The View From The Mountain

Harold Sakata is best known as Odd Job, the intimidating henchman to the titular character in the classic James Bond film Goldfinger . With his steel-rimmed bowler hat and impressive strength and martial art skills, Odd Job was more than a match even for Sean Connery’s Bond in his mid-60s prime. The character was so popular that Odd Job had his own toys and a figure model kit. Sakata, who was born in Hawaii, got his first acting job with Goldfinger , but it certainly wasn’t his last. I was watching an oddity on Amazon Prime recently called Operation Gold , which Amazon Prime has listed as being made in 1980. But while viewing the film, a broad comedy about the hunt for a valuable scepter, I thought the movie had looked like it was much older than 1980. I also thought the actor who played the museum curator looked a lot like Odd Job. It turned out I was right on both counts. Despite the “1980” date that Amazon has listed, Operation Gold was actually released in 1966 under its origina...