The James Bond Bedside Companion (58 page)

Another well-cast character is that of Kronsteen, the master planner for SPECTRE. Played by Vladek Sheybal, Kronsteen is portrayed just as Fleming created him—cold, methodical, and confident.

This brings us to the problem of SPECTRE's leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, aka No. 1. In
From Russia With
Love, all we see of Blofeld are his shoulders and hands. Blofeld remains faceless until the fifth film,
You Only
Live
Twice,
which was a clever idea on the filmmakers' part. Blofeld is also associated with a long-haired white cat, which constantly sits in his lap receiving attention. The animal is purely an invention of the filmmakers, for the Blofeld of the novels never showed an affectation for pets. This was fine until Blofeld's face was revealed in the films, since the image didn't live up to expectation. The part of Blofeld has never been cast successfully, which is another source of frustration for Bond fans. But in
From Russia With Love
Blofeld serves his function and lends a certain mystery to the SPECTRE conception. The uncredited actor playing the role in this film was Anthony Dawson (who played Professor Dent in
Dr. No),
but the voice was dubbed by Eric
Pohlman (also uncredited).

Desmond Llewelyn makes his first appearance as Major Boothroyd (or Q, as he will be called in subsequent films) in
From Russia With Love
. Usually a source of laughs, the Q Branch scenes (in which Q shows Bond the newest set of weapons and how they work) began rather simply but in later films have gone overboard, as have the gadgets themselves, in attempting the most outrageous visual jokes. Llewelyn has managed to make something of the character, and delivers his weapons lectures with a straight British face which is always amusing.

Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell, as usual, deliver crisp performances as M and Miss Moneypenny. There is one amusing moment when Bond first enters the office and flings his hat across the room to the hat rack. He proclaims, "For my next miracle. . ." but suddenly realizes M is standing behind him. Bond shuffles his feet a moment, looks embarrassed, and walks on into M's office. M glances at Moneypenny, rolls his eyes, and follows Bond.

OTHER ASPECTS

A
s mentioned earlier, Ken Adam did not design this film. Instead, the previous film's art director, Syd Cain, is in charge. Cain's work in the film primarily utilizes existing locations. Some interiors were built, such as the cabin of the Orient Express, but the realism of the story was emphasized by the authentic locations.

Peter Hunt is editor again, and continues his fine work in keeping the pace and action moving. His editing of the gypsy camp attack is an especially well-constructed sequence and of course, his work on stunts is still a marvel. There is one flaw in the Bond/Grant fight scene, however; we don't see the tear gas cartridge explode in Grant's face when he opens the attaché case. Instead, the editor chose a reaction shot from Bond and a quick cut to Grant in a cloud of smoke. This doesn't quite work, but the editing of the fisticuffs that follow more than makes up for it. Peter Perkins choreographed the now-famous fight. It's certainly one of the longest screen scuffles ever staged, and it's quite brutal. Bob Simmons doubled for Connery, but it's impossible to tell when the cuts are made between Connery and Simmons, as well as between Shaw and his double. The fight is less bloody than the Fleming version, but it's made more interesting by the use of the gadgets inside the attaché case. (A word of warning to television viewers: ABC edited the scene drastically. In fact, ABC did a poor job of editing all of the early 007 films for television.)

Ted Moore's cinematography seems more colorful than before, and the special effects, created by John Stears and Frank George and consisting mainly of helicopters and boats exploding, are well executed. Jocelyn Rickards' costume designs are worth mentioning simply because of their believability in period and locale.

John Barry composed, arranged, and conducted the score for the film, save for the title track. The sound of the score is quite different from that of
Dr. No
, (except for "The James Bond Theme") in that Barry uses a full orchestra, emphasizing brass and percussion. The
From Russia With Love
score is serious and moody, with many levels of dynamics. Barry likes to emphasize fight scenes with sudden increases of volume and syncopation. One tune, entitled "007," is featured during the gypsy camp battle and the raid on the Russian consulate. This highly syncopated piece has become a standard tune in most of the Barry-scored Bond films. Lionel Bart's title theme is lush and romantic, and works well as the first of the Bond vocal tunes.
From Russia With Love
features Matt Monroe crooning the main theme at the film's end.

From Russia With Love
received even more critical and popular attention that its predecessor. Knowing that they now had a valuable investment on their hands, Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman added an announcement to the end credits of the film, stating that "James Bond will return. . . in
Goldfinger
." This was to become another standard device in the films—the announcement of the next one.

This film was the last one that Ian Fleming saw. Luckily, it is one of the best in the series, and something of which he could be proud.

PRODUCTION

G
oldfinger
represents the peak of the series. It is the most perfectly realized of all the films with hardly a wrong step made throughout its length. It moves at a fast and furious pace, but the plot holds together logically enough (more logically than the book) and is a perfect blend of the real and the fantastic.

(John Brosnan,
James Bond in the Cinema
)

I agree totally with this statement
Goldfinger is
the representative film of the James Bond series. It's also an excellent action/adventure picture on its own: it has suspense, sex, and satire. It is the first Bond film to actually poke fun at itself, but it never loses sight of the central character. The Broccoli and Saltzman formula was perfected with this, their third film. The remaining pictures simply are slight variations on the formula.

One and a quarter million pounds were spent on the making of
Goldfinger
, almost four times the amount spent on
Dr. No.
United Artists also spent more money promoting the new film, and the resulting publicity made James Bond a household name. Released in December of 1964,
Goldfinger
was a blockbuster hit, and the catalyst of the big spy movie boom in the sixties.

Goldfinger
differs from its predecessors in that a new director is at the helm, bringing the film a tighter, wittier style without diminishing the level of suspense. As Steven Jay Rubin points out in his book
The James Bond
Films,
a sequence like the Aston Martin car chase around Auric Enterprises is fun and amusing. Then suddenly--Oddjob's hat kills Tilly Masterson, and the mood abruptly switches to one of foreboding. There are also more fantastic elements in
Goldfinger
than in the first two Bond films. This is due mainly to Ken Adam's designs for the film, and also to the swarm of gadgets. This was a time of fascination with "gee whiz" technology. The film is the first to include a realistically presented laser. An atomic bomb features prominently in the plot. The audience is given a glimpse of the test center for Q Branch, where employees experiment with the latest in exploding parking meters, bulletproof
vests, and other gadgets of the spy trade. Here, Bond is issued the ultimate company car. James Bond's now-famous Aston Martin DB-V was actually made by the Aston Martin plant in Newport Pagnall. By using a control box inside an arm rest, Bond could release a smoke screen, an oil slick, raise a bulletproof shield, or slash another car's tires. The car has a radar homing device, as in the novel, but it also comes equipped with machine guns behind the front and rear parking lights. And the
coup de grace
is an ejector seat, controlled by a red button located in the stick shift. At the time of the film's release, the Aston Martin was a fantastic, outrageous put-on; yet audiences all over the world wanted to believe it was real. The ideas behind the car are not that far from reality—the car could exist. This is precisely why the gadgetry in
Goldfinger
works, but doesn't in some of the later films. Though the simulated technology of the film places it in a genre resembling science fiction, the gadgetry is believable.

Sean Connery and the gold-painted Shirley Eaton on the set of Goldfinger. (UPI Photo.)

Goldfinger
is also significant in that it is the last Bond film to actually attempt to be erotic. Bond's scenes with Jill Masterson early in the film are the most sugges tive of any Bond film, as is Shirley Eaton's near nudity. There has never been nudity in a Bond film; we see a flash of leg here, a glimpse of back there, but nothing beyond the titillation level. Miss Eaton's role was a departure from those constraints, and the Bonds have never been the same since. Additionally, the film is probably the most sexist of them all. When Bond slaps the masseuse, Dink, on the rear after sending her away because he and Felix Leiter must perform "man talk," the situation is embarrassingly chauvinistic.

SCREENPLAY

S
teven Rubin calls the Richard Maibaum/Paul Dehn script for
Goldfinger
the "key script" which became the "blueprint" for future Bonds. This is very true. One can easily pinpoint the elements from the screenplay that have been repeated in later films: a car chase; Bond's seduction of a female enemy to gain an ally; a climax featuring two "armies" battling it out; a countdown which must be stopped to save the world; a villain employing a super-strong henchman; and a final scene with a "sting"—just when the audience has been led to believe Bond's danger is past, the peril resumes.

The Maibaum/Dehn script is very clever.
 
It is full of ingenious plot twists and witty dialogue.
 
I feel it's the only film in the series to
improve
on Fleming's original story. There are several reasons why this is so. First, the script calls for Bond to
discover
Jill Masterson's gold-painted, dead body. In the novel, Bond leaves Jill early in the story and learns about her death secondhand in the middle of the book.
 
The screen version is far more effective – we actually see the body. It's an eerie, ghostly scene. Bond has been knocked unconscious by Oddjob, and wakes to find Jill lying face down on the bed. Her body seems to radiate in the bronze-colored room, and the music takes on a somber tone. The scene captures perfectly the serious side of the James Bond films. There's certainly nothing amusing about it.

A second improvement over the Fleming original is the elimination of Tilly Masterson early in the film. In the novel, Tilly becomes a major character, and is with Bond all the way through the raid on Fort Knox. There, she finally meets her death by Oddjob's bowler hat. Her presence in the novel is gratuitous after we learn that she is Jill Masterson's sister, and this is corrected in the film. Tilly is killed in the first half of the story, which makes more sense. Goldfinger would have killed her anyway, once he had found out she was Jill's sister. His failure to do so in the book is implausible.

Third, as John Brosnan mentions, the script improved on the novel by having Goldfinger take Bond to America as a prisoner rather than as an employee. Abruptly deciding to spare Bond's life (as well as Tilly's) and hire him as a secretary is unbelievable. In the film, Goldfinger keeps Bond alive and in his sight, simply to keep anyone who may be observing (such as Felix Leiter) from thinking Bond is in any danger. Goldfinger orders Pussy Galore to dress more seductively and openly show Bond around the stud farm "as a guest." And of course, Goldfinger can't resist the temptation of handcuffing Bond to the atomic bomb inside Fort Knox – something he probably planned when he made the decision to keep Bond alive.