Experiments were performed to investigate the tensile properties of gold films of thickness ranging from 2000 to 50 000 Å, deposited on rocksalt cleavage surfaces at temperatures from 40°–300°C. The grain size, which varied from about 200 Å to single crystals, has little influence on the early stages of the stress‐strain curve which is characterised by an extremely high work‐hardening rate and small total strain at fracture. The extent of plastic deformation is greater in monocrystalline films than in fine‐grained polycrystalline ones. It is inferred that surface defects play an important role in determining the observed fracture stresses of the films.