How FBI tried to avoid being mentioned in 1964 hit Bond film 'Goldfinger'

Pic courtesy: Goldfinger Movie Still

London: Newly released FBI files have revealed that the investigative agency left no stones unturned to keep itself away from James Bond film 'Goldfinger'.

J Edgar Hoover didn't want his agency to be associated with a fictional spy who has "beautiful women presenting themselves to him in scanty attire", the Guardian reported.

The files show how spooked the FBI became at the prospect of being portrayed in the 1964 Bond movie Goldfinger, in which 007 foils the eponymous baddie in an attempt to steal bullion from Fort Knox and a memorandum from Hoover's office to officers in Los Angeles and Miami has also revealed that the film's producer Harry Saltzman had requested the use of military aircraft in the film.

The LA office was instructed to advise the bureau on the proposed movie, while Miami was told to contact Saltzman at the Fountainebleu hotel and "vigorously protest any mention of FBI or portrayal of its agents in his proposed movie".

There was even a federal law prohibiting the studio using the name or initials of the FBI without written permission: "If a copy of this law is available in your office, it should be furnished to Saltzman."

There were several background checks issued on Saltzman, Fleming and the screenplay writer Richard Maibaum, but the investigations were far from exhaustive, as the bureau wasn't certain if it was the same Saltzman who came to the bureau in 1951 as a newspaper photographer to take a picture of a laboratory.