Location Guide - Goldfinger
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Latin
America
We join the mission as 007 infiltrates
a high-security Oil Refinery in an unknown Latin American
state. Bond slinks his way into the base in a particularly
fishy disguise and with adept skill he locates a
hidden room in the base of an oil tank, plants
his explosives, and is in the local bar before the
fireworks begin. After the ground-trembling explosion
Bond retires to
the quarters of a cabaret dancer.
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Miami Beach, USA
With the South American mission a success, Bond is
sent to the palm beaches of Miami by M,
under the pretence of rest and recuperation. At the
Fontainebleau Hotel, Bond rendezvous with Felix
Leiter of the CIA who briefs him on Goldfinger -
a Swiss-German who cheats at cards. Bond intercepts
his poolside gambling operation before bedding down
with Goldfinger's chaperone - Jill
Masterson. She ultimately meets her golden demise
in 007's suite of the lavish Miami hotel.
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London & Essex, UK
Bond returns to London to be briefed by M and his contact
at the Bank of England, Colonel
Smithers, about the full nature of the shady
Goldfinger and his aurum smuggling operation. Bond
is tasked with unraveling the details of the operation
and arranges to meet Mr. Goldfinger on his favourite
links course. Bond and Goldfinger tee off at the
Royale St. George's
with the villain suspicious of Bond's slick
ploys. On the field 007 must pit wit and skill against
the crafty and dishonest Goldfinger. Bond comes out
on top - beating the repulsive man at his own game.
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Geneva, Switzerland
Bond tracks the gold-obsessed villain by private charter
to his factory in Geneva. Here in Andermattm Bond
meets Tilly Masterson,
the bereaved sister of Jill. Tilly is out for revenge
and there is little Bond can do to stop the
damsel steaming into Goldfinger's heavily armed headquarters.
The gigantic factory in the highlands proves to be
one of the key locations in Goldfinger's smuggling
ring and Bond charges in on Tilly's coat tails. In
the end the DB5 crashes
and Bond is captured. Tilly was
not so lucky.
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Maryland/Kentucky, USA
Bond wakes from a drug-induced sleep to find himself
onboard Goldfinger's private
jet bound for Baltimore. At a local airstrip
Bond and Pussy
Galore are escorted to Goldfinger's stud farm
by the silent but brutal Oddjob.
Felix is keeping tabs on 007 but mistakes his capture
for a show of hospitality on Goldfinger's part.
Bond, who normally is kept in a secure cell in
the basement, gives his guard the slip and spies
on Goldfinger's dramatic unveiling of the master
plan. Bond is recaptured promptly but proves to
be useful to Goldfinger somewhat longer.
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Fort Knox, USA
When Bond finally gets a message to the CIA,
the Americans spring a plan to capture Goldfinger in
his raid of the gold repository at Fort Knox. A daring
battle ensues between the US military and Goldfinger's
army of Korean servants. In the confusion the villain
attempts an escape, leaving 007 hand-cuffed to a ticking
bomb and Oddjob minding him. The pair engage in an unwieldy
man-on-man fight whilst the gun battle rages on outside
the vault. Bond frees himself and dispatches with the
henchman.
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Washington DC, USA (airspace)
With the mission mostly a success but the villain's
whereabouts still uncounted for, Bond boards a
flight in order to be commended by the President
himself. However, Goldfinger hijacks
the plane in a last ditch effort to see the death
of 007. The gold-infatuated mammonist fires a parting
shot, of sorts. Goldfinger's bullet smashes the
window and in a furious depressurizing of the cabin
the villain is blown into the sky. |
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Shooting Goldfinger
On 15th January 1964 a skeleton crew, including the film's director Guy
Hamilton, departed for Miami to shoot in and around the fantastic
Fountainbleu Hotel. Whilst Sean Connery would never set foot in
the USA on this picture, Hamilton canned scenes with his new Felix
Leiter (Cec Linder) before returning to London to try and piece
this on-location footage with the storyboarded sequence scheduled
to be shot on a stage at Pinewood.
Above: Bond returns
from sun-soaked Florida, hot on the tail of Goldfinger... |
The high-octane Aston Martin sequence, which was set in Auric Enterprises' Switzerland headquarters, was filmed next. The location was actually Black Park in Buckinghamshire, not far from the studio.
By March 1964 Sean Connery was on hand to film
shots for the famous credit sequence and directly after this,
movie magic was made. The German actor Gert Frobe was welcomed
onto set to film his first scene - the now-iconic 'do you expect
me to talk' laser-torture sequence. Connery's role in this sequence
involved being strapped to the table whilst a special-effects
wiz, hidden from the cameras, cut through the surface with an
oxy-acetylene torch.
Above: From London to Geneva, from Geneva to the States - courtesy of Goldfinger's personal pilot, Pussy Galore... |
Hamilton moved on to the filming of the Miami interiors - including Jill's gold-coated death - on Pinewood's D stage during the month of April whilst next door another sound-studio was being transformed into the gadget-master's laboratory.
The first on-location scenes (aside from a brief
few days in Miami) were at the Stoke Poges golf club where Hamilton
eloquently constructed 007's sporting battle with the gold-obsessed
villain. During this period Connery would spend hours on and
off camera refining his game - which he was first introduced
to by the Bond debut director, Terence
Young. The Poges, doubling for the Royal St. George's in
the film, was reused by the James Bond team in the '90s when Brosnan (Bond)
and Hatcher (Paris Carver)
bed down in 007's Hamburg hotel in "Tomorrow
Never Dies".
Next on the agenda was the climatic battle in and around Fort Knox. A life-sized portion of the top-secret building was constructed on the Pinewood back lot and the biggest of its sound stages was given over to becoming the glimmering interior of the Knox vault - an amazing design feat from the franchise regular, Ken Adam.
Above: Heading West with Goldfinger:
Bond touches down in Baltimore, journeys to Goldfinger's Kentucky
stud and on to Fort Knox with this master-villian... |
A short period was spent by the crew in Lexington,
Kentucky, filming a few airport scenes and some brief exteriors
of Goldfinger's stud. However, many of the airport sequences
were filmed at the RAF base at Northolt, Middlesex - doubling
for
Mid-West America.
Prior to calling "Goldfinger" a wrap, Guy Hamilton and his crew journeyed to Switzerland to capture exteriors of Goldfinger's headquarters - really the Pilatus Aircraft Factory in Canton Lucerne - and Bond and Tilly's rendezvous on the mountain roads of Furka Pass and Andermatt: a small village 50 miles south of Zurich. Principal photography on the third 007 adventure was completed on 11th July 1964. Hamilton and his team had committed some of the most iconic movie moments to film over the period of the first 6 months of '64.