Goldfinger’s 45th anniversary: even Michael Jackson wanted to get into the act?

Over at Examiner.com, they’re running a story saying Michael Jackson had wanted to perform the song Goldfinger. The quoted source for this? None other than Shirley Bassey, who became a star performing the title song of Goldfinger, first released in the U.K. in September 1964 and in the U.S. in December of that year.
A sample [...]

Goldfinger’s 45th anniversary: even Keith Olbermann gets into the act

Even Countdown With Keith Olbermann will remind you this is the 45th anniversary of Goldfinger.
One segment of the MSNBC news/commentary show is the “World’s Best Persons,” a kind of sequel to the program’s “World’s Worst Persons” segment. Often, the “Best Persons” segment is actually an opportunity for Olbermann to criticize.
On the Oct. 8 program, [...]

Automotive Traveler’s salute to Goldfinger

Automotive Traveler, a Web site that deals in auto-related matters, has its own salute to Goldfinger. Part of the post by Richard Truesdell deals with the sequence where 007’s Aston Martin makes short work of a brand new Ford Mustang:
“From Russia with Love” might be my favorite, “Goldfinger” was clearly the film where the series [...]

Goldfinger’s 45th anniversary: advertisers cash in

We were actually done with our series about Goldfinger’s 45th anniversary when we were reminded how advertisers cashed in on the third James Bond film.
For example, there was this Butterfinger commercial. (Thanks to the Rap Sheet blog for pointing this one out)

And don’t forget how Harold Sakata, who played Oddjob, was [...]

Goldfinger’s 45th anniversary (conclusion): the film’s legacy

This week marks the 45th anniversry of Goldfinger’s U.K. premier. What’s the film’s legacy? Try these on for size:
1. Most obvious, it was the first 007 mega-hit.
Dr. No and From Russia With Love had been successful, but Goldfinger turned 007 into a worldwide phenomenon. It set a record at the time for recouping its costs [...]

Goldfinger’s 45th anniversary (cont.): the first hit 007 song

Nearly 45 years after it was introduced, Goldfinger’s title song still resonates with the public. As we’ve written about before, the song was nearly killed because co-producer Harry Saltzman hated it. But there was no time to record a replacement. So it remained and became a big hit.
The previous 007 film, From Russia With Love, [...]

Goldfinger’s 45th anniversary (cont.): “That buzz saw must go”

We’ve previously written about British film historian Adrian Turner’s research into the writing of the film version of Goldfinger. One of the film’s most iconic scenes had its origin with the sentence, “That buzz saw must go.” It was followed by this observation: “It’s the oldest device in cheap melodrama.”
That was part of a memo [...]

Goldfinger’s 45th anniversary: the car that changed everything

Almost 45 years ago, when Goldfinger came out, part of the attraction was James Bond’s super car, the Aston Martin DB 5. The 007 film series was never the same.
In Ian Fleming’s 1959 novel, Bond had a choice of two cars from MI6’s motor pool: an Aston Martin DB III or a Jaguar 3.4. He [...]

Goldfinger’s 45th anniversary (cont.): Adapting the golf match

We’re about 10 days from the 45th anniversary of Goldfinger. One of the keys to the film was adapting an 18-hole golf match between James Bond and Auric Goldfinger. The golf match was one of the reasons why Goldfinger was Ian Fleming’s longest novels. Paring it down would help make the film version the shortest [...]

Countdown to Goldfinger’s 45th anniversary part III: even ESPN gets into the act

Goldfinger, the 007 movie about to celebrate its 45th anniversary, still is having an effect on popular culture. Consider ESPN’s Around The Horn.
On Thursday, the half-hour show of “competitive banter” featuring four sports columnists blathering about topics of the day featured a Goldfinger reference by host Tony Reali.
Reali awards points based on the arguments of [...]