Goldfinger (novel) heroin smuggling operation, British Secret Service operative James Bond is asked by Junius Du Pont, a rich American businessman (whom he briefly met and gambled with in "Casino Royale"), to watch Auric Goldfinger, with whom Du Pont is playing Canasta in order to discover if he is cheating. Bond quickly realises that Goldfinger is indeed cheating with the aid of his female assistant, Jill Masterton, who is spying on DuPont's cards. Bond blackmails Goldfinger into admitting it and paying back DuPont's lost money; he also has a brief affair with Masterton. Back in London, Bond's superior, M, tasks him with
Goldfinger (film) though trying to balance action and comedy. "Goldfinger" has been described as perhaps "the most highly and consistently praised Bond picture of them all" and after "Goldfinger", Bond "became a true phenomenon." The success of the film led to the emergence of many other works in the espionage genre and parodies of James Bond, such as The Beatles film "Help!" in 1965 and a spoof of Ian Fleming's first Bond novel, "Casino Royale", in 1967. Indeed, it has been said that "Goldfinger" was the cause of the boom in espionage films in the 1960s, so much so that in "1966,