Goldfinger
60th Anniversary
1964–2024

On January 9, 1964 it was announced in the UK press that Honor Blackman had been cast as Pussy Galore; then starring opposite Patrick Macnee in the popular ITV series The Avengers, her casting was front page news in the UK, although shortly before filming began on Goldfinger there was still some debate whether the name Pussy Galore would be used, and changing it to ‘Kitty Galore’ may avoid any censorship problems in certain territories.  All worries the producers had over using Fleming’s risqué name for the heroine of Goldfinger were quashed following Blackman’s meeting with HRH Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh at the premiere of the Doris Day comedy Move Over Darling (1964) at London’s ODEON Leicester Square on Monday, February 24, 1964. The meeting was reported by film critic Barry Norman with a front page photo in the next day’s Daily Mail under the headline “Pussy and the Prince” – if it was acceptable to British royalty the rest of the world would follow suit! English model Tania Mallet secured the role of Tilly Masterson, after testing for the role of Tatiana Romanova in From Russia With Love a year earlier; and Albert R. Broccoli was also convinced he had found the perfect Goldfinger following tests with German actor Gert Frobe in early January 1964. However, Frobe spoke little English and had learned his lines phonetically. When it was discovered that Frobe’s voice was unsuitable for use in the film he was later expertly re-voiced by English actor Michael Collins (1921-1979), although throughout filming Monica “Nikki” van der Zyl (1935-2021) acted as Frobe’s on-set dialogue coach. Nikki van der Zyl would herself also re-voice Shirley Eaton and Nadja Regin in Goldfinger (1964), and continued to do so with other actresses in the James Bond series until 1979. With the main cast assembled and a script finally polished, only one component was missing… Sean Connery.

Following his success in the first two James Bond films, which were filmed back-to-back, Sean Connery then made Woman of Straw (1964) opposite Italian star Gina Lollobrigida (1927-2023), and at that time was currently finishing production as the lead in Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie (1964) in Hollywood. Despite still being contracted to EON Productions, Connery began to flex his film star muscles, and insisted on a higher salary for Goldfinger when he saw what the producers were making following the runaway success of the first two James Bond films. Although announced as starring in Goldfinger, Connery told film critic Barry Norman in a report that appeared in the Daily Mail on February 8, 1964 that he had not yet agreed terms with the producers – going on to say: “I don’t want to go into details but it concerns my artistic control of the picture.”…adding “nothing is settled, as far as I am concerned.” Albert R. Broccoli had flown to Los Angeles with screenwriter Richard Maibaum to meet with Connery to discuss details regarding the screenplay, and at a meeting on February 3, 1964 the trio addressed the actors concerns over his character and tone of the script. Production on Goldfinger had begun on January 20, 1964 in Miami with Guy Hamilton, Harry Saltzman, and Production Designer Ken Adam; with cinematographer Ted Moore and a small unit filming at the Fontainebleau Hotel, and at an auto ‘graveyard’ for the scene where the deceased gangster Mr. Solo (Martin Benson) is crushed in a 1964 Lincoln Continental limousine.

Back in the UK Richard Maibaum and Paul Dehn worked together on revising the script to incorporate some of Sean Connery’s comments, and a new fourth and final draft was delivered on February 26, 1964. Filming on Goldfinger began at Pinewood Studios on March 9, 1964 – still without Sean Connery who was finishing Marnie in Hollywood – and included night scenes of the Aston Martin DB5 careering around the studio driveways standing in as Goldfinger’s Swiss factory ‘Auric Enterprises’, and some scenes from the pre-credit sequence involving stuntman Alf Joint as Mexican assassin Capungo. Clearly, Sean Connery did eventually agree terms with the producers and arrived on set on March 19, 1964 to complete the fight scene with Alf Joint. Film critic Barry Norman reported in the Daily Mail on May 8, 1964 that Sean Connery was now a member of a group of British actors who could command more than £100,000 for a film performance. Until this point Peter Sellers was the only British actor receiving such a sum for his films. Connery commented to Barry Norman: “I’ve a contract to do three more Bond pictures in the next 3½ years and I’m perfectly happy about it. It gives me the security for that time and also leaves me free to make other films for a great deal of money.” In reality the £100,000 was a bonus payment in US dollars (then equivalent to £35,714) in addition to the £22,500 salary he received. Connery’s agent Richard Hatton also negotiated 5% of the net profits of Goldfinger. Although the producers each received a similar up-front payment, they started out with 50% of the net profits, which had increased to 60% by the time of Goldfinger. Despite his contentment in 1964, Sean Connery would become less happy with his remuneration in relation to what the producers were making off him, and this led to further tension and re-negotiations between them in the following years. Connery had been paid £6,000 for his first appearance in Dr. No in 1962, followed by a fee of £24,325 for From Russia With Love (1963).

The first scenes to be shot between Sean Connery and Gert Frobe were on Ken Adam’s impressive laser room set on ‘E’ Stage at Pinewood Studios. John Stears’ special effects team, which included Frank George, Jimmy Ward, Joe Fitt, Bert Luxford (practical effects), and Cliff Culley (optical effects), skilfully co-ordinated the complex scene incorporating several different elements to achieve the finished sequence. Studio work continued with Shirley Eaton and Sean Connery filming their introductory balcony scene on Pinewood’s ‘D’ Stage on March 23-24, just a week after Eaton was hired for the role of Jill Masterson. The scene was re-shot several times, with their love scenes filmed on April 6th. Two weeks later on April 20, 1964 Shirley Eaton was painted gold for her iconic death scene. A stills session in Pinewood’s ‘Pool Studio’ with American photographer Loomis Dean featured Shirley (painted gold a second time) on the cover of LIFE Magazine to promote Goldfinger in the USA in November 1964. Shirley Eaton fought for, and received, an ‘also starring’ credit on the US posters and undertook a Stateside promotional tour in December 1964. Her name was also later added to subsequent re-issue posters and advertising materials in the UK. Ian Fleming visited the set at Pinewood Studios during the filming of the scenes between Sean Connery and Shirley Eaton on the Miami Beach Fontainebleau Hotel set. Within six months the James Bond author was dead at the age of 56. Although Fleming had finally begun to reap the financial rewards he had longed for from his fictional secret agent, he did not live long enough to see the phenomenal worldwide success the third James Bond film would become following its release in September 1964.

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