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"Man has climbed Mount Everest, gone to the bottom of the ocean. He has fired rockets to the moon. Split the atom. Achieved miracles in every field of human endeavour... except crime!"
― Auric Goldfinger[src]

Auric Goldfinger was a fictional bullion dealer, jeweller, metallurgist and international gold smuggler. The character was the titular main antagonist of EON Productions' 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger. Portrayed by the late German actor Gert Fröbe (voiced by Michael Collins), he was adapted from the literary character who first appeared in Ian Fleming's 1959 novel. Fröbe's Goldfinger has subsequently appeared in numerous video-games, most notably GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004) and 007 Legends (2012).

Biography[]

Background[]

"This is gold, Mr. Bond. All my life I've been in love with its color... its brilliance, its divine heaviness. I welcome any enterprice that will increase my stock."
― Auric Goldfinger to James Bond[src]

Auric Goldfinger is a British businessman with worldwide business connections. He is an officially licensed jeweler and gold dealer, which allows him to melt down certain amounts of registered gold and smelt it into new bars. Greedy beyond measure, however, Goldfinger uses his dealings with his society, Auric Enterprises, A.G, to smuggle gold on a large scale out of Great Britain. He does this by having the body of his Rolls Royce in eighteen-carat gold, weighing approximately two tons. Traveling to the country in question as a business trip, his men dismantle the vehicle at his enterprise's usine in Switzerland. They reduce the gold in a special furnace, which in turn are turned into gold ingots. Nevertheless, although he has had great success with this tactic, Goldfinger, in his boundless greed for gold, is in the epitome of committing a terrible crime that he has been planning for 15 years.

He plans to increase the value of his own gold tenfold by destroying the billions in gold reserves at the U.S. base Fort Knox with an Atomic Bomb made from China (on behalf of Mr. Ling, Goldfinger's nuclear specialist from China), which would render the gold useless and validate Goldfinger's value of gold, thus making him the richest man in the world. In preparation for this scheme, which Goldfinger has christened Operation Grand Slam, Goldfinger has borrowed various goods worth a million dollars from several Mafia groups in the United States. In order to be able to enter Fort Knox with his private army smuggled into the country in the first place, he has also had a poison gas developed, which is to be scattered over the base by his personal pilot Pussy Galore's flying squadron; even though this would mean the death of all the soldiers in the 41,000-strong protection force, as well as another 20,000 civilians.

As preparations for the Grand Slam enter their final phase, the self-satisfied Goldfinger continues to go about his business. He is always accompanied by his chamberdieener and henchman, the mute Oddjob. Besides continuing to smuggle gold, he also goes to the Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel in Miami, where he relaxes for a few days. Moreover, he uses the time to challenge another rich guest, Simmons, to a card game by the pool. Since he hates to lose, Goldfinger has placed on the balcony of his hotel room his aide-de-camp Jill Masterson, who can look into the cards of his opponent with binoculars.

Goldfinger (film)[]

Card Cheating Interrupted[]

GoldfingerLosesPoker

Goldfinger attempting to cheat at cards

Through a radio Goldfinger wears in his ear, he is told by Jill Masterson about Simmons' hand and therefore knows exactly how to play it. For a week, Goldfinger takes Simmons out at every opportunity until his "winning streak" turns when James Bond is sent to investigate Goldfinger and quickly recognizes his deception. Taking Masterson's radio, he threatens Goldfinger with the police and forcing him to forfeit $15,000 over the course of the game. In order to avoid being reported to the authorities, Goldfinger has to go along with the blackmail, but he had Oddjob knocking out Bond in his hotel suite and murdering Masterson by covered her in gold paint, killing her from "skin suffocation."

Golfing with James Bond[]

JamesBondAuricGoldfingerPlayingGolf

Goldfinger playing golf against James Bond

Following this, Goldfinger flies to Europe to pursue his business interests. However, James Bond is now only more determined to expose Goldfinger's smuggling activities and travels after Goldfinger, wanting to make official contact. He does this by visiting the golf club where Goldfinger is also a member and owner. Seemingly by chance, the two are then assigned as partners and play a game together, with Alfred Blacking setting up the meeting. As an avid golfer who plays with a Slazenger 1 golf ball, Goldfinger leads a high-stakes game but is ultimately defeated by Bond, however, when he is tricked by 007 after attempting to cheat with the help of Oddjob. The furious businessman then hisses Bond that they have now met twice and they should leave it at that. Before leaving, he nevertheless writes 007 the promised check, before having Oddjob demonstrate his Razor-Rimmed Hat as a warning to Bond.

Capture of James Bond[]

Goldfinger-Silk-Dinner-Jacket-3

Goldfinger considering killing James Bond

Goldfinger now flies on - pursued by James Bond - to Geneva, and although both Bond and the smoke-seeking Tilly Masterson can attest to this, they set off alarms as they flee. A chase ensues in which Tilly is killed by Oddjob and Bond is captured. Bond is brought before Goldfinger, whose research has by now made him realize that Bond is a secret agent. Therefore, he has Bond chained to a table and activates an Industrial Laser that slowly approaches to kill the British spy cruelly. However, 007 is able to save himself by bluffing, revealing that he knows about Goldfinger's company Grand Slam - he picked up the words incoherently at the factory - and that his people will strike immediately if he doesn't report back. Goldfinger, scowling, realizes that this could be true and that he must therefore keep Bond alive to prevent the secret services from foiling his plans. He therefore has Bond taken out with a stun gun and flown to America, where he is placed at Goldfinger's stud farm.

Operation Grandslam[]

After Goldfinger revealed his scheme to James Bond and killing the American gangsters for their uselessness, Bond convinces Pussy Galore to help him thwart Goldfinger's plans. To that end, she secretly called Washington and switched the Nerve Gas to a more harmless one that would send citizens into a temporary sleep. At Fort Knox, Goldfinger has Bond strapped to the Atomic Bomb and bids him farewell before learning out in horror that several U.S. soldiers have arrived to the scene. Posing as a U.S. army officer, Goldfinger betrays Mr. Ling by shooting him with his gold plated Colt Official Police, before also betraying Oddjob and Kisch by trapping them inside the vault with the bomb. Goldinger manages to escape after shooting down several U.S. soldiers while Oddjob stays behind to ensure that Goldfinger's plan must succeed, even at the cost of his life and killing Kisch to ensure that no one disarms the bomb. Though Bond manages to finish off Oddjob by electrocuting him, he has trouble trying to disarm the bomb. After the U.S. soldiers manage to finish the rest of Goldfinger's men, they get in their bomb expert to successfully disarm the bomb for good, thus foiling Goldfinger's plot.

Final Showdown and Death[]

DeathofGoldfinger

Goldfinger is sucked out of the depressurizing airplane.

Galore: "What happened? Where's Goldfinger?"
Bond: "Playing his golden harp."
―Goldfinger gets sucked out of his plane to his death.[src]

After the battle is won, James Bond was sent to Washington in a private jet to meet the president, only to find out that Goldfinger has boarded the plane earlier, left the tied-up pilots in the hangar and had Pussy Galore pilot the jet. Armed with his Colt Official Police, Goldfinger plans to finish off both Bond and Galore for ruining his plans, but during a moment of carelessness, Goldfinger was attacked by Bond and the two fight in the airplane. During the fight, Goldfinger accidentally shoots a window of the cabin and was sucked out of the plane before falling to his death.

Alternate Continuities[]

007 Legends - Goldfinger (1)

Goldfinger as he appears in 2012's 007 Legends.

Goldfinger appears as a playable multiplayer character in Nightfire and GoldenEye 007.

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent[]

In a continuity separate from any established canon, Auric Goldfinger was a criminal in an unnamed organization run by Ernst Stavro Blofeld. At some point the Secret Intelligence Service became aware of him, and began to use him in their training scenarios as the mastermind behind a scheme to destroy the global economy by irradiating the gold at Fort Knox. At some point, he extended an offer to join his services to an unnamed SIS agent. After a failed attempt at revenge on Goldfinger's coincidental rival Dr. Julius No, Goldfinger enlisted the agent, now christened GoldenEye, to secure the OMEN (Organic Mass Energy Neutralizer) device that Goldfinger's scientists had created at The Octopus, where he was met by No's forces, attempting to steal the device. Goldfinger planned to use The OMEN against Dr. No. He was eventually killed when GoldenEye and Scaramanga discovered his betrayal and used the OMEN against him.

007 Legends[]

The character also appeared in the 2012 video game 007 Legends, with the likeness of Gert Fröbe and voiced by Timothy Watson (who also provides the voice of Daniel Craig's Bond).

Personality[]

"Many people have tried to involve themselves in my affairs, unsuccessfully."
― Auric Goldfinger to James Bond[src]

Despite his jovial, polite and smiling appearance, Auric Goldfinger was in reality an extremely cruel, psychopathic,[1] ruthless, threatening, dangerous and anti-competitive businessman and criminal, willing to use any means necessary to achieve his ends, even to the point of manipulating world powers such as Communist China and the American gangster group. He was also remarkably cautious and calculating, carefully planning every detail of his plans and developing alternatives in case of problems, never leaving anything to chance, as the complexity of Operation Grand Slam showed. Moreover, when his plans were foiled by a recalcitrant enemy, Goldfinger was determined to pursue him relentlessly to make him pay for his actions, as he again tried to kill James Bond after his plan failed. As an extention of this trait, he was also very ruthless when dealing with recalcitrant enemies, as he immediately opted to have Bond killed rather than glean information from him. Intolerant of failure and insubordination, he had a habit of executing his own collaborators when they betrayed him or when they were no longer useful to him (as was the case with Jill Masterson and the aforementioned gangsters) and was willing to sacrifice even his most loyal henchmen, such as Oddjob and Kisch, if it would further his plans, having deliberately left them locked in the Fort Knox vault with Bond and the bomb in order to facilitate his escape. Goldfinger finally had a compulsive need to win at all costs as he always cheats in any competitions in he participates in whether is card games or golf and was therefore merciless to anyone, including Bond, who had the audacity to stand in his way.

Henchmen & Associates[]

Quotes[]

"Do you expect me to talk?"
"No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!
"
― James Bond and Auric Goldfinger[src]
"I will deal with her later. At the moment she is where she ought to be, at the controls."
― Auric Goldfinger to James Bond[src]

Behind the scenes[]

The first name of the character, 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 next door to Fleming; Fleming disliked Goldfinger's style of architecture and destruction of Victorian terraces and decided to name a memorable villain after him.[2] The architect was not pleased to find the character sharing his name and contacted his lawyers; he eventually settled for, among other things, the promise that the character's first name Auric would always be used. According to a 1965 Forbes article and The New York Times, the Goldfinger persona was based on gold mining magnate Charles W. Engelhard Jr.[3]

Orson Welles was considered as Goldfinger, but his financial demands were too high;[4] Theodore Bikel auditioned for the role but failed.[5] Fröbe was cast because the producers saw his performance as a child molester in the German film Es geschah am hellichten Tag.[6] Fröbe, who spoke little English, said his lines phoneticall but was too slow. To redub him, he had to double the speed of his performance to get the right tempo.[7] The only time his real voice is heard is during his meeting with members of the Mafia at Auric Stud. Bond is hidden below the model of Fort Knox whilst Fröbe's natural voice can be heard above. However, he was redubbed for the rest of the film by stage actor Michael Collins.[6]

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."[8] Goldfinger was temporarily banned in Israel because of Gert Fröbe's connections with the Nazi Party. The ban, however, was lifted many years later when a Jewish family publicly thanked Fröbe for protecting them from persecution during World War II.[9]

Gallery[]

Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe)/Gallery

Trivia[]

  • Auric Goldfinger is one of the most iconic Bond villains in history - due in part to the legendary "Goldfinger" theme, which has been considered by many as one of the best themes to any Bond film. He also was the first megalomaniacal villain to appear in the film series and formed a basis for future James Bond enemies. 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 (in order) Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Dr. Julius No, Max Zorin and Emilio Largo.[10] The sequence where Goldfinger has Bond strapped to a table with a laser and delivers the often homaged line "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die" was voted the number one best moment in the James Bond film franchise in a 2013 Sky Movies poll.<ref name="independent">
  • Goldfinger is the first main villain to appear that isn't affiliated with SPECTRE, and the only one to appear before Blofeld's defeat in Diamonds Are Forever.
  • Originally, the main villain in Diamonds Are Forever was supposed to be Goldfinger's twin brother, which would have again been played by Frobe. However, Frobe refused to return to the franchise under the impression that would have made the series campy and he felt that Goldfinger had had a strong exit. As a result, the villian was once again Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
  • In the original novel, Oddjob was killed by getting sucked out of the plane window whereas Goldfinger was strangled by Bond's bare hands.
    • This was changed due to how horribly violent slowly strangling someone to death with your bare hands would look on film and the film creators created the scene of Oddjob's death by electrocution was for the movie with Goldfinger being given his method of death instead.
  • Goldfinger's death in the film is foreshadowed by an earlier scene in which Bond tells Pussy Galore that if she shoots him while they are in the villain's jet, the bullet will pass through it and destroy a window, depressurizing the cabin and thus sucking them out. 007 also warns Goldfinger about the recklessness of firing a gun inside an airplane during their final confrontation, but the shot will still be fired during their subsequent confrontation, leading to the villain's demise.
  • In the original novel, Goldfinger's plan was to rob Fort Knox's gold depository, but this was changed in the movie after critics pointed out the flaws of said plan, most notably how would he get the hundreds of tons of gold out of Fort Knox? It took a lot of lorries and supply trains to get them there in real life.
    • Then again, the plan in the movie barely makes much more sense given that making Fort Knox's gold worthless would destroy the US economy and thus also dramatically lower the worth of Goldfinger's own gold.
      • In the film, Bond, under the assumption that Goldfinger's plan is the same as it was in the novel, even explains the unfeasibility of Operation: Grand Slam before learning Goldfinger's true intentions.
  • In the bonus features of 007 Legends, it is said that Goldfinger wanted to be remembered as the man who came up with the most daring bank robbery.
  • As 007 Legends points out, Goldfinger almost always wears yellow or gold colored clothes or a gold accessory like a gun.
  • He is one of the inspirations for the Austin Powers villain Goldmember, a Dutchman with a similar obsession with gold.
  • The American punk rock and ska punk band Goldfinger takes its name from the character.

See also[]

References[]

  1. (January 2014) "Psychopathy and the Cinema: Fact or Fiction?". Journal of Forensic Sciences 59 (1): 167–74. doi:10.1111/1556-4029.12359. PMID 24329037.
  2. Macintyre, Ben. "Was Ian Fleming the real 007?", News UK, 5 April 2008. 
  3. "Milestones", Time, March 15, 1971. 
  4. Bray, Christopher (2010). Sean Connery; The Measure of a Man. London: Faber and Faber, p.104. ISBN 978-0-571-23807-1. 
  5. (1998) The Essential Bond. London: Boxtree Ltd, p.37. ISBN 978-0-7522-2477-0. 
  6. 6.0 6.1 (2000). Behind the Scenes with 'Goldfinger' [DVD]. MGM/UA Home Entertainment Inc.
  7. "Bond: The Legend: 1962–2002", Empire, pp. 7–9. 
  8. Battersby, Matilda (2nd January 2013). 'No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die': Showdown between Goldfinger and Sean Connery voted greatest James Bond moment (English). The Independent.
  9. Lee Pffeifer. Goldfinger audio commentary. Goldfinger Ultimate Edition, Disk 1: MGM Home Entertainment.
  10. Movie, TV and Celebrity Polls.

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