We should be doing a Fast & Furious post but that particular film and film genres like it wouldn’t exist if it were not for pioneering movies such as the third installment of the long running James Bond franchise, Goldfinger. The Bond franchise in total has raked in over $5bn dollars at the box office since the first movie, Dr No, was released way back in 1962.
Bond movies are about larger-than-life villains, damsels in distress, gadgets and cars. Anyone could in theory write a Bond movie its an easy formula. Or so we like to think.
Although the Daniel Craig portrayal of Ian Fleming’s fictional British spy is our favorite here are three reasons why Goldfinger is perhaps the best of them all.
1.) The Conduit Cut Suit
Tailor-made and designed for Sean Connery the two pieces Conduit Cut suit first appeared in Dr No, it is a byword for timeless men’s fashion, it is the suit that all James Bond fantasists aspire too own but can never replicate.
You see these Bond wannabes buy off the shelf, mass-produced suits from Next or M&S (Walmarts if you are reading from the US) and in their mind’s eye they believe this is their Bond moment. It never is.
The Conduit Cut was fashioned by Anthony Sinclair of Mayfair in London and it looks at its best as a three-piece attire as seen and worn by Connery in Goldfinger. The Conduit Cut suit is still available to buy today and is still made by the company that bears Sinclair’s name. The same practices are still followed in the same manner as a Sinclair fitting. It takes 50 hours of labor and several fittings before the suit is ready to wear.
Cost? £5k.
Worth it? Yes, absolutely it is the suit of suits as fashionable then as it is now and beyond now.
2.) Aston Martin DB5
The DB5 used in Goldfinger was actually a prototype the car had only just been released in 1963 whilst Goldfinger was still in production and scheduled for cinematic release in 1964. We think it’s one of the best-looking Aston’s of all time.
It was actually designed by Italian coachbuilders Carrozzeria Touring and was the luxury Grand Tourer of its day. Goldfinger went on to become an international box office success and as a result sales of the DB5 increased.
The DB5 was powered by a 4.0-litre, inline-6 engine which had 282 bhp and 390 Nm of torque on tap, could reach a top speed of 143 mph and zap 0-60mph in 8 s. The DB5 was fast for its day, however, many modern-day four-door executive cars are faster but in our eyes the DB5 will never be matched for pure style.
3.) Ejector Seat
No Bond movie is complete without the obligatory gadget and although 21st-century gadgets are far in advanced of anything envisioned back in the 1960s, analog technology still has its uses.
And the ejector seat in the Aston Martin DB5 has to be the most memorable part of the movie and perhaps the most realistic gadget of all the Bond movies combined. You might have to use a bit of imagination to actually get it to work in real life but in our simple minds, it can be done. If only the EU would pass laws for passenger-side ejector seats to be made compulsory, to hell with self-driving cars we would rather see an end to the back seat driver.
