Third film, the budget for which was the same as the budget for the first two combined. Possibly due to that, this is also easily the most memorable of the series Additionally, the visual of the death of the girl at the outset of the story proper is one of the most memorable film moments. (NB: you cannot be killed by having your skin covered in paint, because it only closes the pores and thus only affects your complexion)

BOND #3: Goldfinger (1964)

The series has now hit its format for the future: massive sets, huge crowds of soldiers, gigantic models showing plans of criminal endeavours,æroplanes, cars aplenty, fisticuffs in moving vehicles (in the air, on the ground), world landmarks, several disparate nations, huge amounts of money, and Pussy Galore. Sadly, the ridiculous has also been introduced due to the large nature of the foregoing points.

This one has the pre-​title sequence that also sets the format for the series’ use of ‘warm-​up’ for the audience. Whoever it is that has the lair that Bond is blowing-​up isn’t important, nor is the reason they have a secret hideaway in the middle of a tank farm (and why they have one in one of the silos, for that matter). It’s a nice set, and it’s well-​designed, certainly, but it might be nice to have some sort of plot-​justification for the IT SURE DID GET BLOWED-​UP GOOD! aspect of the thing. The fact that it takes place in South America is particularly impenetrable, unless one does some research or happens across the point in the middle of a trivia list about the film.

The film is also the first in what we come to expect with format in that it starts – after the tank farm explosion and defeat of an enemy in a bathtub electrocution – with a really big title song (sung by Dame Shirley Bassey, as God intended it), with a scantily clad female involved in the visuals. Hubba hubba.

If anything could better exemplify the mid-​1960s, and the larger-​than-​life Space Age, I know it not.

For actual story-​telling, however, there’s more than a few plot holes which require some Spackle™.

Goldfinger (1964)

Directed by Guy Hamilton

Writing credits:
Screenplay by Richard Maibaum and Paul Dehn
based on the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming (uncredited)

BOND #3: the poor girl

This year, I’ve been watching DVDs from the library for a number of reasons, mostly to do with a combination of “filling in the gaps in my ‘pop culture’ knowledge”, as well as a concerted effort to better understand story editing by both watching a film and then re-​watching listening to people who have studied that particular movie for years in order to better appreciate the themes, plot construction, symbolism, and so on.

The process would be nothing without the secondary audio tracks. Sometimes it’s like having actually been through the film-​making process with the people involved.