Auric Goldfinger
Encyclopedia
Auric Goldfinger is a fictional character
and the main antagonist
in the James Bond
film
and novel Goldfinger. His first name, Auric
, is an adjective meaning of gold
. Ian Fleming
chose the name to commemorate the architect Ernő Goldfinger
, who had built his home in Hampstead
, near to Fleming's; it is possible, though unlikely, that he disliked Goldfinger's style of architecture and destruction of Victorian
terraces and decided to name a memorable villain after him. According to a 1965 Forbes
article and The New York Times
, the Goldfinger persona was based on gold mining magnate Charles W. Engelhard, Jr.
In 2003, the American Film Institute
declared Auric Goldfinger the 49th greatest villain in the past 100 years of film
. In a poll on IMDb, Auric Goldfinger was voted the most sinister James Bond villain, beating out in order Ernst Stavro Blofeld
, Dr. No, Max Zorin
, and Emilio Largo
. Wizard Magazine listed Auric Goldfinger as the 91st greatest villain of all time.
Auric Goldfinger was played by German actor Gert Fröbe
. Goldfinger was banned in Israel
after it was revealed that Fröbe had been a member of the Nazi party during World War II
. The ban, however, was lifted many years later when a Jewish family publicly thanked Fröbe for protecting them from persecution during the war.
Gert Fröbe, who did not speak English
well, was dubbed in the film by Michael Collins, an English
actor. In the German
version, Fröbe dubbed himself back again. Of his role as Goldfinger, Fröbe later remarked: "I am a big man, and I have a laugh to match my size. The ridiculous thing is that since I played Goldfinger in the James Bond film there are some people who still insist on seeing me as a cold, ruthless villain - a man without laughs."
who emigrated at age 20 in 1937 from Riga
, Latvia
. He is 5 feet (152 cm) tall, has blue eyes, red hair, and has a passion for his tan.
Goldfinger's name was borrowed from Ian Fleming's neighbour in his Hampstead
home, architect Ernő Goldfinger
, and his character bears some resemblance. Ernő Goldfinger consulted his lawyers when the book was published, prompting Fleming to suggest renaming the character "Goldprick", but Goldfinger eventually settled out of court in return for his legal costs, six copies of the novel, and an agreement that the character's first name 'Auric' would always be used. Goldfinger is typically a German-Jewish name, and the protagonist
s of the novel know this, but neither Bond nor Mr. Du Pont think Goldfinger is Jewish. Instead, Bond pegs the red-haired, blue-eyed man as a Balt
. And, indeed, Goldfinger proves an expatriate Latvia
n.
Now a UK commonwealth citizen naturalised to Nassau
, he has become the richest man in England
, though his wealth is not in English banks and he hasn't paid taxes on it. Rather, it is spread as gold bullion in many countries. Goldfinger is the treasurer of SMERSH
, Bond's nemesis. Goldfinger fancies himself an expert pistol shot who never misses, and always shoots his opponents through the right eye. He tells Bond he has done so with four Mafia
heads at the end of the novel.
Goldfinger is obsessed with gold, going so far as to have yellow-bound erotic photographs, and have his lovers painted head to toe in gold so that he can make love to gold. (He leaves an area near the spine unpainted, but painting this area also is what kills Jill Masterton, as in the film). He is also a jeweller, a metallurgist, and a smuggler.
When Goldfinger first meets Bond in Miami, he claims that he is agoraphobic
; a ploy to allow him to cheat a previous acquaintance of Bond's at a game of two-handed Canasta
. Bond figures out how Goldfinger is managing this, and blackmail
s him by forcing him to admit his deception. This incident also establishes Goldfinger as boundlessly greedy - as whatever sums he can gain by this elaborate cheating are negligible compared with what he already has in his possession.
Goldfinger is also an avid golfer, but is known at his club for being a smooth cheater there, also. When Bond contrives to play a match with Goldfinger, he again cheats the cheater by switching Goldfinger's Dunlop
1 golf ball with a Dunlop 7 he had found while playing.
In both the novel and film, Goldfinger is aided in his crimes by his manservant, Oddjob, a mute
, monstrously strong Korean
who ruthlessly eliminates any threat to his employer's affairs.
Goldfinger is the owner of "Enterprises Auric A.G." in Switzerland
, maker of metal furniture, which is purchased by many airlines including Air India
. Twice a year, Goldfinger drives his vintage Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost
car from England to Enterprises Auric. Bond learns that Goldfinger makes dead drop
s of gold bars for SMERSH along the way, and that his car's bodywork is 18 carat (75%), solid white gold under the ploy that the added weight is armour plating. Once at Enterprises Auric, his car is stripped down, melted and made into seating for an airline company that Enterprises Auric is heavily invested in. The plane(s) are then flown to India
where the seats are melted down again into gold bars and sold for a much higher premium rate; 100 to 200 percent profit.
In the novel, Goldfinger captures Bond and threatens to cut him in half with a high-power buzz saw. Bond is also torture
d at the same time, as Oddjob works his pressure points. He offers to work for Goldfinger in exchange for his life, but Goldfinger initially refuses to spare his prisoner as Bond blacks out.
He wakes to find that Goldfinger is going to take him up on his offer after all, however. Bond becomes Goldfinger's prisoner and secretary (the unlikelihood of which led to a recurrent joke in the spoof Austin Powers
films). While working at this job he finds out about "Operation Grand Slam." This is Goldfinger's codename for his scheme that involves "knocking off" the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox
, Kentucky
. Through the use of a nerve agent (GB, also known as Sarin
), Goldfinger plans to poison the water supply at Fort Knox, killing everyone at the base. From there, Goldfinger would use an atomic bomb designed for a Corporal Intermediate Range Guided Missile that he had purchased for one million USD in Germany, to blow open Fort Knox's impregnable vault. With the help of American gangsters, Goldfinger would then remove roughly $15 billion in gold bullion by truck and train, and escape to the Soviet Union
on a cargo boat.
(After publication of the novel, the details of "Operation Grand Slam" were questioned, with critics noting it would have taken hours if not days to remove $15 billion from Fort Knox, during which the U.S. Army would inevitably intervene. The issue of getting every soldier on the base to drink the poisoned water without an alarm was also raised. A final problem that was the "clean" atomic bomb, tactical or not, in all likelihood would not only have annihilated the vault. Consequently, the film uses a different plan: The bomb is dirty
, and the destruction and contamination of the gold, not its theft, is the objective, so that the value of Goldfinger's own gold would increase tenfold. The film points out logistical flaws in the novel's original plan during a confrontation between Goldfinger and Bond.)
Bond foils Goldfinger's plan by getting word to Felix Leiter
of the impending operation, by means of a message taped inside an airliner toilet. With the help of The Pentagon
, Leiter is able to stop Goldfinger and foil the operation. Goldfinger escapes, however.
377 Stratocruiser (service ceiling 32,000 ft), carrying Goldfinger's total savings of gold. The hijacked plane is headed for Soviet Union airspace. In the novel, Oddjob meets his end when he is sucked through an airliner window after Bond pierces it with a knife. Goldfinger then attacks Bond by kicking him. Bond and Goldfinger engage in a brief struggle, during which Bond is seized by a violent rage for the first time in his life, strangling Goldfinger to death. Bond then turns to the pilots and forces the airplane to turn back from its intended flightpath, and this causes it to ditch in the ocean after running out of fuel. The airplane sinks rapidly (presumably due to its payload of gold), with Bond and Goldfinger's pilot, Pussy Galore, as the only survivors.
. However, this secret smuggling operation drew suspicion from Colonel Smithers of the Bank of England
and it resulted in Bond being sent to investigate. Goldfinger is also an avid golf
er who plays with a Slazenger 1 golf ball
(changed from a Dunlop in the novel presumably for legal reasons). He is defeated, however, when he is tricked by Bond after attempting to cheat.
Auric Goldfinger owns many properties throughout the world including "Auric Enterprises, AG", which is the headquarters for most of his smuggling operations. Located in Switzerland
, it is where Bond is nearly cut in half by an industrial laser
when Goldfinger has him bound to a table.
The film also contains what are considered two of the most famous exchanges between Bond and a villain:
and
Goldfinger also owns a stud-farm in Kentucky
called "Auric Stud".
In the film, Felix Leiter says that Goldfinger is British, however this may simply mean he possesses British citizenship, judging by his accent and red-blond hair he is probably German by birth. Fröbe was chosen as the villain because producers Saltzman and Broccoli had seen his performance in a German thriller titled Es geschah am hellichten Tag
(It happened in broad daylight, 1958), which is based on the story Das Versprechen (The Pledge), by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
. In that film, Fröbe played a serial killer
named Schrott, who kills children to vent his frustrations with his domineering wife. Broccoli and Saltzman had seen the movie and decided upon the 'big bad German' for the role. In the film, Goldfinger reveals his fascination with Nazi gold when Bond tempts him to betting high stakes against a lost, historical Nazi gold bar, an incident not in the novel (the golf game is merely for a large amount of cash).
, penetrating the main storage building with the high powered laser, and detonating a dirty nuclear weapon
inside, thus contaminating the United States gold reserve and thereby dramatically increasing the value of his gold holdings (while also providing the Communist Chinese
, from whom Goldfinger has obtained the nuclear material, an opportunity to create economic chaos in the West).
. After Bond has boarded the plane and it has taken off, Goldfinger appears and announces his intention to kill him, but when Bond makes a grab for his golden pistol it goes off and shatters a window. In the fate suffered by his henchman Oddjob in the novel, he is sucked out of the cabin to his doom, but Bond and Pussy Galore (the pilot) manage to escape the plane just before it crashes into the ocean, parachuting to safety on an island. Before parachuting from the plane, Pussy inquires about Goldfinger's fate, prompting Bond to quip that he's "playing his golden harp."
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
and the main antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
in the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film
Goldfinger (film)
Goldfinger is the third spy film in the James Bond series and the third to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1964, it is based on the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film also stars Honor Blackman as Bond girl Pussy Galore and Gert Fröbe as the title...
and novel Goldfinger. His first name, Auric
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
, is an adjective meaning of gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
. Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
chose the name to commemorate the architect Ernő Goldfinger
Erno Goldfinger
Ernő Goldfinger was a Hungarian-born Jewish architect and designer of furniture, and a key member of the architectural Modern Movement after he had moved to the United Kingdom.-Biography:Goldfinger was born in Budapest...
, who had built his home in Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
, near to Fleming's; it is possible, though unlikely, that he disliked Goldfinger's style of architecture and destruction of Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
terraces and decided to name a memorable villain after him. According to a 1965 Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
article and The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, the Goldfinger persona was based on gold mining magnate Charles W. Engelhard, Jr.
Charles W. Engelhard, Jr.
Charles W. Engelhard, Jr. was an American businessman who controlled an international mining and metals conglomerate, as well as a major owner in Thoroughbred horse racing, and a candidate in the 1955 New Jersey State Senate Elections.Engelhard made his fortune in the precious metals industry,...
In 2003, the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
declared Auric Goldfinger the 49th greatest villain in the past 100 years of film
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains is a list of the 100 greatest screen characters chosen by American Film Institute in June 2003. It is part of the AFI 100 Years… series. The series was first presented in a CBS special hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger...
. In a poll on IMDb, Auric Goldfinger was voted the most sinister James Bond villain, beating out in order Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Ernst Stavro Blofeld is a fictional character and a supervillain from the James Bond series of novels and films, who was created by Ian Fleming and Kevin McClory. An evil genius with aspirations of world domination, he is the archenemy of the British Secret Service agent James Bond and is arguably...
, Dr. No, Max Zorin
Max Zorin
Max Zorin is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the James Bond film A View to a Kill. He was portrayed by Academy Award winner Christopher Walken...
, and Emilio Largo
Emilio Largo
Emilio Largo is a fictional character and the main antagonist from the James Bond novel Thunderball. In the novel he is depicted, according to the British stereotypes about Italians, as a large, heavyset, olive-skinned, powerful man exuding animal charm, with the profile of a Roman emperor, and...
. Wizard Magazine listed Auric Goldfinger as the 91st greatest villain of all time.
Auric Goldfinger was played by German actor Gert Fröbe
Gert Fröbe
Karl Gerhart Fröbe, better known as Gert Fröbe was a German actor who starred in many films, including the James Bond film Goldfinger as Auric Goldfinger, The Threepenny Opera as Peachum, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as Baron Bomburst, and in Der Räuber Hotzenplotz as Hotzenplotz.-Life:Born in...
. Goldfinger was banned in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
after it was revealed that Fröbe had been a member of the Nazi party during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The ban, however, was lifted many years later when a Jewish family publicly thanked Fröbe for protecting them from persecution during the war.
Gert Fröbe, who did not speak English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
well, was dubbed in the film by Michael Collins, an English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
actor. In the German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
version, Fröbe dubbed himself back again. Of his role as Goldfinger, Fröbe later remarked: "I am a big man, and I have a laugh to match my size. The ridiculous thing is that since I played Goldfinger in the James Bond film there are some people who still insist on seeing me as a cold, ruthless villain - a man without laughs."
Novel biography
In the novel, Auric Goldfinger is a 42-year-old expatriateExpatriate
An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...
who emigrated at age 20 in 1937 from Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
. He is 5 feet (152 cm) tall, has blue eyes, red hair, and has a passion for his tan.
Goldfinger's name was borrowed from Ian Fleming's neighbour in his Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
home, architect Ernő Goldfinger
Erno Goldfinger
Ernő Goldfinger was a Hungarian-born Jewish architect and designer of furniture, and a key member of the architectural Modern Movement after he had moved to the United Kingdom.-Biography:Goldfinger was born in Budapest...
, and his character bears some resemblance. Ernő Goldfinger consulted his lawyers when the book was published, prompting Fleming to suggest renaming the character "Goldprick", but Goldfinger eventually settled out of court in return for his legal costs, six copies of the novel, and an agreement that the character's first name 'Auric' would always be used. Goldfinger is typically a German-Jewish name, and the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
s of the novel know this, but neither Bond nor Mr. Du Pont think Goldfinger is Jewish. Instead, Bond pegs the red-haired, blue-eyed man as a Balt
Balts
The Balts or Baltic peoples , defined as speakers of one of the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family, are descended from a group of Indo-European tribes who settled the area between the Jutland peninsula in the west and Moscow, Oka and Volga rivers basins in the east...
. And, indeed, Goldfinger proves an expatriate Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
n.
Now a UK commonwealth citizen naturalised to Nassau
Nassau, Bahamas
Nassau is the capital, largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has a population of 248,948 , 70 percent of the entire population of The Bahamas...
, he has become the richest man in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, though his wealth is not in English banks and he hasn't paid taxes on it. Rather, it is spread as gold bullion in many countries. Goldfinger is the treasurer of SMERSH
SMERSH (James Bond)
SMERSH is a Soviet counterintelligence agency featured in Ian Fleming's early James Bond novels as agent 007's nemesis. СМЕРШ is an acronym from two Russian words: "SMERt' SHpionam" meaning "Death to Spies"...
, Bond's nemesis. Goldfinger fancies himself an expert pistol shot who never misses, and always shoots his opponents through the right eye. He tells Bond he has done so with four Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
heads at the end of the novel.
Goldfinger is obsessed with gold, going so far as to have yellow-bound erotic photographs, and have his lovers painted head to toe in gold so that he can make love to gold. (He leaves an area near the spine unpainted, but painting this area also is what kills Jill Masterton, as in the film). He is also a jeweller, a metallurgist, and a smuggler.
When Goldfinger first meets Bond in Miami, he claims that he is agoraphobic
Agoraphobia
Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder defined as a morbid fear of having a panic attack or panic-like symptoms in a situation from which it is perceived to be difficult to escape. These situations can include, but are not limited to, wide-open spaces, crowds, or uncontrolled social conditions...
; a ploy to allow him to cheat a previous acquaintance of Bond's at a game of two-handed Canasta
Canasta
Canasta is a card game of the rummy family of games believed to be a variant of 500 Rum. Although many variations exist for 2, 3, 5 or 6 players, it is most commonly played by four in two partnerships with two standard decks of cards. Players attempt to make melds of 7 cards of the same rank and...
. Bond figures out how Goldfinger is managing this, and blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
s him by forcing him to admit his deception. This incident also establishes Goldfinger as boundlessly greedy - as whatever sums he can gain by this elaborate cheating are negligible compared with what he already has in his possession.
Goldfinger is also an avid golfer, but is known at his club for being a smooth cheater there, also. When Bond contrives to play a match with Goldfinger, he again cheats the cheater by switching Goldfinger's Dunlop
Dunlop Sport
Dunlop Sport is a tennis, squash, golf, badminton, clothing, travel and bicycle equipment brand, that specializes in sporting goods.After Dunlop Holdings was acquired by BTR plc in 1985, Dunlop Sport was combined with the Slazenger brand which Dunlop had acquired in 1959 to form Dunlop Slazenger...
1 golf ball with a Dunlop 7 he had found while playing.
In both the novel and film, Goldfinger is aided in his crimes by his manservant, Oddjob, a mute
Mute
Mute may refer to:* Muteness, a speech disorder in which a person lacks the ability to speak* Mute, a silent letter in phonology* Mute , an upcoming sequel to the movie Moon...
, monstrously strong Korean
Korean people
The Korean people are an ethnic group originating in the Korean peninsula and Manchuria. Koreans are one of the most ethnically and linguistically homogeneous groups in the world.-Names:...
who ruthlessly eliminates any threat to his employer's affairs.
Goldfinger is the owner of "Enterprises Auric A.G." in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, maker of metal furniture, which is purchased by many airlines including Air India
Air India
Air India is the flag carrier airline of India. It is part of the government of India owned Air India Limited . The airline operates a fleet of Airbus and Boeing aircraft serving Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. Its corporate office is located at the Air India Building at Nariman...
. Twice a year, Goldfinger drives his vintage Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost
Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost
The Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost refers both to a car model and to one specific car from that series.Originally named the "40/50 h.p." the chassis was originally produced at Royce's Manchester works, before moving to Derby in July 1908 and also, between 1921 and 1926, in Springfield, Massachusetts....
car from England to Enterprises Auric. Bond learns that Goldfinger makes dead drop
Dead drop
A dead drop or dead letter box is a method of espionage tradecraft used to pass items between two individuals by using a secret location and thus does not require them to meet directly. Using a dead drop permits a Case Officer and his Agent to exchange objects and information while maintaining...
s of gold bars for SMERSH along the way, and that his car's bodywork is 18 carat (75%), solid white gold under the ploy that the added weight is armour plating. Once at Enterprises Auric, his car is stripped down, melted and made into seating for an airline company that Enterprises Auric is heavily invested in. The plane(s) are then flown to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
where the seats are melted down again into gold bars and sold for a much higher premium rate; 100 to 200 percent profit.
Operation Grand Slam
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
d at the same time, as Oddjob works his pressure points. He offers to work for Goldfinger in exchange for his life, but Goldfinger initially refuses to spare his prisoner as Bond blacks out.
He wakes to find that Goldfinger is going to take him up on his offer after all, however. Bond becomes Goldfinger's prisoner and secretary (the unlikelihood of which led to a recurrent joke in the spoof Austin Powers
Austin Powers (film series)
The Austin Powers series is a series of action-comedy films written by and starring Mike Myers as the title character, directed by Jay Roach and distributed by New Line Cinema...
films). While working at this job he finds out about "Operation Grand Slam." This is Goldfinger's codename for his scheme that involves "knocking off" the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox
Fort Knox
Fort Knox is a United States Army post in Kentucky south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. The base covers parts of Bullitt, Hardin, and Meade counties. It currently holds the Army Human Resources Center of Excellence to include the Army Human Resources Command, United States Army Cadet...
, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
. Through the use of a nerve agent (GB, also known as Sarin
Sarin
Sarin, or GB, is an organophosphorus compound with the formula [2CHO]CH3PF. It is a colorless, odorless liquid, which is used as a chemical weapon. It has been classified as a weapon of mass destruction in UN Resolution 687...
), Goldfinger plans to poison the water supply at Fort Knox, killing everyone at the base. From there, Goldfinger would use an atomic bomb designed for a Corporal Intermediate Range Guided Missile that he had purchased for one million USD in Germany, to blow open Fort Knox's impregnable vault. With the help of American gangsters, Goldfinger would then remove roughly $15 billion in gold bullion by truck and train, and escape to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
on a cargo boat.
(After publication of the novel, the details of "Operation Grand Slam" were questioned, with critics noting it would have taken hours if not days to remove $15 billion from Fort Knox, during which the U.S. Army would inevitably intervene. The issue of getting every soldier on the base to drink the poisoned water without an alarm was also raised. A final problem that was the "clean" atomic bomb, tactical or not, in all likelihood would not only have annihilated the vault. Consequently, the film uses a different plan: The bomb is dirty
Dirty bomb
A dirty bomb is a speculative radiological weapon that combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. The purpose of the weapon is to contaminate the area around the explosion with radioactive material, hence the attribute "dirty"....
, and the destruction and contamination of the gold, not its theft, is the objective, so that the value of Goldfinger's own gold would increase tenfold. The film points out logistical flaws in the novel's original plan during a confrontation between Goldfinger and Bond.)
Bond foils Goldfinger's plan by getting word to Felix Leiter
Felix Leiter
Felix Leiter is a fictional CIA agent created by Ian Fleming in the James Bond series of novels and films. In both, Leiter works for the CIA and assists Bond in his various adventures as well as being his best friend. In further novels Leiter joins the Pinkerton Detective Agency and in the film...
of the impending operation, by means of a message taped inside an airliner toilet. With the help of The Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
, Leiter is able to stop Goldfinger and foil the operation. Goldfinger escapes, however.
Conclusion
Later, Goldfinger and his henchman learn from SMERSH who Bond is, and determine to take him with them in defecting to the Soviet Union. They pose as doctors to incapacitate crew and passengers (including Bond) with drugged inoculations. Then they hijack the BOAC BoeingBoeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
377 Stratocruiser (service ceiling 32,000 ft), carrying Goldfinger's total savings of gold. The hijacked plane is headed for Soviet Union airspace. In the novel, Oddjob meets his end when he is sucked through an airliner window after Bond pierces it with a knife. Goldfinger then attacks Bond by kicking him. Bond and Goldfinger engage in a brief struggle, during which Bond is seized by a violent rage for the first time in his life, strangling Goldfinger to death. Bond then turns to the pilots and forces the airplane to turn back from its intended flightpath, and this causes it to ditch in the ocean after running out of fuel. The airplane sinks rapidly (presumably due to its payload of gold), with Bond and Goldfinger's pilot, Pussy Galore, as the only survivors.
Associates
In addition to Henchmen, Goldfinger enlists the help of several American gangsters:- Helmut M. Springer — The Purple GangThe Purple GangThe Purple Gang, also known as the Sugar House Gang, were a mob with predominantly Jewish members of bootleggers and hijackers in the 1920s, operating out of Detroit, Michigan, which was a major port for running alcohol products during Prohibition due to proximity to Canada.Many openly violent...
(Detroit) (This gang is not fictional, but existed historically).- Springer backs out of the deal and does not participate in Goldfinger's Operation Grand Slam. Moments later, Springer has an "accident", falling down the staircase as he is leaving. In fact, he and his bodyguard are killed by Oddjob.
- Jed Midnight — Shadow Syndicate (Miami, HavanaHavanaHavana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
) - Billy (The Grinner) Ring — The Machine (ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
) - Jack Strap — The Spangled Mob (Las VegasLas Vegas, NevadaLas Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
); see Diamonds Are ForeverDiamonds Are Forever (film)Diamonds Are Forever is the seventh spy film in the Eon Productions James Bond series, and the sixth and final Eon Productions film to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film is based on Ian Fleming's 1956 novel of the same name, and is the second of four James Bond films... - Mr. Solo — Unione Siciliano (the MafiaMafiaThe Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
) - Miss Pussy Galore — The Cement Mixers (HarlemHarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
) The Cement Mixers had previously been a band of all-female acrobats headed by trapezeTrapezeA trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances...
artist Pussy Galore, called Pussy Galore and the Abrocats. When their act failed, they had become cat-burglars. Pussy in Fleming's novel is openly lesbianLesbianLesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, but is ultimately seduced by Bond.
Goldfingerisms from the novel
- "Money is an effective winding sheet."
- "The safest way to double your money is to fold it twice and put it in your pocket."
- "Laws are the crystallised prejudices of society."
- "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action." (Attributed as a saying in ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and used in three sections also as titles for the novel's three main sections.) - "Riches may not make you friends, but they greatly increase the quality of your enemies."
Film biography
In the film, Goldfinger is a gold smuggler, accomplishing this feat by having a car built with gold body castings and transporting it via airplane. Once the car arrives at its destination, Goldfinger has the body-work re-smeltedSmelting
Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...
. However, this secret smuggling operation drew suspicion from Colonel Smithers of the Bank of England
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...
and it resulted in Bond being sent to investigate. Goldfinger is also an avid golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
er who plays with a Slazenger 1 golf ball
Golf ball
A golf ball is a ball designed to be used in the game of golf.Under the Rules of Golf, a golf ball weighs no more than 1.620 oz , has a diameter not less than 1.680 in , and performs within specified velocity, distance, and symmetry limits...
(changed from a Dunlop in the novel presumably for legal reasons). He is defeated, however, when he is tricked by Bond after attempting to cheat.
Auric Goldfinger owns many properties throughout the world including "Auric Enterprises, AG", which is the headquarters for most of his smuggling operations. Located in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, it is where Bond is nearly cut in half by an industrial laser
Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
when Goldfinger has him bound to a table.
The film also contains what are considered two of the most famous exchanges between Bond and a villain:
- Bond: "I think you made your point. Thank you for the demonstration."
- Goldfinger: "Choose your next witticism carefully, Mr. Bond. It may be your last."
and
- Bond: "Do you expect me to talk?"
- Goldfinger: "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die."
Goldfinger also owns a stud-farm in Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
called "Auric Stud".
In the film, Felix Leiter says that Goldfinger is British, however this may simply mean he possesses British citizenship, judging by his accent and red-blond hair he is probably German by birth. Fröbe was chosen as the villain because producers Saltzman and Broccoli had seen his performance in a German thriller titled Es geschah am hellichten Tag
Es geschah am hellichten Tag
Es geschah am hellichten Tag is the title of a 1958 Swiss suspense film directed by Ladislao Vajda. In 1997, it was remade under the same title as a German TV film, directed by Nico Hoffmann. There was also a Dutch remake of the film, by Rudolf Van Den Berg, under the title The Cold Light of Day...
(It happened in broad daylight, 1958), which is based on the story Das Versprechen (The Pledge), by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Friedrich Dürrenmatt was a Swiss author and dramatist. He was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author's work included avant-garde dramas, philosophically deep crime novels, and often macabre satire...
. In that film, Fröbe played a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
named Schrott, who kills children to vent his frustrations with his domineering wife. Broccoli and Saltzman had seen the movie and decided upon the 'big bad German' for the role. In the film, Goldfinger reveals his fascination with Nazi gold when Bond tempts him to betting high stakes against a lost, historical Nazi gold bar, an incident not in the novel (the golf game is merely for a large amount of cash).
Scheme
Goldfinger's film scheme, codenamed "Operation Grand Slam", involves breaking into the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort KnoxFort Knox
Fort Knox is a United States Army post in Kentucky south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. The base covers parts of Bullitt, Hardin, and Meade counties. It currently holds the Army Human Resources Center of Excellence to include the Army Human Resources Command, United States Army Cadet...
, penetrating the main storage building with the high powered laser, and detonating a dirty nuclear weapon
Dirty bomb
A dirty bomb is a speculative radiological weapon that combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. The purpose of the weapon is to contaminate the area around the explosion with radioactive material, hence the attribute "dirty"....
inside, thus contaminating the United States gold reserve and thereby dramatically increasing the value of his gold holdings (while also providing the Communist Chinese
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, from whom Goldfinger has obtained the nuclear material, an opportunity to create economic chaos in the West).
Death
After his plan to contaminate the gold is thwarted, Goldfinger tricks Bond into getting onto his private jet as it takes off for CubaCuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. After Bond has boarded the plane and it has taken off, Goldfinger appears and announces his intention to kill him, but when Bond makes a grab for his golden pistol it goes off and shatters a window. In the fate suffered by his henchman Oddjob in the novel, he is sucked out of the cabin to his doom, but Bond and Pussy Galore (the pilot) manage to escape the plane just before it crashes into the ocean, parachuting to safety on an island. Before parachuting from the plane, Pussy inquires about Goldfinger's fate, prompting Bond to quip that he's "playing his golden harp."
Henchmen
- Oddjob
- Pussy Galore and Pussy Galore's Flying Circus
- Kisch
- Mr. Ling
- Goldfinger's private army of Korean foot soldiers with light blue jumpsuits and gold cummerbundCummerbundA cummerbund is a broad waist sash, usually pleated, which is often worn with single-breasted dinner jackets . The cummerbund was first adopted by British military officers in colonial India as an alternative to a waistcoat, and later spread to civilian use...
armed with Karabiner 98kKarabiner 98kThe Karabiner 98 Kurz was a bolt action rifle chambered for the 8x57mm IS/7.92×57mm IS cartridge that was adopted as the standard service rifle in 1935 by the German Wehrmacht. It was one of the final developments in the long line of Mauser military rifles...
rifles and MP 40 submachine gunSubmachine gunA submachine gun is an automatic carbine, designed to fire pistol cartridges. It combines the automatic fire of a machine gun with the cartridge of a pistol. The submachine gun was invented during World War I , but the apex of its use was during World War II when millions of the weapon type were...
s.
Goldfinger's golden motifs
- In the novel Goldfinger has a yellow-jacketed pornographic book and gold-painted prostitutes, a yellow-painted car, yellow briefs for sunbathing, a blonde secretary, and a ginger-coloured cat (which is eaten by Oddjob). He employs KoreaKoreaKorea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
n servants who are repeatedly referred to as "yellow-faced." In compensation, the film adds many similar motifs by making Goldfinger's female henchwomen in the film (save his jet stewardess, who is Korean) red-blonde, or blonde, including Pussy and all of her crew (both Tilly Masterson and Pussy specifically have black hair in the novel). Goldfinger also sports yellow or golden items of clothing in every film scene, including a golden pistol when disguised as a Colonel. Goldfinger's factory henchmen in the film wear yellow sashes, Pussy at one point wears a metallic gold vest, and Pussy's pilots wear yellow sunburst insignia on their uniforms. A bit of Goldfinger's homage to gold ("I love its colour, its brilliance, its divine heaviness") is one of few dialogue lines from the novel to be kept relatively intact in the film. - Goldfinger's Rolls-Royce Silver GhostRolls-Royce Silver GhostThe Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost refers both to a car model and to one specific car from that series.Originally named the "40/50 h.p." the chassis was originally produced at Royce's Manchester works, before moving to Derby in July 1908 and also, between 1921 and 1926, in Springfield, Massachusetts....
of the novel is particularly appropriate for a personal armoured car capable of carrying heavy white-gold armour (which would have appeared silver), as some of this model was converted to the Rolls-Royce Armoured CarRolls-Royce Armoured CarThe Rolls-Royce armoured car was a British armoured car developed in 1914 and used in World War I and in the early part of World War II.-Production history:...
during and after W.W. I. This car is replaced in the film with a newer (1937) yellow-painted Rolls Royce Phantom III with "18 kt. gold bodywork." The license plate of this car is AU 1. - In the novel, Goldfinger may even eat and drink gold. At his house, Goldfinger and Bond dine on cheese soufflé, and curry (which in pre-1970 Britain referred to a dish coloured yellow with turmeric; see British section in Curry#British cuisine), and Bond drinks PiesporterPiesporterPiesporter is a term used to describe a wine made in and around the village of Piesport on the north bank of the Mosel wine region of Germany. A white, light body wine that ranges from dry to off-dry, it can be made from Riesling, Müller-Thurgau or Elbling grapes.The wine often has a Qualitätswein...
Goldtröpfchen wine (named for town and vineyard, but like all white wines, gold in colour).
Goldfinger in popular culture, and appearance in later fictional works and games
- He is parodied in Austin Powers in GoldmemberAustin Powers in GoldmemberAustin Powers in Goldmember is a 2002 American spy comedy film and the third installment of the Austin Powers series starring Mike Myers in the title role. The movie was directed by Jay Roach, and co-written by Mike Myers and Michael McCullers. Myers also plays the roles of Dr. Evil, Goldmember,...
as the titular Dutch villainGoldmemberJohan van der Smut, better known as Goldmember, is a fictional agent in the third film of the Austin Powers trilogy, Austin Powers in Goldmember. He is played by Mike Myers. The character was partially inspired by the James Bond's Auric Goldfinger...
, whose trademark was to paint his enemies' genitalia gold, for he himself lost his genitalia in an "unfortunate smeltingSmeltingSmelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...
incident". His accent was actually German. - Los Angeles ska-punk band GoldfingerGoldfinger (band)Goldfinger is a Los Angeles pop punk/ska punk band that formed in 1994. Currently, the band is composed of vocalist/guitarist John Feldmann, guitarist Charlie Paulson, bassist Kelly LeMieux, and drummer Darrin Pfeiffer...
got its name from the character. - Goldfinger and Oddjob are referenced in The New Traveller's AlmanacThe New Traveller's AlmanacThe New Traveller's Almanac was a series of writings included in the back of all six issues of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II, covering the timeline and the world of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen....
that appears in the back of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IIThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IIThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II is a comic book limited series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, published under the America's Best Comics imprint of DC Comics...
comic book. - Auric Goldfinger and Oddjob are multiplayer characters in the video game Nightfire. They are brought back to life in the 2004 Electronic ArtsElectronic ArtsElectronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
video game GoldenEye: Rogue AgentGoldenEye: Rogue AgentGoldenEye: Rogue Agent is a 2004 action-adventure Science-Fiction First-Person Shooter video game, developed and published by Electronic Arts. Despite it is set in an alternate timeline of James Bond universe, the player takes the role of an ex-MI6 agent who is recruited by Auric Goldfinger, a...
. In the game, Goldfinger recruits the protagonist, GoldenEye, a former secret agent ousted by MI6. Goldfinger is also an ally of Francisco ScaramangaFrancisco ScaramangaFrancisco Scaramanga is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the James Bond film and novel The Man with the Golden Gun. The film was so named because it described Scaramanga's possession of a golden gun....
, the villain of The Man with the Golden GunThe Man with the Golden Gun (novel)The Man with the Golden Gun is the twelfth novel of Ian Fleming's James Bond series of books. It was first published by Jonathan Cape in the UK on 1 April 1965, eight months after the author's death. The novel was not as detailed or polished as the others in the series, leading to poor but polite...
and the SPECTRESPECTRESPECTRE is a fictional global terrorist organisation featured in the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, the films based on those novels, and James Bond video games...
organization. In the game, Goldfinger's scientists develop what is considered to be the deadliest weapon known to mankind: the O.M.E.N. (Organic Mass Energy Neutralizer), and plan to use it against Dr. No's forces. He is killed when, after having betrayed GoldenEye and Scaramanga and taken over his volcano lair, GoldenEye and Scaramanga make use of a computer virus to overload the O.M.E.N. Goldfinger (along with Dr. No) also makes a minor appearance as an unlockable character in the multiplayer mode of 2005 video game From Russia With Love. - Goldfinger also appears in the animated series James Bond Junior, in which he has a teenaged daughter, Goldie, who is as greedy and ruthless as her father.
- Auric Goldfinger came 10th place in the 2002 Forbes Fictional 15Forbes Fictional 15The Forbes Fictional 15 is a list generated by Forbes magazine that lists the 15 richest people in the realm of fiction. The members are characters from movies, books, cartoons, television, video games, and comics....
.