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Saturday, February 4, 2017

Goldfinger in The White House



As I have been watching the drama unfurling from The White House I sensed that I had seen this movie before. There were similarities with a work of fiction that I had seen many years ago where the person who played a villain was a man of about 70 and blond, somewhat portly, and owned everything.

I had to go back to 1964 and the release of the James Bond film, "Goldfinger," played by Gert Frobe who took the role of Auric Goldfinger. The resemblance between the two men, Frobe and Trump is striking, although the President of The United States is not a villain, he's the president. "Goldfinger" was the third in the James Bond series, starring Sean Connery as James Bond, with Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore.

This was the first time the word "Pussy" was used in such a public way and predictably it caused a stir.

By comparison with what the Bond series would go on to become this film is very short on the high technology scenes but was very watchable and exciting for its time.

It featured one of the best bad guys of all in the interpretation of "Odd Job" played by Korean weightlifter, Harold Sakata. He was the one who was so handy with his hat and so strong that he made 007 look like a little boy. Apparently he was badly burned when something went wrong in his final scene, but he played the scene through in spite of the on-going accident. A really great guy.

Two roles that were played by Bernard Lee, as "M" and Desmond Llewelyn as "Q" that became staples throughout the entire series and set the template for viewers where we were always excited to see what new gadgets James Bond would play with next.

The role of Eve Moneypenny was played by Lois Maxwell, and although a relatively minor one viewers generally found it to be very charming.The golden girl who had been painted all over with gold paint as a punishment by Goldfinger was played by Shirley Eaton who was Jill Masterton. The image of her made a spectacular poster.

I reserve my very sincere applause for Shirley Bassey who sang the title song with such gusto and perfection that it remains a true classic even today. As a person with a musical ear both the musical score and her voice is about as close as can be got to absolute 100% perfection.

I started out saying that the similarities between Mr Trump and Mr Goldfinger were stunning, including how both men look, and the fact that they were highly successful businessmen who flew around in their own planes.

Is this a case of life following art or just an incredible coincidence?  I don't believe in coincidence.
Do you?

Copyright (c) 2017
Eugene Carmichael