Goldfinger

Distributed by MGM/UA Home Video

Sean's back .. Connery as super smooth James Bond saving America from the clutches of Auric Goldfinger. His apparent plan is to steal the gold from Fort Knox until 007 investigates Operation Grand Slam.

It was the movie that set the trend for the other Bond movies to follow. It gave us the first of the series' pre-title sequences ( not related to the main plot ) with 007 revealing his evening wear under his frogsuit after blowing up a factory. The introduction of the silver Aston Martin DB5 ( now re-used in Brosnan's Bond movies ) with all the gadgets, lovely Bond girls like the 'golden' Shirley Eaton as Jill & Honor tv's The Avengers Blackman as Pussy Galore. A heavy villain in the shape of Gert Fröbe as Goldfinger and the famous laser scene when James asks him "Do you expect me to talk ?" and his reply of "No Mr Bond I expect you to die !" will remain one of my favourite Bond moments.

Aided by henchman Oddjob with his deadly bowler played by Harold Sakata whose dialogue seems to be "Aaagh". His end fight with 007 at Fort Knox is a 'Bond classic' and note the lack of music used by John Barry during the scene. Of course the rest of the score is memorable along with Shirley Bassey's rendering of the now classic theme song.

When you watch this movie, the cars may now look slightly dated but the 'big' sets designed by Ken Adam were ahead of their time.

The cast includes the usual support from Lee ( M ), Maxwell ( Moneypenny ) and Llewelyn ( Q). Watch out for the face of Burt Kwouk as Mr Ling who became more famous as Inspector Clouseau's man-servant Cato in The Pink Panther movies, later reappears as Spectre 3 in YOLT and on tv provides the voice of C4's cult show Banzai!.

A Bond treat not to be missed.

First released in 2006 MGM Home Entertainment brought us James Bond Ultimate Edition 2-Disc DVD set of each of the 20 movies, now in 2008 Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment repackage the same 2 MGM discs with a cardboard copy cover ( this one with Connery & Blackman - passable like the whole golden theme series ) and minus the interesting eight page booklet. The format remains the same with disc one having the digitally restored movie and disc two with the extras - Declassified: MI6 Vault, 007 Mission Control, Mission Dossier, Ministry of Propaganda & Image Database. Each menu has a Bond lookalike silhouette, shooting girls, casino chips & cards and gun barrels incorporating photos & music from the movie. There is a section called Exotic Locations tucked away in 007 Mission Control with movie snips and Maud Octopussy Adams narrating about the filming locations & their history and within 007 section is Opening Titles - Textless enabling you to enjoy them without the words covering up the golden girl ( actress Margaret Nolan who played Dink ) projected with movie images.

For this disc movie audio commentary comes from director Guy Hamilton & cast quotes. Being the 3nd movie you see the restoration process at its best with vast improvements to colour & imagery ( e.g. Adam's set for the evening meal with M ). Due to the movie's time the photo gallery is mainly b&w except for the colour posters & merchandising and there were not that many original documentaries about so we get a couple of screen tests for the part of Goldfinger which like a lot of the items are used again for the documentary The Making Of .. and another looking at merchandising in The Goldfinger Phenomenon. There is the usual trailer, short tv spots ( double billed in US with Dr. No ), radio adverts and a press interview allowing the station presenter to ask set questions to the taped Connery reply on the set of Fort Knox. This open-ended interview technique is seen with a b&w interview with Blackman while Connery is also interviewed for tv on the ranch jail set at Pinewood.

Overall a must for your Bond DVD collection as it gives an old 007 movie a new colourful life.