The film's plot has Bond investigating the gold magnate Auric Goldfinger, who plans to contaminate the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox.

Bond plays a round of golf with Goldfinger at his country club in Kent, using a bar of recovered Nazi gold supplied to him by the Bank of England.

Bond sneaks into Goldfinger's refinery in Switzerland and overhears him telling Chinese nuclear physicist Ling that he incorporates gold into the bodywork of his Rolls-Royce Phantom III to smuggle out of England.

Goldfinger reveals the plan is to break into the US Bullion Depository at Fort Knox by releasing Delta-9 nerve gas into the atmosphere, which causes unconsciousness for 24 hours.

Goldfinger promises to multiply the payoff if the scheme succeeds, but they ridicule his plan, particularly Mr. Solo, who demands to be paid immediately and leaves before the others are fatally gassed.

Operation Grand Slam begins with Pussy Galore's Flying Circus spraying gas over Fort Knox, seemingly knocking out the military guards.

Bond boards a jet to have lunch with the President at the White House, but Goldfinger hijacks the plane, tying up the crew in the hangar and putting Pussy in the cockpit.

Michael Mellinger portrayed Kisch, Goldfinger's secondary and quiet henchman and loyal lieutenant who leads his boss's fake Army convoy to Fort Knox.

While From Russia with Love was in production, Richard Maibaum began working on the script for On Her Majesty's Secret Service as the intended next film in the series, but with the release date set for September 1964 there was not enough time to prepare for location shooting in Switzerland and that adaptation was put on hold.

[33] Goldfinger saw the return of two crew members who were not involved with From Russia with Love: Bob Simmons as stunt coordinator and production designer Ken Adam.

In the film, Bond notes it would take twelve days for Goldfinger to steal the gold, before the villain reveals he actually intends to irradiate it with the then topical concept of a Red Chinese atomic bomb.

[7] Maibaum, however, based the pre-credit sequence on the opening scene of the novel, where Bond is waiting at Miami Airport contemplating his recent killing of a Latin American drug smuggler.

[39] Principal photography commenced on 20 January 1964 in Miami Beach, Florida, at the Fontainebleau Hotel; the crew was small, consisting only of Hamilton, Broccoli, Adam and cinematographer Ted Moore.

The primary location was Pinewood Studios, home to, among other sets, a recreation of the Fontainebleau, the South American city of the pre-title sequence and both Goldfinger's estate and factory.

[44] Just three weeks prior to the film's release, Hamilton and a small team, which included Broccoli's stepson and future producer Michael G. Wilson as assistant director, went for last-minute shoots in Kentucky.

Production designer Ken Adam chose the DB5 because it was the latest version of the Aston Martin (in the novel Bond drove a DB Mark III, which he considered England's most sophisticated car).

[54] The model jet used for wide shots of Goldfinger's Lockheed JetStar was painted differently on the right side to be used as the presidential plane that crashes at the film's end.

[56] The opening credit sequence was designed by graphic artist Robert Brownjohn, featuring clips of all James Bond films thus far projected on Margaret Nolan's body.

[61] The concept of the recurring gold theme running through the film was a design aspect conceived and executed by Ken Adam and art director Peter Murton.

Shirley Bassey established the opening title tradition giving her distinguished style to "Goldfinger", and would sing the theme songs for two future Bond films, Diamonds are Forever and Moonraker.

[11] The film's success also led to licensed tie-in clothing, dress shoes, action figures, board games, jigsaw puzzles, lunch boxes, toys, record albums, trading cards and slot cars.

"[76] Connery's acting efforts were overlooked by this reviewer, who did say: "There is some excellent bit-part playing by Mr. Bernard Lee and Mr. Harold Sakata: Mr. Gert Fröbe is astonishingly well cast in the difficult part of Goldfinger.

"[76] Donald Zec, writing for the Daily Mirror, said of the film that "Ken Adam's set designs are brilliant; the direction of Guy Hamilton tautly exciting; Connery is better than ever, and the titles superimposed on the gleaming body of the girl in gold are inspired.

[79] Alan Dent, writing for The Illustrated London News, thought Goldfinger "even tenser, louder, wittier, more ingenious and more impossible than 'From Russia with Love'... [a] brilliant farrago", adding that Connery "is ineffable".

"[82] Bosley Crowther, writing in The New York Times, was less enthusiastic about the film, saying that it was "tediously apparent" that Bond was becoming increasingly reliant on gadgets with less emphasis on "the lush temptations of voluptuous females", although he did admit that "Connery plays the hero with an insultingly cool, commanding air.

"[83] He saved his praises for other actors in the film, saying that "Gert Fröbe is aptly fat and feral as the villainous financier, and Honor Blackman is forbiddingly frigid and flashy as the latter's aeronautical accomplice.

Most enjoyable, but too bad Eaton's part isn't longer and that Fröbe's Goldfinger, a heavy but nimble intellectual in the Sydney Greenstreet tradition, never appeared in another Bond film.

The initial September 17, 1972 airing of Goldfinger on The ABC Sunday Night Movie garnered a Nielsen Media Research household television rating of 34.0 and a share of 52, ranking number two for the week behind only Marcus Welby, M.D.

[131] The US television programme MythBusters explored many scenarios seen in the film, such as the explosive depressurisation in a plane at high altitudes,[132] the death by full body painting,[133] an ejector seat in a car[134] and using a tuxedo under a drysuit.

[135] The success of the film led to Ian Fleming's Bond novels receiving an increase of popularity[9] and nearly 6 million books were sold in the United Kingdom in 1964, including 964,000 copies of Goldfinger alone.