Goldfinger (1964) Tidbits
- The hotel featured in the opening scene of the film is the world reknowned Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, FL USA. The Bellboy, starring Jerry Lewis, was the first of many movies to be shot at the hotel.
- 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.
- Gert Frobe's voice was dubbed by an English actor.
- Honor Blackman was actually a trained expert in Judo.
- Already pushing the lines of decency with Pussy Galore's name, Bond's introduction to her was changed. In the original script the line was: Pussy": I'm Pussy Galore." Bond: "I know, but what's your name?" However, the scene was later changed to Bond's current response of "I must be dreaming!"
- When Goldfinger was first released the public knew nothing of lasers. The movie intrigued audiences everywhere.
- The producers got over 300 letters from fans wondering why they were allowed to film in Fort Knox while the president wasn't even allowed in.
- A 24 hour guard had to be placed by the Fort Knox set so people couldn't steal the fake gold bars.
- Harold Sakata sustained serious injuries from the electrocution of his character because he refused to let go until the director called cut despite his pain.
- Harold Sakata represented the USA in the 1948 Olympics as a weightlifter.
- Over 75 percent of all moviegoers worldwide have seen Goldfinger at least once.
- Gert Frobe was a child prodigy at the violin.
- The famous ending where the bomb is defused in 007 seconds was actually changed. In the original version that ran all over Europe and the rest of the world, the bomb was defused with 003 seconds left; hence Bond's line "Three more ticks and Mr. Goldfinger would've hit the jackpot" When the film came to America, the producers thought it would have a stronger impact to change it to 007 seconds, but the line still stayed.
- When the plane is plummeting at the end of the movie, you can actually see the strings used to film the sequence with a miniature plane.
- CIA director Allen Dulles assigned a research team to determine the feasibility the homing system in the Aston Martin.
- The "golden girl" idea was based on a real Swiss fashion model who painted herself and died of asphixiation.
- In Fleming's novel, Pussy Galore was a lesbian. This was changed in the movie to appease the social climate of the era.
- Sean Connery walked off the set for a couple days and had to be asked to return after Harold Sakata's Oddjob delivered a full contact karate chop during the first take of the "golden girl" scene in the hotel in Miami.
- The Falcon pick-up truck Oddjob drives has whitewall tires on it when it takes the crushed Lincoln, but it has blackwall tires when it reached its destination.
- Felix Leiter does appear in the Goldfinger book, however, it is only for a short time and does not play a prominent role until the very end, unlike the film.
- It is not a very well-known fact, but there was another "golden gun." It was not in the Ian Fleming book, but in the movie "Goldfinger" starring Sean Connery in the scene where U.S. soldiers raid the Fort Knox vault, you can clearly see Auric Goldfinger use a golden revolver to shoot several people. Although Goldfinger (Gert Frobe) was clearly not as good a shot as Francisco Scaramunga, he used a weapon similar in that respect.
- Pussy Galore was the name of Ian Fleming's pet octopus, according to the latest edition of the book "The Essential World of 007". Coincidentally, the Bond girl was named after one of Ian Fleming's pets, and later served as a theme for Octopussy.
- This was the last film that President John F. Kennedy saw before he was assassinated.
