Film No.: 3
Released: 1964
Votes: 66
Bond: Sean Connery
Why: While it may not pack the most emotional weight, the first of four Guy Hamilton-directed James Bond films, encapsulates, on almost every level, what is most iconic and most mythic about the entire 007 franchise. Shirley Bassey's haunting, torch-y theme song is one of the best in the franchise. Gert Fröbe and Michael Collins' Auric Goldfinger -- deceptively louche and paunchy, but vicious -- is one of the franchise's best villains. Harold Sakata's hat-flinging Oddjob is one of the franchise's seminal henchmen. Honor Blackman's Pussy Galore and Shirley Eaton's ill-fated (and gorgeously, tragically gold-painted) Jill Masterson are both top-tier Bond Girl. And when it comes to dialogue, "Do you expect me to talk?" "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to DIE" is as good as it gets.

- Daniel Fienberg