Character Analysis
There's No Place like the Home Office
Even by the third Bond installment, we know we'll get an appearance from M (Bernard Lee), Bond's boss and Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell), his flirty secretary.
M is a stern boss, doing his best to keep Bond, who has a tendency to act like an overgrown child, in check. Moneypenny, on the other hand, encourages Bond's playful side, always flirting with him even though she seems to already realize that she's the one girl Bond will never have. That doesn't stop her from trying.
MONEYPENNY: The only gold I know about is the kind you wear. You know, on the third finger of your left hand.
Also, Moneypenny throws Bond's hat onto a rack all the way across the room. Maybe she'd be a better match for Oddjob?
Goldfinger introduces us to Q (Desmond Llewelyn) the gadget guru of MI6. Although actor Desmond Llewelyn portrayed basically the same character in the previous film From Russia with Love, it is in this film where he is first given the moniker "Q."
Despite getting to play with the coolest gadgets on the planet for a living, Q is serious and snarky with Bond. He demands that Bond not wreck the gadgets, saying:
Q: And incidentally we'd appreciate its return, along with all your other equipment…intact, for once, when you return from the field.
And when Bond tries to crack wise with inspector gadget, Q replies:
Q: I never joke about my work, 007.
We wonder what he had to say after realizing Bond had crashed the Aston Martin into a brick wall. Oh, if only we had super-gadget ears to listen in on that conversation.