JAMES BOND NEWS

Fifty years after its original theatrical release, 007 MAGAZINE editor & publisher Graham Rye reveals his important discovery of two new never-before-seen scenes cut from the original 1964 film Goldfinger.

During preparation of the book the ‘GOLDFINGER portfolio’ (007 MAGAZINE special publications – 2014) while sorting through a number of boxes of previously unscanned images, it soon became clear that I had something in front of me that bore no resemblance to any of the scenes I’d viewed many times before while watching the film Goldfinger since 1964.

CUT SCENE 1: A number of black & white stills featuring director Guy Hamilton showing both Sean Connery and Shirley Eaton something very specific with a number of playing cards caught my eye. Could Guy have been showing them a card trick? Hardly, as both are shown in separate images on the same set being instructed by the director. Knowing Guy’s exactitude, he was undoubtedly explaining to his actors what he required from them with the playing cards in the scene. As Auric Goldfinger’s partner in crime, Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton) would have needed to be an expert Gin Rummy player so she could quickly relay all the information she saw through her binoculars overlooking the card game to her employer, in order he could beat his opponent Simmons – so it’s very likely this excised scene related to her (and possibly Bond’s) skill with cards.

CUT SCENE 2: For a number of years I’d had a 10x8 photograph on file of Honor Blackman posing in what is clearly Goldfinger’s ‘Rumpus Room’, as the large aerial photograph of Fort Knox used during his briefing of Operation Grand Slam is clearly visible behind her. She is wearing the same Afghan black broadtail suit she wears as Pussy Galore in the sequence on board Goldfinger’s private jet and also where she greets the female pilots from her flying circus. Add this image to others of Honor Blackman having her makeup adjusted and chatting with director Guy Hamilton on the same set, and it suddenly dispels any idea the shot of Ms. Blackman was just a casual publicity photograph which just happened to be taken on that set. The final piece in the jigsaw came from the boxes of unscanned stills; Guy Hamilton directing Honor Blackman on the ‘Rumpus Room’ set with camera operator John Winbolt looking on. One can only hypothesise what the dialogue might have been in this scene. The plot of the film was changed significantly by screenwriters Richard Maibaum and Paul Dehn from Ian Fleming’s original 1959 novel GOLDFINGER. In the novel, Miss Pussy Galore, a Harlem gangster, was present at the ‘Hood’s Congress’ and has various interactions with the other gangsters in the room, mostly hurling insults or threats at them, which are unlikely to have found their way into any screenplay. It is possible that Pussy Galore was present in the meeting with the gangsters in this cut scene, but left with Goldfinger before the remaining gangsters are killed by the Delta 9 Nerve Gas, however, it remains a mystery as to exactly what this excised scene contained.

These two excised scenes and much more are illustrated in the 350-page ‘GOLDFINGER portfolio’.

Please follow this link for further information regarding the ‘GOLDFINGER portfolio’.

http://www.007magazine.co.uk/007_magazine_goldfinger_portfolio_steelbook.htm

Coverage in The Mail on Sunday

Goldfinger FACT FILE