Goldfinger (1964)
Dir: Guy Hamilton
This is considered to be one of the very best Bonds, for many it is indeed the absolute best!
‘Goldfinger’ sees 007 (Sean Connery) sent to investigate what the eponymous villain is up to. As a wealthy bullion dealer with a love of the precious metal, Auric Goldfinger has been illegally smuggling gold in clever ways, and Bond comes to the conclusion that his bigger master plan is to rob Fort Knox, however Goldfinger has far more devious ideas than that.
The third film of the franchise, it’s really starting to find its stride, and I enjoyed this more than ‘From Russia With Love‘. The director Guy Hamilton went on to direct 3 more Bond films, and was nicely chosen for the job with his experience from assisting Carol Reed on such classics as ‘The Third Man’.
The next Bond has Sam Mendes returning to the directors chair. This was clearly one of his strongest influences when making ‘Skyfall’, with so many elements from ‘Goldfinger’ either subtly or quite blatantly used. Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 for example makes a reappearance in ‘Skyfall’, and the gadgets he is given in that are just a gun and a small homing beacon, which is in many ways the same as the one he’s given here.
I wonder if Mendez will go on to match Hamilton’s record of directing 3 Bonds? I for one certainly wouldn’t mind if he did!
NeverKissedAGirl.com 
Actually, this is a first: you’ve just gained some respect Mr Knight. This is indeed a worthy film, though not the best of the genre, nonetheless very good.
The car chases were in fact shot round the internal roads in the Pinewood complex rather than rural Germany. The only slightly flakey bit being the polystyrene “breeze” blocks falling on the Aston when it crashes into a wall. I know these are well built cars, but the would still cause some remodelling of the cars lines.
One of the nicest looking Bond girls ever is the the pre-gold girl whispering into the ear (over a radio earpiece) of Mr Goldfinger. Odd Job’s hat is a handy gadget, and it doesn’t even have an Apple logo on it!