Trivia - Goldfinger

Theodore Bikel was screen tested for the title role of James Bond.

Honor Blackman was the first Bond girl actress with a prior acting career. Blackman quit her role as Cathy Gale on "The Avengers" (1961) to appear in Goldfinger. A 1965 episode of "The Avengers" made sly reference to this by having John Steed receive a postcard from Cathy Gale - sent from Fort Knox.

Despite her impressive film debut as Tilly, this was model Tania Mallet's only major film appearance.

Nadja Regin (Bonita the nightclub dancer) previously appeared in From Russia with Love (1963).

Margaret Nolan (Dink) also appears in the opening credits sequence.

The opening credits include footage from Goldfinger, as well as from Dr. No (1962) (golf putt) and From Russia with Love (1963) (helicopter). One of the Goldfinger scenes shown (Bond visiting Q Branch) isn't actually in the movie.

The song "Goldfinger", rewritten as "Gold Label", was featured in a long-running series of cigarette commercials.

Actor Gert Fröbe spoke very little English, so actor Michael Collins dubbed his voice. In the film's trailer, however, Fröbe's own voice is heard when Goldfinger tells James, "Choose your next witticism carefully, Mr. Bond, it may be your last."

The producers wanted Orson Welles to play Auric Goldfinger, but Welles was too expensive. Then Gert Fröbe began arguing over his salary (he wanted 10% from the movie's earnings), prompting the producers to wonder whether Welles would have been cheaper after all.

Milton Reid lobbied for the role of Oddjob.

Jack Lord was approached to return as CIA agent Felix Leiter, but he declined. The role was recast, beginning a succession of different actors in the role (only David Hedison would play the role more than once).

Ian Fleming got the name "Goldfinger" from his hatred of Hungarian modernist architect Erno Goldfinger. Among other things Erno Goldfinger designed London's Trellick Tower, built in 1968.

Footage of a circling helicopter seen during the opening credits is from From Russia with Love (1963).

The villain's first name, Auric, is an adjective meaning 'of gold' (from the Latin word for gold, 'aurum').

First appearance of the Q-Branch workshop and its gadget testing gags.

Shirley Eaton underwent two hours of make-up application to become a gold painted corpse.

Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton) dies of "skin suffocation" by being coated in gold, a complication that, despite popular belief, has no basis in fact. In episode 3 of "MythBusters" (2003) (Discovery Channel) Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage tested this risk. Though skin occlusion did not affect Jamie's oxygen respiration, there was a spontaneous and potentially dangerous rise in blood pressure and the experiment was halted. However, a later test (this time with Adam being as the guinea pig) revealed no ill effects at all, suggesting that it may have been Jamie's own physiology that produced his odd results. At any rate, human skin plays little or no role in respiration.

The exchange between Bond and his caddy about Goldfinger's golf ball ("If that's his original ball, I'm Arnold Palmer.") had the caddy standing on the ball in the novel. This is switched so Bond hid the ball for the film as Harry Saltzman thought it would give Bond a more cheeky image.

The golf scenes in the film were shot at the Stoke Poges Golf Club in England, not far from Pinewood Studios. There is now a James Bond themed bar at the golf course.

After their golf match, 007 follows Goldfinger to the airport. The map on the scanner clearly shows Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England.

The aircraft (which has a profile similar to a Boeing 747) that transports Goldfinger and his car out of England is actually an Aviation Traders ATL-98 Carvair, which was a heavily modified Douglas DC-4. The 747 didn't make its first flight until 1969 but the Carvair entered service in 1962 (two years before Goldfinger).

Tilly Masterson's Ford Mustang was supposedly the first appearance by a Mustang in a major motion picture. The Mustang was introduced in April of 1964 and Goldfinger was released in December. Ford supplied many cars to the film including the CIA agents' Thunderbird, all of Goldfinger's goons cars, and the Lincoln Continental that is crushed.

The registration number of Goldfinger's car is AU 1.

As with many car shots in movies, the sun visors have been removed from Bond's Aston Martin, but the mounting holes were not covered and they are visible on the in car shots above the windscreen.

Bond's Aston Martin DB5 was actually two cars, one of which wasn't really a DB5 at all. The gadgets were built into a DB4 Vantage which Aston Martin had used as the prototype for the DB5 model, which went into production in 1963. A production DB5 was also supplied, for close-ups. It's easy to tell the two cars apart - the "gadget" car has a chrome trim around the rear number plate, the close-up car doesn't, the close-up car has orange reflectors on the front wings but the gadget car doesn't.

Although many of the locations in the film are American, Sean Connery never set foot in America during filming. All scenes where he's apparently in America were shot at Pinewood Studios, London.

In the novel, Pussy Galore is a lesbian, which is why she gives Bond the cold shoulder to start with.

Pussy Galore introduces herself to Bond, who replies "I must be dreaming." The original script had Bond replying "I know you are, but what's your name?" This was deemed too suggestive.

Look for a very young Garry Marshall (the successful future producer/director) as one of the American gangsters gathered to hear about "Project Grand Slam."

The typeface of "Pussy Galore's Flying Circus" on the banner is the same as that on Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Sean Connery hurt his back during the fight sequence with Oddjob in Fort Knox. The incident delayed filming and some say that Connery used the injury to get a better deal out of the producers for the next 007 film.

The producers had to pay for the Aston Martin, but after the success of the film, both at the box office and for the company, they never had to spend money on a car again.

The Aston Martin was originally supposed to release tacks to puncture the villains' tires. But the idea was discarded after the producers worried that children would start putting tacks in the road.

In the original cut of the film, the bomb's timer was stopped at 003, explaining Bond's line about "three more clicks." It was later changed to 007 for obvious reasons.

The sign on Ft. Knox bears the name "Gen. Russhon". Charles Russhon was the technical advisor for the film.

Goldfinger was intended to be lighter in tone and less political than the first two Bond films.

The original UK release ended with "James Bond will return in 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'" but by the time the film was released in America the decision had been made to make Thunderball next so the credits were changed accordingly.

It was the first Bond film to be released in the UK and USA the same year.

After the film was released, rumours circulated that Shirley Eaton had actually died on set, owing to the misconception that the gold paint caused asphyxiation.

"Goldfinger" was banned in Israel for many years after Gert Fröbe revealed he had been a member of the Nazi Party. The ban was lifted after a Jewish family came forward to praise Fröbe for protecting them from persecution during World War II.

The first Bond film to be shown on U.S. commercial TV, on Sunday, 17 September 1972, earning the highest Neilson ratings for a single movie on TV up to that time. 49% of the nation's viewers tuned in that night, and ABC-TV, which showed the film, would retain the exclusive commercial U.S. TV rights to the Bond series for the next 28 years.

Apparently, Connery has only ever seen the film twice - once at its premiere, and again several years later when his granddaughter insisted that he watch his favourite Bond film with her.

A survey in the early 1990s revealed that something like 80% of the movie going public had seen Goldfinger at least once.

Speaking to Robert Osborne of the Hollywood Reporter [12 April 1982], Broccoli named Goldfinger one of his favourite Bond films, alongside From Russia With Love [1963] and The Spy Who Loved Me [1977].