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Dom Robinson reviews

Special Edition

Distributed by

MGM

Cert:
Cat.no: 16178 DVD
Running time: 106 minutes
Year: 1964
Pressing: 2000
Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
Chapters: 32 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 1.0 (Mono)
Languages: English
Subtitles: English (and hard of hearing)
Widescreen: 1.77:1
16:9-enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: No
Disc Format: DVD 9
Price: £19.99
Extras : Scene index, Booklet, Documentaries: "The Making of Goldfinger" & "The Goldfinger Phenomenon", Trailer, Publicity Featurette, 3 TV Spots, Radio Spots, Original Radio Interviews with Sean Connery, The Goldfinger Gallery, 2 Audio Commentaries: director Guy Hamilton and Cast & Crew

Director:

Guy Hamilton

Battle of Britain, The Colditz Story, Diamonds Are Forever, Force 10 From Navarone, Goldfinger, Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Mirror Crack'd

Producers:

Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman

Screenplay:

Richard Maibaum and Paul Dehn

Music:

John Barry & Monty Norman

Cast:

James Bond: Sean Connery

The Anderson Tapes, The Avengers, Diamonds Are Forever, Dr. No, Dragonheart, Entrapment, First Knight, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Highlander 1 & 2, The Hunt For Red October, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, Just Cause, The Longest Day, The Man with the Deadly Lens, Marnie, Murder on the Orient Express, The Name of the Rose, The Presidio, Ransom, Rising Sun, The Rock, The Russia House, Thunderball, Time Bandits, The Untouchables, You Only Live Twice

Pussy Galore: Honor Blackman

Goldfinger, A Night To Remember, To The Devil a Daughter, Voice of the Heart, TV: The Avengers, The Upper Hand

Auric Goldfinger: Gert Fr�be

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Goldfinger

Oddjob: Harold Sakata

M: Bernard Lee

The Battle of the River Plate, The Blue Lamp, Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Live and Let Die, The Man Upstairs, Moonraker, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, Thunderball, Whistle Down the Wind, You Only Live Twice

Goldfinger is the villian who makes King Midas look like a Silverware expert and Bond is briefed about the practice of buying gold bullion, melting it down so as to make it untraceable and then transporting it overseas to make a killing on the market.

The Bank of England are sure Goldfinger's not on the level so they want Bond to investigate and arrest him, with the bank reclaiming the money - a total of £20million.

Apart from indulging in illegal monetary activities, the bad guy likes to kill people by covering them in gold paint, starting with his own girlfriend, Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton), after Bond 'intervenes'.

Of some of the film's notable notables, this one marks the first appearance for 007's famed classic car, the Aston Martin DB5, complete with a million and one accessories to triumph over the evil underworld. Also, the score contains the exact same memorable notes of Sneaker Pimps' "6 Underground", first heard when Bond finds Jill dead on the bed. I haven't seen this film before so didn't realise they'd ripped it off... I mean, paid homage to it.

Q makes his second of seventeen cameos in this Bond film and seems taller than in later films and is certainly made to look more official. Cec Linder replaces Jack Lord as Felix Leiter, but was there any reason why? Finally, this is the one where Honor Blackman appears as Pussy Galore, but she's not quite my cup of tea and they should've swapped her over with Shirley Eaton.

Once again, the film was shot an intended for cinematic presentation at 1.66:1 in Europe, while being matted to 1.85:1 for the USA. Here we have an anamorphic 16:9 version which just appears to crop a little of the top and bottom that would normally have been seen in European cinemas - but that's fine since I would have zoomed in the picture to fill my widescreen TV.

The print is looks very good for it's age, but like the first two films it isn't perfect. The average bitrate is a fine 5.94Mb/s, often peaking just under 8Mb/s.

The sound is mono again - the way it was created. Some dialogue occasionally feels like it's been re-recorded inside a tank, but it's usually okay. Again the Bond theme does its stuff and the soft lilting tones of the score, as per the above Sneaker Pimps mention, come across very clearly.

Extras :

Chapters :

The usual 32 chapters for an MGM, which is an excellent amount. If only some other DVD companies could take a lesson from this one.

Languages & Subtitles :

English is the only language on the disc - in Dolby Digital Mono - and there are subtitles for English (and hard of hearing).

And there's more... :

MGM seem to be pulling out all the stops for their Bond collection and starting with the first Bond film made we have a great amount for you to sink your teeth into.

Featurette: The Making of Goldfinger (25 mins): Split into six chapters, this does exactly what it says on the tin and features interviews with Desmond Llewelyn, Lois Maxwell, Guy Hamilton, Sean Connery, Honor Blackman and Shirley Eaton, whose interview was recorded in 1992 and boy, has she aged badly. Once again it's narrated by Patrick Macnee and features clips from the film and production photos to pin-point the comments.
Featurette: The Goldfinger Phenomenon (28 mins): Another behind-the-scenes'r with more interview clips, film clips production photos and samples of the merchandising such as cars and books.
Trailer (3 mins) for the film.
Publicity Featurette (3 mins) all in black and white. Not great quality, but fascinating nontheless.
TV spot (3 mins) for the film.
TV spot (20 seconds) combining Goldfinger and Dr. No
TV spot (60 seconds) combining Goldfinger and Dr. No
Radio spots (21 mins): a staggering 32 of them to play for your delectation.
Original Radio Interviews with Sean Connery: (12 mins) Snippets of chat from Sean Connery which was supplied to radio stations so they could appear to have an exclusive interview with the man. Sneaky :)
The Goldfinger Gallery: Scores of photos from several different points in the film
2 Audio Commentaries: one featuring director Guy Hamilton and the other featuring various members of the cast and crew.

Some of the content, particularly the TV spots, aren't exactly first-rate in terms of picture quality and sound, but it adds to the nostalgic quality and all the interviews are clear and easy to hear.

Menu :

Once again, MGM have done us proud here, with everything draped in gold. The initial screen offers you the choice to start the film, select a scene, choose a language or watch the extras.

This is third Bond film to feature Connery and another one I haven't seen before. The film contains much more action than the first two and plenty of classic one-liners such as the time when Bond electrocutes a bad-guy in the bath with a heater and declares "Shocking"; and when Bond's tied to a table with a laser coming between his legs he asks, "Do you expect me to talk?", Goldfinger replies, "No, Meester Bond, I expect you to die!".

Again, we have plenty of extras and thus reasons to buy this disc.

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL

The following is a list of all the Bond films now available in production order with their dates of release, followed by the unofficial movies:

22nd May 2000 Dr. No 26th June 2000 From Russia With Love 24th July 2000 Goldfinger 28th August 2000 Thunderball 25th September 2000 You Only Live Twice 25th September 2000 On Her Majesty's Secret Service 30th October 2000 Diamonds Are Forever 30th October 2000 Live And Let Die 27th November 2000 The Man With The Golden Gun 27th November 2000 The Spy Who Loved Me 26th December 2000 Moonraker 26th December 2000 For Your Eyes Only 29th January 2001 Octopussy 29th January 2001 A View To A kill 26th February 2001 The Living Daylights 26th February 2001 Licence To Kill 26th March 2001 Goldeneye 26th March 2001 Tomorrow Never Dies 22nd May 2000 The World Is Not Enough 2nd May 2003 Die Another Day: Special Edition 23rd April 2001 Casino Royale 23rd April 2001 Never Say Never Again

November 2001 James Bond: Agent Under Fire

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.

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