The James Bond Bedside Companion (38 page)

The plot to rob Fort Knox, though carefully detailed, still smacks of implausibility. Oddly enough, this section is the only part of the book which generates real excitement In fact, the last three chapters of GOLDFINGER are the
only
truly gripping sections. Even DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER contains more suspense than GOLDFINGER.

The gambling theme is present again. The novel is full of games: the canasta game in the first part, and the golf match in the second. Operation Grand Slam
is treated as a game by Goldfinger. And throughout the story, Bond must accomplish his assignment by strictly gambling on hunches. At one point after having dinner with Goldfinger, Bond reflects on the man's claim that he wouldn't be surprised if he and Bond met again soon:

Bond turned the phrase over and over in his mind. He undressed and got into bed thinking of it, unable to guess its significance. It could mean that Goldfinger intended to get in touch with Bond, or it could mean that Bond must try and keep in touch with Goldfinger. Heads the former, tails the latter. Bond got out of bed and took a coin from the dressing-table and tossed it. It came down tails. So it was up to him to keep close to Goldfinger!

(GOLDFINGER, Chapter 11)

This certainly illustrates the gambling temptation both Bond and Fleming share. The entire novel incorporates this heads-or-tails feeling. Another example is when Bond takes the chance of leaving the details of Operation Grand Slam on a rolled piece of paper underneath the lavatory seat of a chartered airplane. His only hope is that some flight attendant will find the message and deliver it, as instructed, to Felix Leiter at Pinkerton's. Naturally, this is what eventually happens. But it is doubtful that any flight attendant would accept the message as authentic.

Another theme which more or less runs throughout the series is finally stated explicitly: the parallel between fleming's hero and St George. This occurs after Gold-finger reveals he will open the vault at Fort Knox by using an atomic warhead. Bond thinks:

And now! Now it was not a rabbit in the rabbit hole, not even a fox, it was a king cobra—the biggest, most deadly inhabitant of the world! Bond sighed wearily. Once more into the breach, dear friends! This time it really was St George and the dragon. And St George had better get a move on and do something before the dragon hatched the little dragon's egg he was now nesting so confidently. Bond smiled tautly. Do what? What in God's name was there he could do?

(GOLDFINGER, Chapter 18)

The foregoing passage reveals Bond's inner thoughts. This technique, which resembles stream of consciousness narration, recurs throughout GOLDFINGER, and seems to be used by Fleming to voice his own ideas through Bond's personal reflections. Fleming's identification with Bond is at its strongest in GOLDFINGER.

CHARACTERS

T
he most successful element of GOLDFINGER is its rich characterizations. James Bond, especially, is at his most developed. Because he reflects and daydreams almost constantly in the story, many personal sides of the character are revealed. Much of Bond's thinking on death in his profession and his attitudes toward women are revealed in GOLDFINGER. There is even a passage which discloses Bond's feelings toward homosexuality and Lesbianism. Most of these quotes from GOLDFINGER appear in Part Three, which deals with the Bond character in more detail. But other revelations on Bond are worth bringing up here.

Bond muses over his approach to women as he is driving through Eastern France into Switzerland and is passed by Tilly Masterson in her Triumph:

That
would
happen today! The Loire is dressed for just that—chasing that girl until you run her to ground at lunchtime, the contact at the empty restaurant by the river, out in the garden under the vine trellis. The
friture
and the ice-cold Vouvray, the cautious sniffing at each other and then the two cars motoring on in convoy until that evening, well down to the south, there would be the place they had agreed on at lunch—olive trees, crickets singing in the indigo dusk, the discovery that they liked each other and that their destinations could wait Then, next day ("No, not tonight I don't know you well enough, and besides I'm tired") they would leave her car in the hotel garage and go off in his at a tangent, slowly, knowing there was no hurry for anything, driving to the west, away from the big roads. What was that place he had always wanted to go to, simply because of the name? Yes, Entre Deux Seins, a village near Les Baux. Perhaps there wasn't even an inn there. Well, then they would go on to Les Baux itself, at the Bouches du Rhône on the edge of the Camargue. There they would take adjoining rooms (not a double room, it would be too early for that) in the fabulous Baumanière, the only hotel-restaurant in France with Michelin's supreme accolade. They would eat the
gratin de langouste
and perhaps, because it was traditional on such a night, drink champagne. And then...

Bond smiled at his story and at the dots that ended it. Not today. Today you're working. Today is for Goldfinger, not for love. Today the only scent you may smell is Goldfinger's expensive after-shave lotion, not . . . what would she use? English girls made mistakes about scent He hoped it would be something slight and clean.

(GOLDFINGER, Chapter 12)

It is amusing that Bond can daydream about this girl he has never seen, suddenly force himself to concentrate on the mission at hand, and then find himself falling right back into daydreaming again. Bond is an incurable woman-chaser, especially of those driving fast cars. This passage unmasks the rascal that Bond can allow himself to be.

GOLDFINGER marks another change in Bond's character: he begins to take everything less seriously. For instance, he takes pleasure in verbally abusing the deadly Oddjob, although he knows Oddjob could probably kill him with one karate chop. Jibing at the Korean seems to bolster Bond's spirits:

Half an hour later, Bond was sitting on the edge of his bunk thinking, when the door without a handle opened abruptly. Oddjob stood in the entrance. He looked incuriously at Bond. His eyes flickered carefully round the room. Bond said sharply, "Oddjob, I want a lot of food, quickly. And a bottle of bourbon, soda and ice. Also a carton of Chesterfields, king-size, and either my own watch or another one as good as mine. Quick march! Chop-chop! And tell Goldfinger I want to see him, but not until I've had something to eat. Come on! Jump to it! Don't stand there looking inscrutable. I'm hungry."

Oddjob looked redly at Bond as if wondering which piece to break. He opened his mouth, uttered a noise between an angry bark and a belch, spat drily on the floor at his feet and stepped back, whirling the door shut. When the slam should have come, the door decelerated abruptly and closed with a soft, decisive, double click.

The encounter put Bond in good humour. For some reason Goldfinger had decided against killing him. He wanted them alive. Soon Bond would know why he wanted them alive, but so long as he did, Bond intended to stay alive on his own terms. Those terms included putting Oddjob and any other Korean firmly in his place, which, in Bond's estimation was rather lower than apes in the mammalian hierarchy.

(GOLDFINGER, Chapter 16)

So Bond is revealed to be a bigot as well. This aspect of his character is not particularly evident elsewhere in the series, though one should notice that 95 percent of the villains in the novels are non-British. But this is the only instance in which Bond/Fleming actually derides a race. From this point on, taunts directed at Oddjob abound. Once, Bond knocks on the door keeping him captive to order breakfast for Tilly. When Oddjob opens the door an inch, Bond says, "All right, Oddjob. I'm not going to kill you yet," and then gives the food order. Finally, the James Bond character is developing a sense of humor, which is a new pleasure for the reader.

Auric Goldfinger may be Fleming's most successful villain to date. He is certainly equal in villainous stature to Hugo Drax. This particular nemesis is short (not
more than five feet tall), and has a huge, round head sitting on a thick, blunt body. The first thing that strikes Bond about Goldfinger is that "everything is out of proportion." The millionaire, when Bond first meets him, has a fetish for sunburn. Bond assumes this is to conceal the man's ugliness, because without the "red-brown camouflage the pale body would be grotesque." But beyond Goldfinger's hideous appearance, Bond thinks the man has the face of a "thinker, perhaps a scientist, who is ruthless, sensual, stoical and tough." The fact that Goldfinger is short arouses Bond's suspicions as well—short people have inferiority complexes and strive all their lives to be big. Bond believes that short people cause all the trouble in the world.

Goldfinger, in contrast to the flamboyance of Drax, is methodical and deliberate. Where Drax would be rash and prone to lose his temper, Goldfinger is silent and calm. Goldfinger at least looks before he leaps, and this is quite evident in the care with which he plans his crimes. The canasta ploy in Part One of the novel is very clever. Goldfinger does lower himself to sophomoric cheating tricks during the golf game, such as making unnecessary noise while Bond is attempting to putt or planting his ball in an advantageous spot. But his Operation Grand Slam, as he puts it, is the "Crime de la Crime." Goldfinger goes into such detail in describing this plot that Bond cannot help but be impressed. After hearing these plans, Bond, for the first time in the story, is worried about the outcome of the situation.

Added to Goldfinger's brilliance is, as usual, a touch of the perverse. Goldfinger likes to have his women painted gold once a month, because he enjoys "making love to gold." Usually, he leaves a strip down the woman's back unpainted, allowing her skin to breathe. But when the woman happens to be a traitor, like Jill Masterson, she may find herself unlucky enough to be completely covered in gold paint. A nasty hobby.

Pussy Galore (her name is Fleming at his most outrageous) is an unbelievable heroine. For one thing, she is supposedly a Lesbian, and a tough one at that. And, through most of her scenes in the book, this is true. But Fleming's own fantasy gets in the way, and he allows Pussy to fall for Bond. There is no gradual development of Pussy's changing attitude toward Bond. It seems that if she were the hard-nosed criminal she's supposed to be, a man like Bond, no matter how handsome, would mean nothing to Pussy. It seems unlikely that a committed Lesbian would make the sexual switch so abruptly. The switch is hinted at earlier: Pussy calls Bond "Handsome" from the moment
she meets him, which already seems to be a contradiction of her description. Perhaps when Pussy witnesses the murder of her fellow syndicate heads at the hands of Goldfinger, she decides to take Bond's side. Anyway, in the last scene of the book, Pussy passes a note to Bond telling him that she is "with him." Bond takes the cue and, with Pussy as an added incentive, attacks Oddjob and Goldfinger. In the final paragraphs of the book, Bond and Pussy are alone and safe in a weather station. They embrace. Bond comments that he thought she only liked women. Pussy replies that "she never met a man before." Well, we know that Bond is good, but is he
that
good? This is quite a switch for a woman who, on her first appearance in the book, warns Bond that "all men are bastards and cheats." Pussy is also the oldest of the Bond-girls. Fleming describes her as being in her early thirties, with pale, "Rupert Brooke" good looks, high cheekbones and a beautiful jawline. Pussy is aggressive and tough, but, since she is more Fleming fantasy than accurate reality, she also exudes a "sexual challenge all beautiful Lesbians have for men." This is a myth, and it's possible that there are many Lesbians who might be offended by this description.

Tilly Masterson is also a Lesbian, and unlike Pussy, conforms to the stereotype. At least she is never attracted to Bond physically, and once Bond realizes Tilly is a Lesbian, he is never attracted to her. Tilly wears masculine clothes, and there is "something faintly mannish and open-air" about the woman's behavior and appearance. Tilly doesn't bother with makeup, and her hair is untidy, with "bits that stray." But she is good-looking, Bond admits, and carries herself with confidence and challenge. As Bond gets to know Tilly, it begins to dawn on him why she is so cool toward him. At one point, she flatly tells him that if he ever touches her, she'll kill him.

Fleming uses Tilly's Lesbianism as a character flaw—a fatal one. When there is the chance for Bond and Tilly to escape from Goldfinger, Tilly hesitates a moment; she wants to remain with Pussy Galore. This hesitation gives Oddjob just enough time to fling his steel-rimmed hat at Tilly, breaking her neck. Even Bond blames her sexual preference for her death. He tells Felix, "Poor little bitch. She didn't think much of men . . . I could have got her away if she'd only followed me."

Is Fleming saying something here about homosexuality? In contrasting Pussy with Tilly, it is obvious that Bond himself makes the difference in the two characters' survival. It's presumptuous of Fleming, but then,
GOLDFINGER was written in 1958, when attitudes toward this subject were more repressive and the general public more benighted.