If From Russia With Love was big, Goldfinger is the Bond movie that nearly everyone sees as the greatest success in the series.

With the court case between Kevin McClory and Fleming surrounding Thunderball still in the High Court — more on that this week — producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman picked this story as the third film. They enjoyed a budget that was pretty much the same as both Dr. No and From Russia With Love combined.

However, Terence Young was out after a pay dispute and Guy Hamilton, who had turned down Dr. No, came on board. His idea changed the series — no longer was Bond nearly superhuman; instead his villains would be stronger than him. Hamilton would make three more Bond pictures: Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun.

It also saw the return of stunt coordinator Bob Simmons and production designer Ken Adam, whose presence can be felt in every frame. Before Goldfinger, Bond had a few gadgets. After, gadgets would be one of the reasons to show up for his movies.

After destroying a drug dealer’s operation in Latin America, Bond (Sean Connery, coming back for his third film) goes to Miami Beach on what should be a vacation. Instead, CIA agent Felix Leiter (Cec Linder, taking over the role from Jack Lord) asks him to observer Auric Goldfinger (German actor Gert Fröbe, whose dialogue was dubbed by Michael Collins; he also dubbed him in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, another movie made from an Ian Fleming book), a rich man obsessed with gold.

Orson Welles was going to play the role, but he asked for too large of a salary. Oh, what could have been.

Goldfinger is cheating at a game of gin rummy — a simple illustration that he corrupts even the most idle of pursuits — with the help of his employee Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton, who is also in The Million Eyes of Sumuru and The Girl From Rio; she was already a sex symbol but the imagery of her from this film took her to another level). Bond, of course, seduces her and wins the game. Goldfinger wins the whole war by having his henchman Oddjob (former pro wrestler Harold Sakata) knock out 007 and then paints Jill gold, killing her from skin suffocation.

Seriously — we’re a few minutes in to this movie and it already blows away everything that came before.

Here’s a strange story: Fleming had based the villain on Modernist architect Erno Goldfinger, who threatened to sue when he found out he was to be a spy villain. Fleming’s publisher begged him to change the character’s name, to which Bond’s creator offered to change it to Goldprock. The case was settled out of court.

This sets off several stories — Bond trying to determine how Goldfinger is stealing gold and getting richer; Oddjob determined to kill Bond with his steel-rimmed hat; Tilly Masterson’s vendetta against Goldfinger to get revenge for her sister’s death, only to be killed by Oddjob; Goldfinger attempting to rob Fort Knox and his henchwoman Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman, who was Mrs. Gale on The Avengers before this).

Galore was based on Fleming’s friend, mistress and muse Blanche Blackwell. As his wife disapproved of the Bond novels, Fleming grew closer to Blackwell. She inspired not just Galore, but also Dr. No‘s Honeychile Rider. Her son Chris Blackwell would go on to form Island Records.

In the book, Galore runs an all-lesbian Harlem gang known as the Cememnt Mixers. Well, in the movie, she’s the leader of a Flying Circus of acrobatic, judo fighting and plane flying women. Yes, only in the world of Bond.

You also have to adore that the movie ends with a battle where Goldfinger is pulled out the window of a jet. As the plane crashes, Bond and Galore hide under a parachute. Despire her being a criminal, Bond seems like the one who doesn’t want to be found — a theme that will continue as the series goes forward.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Shirley Bassey’s “Goldfinger” song is astounding. To hit the note at the end of the song, she had to take her bustier off in the studio. And you know who is playing guitar on it? Jimmy Page.

The Aston Martin. The laser scene. “No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die.” Oddjob. Suggestively named ladies. The playful fighting between Q and Bond.

If you’re going to watch one Bond movie, this should be it. Me? I’m watching hundreds of spy movies all month long.

ECHO and Mr. X want to take over the world with LSD. LSD is back, people. It’s bad!

To get to that part of the story, we have to go back to when our hero, Rex Miller (Guy Madison, TV’s Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok) used a toy car and a blow gun to kill two adult men in front of a little girl. Normally, that would send you to some kind of juvenille faciity but Rex ended up becoming a spy.

Before you can say Merry Pranksters, army regiments are getting dosed, which means they start praying, hugging one another and throwing down their weapons. Something has to be done about this if we want to fight the Red Menace!

Mr. X’s goal is to stop  dividing people and to create a Utopia. So, you know, he’s the bad guy.

This is the first Massimo Mida movie I watched. It wasn’t all that great, except for the insane moments that just burst out of nowhere, like a man being burned alive in front of your eyes. Then, after thinking the movie will be good, fight scenes happen without seeing any of the punches and numerous people just stand around. Honestly, the fight scene at an hour and three minutes in is one of the most ineptly shot things I’ve ever seen, which makes me want to watch this movie all over again.

You can see it for free on YouTube. I even found it for you.

Also known as Il Raggio Infernale (The Infernal Ray), Nest of Spies and Death Ray, this Italian espionage film was directed by Gianfranco Baldanello, who bounced around grenres, creating Spaghetti Westerns like Long Days of Hare and Colt in the Hand of the Devil, as well as the Bond-sounding Zorro movie Man with the Golden Winchester and the sex comedy Very Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind. He also wrote the giallo The Girl In Room 2A.

Professor Carmichael has invented a death ray for, you know, peaceful purposes. Tell that to the henchmen dressed as NATO soldiers who have kidnapped him and taken the weapon for their own use. Luckily, Agent Bart Fargo (Gordon Scott, who played Tarzan in six movies) skips out on his vacation and heads to Barcelona, where he wins hearts and minds for the cause.

If you see this in Spanish, Bart’s name is Jim Benson. In German, he’s Mike Morris. And in real life, Gordon Scott went broke and lived in one of his fan’s houses until he died in 2007.

You can watch this on Amazon Prime and Tubi, complete with riffing from Mystery Science Theater 3000. Trust me. You’re going to need it. This movie has vehicle effects that make Gamera movies look like 2020’s finest CGI.

This film, along with Caprice, marks the end of an era. They were the final movies to be CinemaScope, as Fox would move on to Panavision.

1967 was the end of many eras. And this film reflects it, as instead of men continuing to run the world, In Like Flint features an international feminist matriarchy that conspires to destroy the American ruling class.

Ah, the Flint films. James Coburn and Lee J. Cobb are back and this time, any semblance of reality has been thrown out the window. What a magical time to be alive and spying.

Z.O.W.I.E. (Zonal Organization for World Intelligence and Espionage) Chief Lloyd C. Cramden (Cobb) and President Trent (Andrew Duggan, who is in many of Larry Cohen’s movies like Bone, It’s Alive and The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover, where he’d play LBJ) are outsmarted by the Fabulous Face organization. The President is replaced with a surgically altered actor, the nuclear space platform is taken over and Cramden is soon discredited.

That means that Derek Flint (Coburn) is back on the job. And thanks to Fabulous Face taking his three girlfriends — he’s downsized somewhat — hostage, he has a personal stake in the game.

While not as amazing as the original film, that one didn’t have Flint swimming and talking with dolphins, nor did it have a cigarette lighter with 82 different gadgets inside it. Or a Flint ballet dancing with Yvonne Craig. Or him showing up in Cuba, where just about everyone looks like Castro.

Jean Hale (who was in Roger Corman’s The St. Valentine Day’s Massacre) plays Lisa, a Fabulous Face operative. Also on hand is Anna “The British Bombshell” Lee, who was the goddaughter of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. She was Mrs. Bates in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and appeared on General Hospital from 1977 to 2003.

The villainous Carter is played by Steve Ihnat, who would go on to direct Coburn in the movie The Honkers. Sadly, he would die before that film was released into theaters at the young age of 37. He’s probably best known for playing Fleet Captain Garth of Izar in the original Star Trek episode “Whom Gods Destroy.”

Who else is in this? Helena is played by Hanna Landry, who was Grace Cardiff in Rosemary’s Baby. Jan is Diane Bond, who was Liza in the Vincent Price-starring House of 1000 Dolls. She’d become a feminist artist years after making this. And  the Russian Premier is played by Herb Edelman, who would go on to be Bea Arthur’s ex-husband Stanley on The Golden Girls.

In Like Flint was rushed into production after the success of the original film. By the time it was made, the studio — and director Gordon Douglas (Them!, Viva Knievel!) — had no interest in the movie. Coburn and stunt arranger Buzz Henry ended up directing most of the movie. After this, the star would turn down the opportunity to make a third Flint film.

Was this movie a success? Well, it made $78 million on a $2 million dollar budget, which would be like $661 million in today’s money. Yeah. This is the very definition of success.

United Artists had doubled the budget available of Dr. No, which allowed them to film on location for the first time. There was a mad rush to get this done by October 1963, with production running over budget and past schedule.

President John F. Kennedy had named this Fleming’s novel as one of his ten favorite books of the year and it would be the last movie he’d view at the White House before his death.

Most of the crew stayed on, except for production design genius Ken Adam, who went on to work with Kubrick on Dr. Strangelove; title designer Maurice Binder and stunt coordinator Bob Simmons, who still found the time to do a few stunts in the final film.

From Russia With Love is the movie that introduced many of the Bond trademarks, like the pre-title action sequence, a major villain in Ernst Stavro Blofeld (who is only given a number and a ? as to who played him; it’s Anthony Dawson with Eric Pohlmann’s voice), bravura stunt action, gadgets, a catchy theme song with lyrics and the proclamation that “James Bond will return…” in the credits.

Think Marvel has the trademark on franchises? These guys pretty much wrote the rulebook.

After James Bond (Sean Connery) killed Dr. No, SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) has begun training agents to kill off 007, starting with Irish killer “Red” Grant (Robert Shaw, Jaws), who starts the film by killing off a Bond lookalike. He’s a formidable foe for our hero, continually saving him throughout the film so that he can have him all to himself. The fight between the two — actually done mostly by Connery and Shaw — worried many making the film for its sheer brutality.

SPECTRE’s other goal is to use Bond to steal a cryptography advice from the Russians and then finally kill him. In Bond’s way are chess garndmaster Kronsteen (Number 5), Rosa Klebb (Number 3) and the mysterious Number 1, who will eventually be revealed as Bond’s chief nemesis Blofeld.

At least Bond has Ali Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendáriz, one of the many actors on The Conquerer to die from cancer; he’s noticably in pain for much of the film and gutted out his scenes until he was admtted to the hospital. He snuck in a gun and killed himself when the pain became too much) and love interest Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi, who also appears in the spy films Operation Kid Brother, Special Mission Lady Chaplin and The Last Chance) on his side.

Grant has the plan to blackmail Bond, as he has a video of him making love to Romanoval Bond responds by killing the man with his own weapon. Only Klebb remains, what with her knife shoe, but Romanova shoots her and heads off with Bond on a romatic getaway.

From Russia with Love also sets up Q as Bond’s weaponsmith and the soon to be trademark opening of the series with scantily clad women and superimposed titles. It’s the last film where Sylvia Trench, Bond’s would-be girlfriend, appears.

For many Bond fans, this is the holy grail for what Bond is all about. It was also Sean Connery’s favorite film of the series (as well as being the most highly regarded by Lois Maxwell, Timothy Dalton and Daniel Craig). Indeed, the scene in which Bond and Romanova first meet in his hotel room is so classic Bond that it’s the go-to audition scene for potential Bond actors and Bond girls.

It’s also the last Bond project that Connery would appear in. Wondering how that’s possible? Well, in 2005, Electronic Arts made a game adaption and Connery not only allowed his likeness to be used, but came back to re-record dialogue more than twenty years after his last Bond role in Never Say Never Again.