Pussy Galore

Pussy Galore is a fictional character from the James Bond film and novel Goldfinger. In the film, she is played by Honor Blackman. She has 38 lines in the movie.

Biography

Novel

Goldfinger novel cover featuring Pussy Galore, drawn as described by the author.

In the novel, Pussy Galore is the only woman in America who runs an organized crime gang. Initially a trapeze artist, her group of circus performing cat-women, "Pussy Galore and her Abrocats" (sic, a pun) were unsuccessful and were later trained as cat burglars.

Her group grew into a Harlem lesbian organization known as "The Cement Mixers." In fact, Galore is a lesbian until the end of the novel, at which point she falls in love with Bond. In the novel, her hair is black, and she has the only violet eyes Bond thinks he has ever seen. She is about thirty and she is very pretty, with pale skin and her voice is low and attractive.

Her group is enlisted by Goldfinger to aid in "Operation Grand Slam," an operation that would poison the Ft. Knox water supply with nerve gas, and, if successful, would rob the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox of fifteen billion in gold bullion. Goldfinger enlists the Cement Mixers because he needs a group of criminal women to impersonate nurses (always women, in the world of the novel) in the fake emergency medical teams he plans to send into the poison-stricken Fort Knox.

After "Grand Slam" fails, Galore is still working to impersonate a nurse, not a pilot. However, as in the film, she escapes with Bond after Bond kills Goldfinger aboard an airplane.

Pussy's past (which somewhat explains her name) is suppressed in the movie, her sexuality is never openly discussed yet traits of lesbianism are thinly veiled throughout the film. [1].

Her original band of Amazon catwomen still feature in the film as they did in the book. They are in keeping with a long list of 1950s movies and books about dangerous bands of cat-woman lesbians.

Film

Pussy Galore
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Affiliation	Auric Goldfinger (film) The Cement Mixers (novel)

Concerned about censors, the film's producers thought about changing Pussy Galore's name to "Kitty Galore". They kept the original name when British newspapers began to refer to Honor Blackman as "Pussy" in the lead up to production.

Pussy is first seen after Bond is knocked out with a tranquilizer gun in Goldfinger's private jet. She claims she's a "damn good pilot" and seems at first immune to Bond's trademark boyish charms. Pussy is the leader of Pussy Galore's Flying Circus, a group of professional women aviators in connection with Goldfinger's "Operation: Grand Slam." Pussy is seen later using judo on Bond after catching him eavesdropping on Goldfinger's plan. She turns him in to Goldfinger. Pussy and her Flying Circus girls use nerve gas during "Grand Slam" on Fort Knox's security and military. After Bond foils Goldfinger plan, Goldfinger and Pussy hijack the President's private plane. Bond defeats Goldfinger and saves Galore from the descending plane and they make love in an unknown region under a parachute.

Trivia

• Pussy ranked number 2 in a poll of favourite Bond Girls in 2007, beaten only by Ursula Andress' character Honey Ryder. [2]

• Pussy Galore's Flying Circus is a team of women pilots, however in the film the stunt pilots are men in blonde wigs.

• The actress who played Pussy Galore, Honor Blackman, (age 37 at filming) is the oldest actress to take the role of a Bond Girl in the series of Bond films from EON Productions.

• The name of Pussy Galore comes from 007 creator Ian Fleming's pet octopus.

• Honor Blackman and Diana Rigg are the only two Bond Girls who are older than Bond himself. Blackman was 37 during filming while Sean Connery was only 34. Rigg was 31 when filming On Her Majesty's Secret Service while George Lazenby was only 30 years old.

Film Quotes

Pussy Galore: My name is Pussy Galore.
James Bond: I must be dreaming.

[At a Kentucky airfield, Bond observes a squad of planes flying in formation.]
Bond: Talented chaps!
Pussy: They should be — I trained them. Come on.
Bond: You're a woman of many parts, Pussy.