Goldfinger is a 1964 spy film and the third entry in the James Bond series from Eon Productions. Sean Connery stars again as MI6 agent James Bond alongside Honor Blackman, Gert Fröbe, and Shirley Eaton. Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman produced it, and Guy Hamilton directed, beginning what would become a four-film Bond directing career for him. The screenplay draws from Ian Fleming’s 1959 novel of the same name.

The story follows Bond as he investigates Auric Goldfinger, a fabulously wealthy gold trader whose scheme involves irradiating the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox with a nuclear device. Principal photography ran from January through July 1964 across locations in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and the United States.

Goldfinger played a defining role in establishing the template that subsequent Bond films would follow, introducing elaborate gadgetry, exotic settings, a lighter comedic tone, and a pre-credits sequence largely detached from the main narrative. It became the first Bond film to gross more than $100 million worldwide and reportedly recovered its entire budget within two weeks of release.

Gert Fröbe, who played Goldfinger, had only a limited grasp of English and delivered his dialogue primarily by learning it phonetically. British actor Michael Collins dubbed his voice in the final cut. It also emerged that Fröbe had been a member of the Nazi Party, which initially led to the film being prohibited in Israel. The ban was subsequently lifted after evidence came to light showing that Fröbe had sheltered Jewish people from the Gestapo during the war.

Harold Sakata, who played the lethal henchman Oddjob, had won a silver medal in weightlifting at the 1948 Olympics in London while competing for the United States. He was also a professional wrestler who had performed under the ring name Tosh Togo.

Shirley Bassey recorded the celebrated title song while watching the opening credits sequence to time her performance to the visuals. She held the final high note for an extended stretch and reportedly came close to fainting from the effort.

The Fort Knox sequences were never filmed at the actual location. Production designer Ken Adam constructed a detailed replica at Pinewood Studios at a reported cost of around £30,000. The gold bars were aluminum blocks finished with gold paint, and security personnel were reportedly posted around the set to watch over the props.

The laser scene, in which Bond finds himself on a table beneath a slowly advancing beam, was a departure from Fleming’s novel, where a buzz saw was used instead. The filmmakers dismissed the buzz saw as too familiar a device. During filming, a real acetylene torch was operated beneath the table while the laser effect was composited in afterward. The torch ran longer than Connery had been led to expect, which made his reaction on screen all the more convincing.

Although the story requires Bond to visit Miami and Kentucky, Connery never set foot in the United States during production. His American scenes were created entirely at Pinewood using sets and rear projection. Felix Leiter actor Cec Linder was the only principal cast member to shoot footage in Miami.

Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 came about almost by accident. The car in Fleming’s novels was a Bentley, but Aston Martin made the DB5 available to the production during pre-production and the filmmakers accepted. The vehicle became one of the most recognizable automobiles in cinema history and established a Bond-Aston Martin association that has continued through the franchise.

Connery had been losing his hair since his early twenties and wore a hairpiece throughout Goldfinger, continuing to do so in each of his subsequent Bond appearances.

The countdown on the bomb inside the Fort Knox vault was originally set to stop at 003. Producer Harry Saltzman reportedly had the number altered to 007 during post-production as a joke, which then fed directly into Bond’s line about Goldfinger nearly hitting the jackpot.

The film received broadly favorable notices and went on to become one of the most influential entries in the franchise. It was also the first Bond film to receive an Academy Award, winning the Oscar for Best Sound Effects. Thunderball followed as the next installment in 1965.