BOND 50 GOLDFINGER

2012 marks the 50th anniversary of James Bond on the big screen. To celebrate, SFX's Nick Setchfield revisits each and every 007 adventure in a week by week countdown to Skyfall ...

HE LOVES ONLY GOLD Goldfinger not only sets the house style of the Bond movies – it gives us the first bona fide Bond song too (the titles of Dr No and From Russia With Love had played over instrumental versions of their themes, though a snatch of Matt Monro’s croon drifts from a transistor radio in the latter). As sold by Shirley Bassey in imperious, full-throated diva mode, it’s an incorrigible tart of a showtune, all brass stabs, pomp and menace. The words “Pretty girl, beware” feel like a foreshadowing – Bond leaves a trail of death behind him in this film, with both Masterson sisters losing their lives in memorably nasty ways. Robert Brownjohn designed the film’s innovative title sequence, which mixes eerie surrealism (the Aston Martin’s tumbling numberplates replace the mouth of a girl – Dali would have approved) and brazen, molten eroticism, as flames lick the thighs of a golden girl. It’s all very sexy, aloof and sinister and feels deeply, brilliantly Bond.

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TRIV AND LET DIE

While Shirley Eaton is the gold-plated victim on screen, Carry On starlet Margaret Nolan is the golden girl in the title sequence and posters (Nolan also appears as Dink in this movie).

Goldfinger’s laser is the first time such a device had been seen on screen.

JAMES BOND WILL RETURN IN THUNDERBALL

Nick Setchfield is the Editor-at-Large for SFX Magazine, writing features, reviews, interviews, and more for the monthly issues. However, he is also a freelance journalist and author with Titan Books. His original novels are called The War in the Dark, and The Spider Dance. He's also written a book on James Bond called Mission Statements.