prowse in Star Wars, Gert Frobe was was dubbed over for the whole film apart from the scene where he's with the different mafia bosses back at his place in Kentucky. That's the only time we actually hear him using his actual speaking voice. Phil, you're looking perplexed.
Philip Rahman
I had no idea that it was dubbed over if, if I'm honest. I always thought his accent was quite fascinating. They pitched him as a Brit but we weren't supposed to be sure where he'd come from very much like, Dr. No where that accent was very sort of mysterious. And it felt very mysterious with this particular actor as well, I had no idea that he was German, had no idea that he was dubbed over. It just was almost like a presence that just kind of found his way into the film. And then we never see him again. But I don't think I've seen him in anything else.
Roberto Revilla
So then we go to Switzerland. And this is where we get to see the DB5 in action. Not the weapons, but the actual car itself. And that engine just makes such a wonderful noise. So Bond is tracking Goldfinger. And he stops on a hill, because Goldfinger's car stopped a couple of couple of twists and turns below. And someone takes a shot at him. So he goes to chase after them, and it's a lady driving a Mustang convertible. And that, you know, you've got two cars that have just got the sweetest sound in 60s motoring for my ears anyway. It turns out that this lady is actually the sister of the other one. What's her name? Jill? So she's actually after revenge. She was trying to assassinate Goldfinger. But, you know, like Moneypenny in Skyfall, she was a lousy shot. They go to a refinery, sorry, they don't Bond does. He sneaks into Goldfinger's refinery, because he's trying to work out how he smuggled the gold. And it was right in front of our eyes the whole time. And I didn't clock it until they were actually doing it. But that Rolls Royce Phantom is actually the gold itself. They've smuggled gold. Yeah, they smuggle bullion in its parts. And then they had to take it apart to sort of smelt it down.
Alex Hansford
I mean, I did question why they had to put the car in the plane. Because I did think to myself, like, you just leave a car at the airport, and then have a car waiting for you when you get to the other end. You can afford cars. So this isn't a problem for you. But when they showed that, then I got it. But then it also didn't explain why Bond had his car shipped over as well. So maybe that was just the thing they were doing in the 70s or 60s when you were ridiculously well off.
Philip Rahman
It was like that scene in French Connection, that whole business of, you know, the car being shipped over from France, because the guy who wants to shoot documentaries has this particular car that he wants to use, but that's how the drugs are being smuggled over from Corsica into the American market. Yeah. Oh, another spoiler alert. Sorry.
Roberto Revilla
I haven't seen that film.
Philip Rahman
You've never seen French Connection. Greatest car chase of all time.
Roberto Revilla
I know. I've heard. Yeah, I need to add that to my to my film list. So yeah, so they're smelting down that thing? Did anyone recognise the Chinese nuclear physicist that Goldfinger was talking to? Burt Kwok was the nuclear physicist. I was kind of disappointed that he didn't really have a bigger role. He was just the token sort of Chinese nuclear physicist. Have you seen The Pink Panther movies?
Philip Rahman
I have not.
Roberto Revilla
Okay. You need to do that because they're very good. I'll watch French Connection.
Alex Hansford
Okay, we're going to have create a list of films to watch after we get through the Bonds.
Roberto Revilla
Yeah. So we've got a couple years. So he overhears the conversation between them and that's where he hears the words Operation Grand Slam and this comes in useful later on. Because when he leaves that's where we come across Tilly again, because she's there to try and have another go at taking Goldfinger out. So they have to escape because I think she actually fires the gun, doesn't she? And then the guards hear it and then they all come after her. Now this is the other interesting thing as well. This is where we now start to see the typical kind of Bond villain with all the henchmen and so on. And these were all I guess Chinese or Korean people - Oriental. Far Eastern. Am I gonna have to edit this out? Because I've just been completely politically incorrect.
Alex Hansford
We're just nodding and...
Roberto Revilla
Yeah. You're watching me dig my own grave. You guys might as well just do spade emojis and let them dig my own grave. But they were all sort of wearing, you know, Eastern type outfits with the plimsoll type shoes and so on. And they were all really really bad shots as well because they had submachine guns and they were just missing everything that they were shooting at. But then that's where we see the Aston Martin in full action, you know, all the gadgets were used on it. But unfortunately they don't manage to get away and and that's where Oddjob kills Tilly with his bowler hat because she's running away through the woods when Bond is trying to cover for her and he throws his hat and just clocks her in the head. I was like "Oh my god has she been killed?" And I thought no, because surely his hat would have taken her head off. But I don't know if his hat has got different modes to it, if it's got a kill mode where it will take your head off completely. And then it's got a stun mode. And then it's got a kill you mode, but without any blood.
Alex Hansford
I think you've got to just remember the weight. So I suspect that she's probably at least knocked out although in in the film, they just go yep, she's dead. Oh, no, she's not. So they have that kind of issue. Isn't she? Yes. Funny.
Roberto Revilla
Yeah, I mean, Bond doesn't really get time to even sleep with this one before she gets killed. So poor Tilly was she was just trying to avenge her sister's death. Murder, I should say. Murder. By the way also, since yesterday, I've had the Goldfinger theme in my head constantly and we haven't actually talked about the title sequence. I've had the Goldfinger theme song going in my head. I can't get it out. But it's not the Shirley Bassey voice it is Alan Partridge!
Philip Rahman
Okay, you've lost me..
Roberto Revilla
I think Alex knows what I mean. Phil's just looking at me like I'm crazy. Have you seen Alan Partridge? Phil? Has his screen just frozen. I think his screens frozen, hasn't it?
Alex Hansford
That's it. You frozen him?
Roberto Revilla
I've completely shut down his internet and everything. But Alex, you know what I mean, don't you?
Alex Hansford
Yeah, I do early Alan Partridge where he fancied himself as Bond and obviously it was a big Connery fan.
Roberto Revilla
(sings) Goldfinger!
Alex Hansford
It's just, it's just the accent on top of the song. It's a nice song, and it just ruins it. And then as soon as you've done that, you can't get it out of your head either. Yeah, that makes sense.
Roberto Revilla
(singing) Such a cold finger. Da da duh. Ah ha!
Philip Rahman
I am so glad I didn't see that.
Roberto Revilla
Oh my god. He's brilliant. You've got to watch. Alan Partridge is great. I love Steve Coogan. So actually, let's talk about Shirley Bassey. Let's talk about that opening song and sequence because all right, we're only three movies in and you know, best Bond song to date, right?
Philip Rahman
I personally quite like From Russia With Love as well. I think this one's a bit more iconic. But I've really liked From Russia with Love. I love that that's that smooth, Matt Monroe voice that went through. I mean, like what? What Shirley Bassey does so brilliantly, is she creates an impact, which then means that other songs have to follow it on. Whereas, you know, the Matt Munroe From Russia With Love is a little bit more understated, not quite like that.
Roberto Revilla
So John Barry was obviously brought into write the theme song, and they got Shirley Bassey in to sing it. And it was quite a fraught recording. And it went on for a very long time all through the night, to early hours of the morning because Shirley Bassey was asked by the director to sing to the title sequence, and she had to get certain words and phrases on certain imagery that was in the montage. So it was very, very stressful, because obviously, what John Barry would have wanted is just to let Shirley Bassey go, and they weren't able to do that. But the end result was obviously what we know and love today - absolutely phenomenal, very powerful performance as well, she was encouraged to just give it her all. And it is one of the iconic Bond songs at the end of the day, the title sequence I thought was really cool as well, because that really gave us you know, sort of a flavour in it... there were some call backs to From Russia with Love and from the past films as well, which was quite nice, because it kind of just helped to link the films together as well. I always thought the Daniel Craig films were the only Bond movies that were actually kind of linked or had a sort of story arc, but I've got the feeling that these Connery ones do as as well. Because Spectre kind of is the overriding thing in the background, isn't it?
Alex Hansford
I think they were looked at as a whole rather than like any as individual films. I think it just makes it join so much better than some of the other films.
Roberto Revilla
Yeah. So Bond gets captured. And then we go to another really iconic scene that most people will know and they'll know the quote, even if they've never seen it before. I certainly did, which was Bond on a laser table being tagged, interrogated, the laser is going up towards his little Bobby. And you know, it's getting very, very close. I literally had my legs crossed at this point. And I was just saying to Carolina, was that I don't know how he's gonna get out of this. And as Goldfinger is leaving initially, Bond says, "Do you expect me to talk?" and Goldfinger says:
Philip Rahman
(In Goldfinger's voice) NO Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!
Roberto Revilla
Perfect, Phil. Absolutely brilliant. And then Bond manages to save himself by saying operation Grand Slam, which was just the kind of words that he picked up when he was sneaking around their sort of gold smelting factory or whatever it was. And that was it. That's enough for Goldfinger to decide that Bond is actually worth more to him alive than than dead. And then from here, I think we then go to the stud farm in Louisville, Kentucky.
Alex Hansford
Yeah, they have the flight over to the States, don't they? Because he tries to escape, doesn't he and then gets captured? Yeah. And then they've got that flight...who's flying the plane? Pussy..
Philip Rahman
I mean, that's also an iconic scene in the sense that you know, he wakes up and his vision comes back to see Honor Blackman, it's like, "Who are you?" She says, "My name is Pussy Galore." And then he just says "I must be dreaming!"
Roberto Revilla
I must be dreaming. That was absolutely brilliant. Because he comes to... Yeah, you're right. He was unconscious. And then he comes to and then she's there. He says I must be dreaming, is almost sort of cross eyed as he says it and it's just hilarious. And then there's the the Asian stewardess and so he tries to sort of charm Pussy straight away and then... I'm not gonna be able to get through this I'm gonna use the actress's name. And by this time Honor Blackman was famous for doing the Avengers.
Philip Rahman
Was the Avengers before Goldfinger?
Alex Hansford
So '62. Okay, so it was filmed at the same sort of time, but then released...
Philip Rahman
...so she would have been known to audiences then.
Alex Hansford
Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely. Absolutely. So
Roberto Revilla
Her being in this was a really really big deal at the time. So yeah, but Honor Blackman was absolutely stunning. I think she sadly passed away a couple years ago.
Philip Rahman
It was quite recently. Because she was known to audiences, then that really must have been the reason why she didn't sort of give into the charms and she was sort of put forward as a strong, powerful woman, someone who's independent, who knows how to fly planes, you know, runs her own teams, and is in control.
Roberto Revilla
Yeah, she disappears into the cockpit after telling Bond "your charms won't work on me. I'm immune". And then he immediately turns around and checks out the stewardess. Carolina said, he's a little sex pest. Couldn't get anywhere with her. So then he turns around, you know, starts with the other one.
Alex Hansford
It gets worse. Yeah. So we're starting to say, he's a bit predatory, really. And then when we're getting to the end of this film, I mean, it's... Yeah. Yeah, we have concerns.
Roberto Revilla
Yeah. Yeah, we definitely do. Are you referring to the when they're rolling around in the hay scene? If there ever was a 1964, #MeToo moment, it was that. So he's taken to Goldfinger's stud farm in Kentucky, and he's put in a prison cell. But he promptly manages to escape. And again, I really, really love that scene of him in the cell. There's that one guard outside that's just staring like completely emotionless. And then Connery sort of walks away, walks towards, you know, gives him a wave goes back, comes back again, gives him a wink. And then the next time he comes back, he sort of goes down and disappears. And it turns out that he's actually, you know, doing a Spider-Man up above the door. So when the guard walks in, he jumps down and, you know, knocks him out, gets his gun, and then he's out. First of all, what did you guys think of that? Because again, it was a side to this portrayal of Bond that I'd never seen before from Connery because I always had a very fixed idea about him in my mind, and I just thought this maybe brought some of Connery's natural personality out as well. It was very playful, absolutely loved it. It was very charming.
Alex Hansford
It's so light, isn't it? And it's just so fun. I mean, the fact that he just dips completely, it's almost like those people you see do the elevator joke, where they're just going down. Yeah, it just like that.
Philip Rahman
Yeah, so I think leading up to that when he actually gets taken into a cell, what was interesting was that it had to try and pretend that they were in Kentucky. And Kentucky is very, very warm. But you know, so they had to loosen his tie to sort of display that he's really hot. But it was probably in like, I don't know, Hounslow or somewhere like that was probably where it was shot. You know what I mean?
Roberto Revilla
I think you're right. I think it was in Pinewood actually.
Philip Rahman
It was definitely local. It was certainly not on location. You know, you could tell just from the stud farm, you could see how clearly it just wasn't.
Roberto Revilla
I have to say, I wasn't really paying much attention to the surroundings. So for me, I was lost in the, you know, the sort of magic of it. And as far as I was concerned, they were in Kentucky. Only at the end of the film when the credits came up and show they only filmed on location at Pinewood Studios, England, and Switzerland.
Philip Rahman
They had to, they could not have replicated that scene. With that road. Going back to that earliest scene where they were in Geneva. There's no way they could have replicated that in the UK. So it was worth spending the money for that you know, because it's what did make you remember it. But yeah, going around just showing horses, you could have done that anywhere. And that's clearly what they did.
Roberto Revilla
Yeah. Well, the reason that I was distracted is because I was just looking at his outfit because he was wearing a light grey three piece suit. And then this is the film where I think every tie he was wearing was a knit tie. And I'm really into my knit ties at the moment and like I overwear them so much, but they, they're just so versatile, and they just look so classy as well. So I was really, really appreciative of that. But again, I just thought the tailoring was so good in this film, and he just looks so good. And the cut of his suit is just suited to him, because he's a very tall, very powerful looking guy. And I think they just nailed it with his outfits again.
Philip Rahman
Definitely. I think that also, you know, in spite of the fact you kind of have to suspend your disbelief in the sense that he's, you know, tackling guards, but then when he's out spying, the suit is completely pressed, it looks absolutely perfect. And we're just supposed to expect there's no ruffles on the suit whatsoever. But we'll just take that is worth doing it because it did look good.
Roberto Revilla
I will say this, Phil, if you've got a good quality, well made suit with a very good quality cloth you can get hit by a truck and walk away and have barely any evidence on that suit that you are hit by truck. And you know how I know this?
Philip Rahman
Because you were hit by a truck.
Roberto Revilla
That's right, in January 2017 when I had that accident, and that lorry came through the back of my scooter and I was trapped underneath it. I was wearing a full three-piece suit as you would expect. But although underneath I was injured, the actual suit itself is still hanging up in my wardrobe behind me. It's absolutely fine. Maybe a little graze on one shoulder. But yeah, I was actually shocked at just how well it survived.
Philip Rahman
But not immediately. That's the thing. There was an immediacy after he has to fight. There would be some ruffles. You've let it hang. And it actually looks okay now, but it wouldn't have looked amazing immediately afterwards, would it?
Roberto Revilla
Oh, no. Immediately afterwards after I'd you know, taken details, taken witness statements and so on and then run the scooter dealer in Charlotte Street to tell them my bikes all mangled up on the side of the road. And because I had so much adrenaline going, I know this now I didn't know it at the time, I had so much adrenaline going through me. I couldn't feel any of my injuries. So I then just got a cab and went straight to my appointment. And then apologised for being a few minutes late... my client noticed a little bit of blood and so on and he said, "Oh my god, are you okay?" And I says, "I just got hit by a truck. Anyway, I'm sorry I'm late" and then was gonna get down to business. And he was he was like, "no, no, no, no, whoa, wait, just hang on a second. What the hell are you talking about? Just sit down, slow down." So yeah, you're you're looking really concerned. I'm just, I just got on with my day. I got on with my day I met a member of I think it was the Bahrain royal family. You know, so that was a very highbrow appointment. He didn't seem to notice that I'd been in a fight with a plant truck. But yeah, there you go. So anyway, the moral of the story is a good quality suit will do you for fighting, getting out of Goldfinger's lair, all the rest of it. Brilliant. Everyone should wear suits, far better value for money.
Alex Hansford
I think you've got to sell that a bit more than you have previously. Normally just talking about style. You're not talking about the cocoon effect that it has. So I think you should sell that a bit more.
Roberto Revilla
Yeah. Well, I mean, it didn't have that much of a cocoon effect. Because about five days later, the adrenaline finally wore off, my neck seized up and my wife had to rush me to a&e. So you know, there we go.
Alex Hansford
Well, okay, so maybe careful on the scooter next time? Yeah.
Roberto Revilla
So Pussy Galore has got her little thing going on there. So she's got her female pilots who are all dressed in lycra in this flying circus. But again, this was what we know and love the older Bond films for and it's not just the Connery ones. It's also the Roger Moore ones, particularly where you've got these groups and organisations and gangs. And they're all wearing these jumpsuits and you know, tight lycra things and all of this and in all these funny colours and whatever, and you know, I mean, Octopussy is the one that immediately springs to mind as another example, right? Because she has her sort of, you know, gang, minions, whatever. It's like, it's Monday already, I'm completely done this week. It's another like, worst episode of this podcast ever. So he escaped from the cell. And then in the meantime, Goldfinger has got all these sort of mafia bosses or whatever, who he owes money to all of them. And then they're all playing pool on this table. And then suddenly, he moves some levers and the whole room changes. And then on hydraulics, this model of Fort Knox sort of appears, and then he starts explaining his grand plan, which is basically to fly planes over Fort Knox, they're going to rob it. And not just rob it, they're going to infiltrate Fort Knox by knocking out all of the army with this CX nerve gas thing. And then they're going to let off this little atomic bomb in the gold reserve. So that the gold has basically got radiation in it. So for the next 60 years, they've disabled the US gold reserve. How am I doing so far? Phil?
Philip Rahman
Yeah, that's pretty much it. Which is what they actually did during the Depression, was they were supposed to actually send it overseas, and they didn't. So very metaphoric of the actual of the reasons that the Depression happened in the 1920s.
Roberto Revilla
Wow, ooh, look at you you little history student. And so what that will do is drive the price of Goldfinger's gold up, because it's supply and demand. He reduces the supply and increases the demand. And then the prices go up. That's how economics works.
Philip Rahman
Yes, that's right. But he doesn't actually explain that to those mafioso people. He basically says to them, "no, it is that it is a robbery". And this is significant of how the British films at the time, you know, were casting the Americans because they still had them in that kind of 1930s sort of Spencer Tracy (in gangster accent) "Hey, what's the big idea? What are you playing games here? You gonna you know, what? Hey, come on. You wanna? You want to try out a piece of me? You come on here?" Spencer Tracy of that 1930s sort of film noir, gangster film, you know, vibe, but it was 1964. So clearly the British audiences hadn't really sort of caught up with how American films are being made at the time. And so, you know, they went along with it, because it was very much a British film. But they made the Americans look a little bit more incompetent than the Brits. Essentially, that was the idea of that look to me like the idea behind it.
Roberto Revilla
He goes and kills them anyway, doesn't he, because then afterwards Bond, they, you know, share a drink together or whatever and that's where he works out what Goldfinger's actual plan is, and he says to him, you know, that nerve gas actually will end up killing people. And Goldfinger is like, yeah, you know, best bit is I'm taking you there and I'm going to drop you in with the bomb. I think because I kind of missed that little bit there. But I'm guessing that's what was going to happen. You know, he would get his revenge on Bond by handcuffing him to the atomic bomb. And just leaving him in the Reserve to die, right?
Alex Hansford
Yep. Yeah. Yeah, that's the, that was the plan. Yeah.
Roberto Revilla
So then Bond tries to convince, I'm gonna say Honor Blackman, to switch sides, and, you know, basically not do the whole nerve gas thing because she would end up killing, like, hundreds of 1000s of people or whatever. And then they have a little tussle in the barn where she does her Judo on him. And then they end up in the hay. And then he tries to kiss her, and she holds him away, quite forcefully. And then this kind of, I was looking at my wife and I was like, "Okay, this is a little bit rapey". And she was like, "yeah, it totally is"... she was nodding her head vigorously. She's like, "that is so wrong."
Alex Hansford
Well, also it's the kind of the stereotype of a Bond girl that doesn't want it but then does want it except that anyone now would just be like "No, there's just no way". It's hard to look at these things with an old fashioned eye. And I give them a lot of passes for it. But it's just it, some bits of that just start stopped. They were more incredulous and less, less compelling as a storyline.
Philip Rahman
In it's defence it's definitely of its time, right?
Alex Hansford
Of course. Yeah, of course. It's of it's time. Yeah. And it takes none of itself seriously, which is an important point, because everyone takes things seriously now, whereas actually, it doesn't. That's not what it's trying to do at all.
Philip Rahman
It's important that we do know that this exists and that these films existed, and that we look back on them because we're glancing back. This is not what we're about now. But this was very much what was seen deemed acceptable at the time.
Alex Hansford
Yeah, well, there's lots of lots of them.
Roberto Revilla
Direct quote from Honor Blackman herself, she said in an interview, "Harry Saltzman always said that women came out of a Bond film dreaming about Bond, and the men came out walking tall. That's the attraction of the Bond films, I think, that men identify with him, and the females want him." So she was totally on board with, you know, that whole kind of ethos around Bond and so on, which is why I say in its defence, it's just, I guess, there's a modern audience kind of sitting there with everything that, you know, all the conversations that go on nowadays, and sort of looking at how far we've come it did just initially feel kind of quite uncomfortable, you know, because there was a lot of resistance there. And then all of a sudden, anyway, we won't dwell on it.
Alex Hansford
But it's not taking itself seriously and that sort of thing. This isn't, this isn't a serious film. If it was, we'd be judging it by a different measure, but it's not it's laughing at itself as it goes through that.
Roberto Revilla
Here's another thing that's interesting, though, that in an early treatment of the script, I believe Honor Blackman's character was meant to be a lesbian, and I need to try and find the quote I think it was from one of the producers or one of the script editors that basically she was a lesbian but then Bond is able to convert her because she had just never been with a man before that, you know, was worthy or whatever it's just absolutely absurd.
Alex Hansford
Yeah, I mean, back in the 60s that was my point. It's like looking at that on face value just like that's ridiculous. It is ridiculous, it's not meant to be serious - the funniest thing was in the in the plane scene where Pussy introduces herself. It says here Sean Connery replied "I must be dreaming" but the original script had Bond replying "I know you are but what's your name?" So yeah, there's no part of this where they don't know what they're doing and that they're not being serious in any way.
Roberto Revilla
Yeah. Well then we get to the big sort of set piece at Fort Knox. So Bond is there, the atomic bomb is delivered, Oddjob is there, Kitsch or whatever his name is Goldfinger's right hand man is there... but it turns out that there's been a double cross because the CIA guys all wake up with Felix and what's happened it transpires is that Bond did actually convince Pussy to not go ahead with Goldfinger's plan and she switched the gas in the girls' planes around and what they sprayed didn't actually knock the army out. Bond had managed to get a message out to the CIA to warn them and... or did he because that guy, the mafia guy who he slipped the message in his pocket? He got crushed by a car.
Alex Hansford
Yeah, that didn't work at all. Yeah, like so the fact that they managed to get this message out, they don't really explain. Because that car that was crushed. It was taken back to the farm. So yeah, there was there was no evidence at all.
Roberto Revilla
Or maybe maybe she got the message to them for him?
Alex Hansford
Let's assume that yeah, let's go with that.
Roberto Revilla
Because when the car comes back completely crushed, he realises that his plan failed. So he didn't manage to get the warning message out to the CIA. So maybe that's when he then converts Pussy from being a lesbian to being heterosexual.
Philip Rahman
He had the transmitter in his shoe. And he had activated that and those American CIA guys were saying, "Well, shouldn't we just go in?" And then they said, "No, he can take care of himself, he'll call us."
Alex Hansford
Remember, they had the scene where they were watching over a fence. And so then you have Goldfinger saying, "Yeah, let's give them a show to say, show that Bond is all okay." And then they had this whole "Yep. Okay. Well, we'll come back. We'll come back there. He's got it in hand." So that was the thing. And then obviously, at that part, that's when you have the barn scene with Pussy, so...
Roberto Revilla
Yeah, because Goldfinger knew that the CIA were lurking around. And that's why he got Pussy to sort of dress up really nice, and then sort of walk arm in arm with Bond so that they would think that he was okay. And he didn't need rescuing or anything. Yeah. So there was a lot of little things going on. So you know, you could say it was quite a complex, clever, intelligent movie. So anyway, so we're at the gold reserve. Then the army kind of opened fire on Fort Knox where Goldfinger's men are. And Goldfinger locks the vault, locks Keitsch, Bond and Oddjob inside it with the bomb, which has now got a countdown timer going. And that countdown timer, that bomb should have gone off by my working out, because I basically started counting down with it. And I just continued in real time. And like they'd have all been dead.
Alex Hansford
Yeah, it's Hollywood time.
Roberto Revilla
Yeah. I like the way eventually when they do stop it, it stops on 007. Oh, what a coincidence. They know the name of the movie. So yeah, so Keitsch basically gets killed because he doesn't want to die. So he goes to try and disarm the bomb and Oddjob gets him and throws him 40 metres or whatever, off a platform and he makes a very sudden death. And then this leads to the final confrontation between Bond and what's his face Oddjob. And the actor who played Oddjob who I believe was a wrestler or a weightlifter. Alex fact check that for me.
Alex Hansford
Harold Sak-a-tuh
Roberto Revilla
Sah-what
Alex Hansford
Harold? Set Sakata
Roberto Revilla
Yeah, I know what his name was. I just want to hear you say it. Was he a weightlifter?
Alex Hansford
I can't tell, he did a lot. He did quite a few films and TV. Okay. I can't tell. Oh, he was a professional wrestler.
Roberto Revilla
He was a professional wrestler. And he can't talk. He's meant to be mute. Isn't he? All he says - actually he reminds me of the Martians from Mars Attacks.
Philip Rahman
I kind of felt that he was like Bolo from Enter The Dragon
Roberto Revilla
Bolo from enter The Dragon was was slightly more competent.
Philip Rahman
True.
Roberto Revilla
A fighter. But anyway. But he injured himself in that end scene where he gets electrocuted. He got burned, apparently. But he didn't want them to cut filming or whatever. He just went with it. So the agony you see on his face as he dies is real. I mean, obviously he didn't die. But you know what I mean? So yeah, so that was quite a brutal end fight, I thought it was pretty good. Yeah. Phil, were you quite sad? I mean, after all, he's your favourite Bond villain.
Philip Rahman
I know. He's my favourite, but no, not at all. I mean, it was it was obvious it was going to happen. But again, you know, it was the mechanics of the filmmaking in the 60s, there was a lot of danger. And it was real you couldn't you know, fake that. We were talking about From Russia with Love, you know, there was some definite danger when they're on the water shooting out fire from the boats. And there was some clear and present danger on the set in Pinewood when they were shooting that and someone could have got seriously hurt but, you know, for the art and for the love of the craft of making films. They did it to entertain us and I think it succeeded.
Roberto Revilla
What is it about Oddjob for you that makes him such a great villain, Phil? What is it about him that captured your imagination?
Philip Rahman
I think with other villains, they tried very hard to have a kind of a softer side or they tried to have another dimension. Oddjob was just a henchman. And he just delivered and didn't try and do anything else. And that's what I appreciated about how they put it together for this particular film. And I just wish they stuck with it. Because when I think about Jaws, and what they tried to do to add a different dimension to him, I've never liked it when they make what is an obvious big person or a scary person, you know, have a weak personality. And that's something that Oddjob clearly doesn't have.
Alex Hansford
I'm just gonna defend Jaws for a second because Jon's not here. And I know Jon is very fond of that character. But the thing with Jaws is that as scary as he was, in the earlier Moore films, when he first popped up, he was the perfect foil. Really, he was the perfect Roger Moore villain. And having that slightly, that sort of evolution of the character where eventually he does find love. And you know, we see a softer side to him and then he does become... if you think back to that fight on the train in I think it was in The Spy Who Loved Me. There's a lot of humour in that fight. It's completely different to the fight between Robert Shaw's character and Sean Connery in From Russia With Love, which was very, very brutal, economical. You know, it's a violent fight. Whereas in, in that Roger Moore film with Jaws, there was a lot of tongue in cheek going on in there, as much as Roger Moore was getting duffed up by this huge guy. But you know, I think Jaws was basically the perfect villain for a Roger Moore era Bond. So anyway, so that's what I'll say about it. Oddjob, he was alright for me. I got it at the end, right, I got what he was about when Keitsch was trying to save himself and then Oddjob throws him off the platform, and Oddjob's loyalty to Goldfinger is completely unquestionable to the point where he was just prepared to die to achieve his boss's ends, rather like something else that's going on in the world at the moment. Unfortunately. You don't get that kind of loyalty, working environment anymore. Do you?
Roberto Revilla
Exactly. People wouldn't be prepared to put their foot forward and chuck their colleague off the top of the building.
Alex Hansford
Exactly. That means that means there's more money for the performance bonus at the end of the quarter guys, come on. Yeah.
Roberto Revilla
So we're getting towards the end of the film and Goldfinger had managed to escape Fort Knox. So Bond is being escorted by the Americans and the President wants him at the White House for lunch, which is rather nice. Pussy is flying Bond to the White House in Washington. And then all of a sudden Goldfinger somehow has hijacked the plane and appears in the military uniform that he was disguised in earlier and they have a fight and in the struggle, the gun goes off. Now, the thing that made Carolina sort of outburst this time was "the cheeky fat bastard he's even got a golden gun". And I explained that if she's seen and I mean, if you go down to Peckham right, the Top Boy gangsters down there have got gold guns. I mean, it's nothing. You know? It's a historical thing, right? If you were the head of a criminal organisation - another one of our questions. What would be your weapon of choice Alex and how would it be decorated?
Alex Hansford
You asked a really hard question. Actually...
Roberto Revilla
Would you use a gun? You don't really strike me as a gun guy.
Alex Hansford
Yeah, but I wouldn't be very good without a gun. I quite like the idea of something exotic like machete, but it would be even worse with that. So yeah, maybe a nice hand pistol would probably work for me. But yeah, you're right then what do you do? Do you go with gold? Because it's got a bit of bling to it? You probably would, wouldn't you say? Yeah, it's a good point. Now you turned me around to gold guns now.
Roberto Revilla
I've created a monster. Next intro, "you know him from Play, Pause, Turn. If if we were in Scarface, he'd be our very own Tony Montana, it's Alex Hansford!" Phil what would be your weapon of choice?
Philip Rahman
I think every time any gangster of any note pulls out a sword, you know, whether it's, you know, whether it's like The Godfather, or someone like that, having a sword I think creates the biggest impact, it shows the most balls, you know, because it's so immediate, you see the sharpness of it. And, uh, you know what it's going to do. With the gun, y ou're not as sure. Whereas it's clear what's going to happen with the knife, you get cut. And I just think a sword creates the biggest impact for me.
Roberto Revilla
Mine would be a baseball bat, but a baseball bat with a button on it. Yeah, with a button. Because the thing with a baseball bat, you bring a baseball bat out, right? They know this is not going to be over quickly. So Alex comes out with his pistol, and the guy knows that it's probably going to be over pretty quick. It'll hurt for a microsecond. And then it's like you have your sword, if he's lucky and you cut his head off, it's instant. It's done. But a baseball bat, you bring a baseball bat out. The guy knows this is going to hurt and it's going to take a bit of time. And that's what I want them to feel especially if they've been stealing my drugs, or you know, stealing the money that I've been laundering or whatever it is that I've been doing in my criminal enterprise. I want them to know this is going to take time.
Philip Rahman
All right. I'll give you a scenario. You've got the sword. You want to send a message to someone who's double crossed you? How about putting the sword in the mouth? Give them a permanent smile?
Roberto Revilla
Okay, look, Phil. Now you've, you've just taken it too far. I was gonna just tell you about the spike attachment to my baseball bat where I press a button on the handle and then spikes come out at the top. And then when you hit them, it just sticks in them. And then you have to really wrench it to get it out and then you stick it in them again. Anyway, moving on...
Alex Hansford
You can keep your baseball bat, like can you fit it on your Vespa somewhere? Yeah. Because I think that way, if anyone knocks you over again, you can just be like "Okay, I'm ready for this now." Right? And get the bat out.
Roberto Revilla
Yeah. The problem with the baseball bat I actually have is it's really, really big. I don't know how many inches but it's not very subtle. It's about a metre. Yeah. It's called a Boston Slugger. It won't even fit in my MINI. It's too wide for the boot. So it just sits in the hallway. So yeah, I don't have to use it that often. Sometimes I chase people off with it. Anyhow, sorry. Like Tailoring Talk, Tailoring Self Defence. So the gun goes off, blows a window out, we get a bit of science going on, because there's outdoor pressure, indoor air pressure. And anyway, it all sort of mixes up together to suck Goldfinger out of the window, which was really... that looked painful because he is a fat guy. And those aeroplane windows were quite small. I'm surprised that there wasn't blood and guts flying everywhere. But yeah, what do we think about Goldfinger's demise, Alex?
Alex Hansford
It's huge? I was a bit disappointed because I've watched 70s aeroplane films like disaster films before and normally, it doesn't end that way. It normally ends with like the top of the plane off and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, so it's just like, well, I don't know how he managed to be the only one that was sucked out. But well, it is a way to go, isn't it?
Roberto Revilla
Totally. That's the thing, right? Bond is kind of holding on for a couple of seconds. And then in the next scene he made it into the cockpit, Honor Blackman's looking panicked trying to sort of wrestle with the plane and get it to nosedive to sort the pressure thing out because you have to decrease your altitude I thin. But yeah, he's kind of unruffled. It's the suit. It's the suit.
Alex Hansford
It's all about the suit.
Roberto Revilla
All about the suit. And then we get to the end scene where they've landed, obviously, they've managed to parachute out of the plane that's exploded, the CIA are in a helicopter looking for them. And then Bond says, you know, "this is no time to be rescued", covers them with the parachute, and then they get down to business presumably underneath. And that's it. It's the end. James Bond will return in Thunderball we're told immediately. Credits are very short. That was it that was Goldfinger. So what did we think? And we're only comparing it to the previous two. Do we like it more than the previous two? We might like it less or somewhere in the middle? Alex, what was your overall thoughts and rating?
Alex Hansford
So I think this was a solid eight and a half? I think it was better watching then the last one? And I think actually, I would give it eight and a half. I wouldn't give it nine. I think that's a bit much. But I think eight and a half.
Roberto Revilla
And what did you prefer about this one compared to From Russia with Love?
Alex Hansford
I think it was more.. There was more action. There was a lot more action scenes in this. And I think that helped kind of remind you this is an action film. So I think thinking man's Bond is not what what early Bond is about really? Yeah. Phil?
Philip Rahman
I am contemplating this because I think all three films have had their own merits. And they've tried to find a way of actually setting a tone for the rest of the films. And I would say that this edges it because of the car. The car is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Then it moves into Geneva, which is the great location but they never went over the top. So in the previous films, they went to all the different places, whereas this one, it just stuck to Geneva and then Britain? You know, it was clear that they probably had blown the budget on the car in Geneva with this one. So they spent a lot more time on creating an atmosphere. And I think I would say this does edge the other two, I'm gonna actually give this one a nine. I think there's, more to this film. And I think this is the sort of film that I could watch again, and again and again. And I think it would get better every single time I see it. So I'm going to say this is a nine. And actually, I kind of want to see it again.
Roberto Revilla
So I think I gave Dr. No an eight and I gave From Russia with Love an 8.5. And I'm sort of I'm thinking that I preferred instinctively From Russia With Love, because it just felt more like that sort of old school kind of classic sort of spy caper, but then you're right, there are things about Goldfinger. I mean, finally we get the Bond formula that we know and love today. It has the gadgets and you know, we get to see Q branch properly for the first time and you're right that car is just amazing. But then, there are some slightly campy elements for me...
Philip Rahman
Don't get me wrong, the acting is not as good in Goldfinger as it is in Russia with Love. I think the acting performances in From Russia With Love are probably the best out of the three films I've seen so far. But I think that this because we've been taught discussing it doesn't take itself too seriously. You know, we've not got people who desperately want to be in Shakespeare playing villains. This is what it is you know, they've dubbed the the actor throughout to give him a kind of, you know, iconic sound and kind of atmosphere. I think that's why I want to see it more and more because I think that I'll get newer elements every single time I see it.
Roberto Revilla
So back to my rating, Phil. I think part of me wants to move my rating for From Russia With Love up to a nine and give this an 8.5 because this was definitely better than Dr. No. I would want to rewatch this more than Dr. No. But I still have this... I don't know I really like From Russia With Love, especially the whole train sequence and so on. But then every time I think about... every time I come to the conclusion that that's what I'm gonna do I then remember that batshit crazy scene in the Gypsy village or whatever. And then it knocks half a point off From Russia with Love for me again. So I think I'm gonna stick with From Russia with Love's original rating, and I'm gonna give this an 8.5 as well. So it's as good as From Russia with Love. It's a different film. But for different reasons. I really did like it, as well. There were some elements that I wasn't so sure about. And again, Honor Blackman's character's name was very, very off putting for me because it just took me out of the film every single time they said it. But yeah, there we go. And that, you know, there was a lot more humour. I'm glad it was tempered, because the original script apparently was very, very jokey, they really amped up the humour. There was a conference meeting with Sean Connery and Cubby Broccoli. And I think the original script writer. And the very first thing that they talked about is "Sean Connery says he feels the tone of the script was all wrong". He wanted a serious approach, with humour interjected subtly as in the other films. So the original treatment of this was completely like joke after joke after joke. So it was Connery who actually got them to temper it and bring it back down. And I think in the end, they probably got the tone just about right. Yeah. So yeah, 8.5 for me. I mean, the film holds an aggregate score to this day of 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, and I couldn't actually find any bad reviews for it from the time. It was very, very successful. I think the budget actually, Alex, if you've got IMDb out there, can you check the budget? I might have it here actually. Budget $3 million. Box office $125 million?
Alex Hansford
Yeah, was the fastest grossing Bond film.
Roberto Revilla
Did extremely well and they'd already greenlit Thunderball by this time. So that was undergoing pre production. And then they just basically went straight into filming that... Sean Connery was working a lot during this time, because the BBC went to film him to interview him on set. And it was when they were filming the part where he's imprisoned in the Kentucky ranch. And the interviewwer was saying, oh, you know, what's it like, you know, you did a Bond movie last year doing another one this year. And he's like, this is like my fifth movie in 12 months. And he'd done Broadway. And he was doing a play. So he was working extremely hard during this time. And hats off to him. So there we go. Anything else you guys want to add about this film?
Philip Rahman
No, I think you've covered it all. We've gone through quite a lot of information with this film. As we always do, and I think it's important that we get across, you know, there is a huge amount that goes into it. And I think this one was a good sort of template for future Bonds. And we'll find out as we go forward.
Roberto Revilla
Exactly. I'm really looking forward to Thunderball now. So yeah, look, guys, thank you so much for for joining me. Again, it's been an absolute pleasure.
