Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Designed by architect Morris Lapidus, the founding father of “Miami Modern,” the legendary Fontainebleau is the stylish setting for the opening scene of 1964’s Goldfinger. As the credits fade, the camera pans across the hotel’s pearl-white curved façade, then zooms down on its glamorous pool, where Bond, played by the inimitable Sean Connery, is getting a massage from a pretty blonde.

Later we encounter the villain Goldfinger, lazing by the pool in his gilded robe and cheating at a game of poker with an unsuspecting hotel guest. But Bond foils the ruse by breaking into the villain’s suite and turning off the microphone that Jill Masterson is using (along with a pair of super-strong binoculars) to feed Goldfinger information about his opponent’s hand. Of course, Bond then seduces Masterson, who later turns up dead—asphyxiated after being covered in gold paint.

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Fontainebleau from Goldfinger

Photo: Courtesy Fontainebleau Miami Beach