Thunderball - 1965

Thunderball (1965) is the fourth spy film in the James Bond series after Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963) and Goldfinger (1964), and the fourth to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original screenplay by Jack Whittingham. It was directed by Terence Young with screenplay by Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins.
The film follows Bond's mission to find two NATO nuclear bombs stolen by SPECTRE, who holds the world to ransom for £100 million in diamonds, in exchange for not destroying an unspecified major city in either England or the United States (later revealed to be Miami). The search leads Bond to the Bahamas, where he encounters Emilio Largo, the card-playing, eye-patch wearing SPECTRE Number Two. Backed by the CIA and Largo's mistress, Bond's search culminates into an underwater battle with Largo's henchmen.
Thunderball was associated with a legal dispute in 1961 when former Ian Fleming collaborators Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham sued him shortly after the 1961 publication of the Thunderball novel, claiming he based it upon the screenplay the trio had earlier written in a failed cinematic translation of James Bond. The lawsuit was settled out of court and Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman fearing a rival McClory film allowed him to retain certain screen rights to the novel's story, plot, and characters. The film had a complex production, with four different units and about a quarter of the film consisting of underwater scenes.
The film was a success, earning a total of $141.2 million worldwide, exceeding the earnings of the three previous Bond films and breaking box office records on the first weekend of opening in France and Italy. In 1966, John Stears won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, and production designer Ken Adam was also nominated for a BAFTA award. Thunderball is to date, the most financially successful movie of the series and adjusting for inflation made the equivalent of $966.4 million in 2008 currency. Although a commercial success, Thunderball received mixed reviews from critics. Some critics and viewers showered praise on the film and branded it as a welcome addition to the series, while others complained of the repetitively monotonous aquatic action and prolonged show duration.

Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore in Goldfinger

Pussy Galore is the main Bond Girl in "Goldfinger".Pussy is the owner of a flying circus, the staff of which consists entirely of shapely female pilots. However, she is also part of Auric Goldfinger's plan to rob Fort Knox. Prior to Goldfinger's men moving in, her pilots are to fly over the area, spraying it with knockout gas to immobilize all personnel in the immediate area.Pussy identifies herself as "the outdoors type" and apparently plans to use her cut of the proceeds from the robbery to buy her own tropical island and "go back to nature."A judo expert, she is very tough and not easily moved by 007's charm. In fact, it is hinted that she may be a lesbian. However, she is eventually seduced by Bond, who informs her that the gas Goldfinger intends to use is actually deadly - she had believed it to be knockout gas with no lasting effect on those targeted with it. Pussy then reveals that she does have a conscience, by contacting the CIA to inform them of Goldfinger's plan, and switching the gas for another variety which has no effect at all, allowing the CIA to set a trap for Goldfinger.She does not appear in any other film in the series.

Synopsis of Goldfinger

In the pre-title sequence, James Bond (Sean Connery) infiltrates a Mexican drug lord's base by water wearing a dry suit with a snorkel camouflaged as a seagull. He destroys a hidden building with plastic explosives and defeats an assassin by electrocuting him in a bathtub.
The main story begins in Miami Beach, Florida, at the Fontainebleau Hotel with Central Intelligence Agency agent Felix Leiter (Cec Linder) delivering a message to Bond from M to watch Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe). Bond foils Goldfinger's cheating at gin rummy by distracting his employee, Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton). After blackmailing Goldfinger into losing, Bond and Jill consummate their new relationship in Bond's hotel suite. Following an unflattering remark concerning The Beatles (the entire production was filmed and released during the height of Beatlemania), Bond is knocked out by Goldfinger's Korean manservant Oddjob (Harold Sakata), who then covers Jill in gold paint, supposedly killing her by epidermal suffocation.
In London, Bond learns that his true mission is determining how Goldfinger transports gold internationally. Prior to his assignment he is issued an Aston Martin DB5 from Q modified with several gadgets. He plays and wins a high-stakes golf game against Goldfinger with a recovered Nazi gold bar at stake. Goldfinger, who was caught cheating during the game, warns Bond to stay out of his business by having Oddjob decapitate a statue by throwing his steel-rimmed top hat. Undeterred, Bond follows him to Switzerland, where he unintentionally foils an assassination attempt on Goldfinger by Tilly Masterson (Tania Mallet) to avenge the death of her sister, Jill.
Bond sneaks into Goldfinger's plant and overhears him talking to a Red Chinese agent about "Operation Grand Slam." Leaving, he encounters Tilly as she is about to make a second attempt on Goldfinger's life, but accidentally trips an alarm. Bond and Tilly attempt to escape, but Oddjob breaks Tilly's neck with his hat. Bond is soon captured and Goldfinger has Bond tied to a table underneath an industrial laser, which slowly begins to slice the table in half. Bond then lies to Goldfinger that British Intelligence knows about Grand Slam, causing Goldfinger to spare Bond's life until he can determine how much the spy actually knows.

Goldfinger about to slice Bond in half with a laser.
Bond is transported by Goldfinger's private Lockheed JetStar, flown by his personal pilot, Pussy Galore, to his stud farm near Fort Knox, Kentucky. Bond escapes and witnesses Goldfinger's meeting with US mafiosi, who have brought the materials he needs for Operation Grand Slam. At the end of the briefing, one of the mafiosi asked Goldfinger to pay him immediately, rather than wait a few days for the larger return from Operation Grand Slam, as Goldfinger has just outlined. Goldfinger accepts and leads him out of the conference room. The rest of them are killed by poison gas. The dissenting mafioso is escorted to the airport in a Lincoln Continental driven by Oddjob, who kills him before continuing on to a wrecking yard where the car is crushed into a cube with the body inside. Bond is recaptured after hearing the details of Operation Grand Slam, but soon learns additional information from Goldfinger himself. He intends to irradiate the US gold supply stored at the United States Gold Depository at Fort Knox with an atomic device, thereby rendering it useless for 58 years and greatly increasing the value of his own gold. This will also give the Chinese increased buying power following economic chaos in the West.
Operation Grand Slam begins with the women pilots of Pussy Galore's Flying Circus spraying lethal nerve gas over Fort Knox to dispatch its garrison. However, Bond had seduced Pussy and persuaded her to contact the CIA, who replaced the poison with a harmless gas. The military personnel of Fort Knox convincingly play dead until they are certain that they can prevent the criminals escaping the base with the bomb. They choose this plan because Goldfinger had earlier suggested that if thwarted at Fort Knox, there was no telling where he might explode the device, so the CIA knew their scheme had to trap both Goldfinger and the bomb beyond any reasonable hope of escape.
Goldfinger's Chinese agents gain entry to the vault. Oddjob handcuffs Bond to the atomic device and lowers both into the vault. As Goldfinger and his men prepare to leave, the Army troops surround them and all but wipe them out. Goldfinger has planned for every contingency, however: he takes off his coat, revealing a US Army uniform and kills his Chinese assistant and the troops seeking to open the vault, before escaping.
Goldfinger's henchman Kisch, forced to retreat to the vault, intends to shut off the bomb but Oddjob throws him off a balcony to his death. Bond retrieves the man's keys and unlocks his handcuffs, but before he can disarm the bomb, Oddjob races down the stairs and attacks. Bond manages to duck under Oddjob's lethal hat, severing a nearby electrical line, and the ensuing fight proves that Oddjob is the superior combatant. Finally, Bond retrieves the hat and tries to throw it himself without success. It wedges in between two of the bars of the vault. When Oddjob tries to recover it, Bond reaches the severed cable and brushes the exposed wiring with the metal gate, electrocuting Oddjob because of the metal in his own hat.
Turning to the bomb, Bond manages to force the lock by hammering on it with a pair of gold bars, but the mechanism inside baffles him. With the clock winding down, Bond tries to yank one of the cables, but an atomic specialist comes over and turns off a switch seconds before detonation, the troops having forced entry into the vault in the meantime.
With Fort Knox safe, Bond is invited to the White House for a meeting with the US president. He boards a military Lockheed JetStar for Washington, D.C., but Goldfinger has forced Pussy Galore to hijack it and fly to Cuba. Bond and Goldfinger struggle for the latter's gold-plated revolver and accidentally shoots a window, creating an explosive decompression of the aircraft. Goldfinger is sucked out of the cabin. Bond rescues Galore, and they parachute safely from the aircraft before it crashes.

Goldfinger - 1964

Goldfinger (1964) is the third spy film in the James Bond series, and the third to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It is based on the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film stars Honor Blackman as Bond girl Pussy Galore and Gert Fröbe as the title character. The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and was the first of four Bond films directed by Guy Hamilton. The story has Bond following gold smuggler Auric Goldfinger, who plans a nuclear detonation inside the Fort Knox gold depository.
The film was the first official Bond blockbuster and made cinematic history by recouping its production costs in record-setting time, despite a budget equal to that of the two preceding films combined. Goldfinger was also the first Bond film to use a pop star to sing the theme song during the titles, a hallmark that would follow for every Bond film since except On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Goldfinger was originally released on 17 September 1964, in the United Kingdom, and on 21 December 1964, in the United States. To promote the film, the two Aston Martin DB5s were showcased at the 1964 New York World's Fair, and it was dubbed "the most famous car in the world".Sales of the car rose. Corgi Toys began its decades-long relationship with the Bond franchise, producing a toy of the car. It became the biggest selling toy of 1964. The film's success also led to licensed tie-in clothing, dress shoes, action figures, board games, jigsaw puzzles, lunch boxes, toys, record albums, trading cards and slot cars.
The film was both a critical and financial success. The film's $3 million budget was recouped in two weeks, and it broke box office records in multiple countries around the world. Goldfinger went on to be included in the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest grossing film of all time. The film grossed a total of $51,081,062 in the United States. At the 1965 Academy Awards, Norman Wanstall won the Academy Award for Sound Editing for his work on Goldfinger. Barry was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Score for a Motion Picture. Ken Adam was nominated for the BAFTA for Best British Art Direction. The American Film Institute has honoured the film four times: ranking it No. 90 for best movie quote ("A martini. Shaken, not stirred."), No. 53 for best song ("Goldfinger"), No. 49 for best villain (Auric Goldfinger), and No. 71 for most thrilling film. In 2006, Entertainment Weekly and IGN both named Goldfinger as the best Bond movie, while MSN named it as the second best, behind its predecessor, and also named Pussy Galore as the second best Bond girl as did IGN. In 2008, Total Film named Goldfinger as the best film in the series. An Internet Movie Database poll in 1999, based on 665 votes, named Goldfinger as the most sinister Bond villain. Another poll in 2006, based on 16416 votes also named Goldfinger the best Bond villain. The Times placed Goldfinger and Oddjob second and third on their list of the best Bond villains in 2008.They also named the Aston Martin DB5 as the best car in the films.
Danny Peary wrote that Goldfinger is “the best of the James Bond films starring Sean Connery…There’s lots of humor, gimmicks, excitement, an amusing yet tense gold contest between Bond and Goldfinger, thrilling fights to the death between Bond and Oddjob and Bond and Goldfinger, and a fascinating central crime…Most enjoyable, but too bad Eaton’s part isn’t longer and that Frobe’s Goldfinger, a heavy but nimble intellectual in the Sydney Greenstreet tradition, never appeared in another Bond film.”
Based on 47 reviews which were mostly published after the film's release on Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of critics gave the film positive reviews only after From Russia with Love, which received a 97%, and Dr. No, with a 98% score.
The distributor Park Circus theatrically re-released Goldfinger in the UK on 27 July 2007 at one-hundred-and-fifty multiplex cinemas, on digital prints. The re-release put the film twelfth at the weekly box office.