141-455: Goldfinger may refer to: James Bond [ edit ] Goldfinger (novel) , a 1959 James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming Goldfinger (film) , a 1964 James Bond film starring Sean Connery Goldfinger (soundtrack) , the soundtrack to the film composed by John Barry "Goldfinger" (Shirley Bassey song) , the title song of the film performed by Shirley Bassey Auric Goldfinger ,
282-544: A depressurisation that blows Oddjob out of the plane; he then fights and strangles Goldfinger. At gunpoint, he forces the crew to ditch in the sea near the Canadian coast, where they are rescued by a nearby weathership . By January 1958 the author Ian Fleming had published five novels in the preceding five years: Casino Royale in 1953, Live and Let Die (1954), Moonraker (1955), Diamonds Are Forever (1956) and From Russia, with Love in 1957. A sixth, Dr. No ,
423-468: A "crude end to the book, a form of happy ending ". The sixth Bond novel, Dr. No began what the media historian James Chapman describes as the move of the Bond books to "fantastic and highly improbable plots"; Chapman considers that Goldfinger maintains that trend. He also finds it "the most implausible of Fleming's plots". Benson states that the plot is impractical and that "sometimes there's no logic in
564-590: A Mexican thug. Benson also finds Bond developing something of a sense of humour in Goldfinger , verbally abusing Oddjob for his own amusement. The anthropologist Anthony Synnott examined several examples of racism in the Bond novels, and finds in Goldfinger examples of "the most blatant racism" of the series, all of which concern the Koreans; as an example, Synnott highlights the sentence "putting Oddjob and any other Korean firmly in his place, which, in Bond's estimation,
705-644: A US naval attaché and intelligence agent based in Budapest who took the Orient Express from Budapest to Paris in February 1950, carrying papers about blown US spy networks in the Eastern Bloc . Soviet assassins already on the train drugged the conductor, and Karp's body was found shortly afterwards in a railway tunnel south of Salzburg . Many of the names used in the Bond works came from people Fleming knew: Scaramanga ,
846-699: A banana cultivar developed in Honduras Goldfinger v. Feintuch , a 1930s New York court case concerning secondary boycotts The Goldfinger (film), a 2023 Hong Kong crime thriller Edge connector , alternatively called "gold fingers" See also [ edit ] [REDACTED] Search for "goldfinger" , "gold-finger" , or "golden-finger" on Misplaced Pages. All pages with titles beginning with Goldfinger All pages with titles containing goldfinger All pages with titles containing gold finger All pages with titles containing golden finger Topics referred to by
987-627: A blunt instrument ... when I was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought by God, [James Bond] is the dullest name I ever heard." Fleming based his creation on individuals he met during his time in the Naval Intelligence Division, and admitted that Bond "was a compound of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war". Among those types were his brother Peter, whom he worshipped, and who had been involved in behind-the-lines operations in Norway and Greece during
1128-425: A casino are nauseating at three in the morning. Then the soul erosion produced by high gambling—a compost of greed and fear and nervous tension—becomes unbearable and the senses awake and revolt from it. Opening lines of Casino Royale Fleming had first mentioned to friends during the war that he wanted to write a spy novel, an ambition he achieved within two months with Casino Royale . He started writing
1269-462: A collection of short stories derived from outlines written for a television series that did not come to fruition. Lycett noted that, as Fleming was writing the television scripts and the short stories, "Ian's mood of weariness and self-doubt was beginning to affect his writing", which can be seen in Bond's thoughts. In 1960 Fleming was commissioned by the Kuwait Oil Company to write a book on
1410-622: A commission, after contracting gonorrhea . In 1927, to prepare Fleming for possible entry into the Foreign Office , his mother sent him to the Tennerhof in Kitzbühel , Austria, a small private school run by the Adlerian disciple and former British spy Ernan Forbes Dennis and his novelist wife, Phyllis Bottome . After improving his language skills there, he studied briefly at Munich University and
1551-464: A copy to the publishing house Jonathan Cape . At first, they were unenthusiastic about the novel, but Fleming's brother Peter, whose books they managed, persuaded the company to publish it. On 13 April 1953 Casino Royale was released in the UK in hardcover, priced at 10s 6d , with a cover designed by Fleming. It was a success and three print runs were needed to cope with the demand. The novel centres on
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#17328526808871692-576: A day." He returned to London in March that year with a 270-page typescript, the longest he had produced to that time. He initially gave the manuscript the title The Richest Man in the World ; few alterations were made to the story before publication. Although Fleming did not date the events within his novels, John Griswold and Henry Chancellor —both of whom wrote books for Ian Fleming Publications —identified different timelines based on events and situations within
1833-448: A gang of lesbian burglars), will protect her, but she (Tilly) is killed by Oddjob. Goldfinger, Oddjob and the Mafia bosses all escape in the melee. Bond is drugged before his flight back to England and wakes to find he has been captured by Goldfinger, who has murdered the crime bosses (except Galore), drugged a BOAC flightcrew and hijacked their jetliner. Bond manages to break a window, causing
1974-421: A gauche individual. Black considers that Goldfinger is portrayed as a killjoy as he does not consume cigarettes or alcohol—unlike many people of the time—but he does pay prostitutes; these aspects of Goldfinger's are condemned by Fleming for being outside normal appetites. Elisabeth Ladenson, the general editor of Romanic Review , believes the character of Pussy Galore to be "perhaps the most memorable figure in
2115-511: A gold-tipped ballpoint pen and included the theft or obtaining of gold in several of his stories. When researching for Goldfinger , Fleming reinforced his knowledge of gold by sending a questionnaire to an expert at the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths —one of the livery companies of the City of London who assay precious metals for purity—with a list of queries about gold, its properties and
2256-482: A keen birdwatcher , had a copy of Bond's guide, and later told the ornithologist's wife, "that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born". In a 1962 interview in The New Yorker , he further explained: "When I wrote the first one in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened; I wanted him to be
2397-807: A liaison with other sections of the government's wartime administration, such as the Secret Intelligence Service , the Political Warfare Executive , the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the Joint Intelligence Committee and the Prime Minister 's staff. On 29 September 1939, soon after the start of the war, Godfrey circulated a memorandum that, "bore all the hallmarks of ... Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming", according to historian Ben Macintyre . It
2538-422: A literary point of view, is that he is becoming more and more synthetic and zombie-ish. Perhaps it is just as well." In The Manchester Guardian , Roy Perrott observed that " Goldfinger ... will not let [Bond's] close admirers down". Perrott thought that overall "Fleming is again at his best when most sportingly Buchan-ish as in the motoring pursuit across Europe"; he summarised the book by saying that it
2679-437: A long-term relationship with her. After her death during a World War II bombing raid in 1944, Fleming was overcome with guilt and remorse, and it is generally thought that she provided the inspiration for the women he was to create for his future novels. Early in 1939 Fleming began an affair with Ann O'Neill, née Charteris, who was married to the 3rd Baron O'Neill ; she was also having an affair with Esmond Harmsworth ,
2820-606: A meeting between Goldfinger and several gangsters (including the Spangled Mob and the Mafia), who have been recruited to assist in "Operation Grand Slam"—stealing gold from the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox . One of the gang leaders, Helmut Springer, refuses to join the operation and is killed by Oddjob. Bond learns that the operation includes killing the inhabitants of Fort Knox by introducing poison into
2961-428: A more complex individual than in the previous novels, and bringing out a theme of Bond as a St George figure. This theme is echoed by the fact that it is a British agent sorting out an American problem. In common with his other Bond stories, Fleming used the names of people he knew, or knew of, throughout his story, including the book's eponymous villain, who was named after the architect Ernő Goldfinger . On learning of
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#17328526808873102-672: A parachute that has failed. I understand there is no difficulty in obtaining corpses at the Naval Hospital, but, of course, it would have to be a fresh one." In 1940 Fleming and Godfrey contacted Kenneth Mason , Professor of Geography at Oxford University , about the preparation of reports on the geography of countries involved in military operations. These reports were the precursors of the Naval Intelligence Division Geographical Handbook Series produced between 1941 and 1946. Operation Ruthless ,
3243-632: A plan aimed at obtaining details of the Enigma codes used by the German Navy , was instigated by a memo written by Fleming to Godfrey on 12 September 1940. The idea was to "obtain" a Nazi bomber, man it with a German-speaking crew dressed in Luftwaffe uniforms, and crash it into the English Channel. The crew would then attack their German rescuers and bring their boat and Enigma machine back to England. Much to
3384-558: A plot of land in Saint Mary Parish where, in 1945, Fleming had a house built, which he named Goldeneye . (His main residence remained in London, in Victoria ). The name of the house and estate where he wrote his novels has many possible sources. Fleming himself mentioned both his wartime Operation Goldeneye and Carson McCullers ' 1941 novel Reflections in a Golden Eye , which described
3525-509: A recommendation from him and Bryce that McClory act as producer. He additionally told McClory that if MCA rejected the film because of McClory's involvement, then McClory should either sell himself to MCA, back out of the deal, or file a suit in court. Working at Goldeneye between January and March 1960, Fleming wrote the novel Thunderball , based on the screenplay written by himself, Whittingham and McClory. In March 1961 McClory read an advance copy, and he and Whittingham immediately petitioned
3666-507: A school magazine, The Wyvern . His lifestyle at Eton brought him into conflict with his housemaster, E. V. Slater, who disapproved of Fleming's attitude, his hair oil, his ownership of a car and his relations with women. Slater persuaded Fleming's mother to remove him from Eton a term early for a crammer course to gain entry to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst . He spent less than a year there, leaving in 1927 without gaining
3807-561: A select number of promotional activities, including appearing on the television programme The Bookman and attending a book signing at Harrods . In May 1961 Pan Books published a paperback version of the novel in the UK, which sold 161,000 copies before the end of the year. Since its initial publication the book has been issued in numerous hardback and paperback editions, translated into several languages and, as at 2024, has never been out of print. In 2023 Ian Fleming Publications—the company that administers all Fleming's literary works—had
3948-505: A six-month option on the film rights to his published and future James Bond novels and short stories to Harry Saltzman . Saltzman formed the production vehicle Eon Productions along with Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli , and after an extensive search, they hired Sean Connery on a six-film deal, later reduced to five beginning with Dr. No (1962). Connery's depiction of Bond affected the literary character; in You Only Live Twice ,
4089-518: A social phenomenon of some importance", but this was seen as a negative element, as the phenomenon concerned "three basic ingredients in Dr No , all unhealthy, all thoroughly English: the sadism of a schoolboy bully, the mechanical, two-dimensional sex-longings of a frustrated adolescent, and the crude, snob-cravings of a suburban adult." Johnson saw no positives in Dr. No , and said, "Mr Fleming has no literary skill,
4230-559: A song by Die Krupps from Volle Kraft voraus! " Goldfinger 2019 ", a song by Japanese musician Koda Kumi People [ edit ] Goldfinger (surname) People with the nickname [ edit ] Andrew Gilding (born 1970, nickname "Goldfinger"), English darts player Samaresh Jung (born 1970, nicknamed "Goldfinger"), Indian sport shooter John Palmer (1950–2015, nicknamed "Goldfinger"), British criminal Other uses [ edit ] Goldfinger (dragster) , an early slingshot dragster Goldfinger banana ,
4371-448: A terrace at Goldfinger's own residence at 2 Willow Road , Hampstead . Blackwell had his name used as the heroin smuggler at the beginning of the book, with a sister who was a heroin addict. There were some similarities between Ernő and Auric Goldfinger: both were Jewish immigrants who came to Britain from Eastern Europe in the 1930s and both were Marxists. The fictional and real Goldfingers were physically very different. According to
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4512-571: A variant thereof; his Korean servants are referred to by Bond as being "yellow", or yellow-faced"; and he paints his women (usually prostitutes) gold before sex. As with a number of other villains in the Bond novels, there is a reference to the Second World War, to show the post-war readers how evil Bond's villains were. Thus, Goldfinger employs members of the German Luftwaffe , Japanese and Koreans. For Operation Grand Slam, Goldfinger used
4653-519: A wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co. , and his father was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 1910 until his death on the Western Front in 1917. Educated at Eton , Sandhurst , and, briefly, the universities of Munich and Geneva , Fleming moved through several jobs before he started writing. While working for Britain's Naval Intelligence Division during
4794-570: Is Bond the British agent who has to sort out what turns out to be an American problem and this, along with Bond's warning to Goldfinger not to underestimate the English, may be seen as Fleming's reaction to the lack of US support over the Suez Crisis in 1956. Benson identifies a theme of Bond acting as St George in Goldfinger which, he says, has run in all the novels, but is finally stated explicitly in
4935-530: Is a back story explaining why they are outside Fleming's norm: in Pussy Galore's case, it is because she was raped by her uncle. According to Stephen Heath, the literature and cultural historian, Galore's lesbianism is explained by being anti-man, following the rape, and she is converted because, as she says in the book, "I never met a man before". Bond's 'conversion' of Galore from lesbian to his bed partner "reflected Fleming's sexual politics". It was, Black sees,
5076-410: Is a mere obstacle, the dragon to be got rid of before the worthy knight can make off with the duly conquered lady". Goldfinger has an obsession with gold to the extent that Ladenson says that he is "a walking tautology". Ladenson lists both his family name and his first name as being related to gold (" Auric " is an adjective pertaining to gold); his clothes, hair, car and cat are all gold coloured, or
5217-485: Is cheating. Bond soon realises that Goldfinger is using his assistant, Jill Masterton, to spy on Du Pont's cards. Bond blackmails Goldfinger into admitting his guilt and paying back Du Pont's lost money; Bond also has a brief affair with Masterton. Back in London, Bond's superior, M , tasks him with determining how Goldfinger is smuggling gold out of Britain; M also suspects Goldfinger of being connected to SMERSH and financing their western networks with his gold. Bond visits
5358-578: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Goldfinger (novel) Goldfinger is the seventh novel in Ian Fleming 's James Bond series. Written in January and February 1958, it was first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 23 March 1959. The story centres on the investigation by the British Secret Service operative James Bond into
5499-437: Is more relaxed". Robson saw this as a positive development, but it did mean that although "there are incidental displays of the virtuosity to which Mr. Fleming has accustomed us, ... the narrative does not slip into top gear until Goldfinger unfolds his plan". The Evening Standard looked at why Bond was a success and listed "the things that make Bond attractive: the sex, the sadism, the vulgarity of money for its own sake,
5640-428: Is odd, with a lack of proportion to his body. According to the literary analyst LeRoy L. Panek, in his examination of 20th-century British spy novels, in several of Fleming's novels he uses "characters as psychological counters in a game of simplified psychology". Fleming writes that "Bond always mistrusted short men. They grew up from childhood with an inferiority complex. ... Napoleon had been short, and Hitler. It
5781-456: Is that each one of the books seems to have been a favourite with one or other section of the public and none has yet been completely damned." In April 1961, shortly before the second court case on Thunderball , Fleming had a heart attack during a regular weekly meeting at The Sunday Times . While he was convalescing, one of his friends, Duff Dunbar, gave him a copy of Beatrix Potter 's The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin and suggested that he take
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5922-450: The Bank of England for a briefing on the methods of gold smuggling. Coincidence Bond contrives to meet and play a round of golf with Goldfinger; Goldfinger attempts to win the golf match by cheating, but Bond turns the tables on him, beating him in the process. He is subsequently invited to Goldfinger's mansion near Reculver where he narrowly escapes being caught on camera looking through
6063-576: The Grenadier Guards during the Second World War, was later commissioned under Colin Gubbins to help establish the Auxiliary Units , and became involved in behind-the-lines operations in Norway and Greece during the war. Fleming had two younger brothers, Richard and Michael, who also served in the Second World War. Richard served with Scottish regiments ( Lovat Scouts and Seaforth Highlanders ) and
6204-762: The High Court in London for an injunction to stop publication. After two court actions , the second in November 1961, Fleming offered McClory a deal, settling out of court. McClory gained the literary and film rights for the screenplay, while Fleming was given the rights to the novel, provided it was acknowledged as "based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and the Author". Fleming's books had always sold well, but in 1961 sales increased dramatically. On 17 March 1961, four years after its publication and three years after
6345-617: The Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition . Fleming had a long-term affair in Jamaica with one of his neighbours, Blanche Blackwell , the mother of Chris Blackwell of Island Records . Fleming was also friends with British Prime Minister Anthony Eden whom he allowed to stay at Goldeneye in late November 1953 due to Eden's deteriorating health. The scent and smoke and sweat of
6486-670: The University of Geneva . While in Geneva, Fleming began a romance with Monique Panchaud de Bottens and the couple became engaged just before he returned to London in September 1931 to take the Foreign Office exam. He scored an adequate pass standard, but failed to get a job offer. His mother intervened in his affairs, lobbying Sir Roderick Jones , head of Reuters News Agency , and in October 1931 he
6627-466: The V-2 rocket , Messerschmitt Me 163 fighters and high-speed U-boats. Fleming later used elements of the activities of T-Force in his writing, particularly in his 1955 Bond novel Moonraker . In 1942 Fleming attended an Anglo-American intelligence summit in Jamaica and, despite the constant heavy rain during his visit, he decided to live on the island once the war was over. His friend Ivar Bryce helped find
6768-486: The novel series as a whole. Chancellor put the events of Goldfinger in 1957; Griswold is more precise, and considers the story to have taken place from late April to early June that year. Fleming had long been fascinated with gold. He was a collector of Spanish doubloons , and he commissioned a gold-plated typewriter from the Royal Typewriter Company , although he never actually used it; he wrote with
6909-518: The third James Bond feature film of the Eon Productions series, released in 1964 and starring Sean Connery as Bond. In 2010 Goldfinger was adapted for BBC Radio with Toby Stephens as Bond and Sir Ian McKellen as Goldfinger. Mr Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action." Miami, Sandwich and now Geneva. I propose to wring
7050-614: The 1930s, Patrick Dalzel-Job , who served with distinction in 30AU during the war, and Bill "Biffy" Dunderdale , station head of MI6 in Paris, who wore cufflinks and handmade suits and was chauffeured around Paris in a Rolls-Royce . Sir Fitzroy Maclean was another possible model for Bond, based on his wartime work behind enemy lines in the Balkans , as was the MI6 double agent Duško Popov . Fleming also endowed Bond with many of his own traits, including
7191-468: The 1943 plan to conceal the intended invasion of Italy from North Africa, which was developed by Charles Cholmondoley in October 1942. The recommendation in the Trout Memo was titled: "A Suggestion (not a very nice one)", and continued: "The following suggestion is used in a book by Basil Thomson : a corpse dressed as an airman, with despatches in his pockets, could be dropped on the coast, supposedly from
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#17328526808877332-554: The Berkshire Golf Club in which Fleming partnered Peter Thomson , the winner of The Open Championship . On its release Goldfinger went to the top of the best-seller lists; the novel was broadly well received by the critics and was favourably compared to the works of the thriller writers H. C. McNeile and John Buchan . Goldfinger was serialised as a daily story and as a comic strip in the Daily Express , before it became
7473-420: The Bond novels, including Goldfinger , "Ugliness, evil and foreignness go together, complementing and reinforcing each other. Ugliness symbolizes evil and evil is symbolized by ugliness and foreignness." Fleming employs devices he uses elsewhere in the series to show Goldfinger is corrupt or outside what Fleming considered normal. Goldfinger cheats at cards and golf; Panek considers this is a traditional sign of
7614-521: The Bond periphery". Galore was introduced by Fleming for Bond to seduce her, proving Bond's masculinity by his being able to seduce a lesbian. To some extent the situation also reflected Fleming's own opinions, expressed in the novel as part of Bond's thoughts, where "her sexual confusion is attributable to women's suffrage"; in addition, as Fleming himself put it in the book: "Bond felt the sexual challenge all beautiful Lesbians have for men." Ladenson points out that, unlike some Bond girls, Galore's role in
7755-562: The Bond series edited as part of a sensitivity review to remove or reword some racial or ethnic descriptors. The rerelease of the series was for the 70th anniversary of Casino Royale , the first Bond novel. Goldfinger received more positive reviews than Fleming's previous novel, Dr. No , which had faced widespread criticism in the British media. Writing in The Observer , Maurice Richardson thought that "Mr. Fleming seems to be leaving realism further and further behind and developing only in
7896-818: The German naval archives from 1870. In December 1944 Fleming was posted on an intelligence fact-finding trip to the Far East on behalf of the Director of Naval Intelligence. Much of the trip was spent identifying opportunities for 30AU in the Pacific; the unit saw little action because of the Japanese surrender . The success of 30AU led to the August 1944 decision to establish a "Target Force", which became known as T-Force . The official memorandum, held at The National Archives in London, describes
8037-494: The North Atlantic. As with other Bond novels, such as Casino Royale , gambling is a theme—not only the money staked on the golf match as part of the novel, but opening with the canasta game. Raymond Benson identified times in the novel when Bond's investigation of Goldfinger was a gamble too, and cites Bond tossing a coin to decide on his tactics in relation to his quarry. Once more (as with Live and Let Die and Dr. No ) it
8178-754: The Rolls-Royce is actually white-gold, cast into panels at his Kent refinery. When the car reaches the factory in Switzerland (Enterprises Auric AG), Goldfinger recasts the gold from the armour panels into aircraft seats and fits the seats to the aeroplanes of Mecca Charter Airline, in which he holds a large stake. The gold is finally sold in India at a large profit. Bond foils an assassination attempt on Goldfinger by Jill Masterton's sister, Tilly, to avenge Jill's death at Goldfinger's hands: he had painted her body with gold paint, which killed her. Bond and Tilly attempt to escape when
8319-450: The Second World War, Fleming was involved in planning Operation Goldeneye and in the planning and oversight of two intelligence units: 30 Assault Unit and T-Force . He drew from his wartime service and his career as a journalist for much of the background, detail, and depth of his James Bond novels . Fleming wrote his first Bond novel, Casino Royale , in 1952, at age 44. It was a success, and three print runs were commissioned to meet
8460-658: The United States, where he assisted in writing a blueprint for the Office of the Coordinator of Information , the department that turned into the Office of Strategic Services and eventually became the CIA . Admiral Godfrey put Fleming in charge of Operation Goldeneye between 1941 and 1942; Goldeneye was a plan to maintain an intelligence framework in Spain in the event of a German takeover of
8601-430: The age of 56. Two of his James Bond books were published posthumously; other writers have since produced Bond novels. Fleming's creation has appeared in film twenty-seven times, portrayed by six actors in the official film series. Ian Lancaster Fleming was born on 28 May 1908, at 27 Green Street in the wealthy London district of Mayfair . His mother was Evelyn "Eve" Fleming , née Rose, and his father
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#17328526808878742-518: The alarm is raised, but are captured. Enemy action Bond is tortured by Oddjob when he refuses to confess his role in trailing Goldfinger. In a desperate attempt to escape being cut in two by a circular saw , Bond offers to work for Goldfinger, a ruse that Goldfinger initially refuses but then accepts. Bond and Tilly are subsequently taken to Goldfinger's operational headquarters in a warehouse in New York City. They are put to work as secretaries for
8883-585: The annoyance of Alan Turing and Peter Twinn at Bletchley Park , the mission was never carried out. According to Fleming's niece, Lucy , an official of the Royal Air Force pointed out that if they were to drop a downed Heinkel bomber in the English Channel, it would probably sink rather quickly. Fleming also worked with Colonel "Wild Bill" Donovan , President Franklin D. Roosevelt 's special representative on intelligence co-operation between London and Washington. In May 1941 Fleming accompanied Godfrey to
9024-401: The background of the industry, including smuggling. Fleming had originally conceived the card game scene as a separate short story but instead used the device for Bond and Goldfinger's first encounter. The architect Ernő Goldfinger threatened to sue Fleming over the use of the name. With the book already printed but not released, Fleming threatened to add an erratum slip to the book changing
9165-419: The background to the stories came from Fleming's previous work in the Naval Intelligence Division or from events he knew of from the Cold War . The plot of From Russia, with Love uses a fictional Soviet Spektor decoding machine as a lure to trap Bond; the Spektor had its roots in the wartime German Enigma machine. The novel's plot device of spies on the Orient Express was based on the story of Eugene Karp,
9306-484: The book as part of Bond's thoughts. This is after Goldfinger reveals he will use an atomic device to open the vault: "Bond sighed wearily. Once more into the breach, dear friend! This time it really was St George and the dragon . And St George had better get a move on and do something". Jeremy Black notes that the image of the "latter-day St George [is] again an English, rather than British image". According to Ladenson, by making Bond St George, "Goldfinger himself ...
9447-455: The book at Goldeneye on 15 January 1952, and was finished writing no later than 16 February 1952, averaging more than 2,000 words per day. He claimed afterwards that he wrote the novel to distract himself from his forthcoming wedding to the pregnant Charteris, and called the work his "dreadful oafish opus". His manuscript was typed in London by Joan Howe (mother of travel writer Rory MacLean ), Fleming's red-haired secretary at The Times on whom
9588-435: The book to be "a superlative thriller from our foremost literary magician". Burgess cites Goldfinger as one of the 99 best novels in English since 1939. "Fleming raised the standard of the popular story of espionage through good writing—a heightened journalistic style—and the creation of a government agent—James Bond, 007—who is sufficiently complicated to compel our interest over a whole series of adventures." Goldfinger
9729-427: The character Miss Moneypenny was partially based. Clare Blanchard, a former girlfriend, advised him not to publish the book, or at least to do so under a pseudonym. During Casino Royale's final draft stages, Fleming allowed his friend William Plomer to see a copy, and remarked "so far as I can see the element of suspense is completely absent". Despite this, Plomer thought the book had sufficient promise and sent
9870-470: The children's story Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang and two works of non-fiction. In 2008, The Times ranked Fleming 14th on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". Fleming was married to Anne Charteris . She had divorced her husband, the 2nd Viscount Rothermere , because of her affair with the author. Fleming and Charteris had a son, Caspar. Fleming was a heavy smoker and drinker for most of his life and succumbed to heart disease in 1964 at
10011-407: The construction of the book is chaotic, and entire incidents and situations are inserted, and then forgotten, in a haphazard manner." Lycett notes that Fleming "went into a personal and creative decline" after marital problems and the attacks on his work. Goldfinger had been written before the publication of Dr. No ; the next book Fleming produced after the criticism was For Your Eyes Only ,
10152-491: The country and its oil industry. The Kuwaiti government disapproved of the typescript, State of Excitement: Impressions of Kuwait , and it was never published. According to Fleming: "The Oil Company expressed approval of the book but felt it their duty to submit the typescript to members of the Kuwait Government for their approval. The Sheikhs concerned found unpalatable certain mild comments and criticisms and particularly
10293-564: The cult of power, the lack of standards". The Sunday Times called Goldfinger "Guilt-edged Bond"; the critic for The Manchester Evening News thought that "Only Fleming could have got away with it ... outrageously improbable, wickedly funny, wildly exciting". Even the "avid anti-Bond and an anti-Fleming man", Anthony Boucher , writing for The New York Times appeared to enjoy Goldfinger , saying "the whole preposterous fantasy strikes me as highly entertaining". The critic for The New York Herald Tribune , James Sandoe considered
10434-600: The death of Valentine. In 1914 Fleming attended Durnford School , a preparatory school on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset . He did not enjoy his time at Durnford; he suffered unpalatable food, physical hardship and bullying. In 1921 Fleming enrolled at Eton College . Not a high achiever academically, he excelled at athletics and held the title of Victor Ludorum ("Winner of the Games") for two years between 1925 and 1927. He also edited
10575-614: The demand. Eleven Bond novels and two collections of short stories followed between 1953 and 1966. The novels centre around James Bond , an officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6 . Bond is also known by his code number, 007, and was a commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve . The Bond stories rank among the best-selling series of fictional books of all time, having sold over 100 million copies worldwide. Fleming also wrote
10716-443: The design of the front cover, which featured a rose between a skull's teeth. He commissioned Richard Chopping to provide the artwork. According to Jonathan Hopson of the Victoria and Albert Museum , the cover's "macabre symbolism memorably expresses the novel's themes of greed, sex and death". The book was dedicated to "gentle reader, William Plomer". The novel went straight to the top of the best-seller lists. Fleming took part in
10857-506: The direction of an atomic, sophisticated Sapper ". Though Fleming may have left reality behind, Richardson considered that the writer, "even with his forked tongue sticking right through his cheek, ... remains maniacally readable". Richardson said that Goldfinger "is the most preposterous specimen yet displayed in Mr. Fleming's museum of super fiends", and, referring to the novel's central character, observed that "the real trouble with Bond, from
10998-469: The engagement to Monique after his mother threatened to cut off his trust fund allowance. Fleming bowed to family pressure again in October 1933, and went into banking with a position at the financiers Cull & Co. In 1935 he moved to Rowe and Pitman on Bishopsgate as a stockbroker. Fleming was unsuccessful in both roles. The same year, Fleming met Muriel Wright whilst skiing in Kitzbühel, and began
11139-441: The eponymous villain of the novel and film Goldfinger James Bond 007: Goldfinger , a 1986 videogame; see James Bond in video games Goldfinger (adventure) , a 1983 adventure scenario for the role-playing game James Bond 007 Music [ edit ] Goldfinger (band) , a Los Angeles punk rock band Goldfinger (album) , the 1996 first album by Goldfinger "Goldfinger" (Ash song) , 1996 "Goldfinger",
11280-576: The exploits of James Bond , an officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6 . Bond is also known by his code number, 007, and was a commander in the Royal Naval Reserve . Fleming took the name for his character from that of the American ornithologist James Bond , an expert on Caribbean birds and author of the definitive field guide Birds of the West Indies . Fleming, himself
11421-504: The field with the unit, but selected targets and directed operations from the rear. On its formation the unit was 30 strong, but it grew to five times that size. The unit was filled with men from other commando units, and trained in unarmed combat, safe-cracking and lock-picking at the SOE facilities. In late 1942 Captain (later Rear-Admiral ) Edmund Rushbrooke replaced Godfrey as head of the Naval Intelligence Division, and Fleming's influence in
11562-490: The game between Bond and Goldfinger. In June 1957 Fleming played in the Bowmaker Pro-Am golf tournament at the Berkshire Golf Club, where he partnered Peter Thomson , the winner of The Open Championship ; much of the background went into the match between Bond and Goldfinger. One of Fleming's neighbours in Jamaica, and later his lover, was Blanche Blackwell ; Fleming used Blanche as the model for Pussy Galore, although
11703-529: The gold-smuggling activities of Auric Goldfinger , who is also suspected by MI6 of being connected to SMERSH , the Soviet counter-intelligence organisation. As well as establishing the background to the smuggling operation, Bond uncovers a much larger plot: Goldfinger plans to steal the gold reserves of the United States from Fort Knox . Fleming developed the James Bond character in Goldfinger , presenting him as
11844-573: The heavy criticism of Dr. No , an article in Life listed From Russia, with Love as one of US President John F. Kennedy 's 10 favourite books. Kennedy and Fleming had previously met in Washington. This accolade and the associated publicity led to a surge in sales that made Fleming the biggest-selling crime writer in the US. Fleming considered From Russia, with Love to be his best novel; he said "the great thing
11985-686: The heir to Lord Rothermere, owner of the Daily Mail . In May 1939 Fleming was recruited by Rear Admiral John Godfrey , Director of Naval Intelligence of the Royal Navy , to become his personal assistant . He joined the organisation full-time in August 1939, with the codename "17F", and worked out of Room 39 at the Admiralty , now known as the Ripley Building. Fleming's biographer, Andrew Lycett , notes that Fleming had "no obvious qualifications" for
12126-417: The hero being threatened with the novel's circular saw, rather than the film's laser beam—and Diamonds Are Forever . Following its radio version of Dr. No , produced in 2008 as a special one-off to mark the centenary of Ian Fleming's birth, Eon Productions allowed a second Bond story to be adapted. On 3 April 2010 BBC Radio 4 broadcast a radio adaptation of Goldfinger with Toby Stephens (who played
12267-507: The historian Jeremy Black considers that Bond "was presented as a complex character". The novelist Raymond Benson —who later wrote a series of Bond novels—sees Goldfinger as a transitional novel, making Bond more human than in previous books and more concerned with what Benson calls "the mortal trappings of life". This manifests itself in the opening chapter of the book as Bond sits in Miami airport and thinks through his fight with and killing of
12408-497: The historian Henry Chancellor the likely model for Auric Goldfinger was the American gold tycoon Charles W. Engelhard Jr. , whom Fleming had met in 1949. Engelhard had established a business, the Precious Metals Development Company, which circumvented numerous export restrictions, selling gold ingots directly into Hong Kong. The character of Bond was developed more in Goldfinger than in the previous novels;
12549-463: The house. Goldfinger introduces Bond to his factotum , a Korean named Oddjob . Issued by MI6 with an Aston Martin DB Mark III , Bond trails Goldfinger in his vintage Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost (adapted with armour plating and bulletproof glass ), driven by Oddjob. Both travel by air ferries to Switzerland. Bond manages to trace Goldfinger to a warehouse in Geneva, where he finds that the armour of
12690-481: The irradiation of the gold in Fort Knox, and the change of Pussy Galore's organisation to stunt pilots, rather than masquerading as nurses, as examples of improvements. The 1973 BBC documentary Omnibus : The British Hero featured Christopher Cazenove playing a number of such title characters (e.g. Richard Hannay and Bulldog Drummond ), including James Bond in dramatised scenes from Goldfinger —notably featuring
12831-436: The journal Twentieth Century , attacked Fleming's work as containing "a strongly marked streak of voyeurism and sado-masochism" and wrote that the books showed "the total lack of any ethical frame of reference". The article compared Fleming unfavourably with John Buchan and Raymond Chandler on both moral and literary criteria. A month later, Dr. No was published, and Fleming received harsh criticism from reviewers who, in
12972-681: The material had appeared in The Sunday Times and was based on Fleming's interviews with John Collard, a member of the International Diamond Security Organisation who had previously worked in MI5 . The book received mixed reviews in the UK and US. For the first five books ( Casino Royale , Live and Let Die , Moonraker , Diamonds Are Forever and From Russia, with Love ) Fleming received broadly positive reviews. That began to change in March 1958 when Bernard Bergonzi , in
13113-430: The most extravagant of these". The character was described by Benson as "Fleming's most successful villain" to that point in the series, and Fleming gives him several character flaws that are brought out across the novel. Black writes that psychologically Goldfinger is warped, possibly because of an inferiority complex brought on by his shortness, in contrast to several of Fleming's other over-sized villains. Physically he
13254-457: The name "Pussy" came from Mrs "Pussy" Deakin, formerly Livia Stela, an SOE agent and friend of Fleming's wife. Fleming's golf partner, John Blackwell (a cousin to Blanche Blackwell), was also a cousin by marriage to Ernő Goldfinger and disliked him: it was Blackwell who reminded Fleming of the name. Fleming also disliked Goldfinger, who, Fleming thought, destroyed Victorian buildings and replaced them with his own modernist designs, particularly
13395-433: The name from Goldfinger to Goldprick and explaining why; the matter was settled out of court after the publishers, Jonathan Cape , paid Ernő's legal costs, agreed to ensure the name Auric was always used in conjunction with Goldfinger and sent him six copies of the novel. Once Fleming completed the novel—which he found the easiest of all the Bond books to write—he thought he had exhausted his inspiration for plots. He told
13536-635: The names of several friends or associates in the novel. The surname of Sir John Masterman , the MI5 agent and Oxford academic who ran the double-cross system during the Second World War, was used as the basis for the Masterton sisters; Alfred Whiting, the golf professional at Royal St George's Golf Club , Sandwich, became Alfred Blacking; while the Royal St George's Golf Club itself became the Royal St Mark's, for
13677-419: The novel in three sections—"Happenstance", "Coincidence" and "Enemy action"—which was how Goldfinger described Bond's three seemingly coincidental meetings with him. Like Dr. No , what seems to be a trivial event—in this case the card game—leads to what Chapman calls "a grandiose criminal conspiracy". The denouement of the novel is described by Black as "hurried and unsatisfactory", and the "one-man heroism" of
13818-658: The occupation of Denmark. He ended his service on 16 August 1952, when he was removed from the active list of the RNVR with the rank of lieutenant-commander. Upon Fleming's demobilisation in May 1945, he became the foreign manager in the Kemsley newspaper group , which at the time owned The Sunday Times . In this role he oversaw the paper's worldwide network of correspondents. His contract allowed him to take three months' holiday every winter, which he took in Jamaica. Fleming worked full-time for
13959-536: The organisation declined, although he retained control over 30AU. Fleming was unpopular with the unit's members, who disliked his referring to them as his "Red Indians". Before the 1944 Normandy landings , most of 30AU's operations were in the Mediterranean, although it is possible that it secretly participated in the Dieppe Raid in a failed pinch raid for an Enigma machine and related materials. Fleming observed
14100-462: The paper until December 1959, but continued to write articles and attend the Tuesday weekly meetings until at least 1961. After Anne Charteris's first husband died in the war, she expected to marry Fleming, but he decided to remain a bachelor. On 28 June 1945, she married the second Viscount Rothermere . Nevertheless, Charteris continued her affair with Fleming, travelling to Jamaica to see him under
14241-440: The passages referring to the adventurous past of the country which now wishes to be 'civilised' in every respect and forget its romantic origins." Fleming followed the disappointment of For Your Eyes Only with Thunderball , the novelisation of a film script on which he had worked with others. The work had started in 1958 when Fleming's friend Ivar Bryce introduced him to a young Irish writer and director, Kevin McClory , and
14382-422: The plot is crucial and she is not just there as an accessory: it is her change of heart that allows good to triumph over evil. The cultural historians Janet Woollacott and Tony Bennett consider that many of the female characters in the Bond series depart from Fleming's accepted cultural norms; both Pussy Galore and Tilly Masterton conform to this rule because they are lesbian. For those that Bond sleeps with, there
14523-467: The poison GB—now known as Sarin —which had been discovered by the Nazis. Pussy Galore's all-woman criminal gang has some members that look "like some young SS guardsman", to underline the connection to evil. Goldfinger was published on 23 March 1959 in the UK as a hardcover edition by Jonathan Cape; it was 318 pages long and cost fifteen shillings . As with his previous four novels, Fleming came up with
14664-410: The pretext of visiting his friend and neighbour Noël Coward . In 1948 she gave birth to Fleming's daughter, Mary, who was stillborn . Rothermere divorced Charteris in 1951 because of her relationship with Fleming, and the couple married on 24 March 1952 in Jamaica, a few months before their son Caspar was born in August. Both Fleming and Ann had affairs during their marriage, she with Hugh Gaitskell ,
14805-531: The principal villain in The Man with the Golden Gun , was named after a fellow Eton schoolboy with whom Fleming fought; Goldfinger , from the eponymous novel, was named after British architect Ernő Goldfinger , whose work Fleming abhorred; Sir Hugo Drax , the antagonist of Moonraker , was named after Fleming's acquaintance Admiral Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax ; Drax's assistant, Krebs, bears
14946-523: The raid from HMS Fernie , 700 yards offshore. Because of its successes in Sicily and Italy, 30AU became greatly trusted by naval intelligence. In March 1944 Fleming oversaw the distribution of intelligence to Royal Navy units in preparation for Operation Overlord . He was replaced as head of 30AU on 6 June 1944, but maintained some involvement. He visited 30AU in the field during and after Overlord, especially following an attack on Cherbourg for which he
15087-515: The rank of major . He was killed by German shelling on the Western Front on 20 May 1917. Winston Churchill wrote an obituary for him that appeared in The Times . Because Valentine had owned an estate at Arnisdale , his death was commemorated on the Glenelg War Memorial. Fleming's elder brother Peter became a travel writer and married actress Celia Johnson . Peter served with
15228-468: The role. As part of his appointment, Fleming was commissioned into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in July 1939, initially as lieutenant , but was promoted to lieutenant commander a few months later. Fleming proved invaluable as Godfrey's personal assistant and excelled in administration. Godfrey was known as an abrasive character who made enemies within government circles. He frequently used Fleming as
15369-450: The same golf handicap, his taste for scrambled eggs, his love of gambling, and use of the same brand of toiletries. After the publication of Casino Royale , Fleming used his annual holiday at his house in Jamaica to write another Bond story. Twelve Bond novels and two short-story collections were published between 1953 and 1966, the last two ( The Man with the Golden Gun and Octopussy and The Living Daylights ) posthumously. Much of
15510-461: The same name as Hitler's last Chief of Staff ; and one of the homosexual villains from Diamonds Are Forever , "Boofy" Kidd, was named after one of Fleming's close friends—and a relative of his wife— Arthur Gore, 8th Earl of Arran , known as Boofy to his friends. Fleming's first work of non-fiction, The Diamond Smugglers , was published in 1957 and was partly based on background research for his fourth Bond novel, Diamonds Are Forever . Much of
15651-417: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Goldfinger . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Goldfinger&oldid=1192885962 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
15792-538: The sequence of events"; the author Kingsley Amis —who also later wrote a Bond novel—says that the novel was "more implausible than most". According to Panek there is an episodic approach in Fleming's works; in Goldfinger this manifests itself in the use of the card game—something also seen in Casino Royale and Moonraker ; Benson considers the novel to be more episodic than Fleming's previous books. Fleming structured
15933-403: The shoulders, a huge and it seemed almost exactly round head. It was as if Goldfinger had been put together with bits of other people's bodies. Nothing seemed to belong. Goldfinger The writer Anthony Burgess , in his 1984 work Ninety-nine Novels , describes Fleming's malefactors as "impossible villains, enemies of democracy, megalomaniacs"; Burgess goes on to write that Goldfinger "is
16074-477: The territory. Fleming's plan involved maintaining communication with Gibraltar and launching sabotage operations against the Nazis. In 1941 he liaised with Donovan over American involvement in a measure intended to ensure the Germans did not dominate the seaways. In 1942 Fleming formed a unit of commandos , known as No. 30 Commando or 30 Assault Unit (30AU), composed of specialist intelligence troops. 30AU's job
16215-413: The three, together with Fleming and Bryce's friend Ernest Cuneo , worked on a script. In October McClory introduced experienced screenwriter Jack Whittingham to the newly formed team, and by December 1959 McClory and Whittingham sent Fleming a script. Fleming had been having second thoughts on McClory's involvement and, in January 1960, explained his intention of delivering the screenplay to MCA , with
16356-468: The time to write up the bedtime story that Fleming used to tell to his son Caspar each evening. Fleming attacked the project with gusto and wrote to his publisher, Michael Howard of Jonathan Cape, joking that "There is not a moment, even on the edge of the tomb, when I am not slaving for you"; the result was Fleming's only children's novel, Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang , which was published in October 1964, two months after his death. In June 1961 Fleming sold
16497-472: The truth out of you. Goldfinger Happenstance While changing planes in Miami after closing down a Mexican heroin-smuggling operation, the British Secret Service operative James Bond meets Junius Du Pont, a rich American businessman whom Bond had briefly met and gambled with in Casino Royale . Du Pont asks Bond to watch Auric Goldfinger , with whom Du Pont is playing canasta , to discover if he
16638-459: The unit's primary role: "T-Force = Target Force, to guard and secure documents, persons, equipment, with combat and Intelligence personnel, after capture of large towns, ports etc. in liberated and enemy territory." Fleming sat on the committee that selected the targets for the T-Force unit, and listed them in the "Black Books" that were issued to the unit's officers. The infantry component of T-Force
16779-515: The use of British naval bases in the Caribbean by the American navy. Fleming was demobilised in May 1945, but remained in the RNVR for several years, receiving a promotion to substantive lieutenant-commander (Special Branch) on 26 July 1947. In October 1947, he was awarded the King Christian X's Liberty Medal for his contribution in assisting Danish officers escaping from Denmark to Britain during
16920-418: The use of his name, Goldfinger threatened to sue, before the matter was settled out of court. Auric Goldfinger is obsessed by gold and is—to Bond's eye—a gauche individual with unusual appetites; Fleming probably based the character on the American gold tycoon Charles W. Engelhard Jr. Fleming also used his own experiences within the book; the round of golf played with Goldfinger was based on a 1957 tournament at
17061-617: The villain Gustav Graves in Die Another Day ) as Bond, Sir Ian McKellen as Goldfinger and Stephens's Die Another Day co-star Rosamund Pike as Pussy Galore. The play was adapted from Fleming's novel by Archie Scottney and was directed by Martin Jarvis . Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was an English writer, best known for his postwar James Bond series of spy novels . Fleming came from
17202-443: The war. Fleming envisaged that Bond would resemble the composer, singer and actor Hoagy Carmichael ; others, such as author and historian Ben Macintyre , identify aspects of Fleming's own looks in his description of Bond. General references in the novels describe Bond as having "dark, rather cruel good looks". Fleming also modelled aspects of Bond on Conrad O'Brien-ffrench , a spy whom Fleming had met while skiing in Kitzbühel in
17343-445: The water supply. He manages to conceal a message in the toilet of Goldfinger's private plane, where he hopes it will be found and sent to Pinkertons , where his friend and ex-counterpart Felix Leiter now works. Operation Grand Slam commences, and it transpires that Leiter has found and acted on Bond's message. A battle commences, but Goldfinger escapes. Tilly, a lesbian, hopes that one of the gang leaders, Pussy Galore (the leader of
17484-513: The words of Ben Macintyre, "rounded on Fleming, almost as a pack". The most strongly worded of the critiques came from Paul Johnson of the New Statesman , who, in his review "Sex, Snobbery and Sadism", called the novel "without doubt, the nastiest book I have ever read". Johnson went on to say that "by the time I was a third of the way through, I had to suppress a strong impulse to throw the thing away". Johnson recognised that in Bond there "was
17625-414: The work is too stretched across the novel. Benson, and Fleming's biographer Matthew Parker , consider Goldfinger to be the "densest" of the Bond novels, with a fast pace and high levels of action, in which Bond moves from Miami, via New York to London, then through Kent and northern France to Switzerland, then back to New York, to Kentucky, to New York, Washington, and finally ditching the aeroplane in
17766-482: The writer William Plomer —his friend who proof-read all the Bond books—that Goldfinger was to be "the last full length folio on Bond ... Though I may be able to think up some episodes for him in the future, I shall never be able to give him 70,000 words again". Fleming based some points in the book on events he had read about. The pre-First World War death of a showgirl in Europe after she had covered herself in paint
17907-724: Was Valentine Fleming , the Member of Parliament for Henley from 1910 to 1917. As an infant he briefly lived with his family at Braziers Park in Oxfordshire. Fleming was a grandson of the Scottish financier Robert Fleming , who co-founded the Scottish American Investment Company and the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co. In 1914, with the start of the First World War, Valentine Fleming joined "C" Squadron of Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars , and rose to
18048-558: Was "hard to put down; but some of us wish we had the good taste just to try". The Times thought that Bond was "backed up by sound writing" by Fleming; the critic thought that although the plot was grandiose "it sounds—and is—fantastic; the skill of Mr. Fleming is to be measured by the fact that it is made not to seem so". For The Times Literary Supplement , Michael Robson considered that "a new Bond has emerged from these pages: an agent more relaxed, less promiscuous, less stagily muscular than of yore". Robson added that "the story, too,
18189-524: Was being edited and prepared for production. That month Fleming travelled to his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica to write Goldfinger . He followed his usual practice, which he later outlined in Books and Bookmen magazine: "I write for about three hours in the morning ... and I do another hour's work between six and seven in the evening. I never correct anything and I never go back to see what I have written ... By following my formula, you write 2,000 words
18330-503: Was called the Trout Memo and compared the deception of an enemy in wartime to fly fishing . The memo contained several schemes to be considered for use against the Axis powers to lure U-boats and German surface ships towards minefields. Number 28 on the list was an idea to plant misleading papers on a corpse that would be found by the enemy; the suggestion is similar to Operation Mincemeat ,
18471-498: Was concerned that the unit had been incorrectly used as a regular commando force rather than an intelligence-gathering unit. This wasted the men's specialist skills, risked their safety on operations that did not justify the use of such skilled operatives, and threatened the vital gathering of intelligence. Afterwards, the management of these units was revised. He also followed the unit into Germany after it located, in Tambach Castle,
18612-536: Was given a position as a sub-editor and journalist for the company. In April 1933 Fleming spent time in Moscow , where he covered the Stalinist show trial of six engineers from the British company Metropolitan-Vickers . While there he applied for an interview with Soviet premier Joseph Stalin , and was amazed to receive a personally signed note apologising for not being able to attend. Upon returning from Moscow he ended
18753-456: Was in part made up of the 5th Battalion , King's Regiment , which supported the Second Army . It was responsible for securing targets of interest for the British military, including nuclear laboratories, gas research centres and individual rocket scientists. The unit's most notable discoveries came during the advance on the German port of Kiel , in the research centre for German engines used in
18894-456: Was mostly similar to the novel, but Jill and Tilly Masterton (renamed Masterson for the film) have shortened roles and earlier deaths in the story. The plot of the film was also changed from stealing the gold at Fort Knox to irradiating the gold vault with a dirty bomb . Alan Barnes and Marcus Hearn, in their examination of the Bond films, consider that the film improves on what they see as some of Fleming's "ludicrous notions". The pair highlight
19035-487: Was one such idea, and the depressurisation of Goldfinger's plane was a plot device Fleming had intended to use elsewhere, but which he included in Goldfinger . Some years previously a plane had depressurised over the Lebanon and an American passenger had been sucked out of the window; Fleming, who was not a comfortable airline passenger, had made note of the incident to use it. As he had done in previous Bond novels, Fleming used
19176-401: Was rather lower than apes in the mammalian hierarchy". Benson agrees that Bond is shown as a bigot in the passage quoted, and observes that this is the only point in all the works in which Bond disparages a whole race. ... everything was out of proportion. Goldfinger was short, not more than five feet tall, and on top of the thick body and blunt, peasant legs, was set almost directly into
19317-444: Was serialised on a daily basis in the Daily Express newspaper from 18 March 1959 onwards. Fleming's original novel was adapted as a daily comic strip which was published in the same paper and syndicated around the world—the first of the novels to be adapted as such. The adaptation ran from 3 October 1960 to 1 April 1961, and Fleming received £1,500 for the British publication and a percentage for syndicated copies. The adaptation
19458-521: Was the father of author, James Fleming . Michael died of wounds in October 1940 after being captured at Normandy while serving with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry . Fleming also had a younger maternal half-sister born out of wedlock, the cellist Amaryllis Fleming (1925–1999), whose father was the artist Augustus John . Amaryllis was conceived during a long-term affair between John and Evelyn which had started in 1923, six years after
19599-422: Was the short men that caused all the trouble in the world", an opinion Black considers a reflection of the "racialism and crude psychology" of early-twentieth century literature. Like many other of Fleming's villains, Goldfinger is not of British extraction (although he is a British citizen); other villains have been, for example, Russian, German, Jewish, Chinese-German or Slav. Synnott observes that in many of
19740-461: Was to be near the front line of an advance—sometimes in front of it—to seize enemy documents from previously targeted headquarters. The unit was based on a German group headed by Otto Skorzeny , who had undertaken similar activities in the Battle of Crete in May 1941. The German unit was thought by Fleming to be "one of the most outstanding innovations in German intelligence". Fleming did not fight in
19881-485: Was written by Henry Gammidge and illustrated by John McLusky . Goldfinger was reprinted in 2005 by Titan Books as part of the Dr. No anthology, which in addition to Dr. No , also included Diamonds Are Forever and From Russia, with Love . In 1964 Goldfinger became the third entry in the James Bond film series. Sean Connery returned as Bond, and the German actor Gert Fröbe played Auric Goldfinger. The film
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