Pussy Galore is a character from the James Bond film and novel Goldfinger. In the film she is played by Honor Blackman.

Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore.

Novel biography: In the novel, Pussy Galore is the only woman in America that runs a gang. Initially a trapeze artist her group of women, “Pussy Galore and her Abrocats” were unsuccessful and were later trained as cat burglars. Her group grew into a lesbian organisation known as “The Cement Mixers.” In fact, Galore is a lesbian throughout most of the novel until the end of the book, where she falls in love with Bond. In the novel, she has black hair, pale skin and the only violet eyes Bond has ever seen. She is about in her thirties, her voice low and attractive.

Her group is enlisted by Auric Goldfinger to aid in “Operation Grand Slam”, an operation that would poison the Fort Knox water supply with Strychnine, and, if successful, would rob the US Bullion Depository at Fort Knox of one billion in gold bullion. Goldfinger enlists the Cement Mixers because he needs a group of criminal women to impersonate nurses in the fake emergency medical teams he plans to send into the poison-stricken Fort Knox.

After “Grand Slam” fails, Galore runs into Bond while impersonating a stewardess and, as in the film, she escapes with Bond after he kills Goldfinger aboard an airplane. Pussy explains to Bond that she became a lesbian after she was sexually abused by her uncle at an early age.

Film biography: Concerned about censors, the film’s producers thought about changing her name to “Kitty Galore”, but 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 wakes up in Goldfinger’s private jet after previously having been knocked out with a tranquiliser gun. Her stunning blonde-framed visage leaning over him being the first thing he sees as he lies on a couch regaining consciousness, the dialog runs as follows:

James Bond: Who are you?
Pussy Galore: My name is Pussy Galore.
James Bond: I must be dreaming.

She further explains simply that the nature of her employment for Goldfinger is that she’s “a damn good pilot”, intending to negate any notion of any more intimate relationship, and then tells Bond “[y]ou can turn off the charm. I’m immune.” In fact, Pussy is the leader of Pussy Galore’s Flying Circus, a group of professional women aviators in connection with Goldfinger’s “Operation: Grand Slam” (played in certain scenes by stuntmen in blonde wigs). Pussy is seen later using judo on Bond after catching him eavesdropping on Goldfinger’s plan. She turns him in to Goldfinger.

Later on, however, in what is probably the most audacious assertion of Bond’s machismo of the entire series of films in the genre, Bond not only seduces the previously “immune” Pussy, but seemingly as the result of this encounter alone she promptly turns from her heretofore hard-hearted criminal ways to the side of goodness and righteousness. Secretly turning against Goldfinger, she switches the deadly nerve gas to be used on Fort Knox with a harmless replacement as well as alerting the Central Intelligence Agency of her employer’s scheme. After Bond foils Goldfinger’s plan, the now fugitive millionaire forces Pussy to participate in hijacking the President’s private plane carrying Bond to the White House. Bond defeats Goldfinger and saves Galore from the crashing plane and they make love in an unknown region under a parachute.

See also:

• Bond girls
• Bond henchmen