Villains: Goldfinger
Auric Goldfinger was the villainous treasurer of SMERSH the Soviet counter intelligence agency. He was an evil looking character played brilliantly by the German Gert Frobe and voiced by Michael Collins.
He was born in Latvia and after years spent in the Bahamas became a naturalised citizen of the UK commonwealth. He amassed a great fortune in gold bullion and smuggled it around the world as required using his jewellery and metallurgy businesses as a front for his nefarious activities.
In the Bond film Goldfinger he plans an attack on Fort Knox where the U.S. gold bullion stock resides. In the book he planned to steal the gold but this plan was obviously flawed, in reality it would have taken days just to move that amount of gold and so when it came to the film production they altered the story. Instead of theft he planned to use a dirty bomb to contaminate the gold so that it couldn’t be used thereby increasing the value of his own gold reserves.
Auric Goldfinger’s obsession with gold even spilled into his sex life and he would paint women gold before bedding them. However to prevent suffocation from the toxic paint he would leave a portion unpainted. In the unfortunate case of Jill Masterston he paints her entirely gold as revenge for humiliating him and she dies. He often wears gold during the film and he uses a golden gun. Even his first name Auric means containing or derived from gold.
Goldfinger was a memorable villain and a really sinister character and he didn’t work alone. First there was his loyal henchman Oddjob who carried out any dirty work that was required. Goldfinger also worked with Pussy Galore and her female troupe of acrobats turned cat burglars. Finally he had various associations with US gangsters and employed them when he needed more help, quickly turning on them if they refused to do his bidding as Springer of the Purple Gang found out to his cost.
The character was brought to life skilfully by the rotund German Gert Frobe and although his English was not good enough for him to voice his own part he certainly looked right for it. Bizarrely in real life Israel banned the film Goldfinger because of reports that Frobe had been a member of the Nazi party however the ban was lifted when it later came to light that he had protected a Jewish family during the war. He played a number of villains over the years and was cast in Goldfinger after the producers saw him in the German film It Happened In Broad Daylight where he played a child murderer.
A number of other actors were considered for the role including Orson Welles who was deemed too expensive. Both Theodore Bikel and Titos Vandis performed screen tests for the part but Gert Frobe was eventually chosen.
The film went on to be the second most popular Bond film ever at the box office. Perhaps the most memorable scene featuring Goldfinger is the laser sequence where he has Bond tied to a table with an industrial laser creeping towards his body to cut him half. Bond asks “Do you expect me to me talk?” and Goldfinger coolly replies “No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die.” Naturally Bond doesn’t oblige.
