To see, or to watch again: Goldfinger, the most precious of the James Bond

"He likes gold. He only likes gold ... ” This is the portrait of Auric Goldfinger chanted by the warm deep voice of Shirley Bassey. It is also the very first time to see that a song is recorded for the opening credits. That of Good Kisses from Russia (1963) was played during the end credits. The sequence of the said credits was inspired by the shadows cast on the canvas of the cinema when the spectators left the cinema.

The story ? According to some sources, she was inspired by Fleming by this German spy who tried to rob the Bank of England during the First World War. In cinema, it becomes that of an obsessive billionaire who sees the world only through the yellow metal and the power that it gives him. And in this third James Bond in the history of cinema, the fight to the death between the Specter banker (formidable Gert Fröbe) and a Sean Connery at the top of his game remains, despite the passage of time, in the minds of many distinguished bondophiles, the most emblematic of 007's missions.

At the time of its release, Goldfinger was the most profitable film in history and entered the Guinness World Records for this title. The film was so successful that some cinemas gave 24-hour sessions.

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Midas changed everything he touched into gold. Auric Goldfinger assassinates him, all those who want to touch his gold, by suffocating in passing his victims with whom he covers the bodies with a golden film.

From the first scenes, furious at having been betrayed by the very blond Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton), Bond's sworn enemy shows his sadism. The terrible henchman Ojjob, on the orders of his master, will do the light work.

The tone is set. All the ingredients of what characterizes, for better or for worse, a “good” James Bond are present here: the perverse greed of the bad guy, placed in a case by the false bonhomie of Gert Fröbe, the gadgets and other essential tools to the panoply of the best MI6 agent like the famous Aston Martin DB5, and soon the appearance of a warrior, an expert in martial arts, in the pay of the terrifying financial, the ambiguous and attractive Pussy Galore.

Initially, Aston Martin was not in favor of lending two of its cars to production. They were therefore bought for filming. After the success of the film both at the box office and for the automaker, production never again needed to pay for another vehicle.

The swappable plates of the Aston Martin were an idea of ​​the director Guy Hamilton. It came to him after receiving a parking fine.

Read also: James Bond: Pussy Galore never dies

Honor Blackman and Sean Connery in Goldfinger Leemage

Pussy Galore, neo-feminist anti-heroine?

Beyond the excessive ambitions of his boss, who undertakes no less than the theft of all the gold reserves of the United States at Fort Knox, the terrible "henchwoman" is the real anti-heroine of the mission . Like 007 it presents itself to the world like this: "My name is Pussy Galore."

My dear little one, there are things that cannot be done, such as drinking Don Pérignon 55 at a temperature above three degrees. It's as unhealthy as listening to the Beatles without earplugs

Although she pretends to fall into the arms of the handsome James, the time of a short love scene with sado-masochistic scents, her impulses of Diane huntress leave only a vague doubt hanging over her fondness for the fairer sex .

With this character, all in violence and seduction, Guy Hamilton opens the way to a succession of James Bond girls, more amazons than docile, like Barbara Bach ( The spy who loved me ), Carole Bouquet ( Only for your eyes ) , Grace Jones ( Dangerously Yours ), or more recently, Michelle Yeoh ( Tomorrow never dies ) and Olga Kurylenko ( Quantum of Solace ) ..., who will be able to keep the dragee high to M.'s favorite spy

Orange or Canal VOD platforms allow you to see or review Goldfinger. As an appetizer Le Figaro presents, below in images, the trailer for the film and its theme sung by Shirley Bassey.

Goldfinger by Guy Hamilton, in 1964, with Sean Connery, Gert Fröbe, Honor Blackman, Tania Mallet, Shirley Eaton, Lois Maxwell, Harold Sakata ...

Shirley Bassey plays Goldfinger , the theme of the 3rd James Bond