Goldfinger corrections

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Goldfinger (1964) - 24 corrections

Directed by Guy Hamilton, starring Bernard Lee, Desmond Llewelyn, Gert Fröbe, Honor Blackman, Lois Maxwell, Sean Connery, Shirley Eaton

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "make changes" when viewing mistakes, and click "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.

In the title sequence which shows scenes of the movie as titles and credits are shown, all the scenes are from Goldfinger except one. It is the helicopter/Bond chase scene from From Russia With Love. [The fact that clips from the movie and From Russia With Love does not make it trivia.]

After Goldfinger has lost the card game, Bond is looking at his face in the binocular. We see Goldfingers' hands when he snaps the pencil. How did Bond know to turn the binocular from Goldfinger's face to his hands in that exact second? [Artistic licence, not a mistake.] Corrected by tw_stuart

In the scene where Tilly Masterson is running through the woods away from Bond and Auric's men, Oddjob throws his hat at her. It hits her in the neck and she simply falls over and dies. However, a few scenes before Oddjob throws his hat at the statue and cuts the head clean off. Shouldn't Tilly have been decapitated? [In the case of the statue, there is no soft flexible material (muscle, tendon, ligament) to hold the statue's head on after the hard material has been broken. It is relatively easy to knock a statue's head off with a club, but almost impossible to do so with a human being.]

At the congress between Goldfinger & the crime bosses, they all demand the payments owed to them, namely one million dollars each in gold bullion. Goldfinger then teases them by saying, "You can have one million today, or ten million tomorrow", which he explains to mean that, upon executing Operation Grand-Slam, the market value of circulating gold bullion will multiply by a factor of at least ten. But if that's the case, then why would the gangsters be motivated to wait for their parcels of gold? Its value will increase after the Fort Knox job regardless that they take possession today or tomorrow. [Because if they take the same amount of gold in weight tomorrow, it will be that much more in a few days. Why take a million today, when 10 million tomorrow will likely be worth even more after that. Also, saying "tomorrow" is a figure of speech. Commodity markets flucuate, and the best way to increase your profit is to hold onto the commodity. So, take 10 million worth tomorrow, rather than 1 million worth today, and in time the 10 million will be worth even more. Finally, Goldfinger could mean he is giving them 10 million after the job as a reward for their patience, and once the value goes up, the 10 million he gives after the job could be worth 100 million over time.]

When James Bond is trying to escape Goldfinger's henchmen, he is in Switzerland. When he wakes up he is in an airplane on the way to Kentucky, USA. That plane is a Lockheed Jetstar. It's range with extra fuel is about 5000km. The distance between Switzerland and Kentucky is about 7000km. The Jetstar would never make it to Kentucky. [They could have landed any number of times to refuel. It is never said that it is a non-stop flight. We don't see the entire journey.]

The director Guy Hamilton found that for the laser scene in which Bond was to be cut in two, a real laser beam would not show up on camera so it was added as an optical effect. The melting effect on the table was achieved by a man underneath the table holding an oxyacetylene torch, while a real laser would have produced a fairly heat-free and silent cut. [This should be in movie trivia, not specifically a movie mistake.] Corrected by Zwn Annwn

Bond's car has bullet proof windows, yet when he tries to escape from Oddjob and Goldfinger's men (after overhearing "Operation Grand Slam") the front windscreen not only has bullet marks but holes where it looks as if the bullets have gone through the glass. One of these lines up with Bond's forehead and a few of the other look as if they should have caused him some serious harm-but didn't. [Despite what the Bond movies would have us believe, no glass is fully bulletproof so the bad guys presumably had sufficient firepower. We can only assume that Bond's forehead was not in line with the bullet-hole when it was created. Hardly a mistake for him to try to avoid oncoming bullets.] Corrected by tw_stuart

The girl dies from what is called skin suffocation. Skin suffocation is in reality a myth. [Technically, it's not. Toxins/bacteria, etc. can enter the body through the pores on the skin and be sufficient enough to cause death or serious injury. It's possible that this is what actually happened with the fabled gypsy dancer that this story refers to, and overtime, the "skin suffocation" term was coined.]

The gold bars depicted in Goldfinger are Trapezoid (a four sided figure with two sides the same length). Several (rare) images from the vaults from Fort Knox that exist show bars as rectangular bars. [The rare photos were taken long after the movie was made. In "The Making of Goldfinger" it states that nobody had seen the inside of Fort Knox. Until recently, the inside of Fort Knox had never even been seen by top US officials.]

During the "gassing of Fort Knox sequence", you can see one soldier tapping another on the arm as they miss their cue to drop to the ground. Others miss it completely and are still standing as others fall, and a few even take the time to lie down comfortably, rather than just slumping over. [This is deliberate and was done on the instructions of the director. He is planting hints about what is really happening - the 'gas' is harmless and the men are faking their reaction to it.]

It was a long-standing rumor (due to sexist prejudices) that Pussy's flying circus members were actually disguised men. [Whoever wrote this is subject to PC paranoia. The actresses in the Flying Circus were indeed women, but the pilots who flew the planes during the spraying sequences were men. Indeed, if one zooms the image when the Circus is landing after the practice run, it can be plainly seen that the pilot in the nearest plane has a beard, although he is wearing a blonde wig. it has been stated that the crew had a hard time getting the stunt pilots to wear the wigs in the first place. Not sexist, just practical.]

When Oddjob kills the girl by throwing the hat at her and breaking her neck, watch when Bond turns her over. Her closed eyes are flickering rapidly, showing that she seems to be having a hard time keeping them shut. [They could have been flickering in her final death throes. That can happen sometimes.]

When Bond is being flown to Baltimore, Pussy Galore pronounces her assistant's name Mee Lai. But when they step off the plane, Pussy pronounces the name as My Lai. [She always pronounces it Mai Lee.]

When Oddjob first demonstrates his lethal bowler hat by decapitating the statue; the statue's arm bends as the head falls on to it. [The arm doesn't bend, it breaks. You can see it break on the upper arm.]

When James Bond and Pussy Galore bail out of Goldfinger's plane which crashes into the water. However, they parachute into a forested area which appears to be a long way inland... [If you look at the radar, the plane is still 3000 feet in the air, and it's not very far inland. The plane could have flown towards and into the water, not to mention that wind could blow the parachute a little ways inland.]

In the famous scene with Bond strapped to the table being menaced by the laser, he manages to get his freedom by stating that if he doesn't call in with his office 008 will replace him, and 008 will know all that he knows, including about Operation: Grand Slam. Goldfinger promptly lets him go, saying Bond is more use to him alive. However, he then proceeds to keep Bond prisoner, and doesn't let him call in, which surely negates the effect he wanted by saving his life. Why not just kill him, if in MI5 terms he might as well be dead. He'll still be replaced. [Goldfinger allows Felix Leiter and another CIA agent (while using binoculars and leaning over a fence) to witness Bond having drinks with him and Pussy at his Kentucky ranch. Since Bond is alive and well, this is the equivalent of "calling in".]

Shirley Eaton, who was painted from head to foot in gold paint for the famous shots, had to undergo 2 hours of make-up for the scene. During that time, she was closely monitored by medical experts, to avoid the epidermal asphyxiation - skin suffocation - that her character "Jill Masterson" died from. The idea was based on a real Swiss fashion model who painted herself and subsequently died. [This is an urban myth. No-one has ever died from covering one's whole body with gold paint, white paint, or any color paint. Anyway, go here and look. http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/goldfing.htm.]

When Goldfinger unexpectedly appears on the plane near the end of the film, one can see the top of one of someone's head behind Goldfinger. This person's left arm is later visible behind Goldfinger as Goldfinger talks to Bond. Yet seconds later when Bond and Goldfinger fight over the golden gun this person is nowhere to be seen. [The person is one of the Korean flunkies (you can tell by the blue uniform, you see his sleeve). He is backing up Goldfinger, with his hand ready for a martial art strike. Presumably though, he is knocked to the floor as Goldfinger fights Bond (Goldfinger is a big bloke) so doesn't appear in shot again.]

Oddjob shots the gangster in the back of the Lincoln and drives straight into the junkyard. When he gets out and walks away the car is dropped into the crusher. We can see that the back seat of the car is now empty. [Mr. Solo could have actually slid off the seat when he was shot - watch Oddjob's eyes; it looks like they follow the body onto the floor.]

When Mr. Solo leaves for the airport, the bars of gold are loaded, unpackaged, and in the trunk of the car. Assuming he was flying commercially, was he going to check the bars of gold as luggage? [Before Solo leaves, Goldfinger says something like "My jet will take you back," meaning that he is not flying commercially.]