A supervillain, a murderer, a chase with a mountain car and an Aston Martin equipped with devices: the alpine scenes of the 1964 “Goldfinger” set a new benchmark for the archetypal James Bond sequence. And in addition to being arguably the most iconic six-minute, 37-second in the franchise’s history, it’s also one of the best-documented.
In an unprecedented advertising move, journalists and photographers were invited to the Swiss Alps for the seven-day shoot, where they mingled with the cast and crew members. The strategy seemed to work: “Goldfinger” became, at the time, one of the highest-grossing films at the box office.
This all-access approach resulted in a rich backstage archive of photographs. Waelty gathers more than 200 of them in his book, along with call sheets, annotated scripts, and production papers.
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The late Sean Connery appears next to Bond’s Aston Martin DB5. Scroll through the gallery to see more images behind the “Goldfinger” alpine sequence footage. Credit: EON Productions / Promotional filming of Arthur Evans
One of the first images shows the missing Sean Connery arriving at Zurich airport with a surprisingly thin head of hair (he was wearing a toupee like James Bond). Subsequent photos capture the crew setting up shots and actors relaxing during downtime on set. Among the best-known images are those of a fashionable impromptu shoot with actress Tania Mallet, who appears brandishing an AR-7 rifle, real, not replica.
“A lot of drink”
The famous sequence focuses on Bond’s encounter with Mallet’s character, Tilly Masterson, while pursuing the rich villain Auric Goldfinger separately. After Goldfinger’s failed assassination attempt nearly defeats Bond, the British agent chases her and forces her car off the road before accidentally showing up and driving her to the nearest garage.
Director Guy Hamilton, along with its production designer and location director, chose for filming the Furka Pass, which crosses the Urseren Valley in central Switzerland. The one-week production saw a 50-person crew settle into the small mountain village of Andermatt.
Rehearsals for the scene in which Tilly Masterson attempts to assassinate Bond’s enemy, Auric Goldfinger. Credit: EON Productions / Promotional filming of Arthur Evans
“Surprisingly, the Swiss government gave its approval, which is really surprising,” Waelty said, explaining that the locations were close to several military sites. “But they always had to have two soldiers and two policemen (during filming). The police were set up to withstand the traffic and the soldiers were there to make sure they didn’t film anything classified.”
Waelty interviewed several people involved in the filming, from the set doctor to a bartender at the crew hotel. And while the photograph captures what happened on set, the anecdotes tell what happened.
They paint a picture of a tough party production, with many afternoons. “There was a lot of drinking and a lot of wrapping,” Waelty said. In the book, a member of the hotel gang, Arthur Dänzer, recalls that Harold Sakata, the Japanese-American actor he played in Goldfinger’s kidnapping, Oddjob, was a “huge attraction.”
“On the club’s dance floor he stacked all sorts of wooden and brick tables every evening. He cut everything in half,” Dänzer said of Sakata, who was also an Olympic medal-winning wrestler and weightlifter.
Although Connery was married at the time, Waelty’s book says all the journalists he spoke to during the investigation received “a more or less clear proposal” from the actor. Tom Carlile, then a press officer for the distributor of the film United Artists, says that, to secure an interview with Connery, “all a newspaper has to do is send a girl.”
Signature images
Despite her famous charm, not everyone was in love with Connery. The Swiss magazine Schweizer Illustrierte published its story about filming under the title “James Bond – ein humorloser langweiler” (or “James Bond – a boring without humor”).
The villagers of Andermatt also seemed indifferent to the whole affair.
Prior to the trip, the film’s producer struggled to secure hotel rooms in the area, with local owners unknown to the Bond franchise and who had “doubts about the solvency of the British,” according to Waelty’s book.
“They didn’t really care,” Waelty said. “Can you imagine a team from the James Bond movie coming here today? Any town, any city would go totally crazy. But not those guys.”
Sean Connery appears alongside Tania Mallet’s double, Phillys Cornell (left), and director Guy Hamilton’s wife, Miriam Charrière (right). Credit: EON Productions / Promotional filming of Arthur Evans
However, Bondmania would not reach fever until the film was released later that year. Although its predecessors, “Dr. No” and “From Russia With Love,” had performed reasonably well, “Goldfinger” received a significantly larger budget of $ 3 million, which it recovered many times, with a $ 46 million worldwide collection during its initial box office. office operation.
According to Waelty, this is due, in part, to the Alpine sequence, which not only helped generate rumors, but set a visual blueprint for the Bond films to come.
“When Sean Connery died, so many photos of him standing in the Furka Pass with his Aston Martin were posted,” he said. “Looks like this is the main image of James Bond.”