# Goldfinger's evil scheme (spoilers obviously)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 14, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701 "2010-07-14T19:40:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Rumor\_Watkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rumor_Watkins)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/21 "2010-07-15T15:08:53Z")
> [@mlees](#):
>
> While the gold supply in Fort Know would not affect the U.S. government’s ability to collect taxes, consumer spending, loan frequencies, or manufacturing power…
again, at the time the movie was made this simply isn’t true.
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### Author:  [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/22 "2010-07-15T15:19:09Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#):
>
> It’s been a long time since I read it.
> Perhaps he just wanted them out of the way.
>
> Is Goldfinger the guy M thinks is cheating at cards?
> M and Bond believe him to be a Jew at first because he is funny looking, but they change their mind when they realize he has membership at some “restricted” clubs.
> 🙂
Hugo Drax in “Moonraker” was the one who was cheating at cards (novel only). IIRC, Bond was hopped up on bennies when he took Drax down.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/23 "2010-07-15T15:28:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Hugo Drax in “Moonraker” was the one who was cheating at cards (novel only).
Goldfinger cheated as well. He had his mistress reading his opponent’s cards over his shoulder with binoculars from her room and telling Goldfinger what they were via an earplug. Bond figured it out, broke into the room, sassed Goldfinger over the earplug, and seduced the mistress.
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### Author:  [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/24 "2010-07-15T15:33:56Z")
Would the U.S. be able to tell it was a Chinese bomb?
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### Author:  [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/25 "2010-07-15T15:58:50Z")
> [@sweeteviljesus](#):
>
> Would the U.S. be able to tell it was a Chinese bomb?
The movie came out before China got the bomb, so it would have been difficult to compare it against anything 😃
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### Author:  [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/26 "2010-07-15T16:01:45Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> Goldfinger cheated as well. He had his mistress reading his opponent’s cards over his shoulder with binoculars from her room and telling Goldfinger what they were via an earplug. Bond figured it out, broke into the room, sassed Goldfinger over the earplug, and seduced the mistress.
Right, but that had nothing to do with M. In Moonraker (novel), M asked Bond for help to (a) determine if Drax really was cheating, and if so (b) let him know he’d been caught, in a way that wouldn’t publicly embarass and expose him as a cheater.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/27 "2010-07-15T16:27:16Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#):
>
> Right, but that had nothing to do with M. In Moonraker (novel), M asked Bond for help to (a) determine if Drax really was cheating, and if so (b) let him know he’d been caught, in a way that wouldn’t publicly embarass and expose him as a cheater.
I am obviously confusing the two novels. 🙂
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### Author:  [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/28 "2010-07-15T18:19:00Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#):
>
> I am obviously confusing the two novels. 🙂
Thinking back on it, old Auric cheated at cards AND golf, didn’t he? What a bounder!
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### Author:  [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/29 "2010-07-15T18:25:06Z")
> [@Rumor\_Watkins](#):
>
> again, at the time the movie was made this simply isn’t true.
Could you elaberate, please? 🙂
1. How would the neutralisation of the U.S. Government’s gold supply impact it’s ability to raise revenue.
2. Ditto U.S. Industrial manufacturing power.
I could see it effecting the “Fed”, and interest rates, so I’ll withdraw the statement pertaining to loans being created by the banking system.
Consumer spending could be impacted through a war scare, I guess, so I’ll wuthdraw that, too. 😃
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### Author:  [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/30 "2010-07-15T18:42:34Z")
> [@audit1](#):
>
> I think the reason Goldfinger tells the mobsters the plan is ego boost. He has a marvelous plan but wants someone, anyone, to tell him how brilliant it is. He needs someone to gloat too about his plan. He then has to kill the mobsters to keep it a secret but he gets a moment of satisfaction. This is one of the reasons he keeps Bond around, to make him self feel good.
Or, perhaps, having spent the money to create a scale model of Fort Knox, he figured, “It would be a waste not to use it at least once.”
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/31 "2010-07-15T19:05:54Z")
> [@Rumor\_Watkins](#):
>
> Not in 1964, it wasn’t.
I know, but with such a disaster it is likely we’d have done what I said real quick - rather than have an economic meltdown. I believe it is commonly the case that gold is moved from one corner of a vault to another, if that.
The Russsians might have objected, but I don’t think they were well integrated into the world economic system back then.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/32 "2010-07-15T19:36:36Z")
BTW, even though I doubt the world financial markets would collapse, the price of gold would certainly go up from panic buying. So, Goldfinger would make money, in the short run. However, how did he plan to get away with it? Though they didn’t track markets back then as rigorously as they do now, they would be looking at people with huge gold stocks. He also did not exactly make himself inconspicuous. So, how and where would he spend his money? He might be safe in China, but back then that was hardly the fun spot of the globe. In a world of 00 agents, he’d have to watch his back pretty carefully.
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### Author:  [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/33 "2010-07-15T19:40:50Z")
> [@Arkcon](#):
>
> He is always selling some of it, to support himself.
To whom could one sell gold in those days? I gather you couldn’t own gold then except as jewelry if you were an American, but what about in other countries who used the gold standard? I guess as a refiner he would be allowed to buy and sell gold.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/34 "2010-07-15T19:44:36Z")
> [@](#):
>
> BTW, even though I doubt the world financial markets would collapse, the price of gold would certainly go up from panic buying. So, Goldfinger would make money, in the short run. However, how did he plan to get away with it? Though they didn’t track markets back then as rigorously as they do now, they would be looking at people with huge gold stocks. He also did not exactly make himself inconspicuous. So, how and where would he spend his money? He might be safe in China, but back then that was hardly the fun spot of the globe. In a world of 00 agents, he’d have to watch his back pretty carefully.
He probably figured the nuclear explosion would destroy a lot of evidence. And then he could claim innocence, _“Me? I’m just a long established gold trader who happened to prosper from this terrible act of war. That doesn’t mean I caused it. How could I? It was obviously the Chinese who were responsible - it’s not like I have nuclear weapons - and now they’re trying to make me a scapegoat. Any evidence you have must have been planted by them.”_
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/35 "2010-07-15T21:02:10Z")
> [@Arkcon](#):
>
> Remember, Goldfinger “poses as … no, that’s not quite fair, is a refiner”, he’s allowed to refine gold. He is always selling some of it, to support himself. If for 58 years, he gets to sell 1/10 as much to maintain the same lifestyle, he’ll take the deal. Besides, I figured the Chinese were going to pay him, as he asks Pussy, what she’ll do with her share. I didn’t think she was getting a briefcase full of cash from Goldfinger or the Chinese. At least, not a big enough briefcase to buy her own Carribian island.
True, but in that same conversation is when Bond is briefed to investigate Goldfinger for smuggling. He’s been buying gold in England and transporting it to places where he can sell it at a higher price. Presumably, most of that money comes back to England to buy more gold, with enough left over to support his lifestyle. Remember when he’s describing gold to Bond, “I welcome any enterprise that will increase my stock…”
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### Author:  [@UncleFred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleFred)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/36 "2010-07-15T21:40:47Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Of course, gold is _damned_ heavy. Much heavier than they depict it being in the film. It’s density is greater than that of _lead_.
Anybody see “The Rundown”? They’re after a statue “El Gato” (sp?) about the size of a table lamp - and they wave it around like it was made of wood (which it probably was). I dobut they could easily lift a real one.
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### Author:  [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/37 "2010-07-15T22:04:39Z")
The weight of gold bars in Fort Knox even tripped up the otherwise foolproof plans of the mighty Brain.
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### Author:  [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2010, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/38 "2010-07-16T13:41:08Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> Bond: There’s just one thing you forgot, Goldfinger. Porcupines are allergic to raisins.
A beautiful theory destroyed by an ugly fact.
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2010, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/39 "2010-07-16T13:55:54Z")
> [@Patch](#):
>
> No, that’s the door to the building. The actual vault door is opened by a combination.
Damn. Now I gotta watch 'em all again. 😃
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goldfingers-evil-scheme-spoilers-obviously/546701/40 "2010-07-16T20:49:46Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#):
>
> Even more worrisome, what was up with all the mobsters? Goldfinger brings them all together and lays out the plan. One guy says he didn’t want any part of it; he is allowed to leave and then immediately killed. The rest say they want in - and are all immediately killed.
>
> So whatinhell was the point of the whole exercise???
That’s the movie, and I agree, it’s pretty dumb. In the book, the one(s) who don’t want to participate in the plan are killed (Goldfinger reports to the others that the guy “fell down the stairs” and they’re all impressed, IIRC.) The others are participants in the plan – but, of course, the plan in the book is to actually steal the gold.
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