book Goldfinger versus movie Goldfinger

This summer I read the James Bond book GOLDFINGER, and over Thanksgiving I got to watch the 1964 film version of the story with Sean Connery playing Bond.

As much as it pains me to admit this as a writer, I think the film improved on the book in several key respects.

First, the movie version of Goldfinger is a lot smarter than the book version of Goldfinger. Several times during the book, Goldfinger refuses to kill Bond when killing Bond is the smart thing to do, and he even invites Bond along to hear the details of his evil plan. In the movie, Bond has to escape to hear the details of Goldfinger’s operation to steal all the gold in Fort Knox.

In the movie, Goldfinger doesn’t kill Bond because of the risk that Bond’s death with draw unwanted attention to his plans. Movie Goldfinger also kills all the mafia heads when he no longer has any need of them, while in the book Goldfinger lets them live despite the obvious danger of security leaks.

Second, movie Goldfinger’s plan is a lot better than book Goldfinger’s plan. Book Goldfinger plans to steal all the gold in Fort Knox, despite the obvious difficulties of moving 10,000 tons of gold bullion. Movie Goldfinger plans to detonate a dirty bomb inside the vaults of Fort Knox, irradiating the gold and rendering it too dangerous for humans to handle. The resultant worldwide spike price in gold would exponentially increase Goldfinger’s wealth…which is also much less work than transporting ten thousand tons of gold!

Third, the addition of the bomb made the final scenes much more compelling. In the movie, Bond fights a final battle with Goldfinger’s henchman Oddjob in the vaults of Fort Knox while the bomb ticks down next to them. It’s an excellent fight scene, filmed without music, and makes it all the more satisfying when Bond manages to defeat the physically superior Oddjob through cleverness.

That said, I did like book Goldfinger’s motivations better than the motivations of movie Goldfinger. In the movie, Goldfinger just wants to enrich himself. In the book, Goldfinger is actually a Soviet agent, and the entire point of his scheme is to destroy the American economy.

Still, it was interesting how the necessity of adapting a book to a film resulted in improvements to the story.

-JM