Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman)

Pussy Galore
Character information
Hair	Blonde, shoulder-length
Eyes	Blue
Nationality	British
Occupation	Pilot to Auric Goldfinger Leader of the Pussy Galore's Flying Circus
Affiliation	Auric Enterprises, Pussy Galore's Flying Circus
Status	Unknown
Behind the scenes
Role	Bond girl, Henchman, Ally
Portrayed by	Honor Blackman, Jeannie Elias (voice), Natasha Little (voice)
First seen	Goldfinger (film)
Last seen	007 Legends

Pussy Galore: "My name is Pussy Galore."

James Bond: "I must be dreaming."

―Pussy Galore and James Bond

Pussy Galore is a pilot who appeared in EON Productions' 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger, portrayed by the late British actress Honor Blackman. The character is a cinematic adaptation of the literary character, who first appeared in Ian Fleming's 1958 novel Goldfinger. Pussy Galore subsequently appeared in the video games GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004) and 007 Legends (2012) with Blackman's likeness and voiced by Jeannie Elias and Natasha Little respectively.

Biography

Background

Pussy Galore is the personal pilot of gold smuggler Auric Goldfinger and the leader of a female aviator team called the Pussy Galore's Flying Circus, who is in the employ of the billionaire. However, Pussy and the others members of this faction are involved in Goldfinger's "Operation Grand Slam" consists to infiltrate Fort Knox, being in charge to dispensing the Delta 9 Nerve Gas across the aera of the bank in order to kill 60,000 people. So, Goldfinger and his task force (led by Oddjob and Kisch) to smuggle an Atomic Bomb (created by Mr. Ling) into the vault. Such an action would make the gold radioactive and useless for 58 years, and that the value of Goldfinger's gold will increase many times, thus making Goldfinger the richest man in the world.

Goldfinger (film)

Pussy Galore first appears as the pilot aboard Goldfinger's private jet where James Bond, unconscious after being shot by Kisch with a tranquilizer gun, wakes up to see Pussy standing over him. After introducing herself, the woman informs him that he is not dead, and that he was merely shot with a tranquilizer gun. She threatens to use it again, suggesting that he instead relax, have a cocktail, and enjoy the flight. When the plane lands, Pussy escorts Bond to Goldfinger's stud farm in Kentucky where they see the Flying Circus pilots. Galore assures them that they will get their assignments tomorrow night. She then dismisses them for the day before transporting Bond to Goldfinger's ranch and locking him into a cell. However, Bond manages to escape, and overhears Goldfinger discussing Operation Grand slam with a group of Americans gangsters, learning of the plot. Pussy catches the spy and pulls his legs out from under him, putting him back in his cell.

Later on, as Goldfinger is having some mint juleps with Pussy, he notices two men with binoculars spying on the farm. He realizes that they must be friends of Bond, and decides to invite the British for a drink, so that everything will appear friendly, as if Bond were out of danger. So he tells Pussy to bring 007 out of his cell and entertain him. After a brief drink, Pussy takes Bond into a barn to keep up the pretence. Bond however, tries to seduce her into foiling Goldfinger's plan, and Pussy uses judo to trip him. The two engage in an entertaining judo back and forth, and eventually Bond gets the upper hand, and the two kiss. Pussy so turns against Goldfinger and has the Flying Circus to replace the nerve gas with a harmless one while alerting the U.S. government about Goldfinger's plan, arranging for soldiers at Fort Knox to fake being gassed, so that Goldfinger can be baited and captured.

After Bond and his American allies have managed to deactivate the bomb and therefore thwart Goldfinger's plans, Pussy is forced to serve as a pilot of a plane that 007 boarding to meet with the President at the White House and that Goldfinger has taking over in order to kill him personally. Fortunately, Bond manages to kill Goldfinger by sending him through the window after the cabin is depressurised before escaping with Pussy using a parachute. While Galore tries to wave to the helicopter looking for them, Bond dissuades her and sleeps with her.

It is unknown what happened to Pussy after this. She was possibly arrested for the involvement in Goldfinger's plot, although it is not confirmed.

Alternate continuities

Nightfire

In addition, Pussy Galore has appeared as a playable multiplayer character in the 2002 game Nightfire. and can be unlocked by entering CIRCUS in the secret unlocks.

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent

Promotional image of Pussy Galore in GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004).

Pussy Galore later appeared in the 2004 spin-off Bond game, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent. Set in an alternate timeline, with its focus on the underworld of a futuristic 007 universe, Galore is a former cat burglar, employed by Auric Goldfinger as his personal pilot. She participates in the underworld feud between Dr. Julius No and Goldfinger, assisting Goldfinger's golden-eyed enforcer by flying him into and out of various locations in her customised fuchsia pink helicopter. She is first introduced in the Swiss alps and airlifts GoldenEye to safety after the destruction of Auric Enterprises, taking him to their organisation's volcanic hub of global operations, known as "The Lair". There, she introduces him to the man who restored his sight; the organisation's scientific pipeline, Francisco Scaramanga.

She is subsequently sent to assist GoldenEye in Hong Kong during his mission to assassinate Dr. No. However, they are betrayed by his Triad contact Wu Li Yong and are attacked by Dr. No's forces. After surviving the double-cross, GoldenEye crosses the rooftops of Hong Kong and after several failed attempts to extract him, Galore narrowly succeeds in rescuing the enforcer using the aircraft's rope ladder. Shortly afterwards Dr. No launches an attack on Goldfinger's Midas casino in Las Vegas, hoping to procure the OMEN super-weapon locked away in its subterranean vault. Galore flies him from The Lair to the casino and later airlifts Oddjob and GoldenEye to safety after they activate the OMEN inside the vault - disintegrating Dr. No's forces. From there, she takes the pair to Dr. No's staging area at the Hoover Dam and provides a situation report to the enforcer.

Later after Goldfinger's death, she picks up Goldeneye and while the helicopter was on auto-pilot, they started having sex, which was witnessed by Blofeld and Scaramanga.

007 Legends

Galore also appears in 007 Legends, where the game depicts her in a role similar to the film, Goldfinger. Again, she is Goldfinger's personal pilot, but she ends up assisting Bond's entrance into Goldfinger's study and helps foil Goldfinger's Operation Grand Slam, the same operation described in the film, but was annoyed when Mr. Ling ignores her. She is also a secret playable character on the multiplayer mode.

Personality

A bold, bossy, rather intelligent, self-assured and inflexible woman, Pussy Galore supported Goldfinger in his aims without question and planned to take advantage of their wealth to move to an island in the Bahamas and live a primitive life once Operation Grand Slam was over. She thus appeared selfish and had little regard for all the lives threatened by her employer's plan and did not hesitate to contribute to it. Pussy also did her best to resist their attempts at seduction, but eventually betrayed Goldfinger after being seduced by Bond.

Behind the scenes

Producer Albert R. Broccoli said Honor Blackman was cast opposite Sean Connery in the Goldfinger on the basis of her success in the British television series The Avengers. However, Broccoli knew that most American audiences would not have seen the programme. The script was rewritten to show Blackman's judo abilities. The character's name follows in the tradition of other Bond girls names that are double entendres. Concerned about censors, the producers thought about changing the character's name to "Kitty Galore", but they and director Guy Hamilton decided "if you were a ten-year old boy and knew what the name meant, you weren't a ten-year old boy, you were a dirty little bitch. The American censor was concerned, but we got round that by inviting him and his wife out to dinner and [told him] we were big supporters of the Republican Party." During promotion, Blackman took delight in embarrassing interviewers by repeatedly mentioning the character's name. Whilst the American censors did not interfere with the name in the film, they refused to allow the name "Pussy Galore" to appear on promotional materials and for the US market she was subsequently called "Miss Galore" or "Goldfinger's personal pilot".

Gallery

Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman)/Gallery

Trivia

• Pussy Galore's name is parodied in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery as Alotta Fagina (Alotta Cleavage in the edited TV version). Her name is once again parodied in Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, as the titular villainess Kitty Galore, which was also considered as Pussy's name for the film. Her name was also spoofed on Saturday Night Live, in a skit where Bond contracted veneral disease and was ordered by a doctor to warn all the women he slept with. He is seen calling Pussy Galore, then remarks on hearing she is now a married woman "Oh, a married woman? It is Pussy Phillips now? Congratulations!"
• Pussy is one of the first Bond girls to reject Bond's advances, but eventually gave in.
• The character is lesbian (or possibly bisexual) in the book. At one point Pussy points out she is "immune" to Bond's charms, and she surrounds herself with women.
• In the novel, it is revealed that Pussy was sexually abused as a child by her uncle. While the film makes no such reference, Honor Blackman later said that she played Pussy as if she had been abused.
• The character, along with many other characters from previous 007 films, was featured in the opening sequence of 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
• Honor Blackman was thirty-nine years old when she played the role of Pussy making her the oldest Bond girl in the film series' history behind Lucia Sciarra in Spectre.

See also

• Pussy Galore
• Pussy Galore (Literary)
• Pussy Galore (World of Espionage)
• Pussy Galore (Rosamund Pike)