It is probably the best-loved and most memorable of all the James Bond films, featuring Pussy Galore, 007 cheating a gruesome death by laser, and a near-naked woman’s corpse covered in gold paint.

Now, more than 50 years after Goldfinger was released, fascinating photographs of scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor have been unearthed.

Our exclusive shots show director Guy Hamilton rehearsing his stars Sean Connery as Bond, Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore and Shirley Eaton as Jill Masterson.

Glamour: Unseen pictures of Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore have emerged more than 50 years after Goldfinger was released

Hamilton is pictured talking through a bedroom scene with Connery and Eaton in which the couple also find time for a game of cards. Connery, who made his third appearance as Bond in the 1964 film, is wearing a robe and pyjama bottoms, while Eaton is dressed only in 007’s pyjama top.

The outfits suggest the scene was meant to feature at the start of the film shortly after the couple first meet.

Bond initially encounters a bikini-clad Masterson on the balcony of a Miami hotel while she is trying to help her boss, Auric Goldfinger, cheat at gin rummy.

Immediately afterwards, Bond and Masterson are shown making love in her room before he is knocked out by Goldfinger’s henchman Oddjob, and his lover is suffocated by being covered in gold paint.

It's a Deal: Director Guy Hamilton rehearses a card scene with Shirley Eaton (above) and Sean Connery (below)

Hamilton’s cuts do not appear to have had a detrimental impact on the opening scenes. Masterson remains one of the most iconic women in Bond history, even though she is on screen for less than six minutes.

Graham Rye, editor of 007 Magazine, which will publish the photographs, said: ‘I think Hamilton felt the card game in the bedroom might have unnecessarily lengthened the sequence.’

He added: ‘They are a tantalising glimpse of what might have been. Goldfinger is one of the most popular 007 films ever made and fans think they know all there is to know about the film.’

The photographs also show Hamilton and Blackman discussing a scene in which Pussy Galore enters Goldfinger’s secret lair, known as the Rumpus Room. It never made the final cut either.

The photographs will appear in the September edition of 007 Magazine but Rye has also included them in a limited edition steel-covered book called The Goldfinger Portfolio, which is priced at £350. Rye will auction a signed copy later in the year to raise funds for Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.