It is amazing just how well this epic tale has aged, for watching it one is not really very aware of the decades that have passed other than by the dress and car styles apparent in the movie. Here the cop anti-hero character is well honed into being a dark, moody, but very personable loner who also happens to have one of the loveliest screen paramours ever in a very young and desirable Jacqueline Bisset. This was before her turn in “Summer of ’42″, and she was a literal unknown at the time. She certainly caught a few eyes with her turn here as the girlfreind caught in the middle of Bullitt’s violence.

Of course, for those us of struggling through our undergraduate school years at the time, the real star of the film was McQueen’s throaty high-performance British racing green Ford Cobra Mustang. In what many consider the finest car chase sequence ever filmed, McQueen relentlessly and recklessly pursues the super-charged Dodge Charger in a drive to the death (ah, back when cars really rattled the pavement with their sheer horsepower and all that testosterone rumbled down the street!).

Can we all say muscle car perfection? One recalls the terrific sounds of all those upshifts and downshifts as McQueen, who insisted on doing his own stunt-driving here, careened dangerously at high speeds through the streets of San Francisco in pursuit of the bad guys.

The film unrolls with a tight, interestingly written, and well-directed story, one that interweaves money, crime, politics, and suspense in a script that could as easily fall from today’s headlines as from those populating the newspapers of thirty years ago when “Bullitt” was filmed. Detective Frank Bullitt (McQueen) is assigned for the weekend to protect a witness for a local hearing by one of California’s senators (Robert Vaughn) the next Monday. When mob hit men fatefully interrupt such well-laid plans, the plot spins into overdrive, and a masterful cat and mouse game ensues. The supporting cast is terrific, and the hit men are well played with deadpan bad guy grimaces and suitable grunts and groans. These guys really seem both evil and professional. And yet the duel between McQueen and the hit men serves only to introduce us into the nuances and undercurrents in the plot, which Bullitt must somehow unravel to solve the crime and rescue himself from the aftermath.

The chemistry between the two stars was apparently real during the filming. Presley and Ann-Margret allegedly began an affair which received considerable attention from gossip columnists and led to a showdown with a worried Priscilla Beaulieu. In her 1985 book, Elvis and Me, Priscilla described the difficulties she experienced when the press announced that Ann-Marget and Elvis were engaged to be married. However, there may have been other reasons for the great publicity campaign about the romance between Elvis and Ann-Margret during the filming of Viva Las Vegas and the following weeks. It primarily helped to increase the popularity of the young Hollywood beauty. In her memoir, Ann-Margret only refers to Presley as her “soulmate”, but very little is revealed about their long-rumored romance. In his critical study on the “dream machine” that publicists, tabloid newspapers, journalists, and TV interviewers use to create semi-fictional icons, often playing with inauthenticity, Joshua Gamson cites a press agent “saying that his client, Ann-Margret, could initially have been “sold … as anything”; “She was a new product. We felt there was a need in The Industry for a female Elvis Presley.”

In addition, the filming produced unusually-heated exchanges between Presley’s manager Colonel Tom Parker (who is not shown as “Technical Advisor” in the opening credits for this film) and the movie’s director, the highly experienced George Sidney, concerning the time and effort allotted by the cinematographer, ostensibly on Sidney’s orders, to the musical scenes involving Ann Margret, which included views from many different angles, re-takes and the use of several cameras for each shot.

Presley’s screen charisma was nevertheless there for anyone to see. The scene in which he delivers the title song remains the only one in his career to depict him performing an entire song, in one uncut take, and as shot by the lens of a single camera.

Plot summary

Lucky Jackson (Elvis Presley) goes to Las Vegas, Nevada to participate in the city’s first annual Grand Prix. However, his race car is in need of a new engine in order to compete. Jackson raises the money but mislays it when distracted by Rusty Martin (Ann-Margret). Soon, Jackson’s main competition, Count Elmo Mancini (Cesare Danova), enters the picture to steal both the race and Rusty.

Plot

Traveling salesman Tom Phillips (Dana Andrews) is driving home to Boston, Massachusetts for Christmas when he encounters a drunken driver on a rain-streaked road. He cannot avoid a collision, and is hospitalized with spinal damage. Since he cannot be a traveling salesman anymore, his brother arranges for Tom to buy a remote motel in the desert town of Mayville, California. Tom is reluctant, since he has never been an innkeeper before–but in the end he decides that he must travel in order to get as far away from the site of his accident as possible, as soon as possible.

So Tom sets out for California with his wife, teen-aged daughter, and son. But when they reach the desert they are accosted by a pair of drag racers and a “party girl” in a modified, high-performance 1958 Chevrolet Corvette who jokingly force them to swerve and avoid a collision.

This is only the first of a series of escalating encounters with the local youth. Teenaged children of relatively well-off local farmers, they are apparently given “everything they want” but are still bored and are locked in a never-ending desire for “kicks” in which they will never be satisfied. The adults, including the owner of a local filling station, are fed-up with them. One of these adults, however, turns out to own the very motel that Tom Phillips has bought–and he is selling out after having let the wayward youth use his motel as an illicit trysting place for years.

When Tom tells the filling-station owner that he has “just bought himself a motel,” one of the kids, named Ernie (Gene Kirkwood), overhears. Soon after, he tells his friend Duke (Paul Bertoya), who is the driver of the Corvette. Duke organizes a campaign of harassment against Tom and chases the hapless family all the way to the motel.

Matters come to a dangerous head when Tom’s daughter (Laurie Mock), fascinated by Duke, goes to see him in the motel bar and grill, called the “Arena.” Duke’s current girlfriend Gloria (Mimsy Farmer), in a jealous rage, informs Tom, who tries to strangle Duke–but his back goes out and he must desist. He then informs the former motel owner (George Ives) that he will not go through with the sale. This causes a confrontation between the former owner and the youths, which ends when the owner tells Duke and Ernie that Tom is going to the next town to “bring the police down on this place.”

Duke and Ernie resolve never to let Tom Phillips reach that town–and so, as the family tries to escape, they engage them in a deadly game of “chicken.” This game ends only when Tom outwits the teenagers by parking his car on a narrow bridge, with the headlights on, evacuating him and his family to a safe spot twenty yards off the road. Faced with an unmoving object, Duke turns “chicken” himself, running his car off the edge of the bridge–after which he and Ernie, bruised, battered, and with scraped knees, swear that they will never give Tom any trouble. Tom agrees not to turn them in to the police–but tells them that he will go back to his motel and run it properly from now on.

The film was the first official Bond blockbuster and made cinematic history by recouping its production costs in record-setting time, despite a budget equal to that of the two preceding films combined. Goldfinger was also the first Bond film to use a pop star to sing the theme song during the titles, a hallmark that would follow for every Bond film since except On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Filming

Principal photography on Goldfinger commenced on 20 January 1964 in Miami, Florida, at the Fontainebleau Hotel. Sean Connery never travelled to the United States during filming; his entire performance was filmed in Europe – primarily at Pinewood Studios where portions of the Fontainebleau were recreated in April 1964. Goldfinger’s estate was built at Pinewood. The scene in which Tilly Masterson attempts to snipe Goldfinger was filmed near the Pilatus Aircraft Factory, Stans and Furka pass in Switzerland. Other scenes set in the country were shot in Buckinghamshire during May 1964. The golf club scene was shot at Stoke Poges, while the car chase involving Bond’s Aston Martin and Goldfinger’s henchmen outside his Swiss lair was filmed at Black Park. Ian Fleming visited the set of Goldfinger, but he died a few months later in August 1964 shortly before it was released. Principal photography was completed later that month. The second unit filmed at Kentucky, and these shots were edited into scenes filmed at Pinewood.

To shoot Pussy Galore’s Flying Circus gassing the soldiers at Fort Knox, the pilots were only allowed to fly above 3000 feet. Hamilton recalled this was “hopeless”, and they flew at about 500 feet, “and the military went absolutely ape”. For security reasons, the filmmakers were not allowed to film inside the United States Bullion Depository, though exterior photography was permitted. All sets for the interiors of the building were designed and built from scratch at Pinewood Studios. The filmmakers had no clue as to what the depository looked like, so “we [the crew] decided to let our imaginations run wild”. Ken Adam’s idea behind the design was seeing gold stacked upon gold behind iron bars. Harry Saltzman disliked the design’s resemblance to a prison, but Hamilton liked it enough that it was built. The comptroller of Fort Knox later sent a letter to Adam and the production team, complimenting them on their imaginative depiction of the vault. United Artists even had irate letters from people wondering “how could a British film unit be allowed inside Fort Knox?” Adam recalled, “In the end I was pleased that I wasn’t allowed into Fort Knox, because it allowed me to do whatever I wanted.”

Its distinctive soundtrack was composed by Quincy Jones, and includes two songs, “On Days Like These” sung by Matt Monro over the opening credits, and “Getta Bloomin’ Move On” (usually referred to as “The Self Preservation Society”, after its chorus) during the film’s climactic car chase. Lead actor Michael Caine can be clearly heard among the singers in the latter.

In November 2004, the magazine Total Film named The Italian Job the 27th greatest British film of all time. The line “You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”, said by Michael Caine in the film, was voted the favourite movie one-liner in a 2003 poll of 1000 movie fans.

Plot summary

The film starts with a driver’s-eye view of a Lamborghini Miura driving through the Italian Alps as the titles roll. Following the car as it negotiates the turns at high speed, the scenery is cut off when the car enters the darkness of a tunnel and subsequently explodes. The viewpoint changes to the other end of the tunnel, where the remains of the ill-fated Lamborghini are pulled from the tunnel, wrapped around the front of a bulldozer.

Some time later dapper mobster Charlie Croker (Michael Caine) is released from prison. He is soon met by a woman (Lelia Goldoni) who is the wife of the victim of the car crash, former friend and fellow thief Roger Beckermann (Brazzi). She gives Croker the plans for a daring robbery that Beckermann was in the midst of planning, which attracted the attention of the local Mafia with fatal results. The plans outline a way to rob a four million dollar shipment of gold from China to banks in Turin, a payment to Fiat for licensing their car designs for production in China.

Croker decides to continue the plan in spite of the risks, but needs to put together a large gang in order to pull it off. In order to fund the attempt, Crocker breaks into jail to meet with Mr Bridger (Noël Coward), an incarcerated criminal mastermind who nonetheless runs a gangland empire from within the jail. Croker explains “The Italian Job” and is able to arrange the needed funding. He assembles a group including computer expert Professor Peach (Benny Hill), electronics handler Birkinshaw (Fred Emney) and several getaway drivers. The plan calls for Peach to infect Turin’s lauded computerised traffic control system to create a traffic jam that will prevent the police from recapturing the gold after it is stolen. Three Mini Cooper Ss will provide the escape route for the gold, able to navigate the gridlock in unconventional ways. Planning and training for the Job takes up the first half of the movie.

The second half of the movie takes place as the plans are carried out. Aware that the British will make another attempt, the Mafia boss Altabani (Raf Vallone) is waiting for Croker when he arrives. Instead of killing him, he damages the two Jaguar E-Types that have accompanied Croker and pushes Croker’s Aston Martin DB4 off the side of the Alps and points him in the direction of England. Undeterred, Croker gathers the gang and Peach starts loading the broken software into the traffic control system the night before the heist. The next day Birkinshaw breaks the closed circuit television system that covers the route, just before Peach’s software “goes off” and the city comes to a standstill. The rest of the gang quickly converge on the gold convoy, overpower the guards, and break into the armoured car holding the gold.

After the heist, the gang transfers the gold to the Minis in the entrance hall of the Museo Egizio. The three Minis then race through the stylish shopping arcades of the Via Roma, up the saillike roof of the Palazzo a Vela, around the rooftop test track of the famous Fiat Lingotto factory building and even down the steps of the Gran Madre di Dio church while a wedding is in progress. The gang finally escapes the city by driving through large sewer pipes, throwing off the police in the process. The gang make their final getaway on a six-wheeled Harrington Legionnaire bodied Bedford VAL (actually used to transport the crew), driving up a ramp on the back whilst the coach is still travelling at speed. The getaway Minis are then pushed out of the still-moving coach as it negotiates hairpin bends in the Italian Alps.

Successfully on their way to Switzerland along a winding mountain road, the gang celebrate in the back of the bus. However, a mistake by the driver sends the coach into a skid, with the back end of the bus left teetering over the edge of the cliff and the gold slipping towards the rear doors. As Croker attempts to reach the gold, it slips further, and the audience is left not knowing whether the coach, its contents, and its occupants survive — a literal cliffhanger ending. Croker’s last line is “Hang on a minute lads, I’ve got a great idea! Err…”