Goldfinger - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Goldfinger or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Goldfinger

[terry]

Cec Linder was the only actor from the cast who was actually in Florida for the Miami sequences. Sir Sean Connery was in the midst of shooting of Sir Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964) and was unable to be on the Goldfinger set at the time.

[miriam]

Goldfinger was adapted as a comic strip and published in the English "Daily Express" newspaper from October 3, 1960 to April 1, 1961. It was written by Henry Gammidge and illustrated by John McLusky. It has had worldwide syndication, and was reprinted in 2004. The villains Goldfinger and Oddjob also featured in a story in Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentleman comic book. Sir Sean Connery played the lead in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003).

[kristen]

One of two movies that influenced the creation of the comic book/manga/animated television series Speed Racer (1967), or Mach Go Go Go (1997), Bond's fully loaded Aston Martin influenced the gadgetry of Speed's Mach Five race car. The other movie that contributed to Creator Tatsuo Yoshida's vision of Speed Racer's character was the look of Elvis Presley in Viva Las Vegas (1964).

[ella]

The part of Jill Masterson was initially offered to Shirley Anne Field, who turned it down. Wanda Ventham also went up for it.

[francisco]

When Dame Shirley Bassey recorded the theme song, she was singing as the opening credits were running on a screen in front of her, so that she could match the vocals. When she hit her final high note, the titles kept running and she was forced to hold the note until she almost passed out. (This echoes the experience of Tom Jones when recording the Thunderball (1965) theme.) She has told the story that she only managed to hold the note after removing a restricting bustier she was wearing.

[manuel]

First opening credits sequence to show the actor playing James Bond. This is by utilizing footage from the first two James Bond movies, Dr. No (1962) and From Russia with Love (1963). This technique was repeated in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). The first time an image of the actor playing James Bond would be part of the actual title sequence itself (i.e. not by way of footage edited into it) would not occur until The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).

[brent]

The original plan for the climax was to have the climactic battle happen at the gates of Fort Knox, but it was decided that it would be much better to actually get to see the vault from the inside.

[maureen]

In the dinner scene, the butler serves Colonel Smithers a cigar from a fifty-cigar "cabinet" box. Cigars packaged in cabinets are usually higher quality than those in the standard twenty-four-cigar box, and are sometimes referred to as "cabinet selection" cigars.

[elmer]

"Operation Grand Slam" was the actual code-name for the Soviet overflight mission by C.I.A. pilot Francis Gary Powers, during which his Lockheed U-2C spy plane, serial number 56-6693, Article 360, was shot down by an SA-2 "Guideline" surface-to-air missile on May 1, 1960.

[victoria]

Another Aston Martin DB5 without the gadgets was created, which was eventually furnished for publicity purposes. It was re-used for Thunderball (1965).

[maureen]

Though he had been considered for, but never appeared in a Bond movie, Sir Michael Caine was the first person to hear the completed score for this movie. After he and roommate Terence Stamp were ejected from their apartment, Caine asked friend John Barry if he could use the spare bedroom at Barry's London residence. As they were good friends, Barry agreed and so for several months, Caine crashed with Barry and was there the sleepless night he completed his iconic score. At breakfast the following morning, Barry played his composition for Caine, the first time he'd performed it for anybody.

[linda]

It's in this movie that Q's character really clicked. Director Guy Hamilton advised Desmond Llewelyn to inject humor into the character, thus beginning the friendly antagonism between Q and Bond that became a hallmark of the film franchise.

[edgar]

The first Bond movie to be shown on U.S. commercial television, on Sunday, September 17, 1972, earning the highest Nielsen ratings for a single movie on television up to that time. Forty-nine percent of the nation's viewers tuned in that night, and ABC, which showed the movie, retained the exclusive commercial U.S. television rights to the Bond film franchise series for the next twenty-eight years.

[elmer]

In the original novel, the car driven by Bond is not an Aston Martin DB5, but an earlier model, an Aston Martin DB3. There were significantly fewer gadgets and features in this make. All James Bond had were reinforced bumper guards and a secret compartment for a Colt .45 pistol.

[ronnie]

During the opening titles sequence, all excerpts are scenes from this movie except some footage from the From Russia with Love (1963) helicopter chase sequence and the Crab Key explosion from Dr. No (1962). All of these scenes in the opening titles are projected onto the gilded body of Margaret Nolan, who played Dink in the main movie. Here, she appears longer than Shirley Eaton appears in the main movie, and wears a blue bikini (also featured on the soundtrack cover) which Eaton does not wear in her scenes.

[harry]

The role of Oddjob was the first screen role for Japanese-American weightlifter and professional wrestler Harold Sakata. It was such a success that it started a second career in movies, television, and commercials. For some of these appearances, he would be billed as "Harold "Oddjob" Sakata". He also appeared in The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1966), which was based on an Ian Fleming story and directed by Bond director Terence Young.

[kyle]

First movie in which Bond (not a look-alike, we are made to believe is Bond) appears in the pre-credits teaser.

[kenzi]

The butler cuts the tip of Colonel Smithers' cigar with a v-cutter, which creates an elegant v-shaped notch in the tip.

[ruby]

The only time in the film series where Sean Connery's James Bond shaves.