Goldfinger (1964)

80%

One of the all time best ever Bonds: Solid entertainment of a very high order. Sean CONNERY is at his virile best here as the heroic man of action; the girls are all very fetching; &, the villain and his henchman (Odd Job) suitably threatening.

Crucially all of the females are Bond's counterparts (rather than good looking but vapid) who exist as separate characters in their own right rather than as psychological dependants of the hero. This is crucial in the best 007s since to do otherwise devalues the masculinity of the hero. He is in fact more dependent on their sex appeal to masculinise him than they are on his sex appeal to feminize them. Paradoxically we thus learn more about him through them than about them through him. This is an extremely useful means of counteracting Connery's mediocre acting skills. Moreover and unusually, the leading female role (Honor BLACKMAN's Pussy Galore) is played by someone older than the lead rather than younger; making a nice change from the expected formula.

The pacing of the earlier scenes is refreshingly slow; allowing for more character development, understatement and the all important humor – especially of the self parodic kind.

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