With Goldfinger , the James Bond series took a turn away from relatively straightforward spy thrillers and toward campy gadgetry, extravagant sets, and kitschy jokes. The final result was one of the best and most endearing 007 movies. Bond ( Sean Connery ) has to prevent a notorious gold smuggler, appropriately named Goldfinger ( Gert Frobe ), from robbing Fort Knox. Goldfinger is surrounded by evil henchmen, such as the sexy female pilot Pussy Galore ( Honor Blackman ) and Oddjob ( Harold Sakata ), who kills with his steel-rimmed bowler hats. In order to stop Goldfinger, Bond has to survive several perilous situations, including a huge, deadly laser. Goldfinger is one of the most popular films in the James Bond series, and it set the tone not only for the rest of the series but also for most of the action/adventure films of the late '60s and early '70s. — Stephen Thomas Erlewine