GOLDFINGER – 20 Trivia Questions
Answers

Above: Original release 24-sheet "billboard"-size poster.

1. In the film, what year did Auric Goldfinger first conceive of "Operation Grand Slam"? (not explicitly stated, but the information is there to figure it out)
1949. In the scene inside the clubhouse prior to the golf game, there is a calendar on the back wall dated 1964 (see scan). So, in addition to the movie having been made in 1964, it is telling the story as if it takes place in 1964. When briefing the gangsters later on, Goldfinger says, "I have devoted 15 years of my life to Operation Grand Slam…" Thus, he conceived of the plan in 1949.

2. What day of the week did Goldfinger brief the gangsters of the plan (displaying his model of Fort Knox, etc.)?
Saturday. Goldfinger tells the gangsters that the raid will take place "tomorrow," and one of them says, "Banks don't open on Sundays." Thus, the briefing took place on Saturday.

3. Margaret Nolan, who plays Bond's masseuse "Dink" in the Miami hotel poolside scene, also appears elsewhere in Goldfinger. Where?
She is the model painted gold in the main title sequence (not Shirley Eaton). Margaret Nolan is also the Golden Girl in all of the advertising, such as the 24-sheet poster above.

4. What mistake is made by the lead female pilot in the countdown to release the Delta-9 gas as the planes commence strafing Fort Knox?
The pilot says into her microphone to the other planes, "Five… four… three… two… Zero!" She never says "One."

5. What is the "code name" flight designation of the formation of planes that strafe Fort Knox? Such as, "Pussy Galore's Flying Circus," which is not the answer.
(During a trivia contest sponsored by AMC Theaters in 1983, I took great delight in knocking out 7 players who preceded me who could not come up with the answer…)
Champagne Section (or Champagne Flight). The Pilot says, "Champagne Leader to Champagne Section-- commence Rock-a-Bye Baby."

6. Of the live action scenes projected onto the Golden Girl in the main titles, which shot should not be there…?
The shot of the golden girl's legs has a shot of Bond ducking to avoid a helicopter-- which is a shot from From Russia With Love. The sole credit on screen for this shot is "Titles Designed by Robert Brownjohn" who also did the titles in From Russia With Love, so I always took that to be a little bit of an in-joke on his part.

7. Following the "gun barrel logo," the pre-title sequence opens with a high wide angle of the large storage tanks and the camera cranes down the the other side of a wall to find Bond emerging from the water in his wetsuit. What is unusual about this shot?
It's an optical effect, a sliding split screen. Look closely and you'll see that the shot of the field with the storage tanks is static and the wall that glides up in front of it is matted and tracked over that background. Since the storage tanks are in the distance, there wouldn't be much of a perspective shift if it was a crane shot on the actual location, so the illusion works.

8. In the scene where Bond engages the tire-slashers to disable Tilly Masterson's white Mustang, there is a closeup of his hand flipping the switch on the control panel console next to his seat. What's wrong with this shot?
They apparently didn't shoot a closeup for this scene so "stole" a similar shot from later when Bond and Tilly are fleeing from the bad guys at night in the forest (when he uses the smoke screen, etc). Note that in this shot Bond's sleeve is that of his black shirt from the later scene in the forest at night, not the sleeve of the gray suit he's wearing in the tire-slasher scene.

9. What is special about Tilly Masterson's white Ford Mustang?
(Not a detail mentioned onscreen as part of the fictional story, more of a production background kind of trivia.)
Officially released in 1965, Tilly's Ford Mustang was designated the "1964-1/2" model and was the very first appearance of the Ford Mustang on film. The car had not yet been released to the public and was delivered in great secrecy to the location. The producers had made a deal with Ford for all the cars, other than the Aston Martin. In addition to the Mustang, other Ford cars include the Lincoln Continental that gets crushed, Goldfinger’s red Ford Country Squire at his farm, the Ford Ranchero driven by Oddjob to carry back the crushed Lincoln, and Felix Leiter’s white Ford Thunderbird convertible.

10. What is the proper temperature for enjoying "Dom Pérignon '53" …?
38º Fahrenheit. When Bond leaves Shirley Eaton in bed to get another bottle because their open bottle has "lost its chill," she says, "Who needs it?" Bond says, "My dear girl, drinking Dom Pérignon '53 above the temperature of 38º Fahrenheit just isn't done. That's like listening to the Beatles without ear muffs." (The last part being probably the worst line in the entire Bond series, but oh well…) The easy way to remember the temperature is that 38 is also the caliber of a gun.

11. After the bomb is switched off by the CIA guy just before Bond rips out the wires, Bond says, "Three more ticks and Mr. Goldfinger would have hit the jackpot." What's wrong with this line?
They originally shot the timer on the bomb stopped at 003 (seconds) and the line referred to that count. Producer Harry Saltzman saw the dailies and rushed to the set the next day (they were still shooting in the vault set) and said, "Are you guys crazy?! It needs to stop at 007." So they made a new shot of the timer at 007 (seconds) but never re-shot or dubbed the line referring to the new number.

12. In addition to Honor Blackman, who played Hera in Jason and the Argonauts, which Goldfinger actor in a supporting role was in which Ray Harryhausen movie?
Martin Benson played Mr. Solo, the guy who gets smushed up inside the Lincoln Continental. He previously played Flimnap in The 3 Worlds of Gulliver.

13. With Bond on board and piloted by Pussy Galore, what time of day does Goldfinger's private jet land in Baltimore, "our port of entry into the United States"?
2:40pm. After Bond has changed into his suit, Pussy Galore says, "We'll be landing in Baltimore in 20 minutes…" The clock on the wall above the lavatory door beyond her says 2:20, so their arrival time would be 2:40pm.

14. What optical special effect technique was employed to fix a mistake in the scene where the Lincoln Continental was crushed into a small cube?
They actually crushed a real Lincoln, much to the amazement and chagrin of the guys operating the junkyard. However, to do that (with any car) they have to remove the engine, since it's too much of a solid block of metal and can't be crushed. This step couldn't be depicted onscreen, of course, as it would take up too much screen time, but the engine was nevertheless removed. Then, in the shot in which the car is lifted up by the crane and sweeps over the camera, "daylight" could be seen through the front grill. So if you watch the front grill as the car swings past, you can see a soft-edged black roto shape flutter about for about 12 frames to block the view through the grill into the now empty engine well.
(Side note: screenwriter Richard Maibaum was called in to do some revisions of Paul Dehn's script and it was Maibaum who came up with the idea of Mr. Solo being "disposed of" by being inside the car to be crushed. He had read somewhere that the Mafia actually used this method to dispose of bodies…)

15. What nationality is Auric Goldfinger?
British. Felix Leiter tells this to Bond in the Miami hotel sequence. It's sometimes forgotten since he also points out that Goldfinger has Swiss interests, etc., and, of course, he has a German accent.

16. Production trivia: Skittish about the name "Pussy Galore" at the time, what alternate first name did the studio consider for her?
Kitty Galore. But a bright publicity guy staged a photo with Honor Blackman at an event with Prince Philip while Goldfinger was still in production stating that she "would be playing Pussy Galore in the upcoming James Bond film Goldfinger." The London Daily Mail headlined the item as “Pussy Meets Prince." There were zero complaints from the public so they stuck with the original name.

17. What is significant about the opening gun barrel logo as it appears in Goldfinger?
In Dr. No and From Russia With Love "Bond" walking across and turning and shooting at the gun barrel was played by stunt man Bob Simmons. Goldfinger marked the last time that Bob Simmons appeared in the gun barrel. For the next film, Thunderball, the gun barrel logo had to be re-shot because Thunderball was the first Bond film in widescreen Panavision. So Sean Connery stepped in and made his first appearance in the gun barrel logo.

18. What brand of golf balls do Bond and Goldfinger use, respectively?
Bond: Penfold Hearts. Goldfinger: Slazenger 7.

19. What is the cash value of the gold bar that Bond is given to lure Goldfinger during the golf game?
£5,000. Which was about $6,212.00. Today, factoring inflation, that value would be approximately $48,000.00.

20. Which two principal actors in the film were completely revoiced (dubbed)?
Gert Frobe (revoiced by Michael Collins) and Shirley Eaton (revoiced by Nikki van der Zyl).
Honor Blackman once said that in their first scene together, Gert Frobe's "English" (which he learned phonetically) was so garbled that she had no idea what he had just said. Subsequently she just waited until he stopped talking to come in with her lines.
Shirley Eaton had no idea that she had been revoiced until she went to see the movie (and was none too pleased).
Nikki van der Zyl had previously revoiced Ursula Andress in Dr. No and later Mie Hama in You Only Live Twice, as well as revoicing Raquel Welch in One Million Years BC.