Was 'Goldfinger' Sequence Inspired By Wartime MI6 Operation?

Evidence has emerged that the pre-credits sequence in the film 'Goldfinger' (1964) may have been inspired by a real-life operation carried out by MI6 during World War Two. In the famous sequence, Sean Connery's 007 emerges from the water in his wetsuit, infiltrates what appears to be a secret heroin-manufacturing base somewhere in Latin America, and plants explosives. He then coolly unzips his wetsuit to reveal a tuxedo and walks into a bar to wait for the inevitable results of his handiwork.

According to the 'Sunday Telegraph' (April 18th), British spy author Jeremy Duns has put forward the theory that this sequence may have been inspired by an actual operation carried out by MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service , and was later written into the screenplay for the third James Bond film by Manchester-born scripwriter Paul Dehn (1912-1976), a former senior intelligence officer. Dehn had been brought in by EON to work on and polish the screenplay originally written by Richard Maibaum.

Dens argues that a Dutch spy, Peter Tazelaar, used what the Telegraph calls 'an almost identical technique' to get into the Nazi-occupied Netherlands. Tazelaar was under instructions from the exiled Dutch Queen, Wilhelmina, to get into the country in order to extract two Dutch men so that they could join the Dutch wartime government-in-exile in the UK.

The daring plan involved slipping into the Palace Hotel, located in the seaside resort of Scheveningen, which had become a German Headquarters. Every Friday night the HQ apparently saw boisterous parties, and so Tazelaar and his two fellow agents saw an opportunity to approach the location in darkness by boat and, once there, Tazelaar could strip off his outfit and enter the HQ dressed in his evening clothes, posing as one of the drunken partygoers.

The operation proved difficult to carry out due to adverse weather conditions, and although Tazelaar managed to get past the sentries, he was ultimately unable to extract the two men he had been sent to rescue. The operation, however, became something of a cause celebre in British Intelligence circles.

Duns believes that Paul Dehn (pronounced 'Dane') would have been aware of the wartime operation 'and decided to use it in his screenplay'. Moreover, the author of a biography of Tazelaar, Victor Laurentius, claims that, like James Bond, the Dutch spy was something of a daredevil who spent a lot of time during his missions in casinos and other places frequented by German officers.

Jeremy Duns is rapidly carving out a reputation as one of the leading researchers on the intriguing world of Ian Fleming and James Bond. In recent months he has produced new research on a lost screenplay that was based on Fleming's 'The Diamond Smugglers', has written an essay on 'The Secret Origins of James Bond', and has presented new material on the possible real-life influences behind Fleming's creation of SMERSH operative Rosa Klebb.