Cinefantastique Online

[EDITOR'S NOTE: DR. NO is being released on DVD again today, so we thought we would take this opportunity to post a review of the film.] This is the first feature film based on Ian Fleming’s fictional super-spy James Bond. (A an adaptation of CASINO ROYALE, starring Barry Nelson, had previously been made for television.) Fairly radical for its time, the film introduces most but not all of the elements that would become familiar elements of the franchise (exotic locations, beautiful women, brutal action scenes, maniacal villains). Seen today, the film retains the grim, adult tone that was in place before the series turned more toward self-parody. However, it also lacks the lavish production values viewers would later come to expect, leading to the occasional embarrassing moment. (For example, during a car chase, the perspective on the back projection special effects shots is wildly off, magnifying the size of the pursuing car so that the fakery is completely revealed.)

When a British agent stationed in Jamaica disappears (i.e., is assassinated), Bond (excellently played by Sean Connery) is sent to investigate. After various attempts to stop him (including tarantulas, gunmen, and a femme fatale), the trail leads to an island that, according to local legend, is haunted by a dragon—which actually turns out to be a tractor mounted with a flamethrower. Bond encounters a striking, bikini-clad lovely (in the form of Ursula Andress) and is captured by the minions of Dr No (Joseph Wiseman), who works for a mysterious organization known as SPECTRE. It turns out that the not-so-good doctor has set up a facility that will interfere with U.S. nuclear missile testing by remote control. Fortunately, Bond manages to escape and thwart the plan; the island facility goes up in flames while Dr No sinks into the over-heated cooling tank of a nuclear reactor.

The film introduces Agent 007 as an unapologetic assassin. In one memorable moment, he kills a gunman who has already emptied his weapon and no longer represents a threat: “You’ve had your six,” Bond quips—introducing the sardonic humor for which the series would become famous. Andress is memorably striking as the requisite love interest/sex object. And Wiseman is quite good in his brief scenes as Dr. No. The story, however, lacks the pace and excitement of later Bond films. The first half, in particular, is merely adequate; the film only really comes alive when it reaches the island.

Nevertheless, the film retains a certain freshness. Although graced with tongue-in-cheek touches (in Dr No’s secret lair, Bond pauses to admire a painting that—in real life—had recently been stolen from the Louvre), the film avoids the campy tone that would mar later efforts, when the plot elements had been fused into an unmalleable formula. Thanks to the relatively serious approach, DR. NO plays not like another entry in an endlessly repetitive series but like a sharp, original, stand-alone film. Despite its flaws, therefore, it still ranks in the upper echelon of the Bond series.

TRIVIA

Unlike later Bond films, which would amp up the action to incredible levels, the film version of DR. NO seems somewhat toned down from the book, which ended with Bond forced through a labyrinthine torture maze, just to see how long he would last (the sequence ends with Bond fighting and defeating a giant squid). Also, because DR. NO is the first 007 film (but not the first 007 book), references to previous adventures had to be deleted (upon arriving in Jamaica, Bond recalls his encounter with Solitaire, the girl from LIVE AND LET DIE). In the book, Bond is given the supposedly easy Jamaica assignment as a sort of reprieve from his recent life-and-death cases (it being assumed that the missing British agent probably ran off with his secretary). In both the book and the film, Bond is forced by M (Bernard Lee) to give up his favorite gun in favor a new Walter PPK, but most film fans are unaware that Bond ever had a previous gun.

SPECTRE is not a part of the book’s plot. The organization was introduced in the novel THUNDERBALL, which in turn was based on an unfilmed treatment author Ian Fleming developed in collaboration with screenwriter Jack Whittingham and producer Kevin McClory for a proposed series of Bond films based on original stories instead of Fleming’s novels. Producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman considered adapting THUNDERBALL as the first Bond film, but McClory sued, earning the rights to a producer credit on the film version, which was not made until two years later. (In 1983, McClory remade THUNDERBALL as NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, without franchise Albert Broccoli but with Sean Connery in the role).

Before Sean Connery and Joseph Wiseman were cast as the hero and villain of the film, producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman supposedly wanted Roger Moore and Christopher Lee.

The enigmatic, Oriental Dr No was not so mysterious in the book, in which he recounts his life story to Bond (including an explanation for how he lost his hands—revenge from a criminal organization he had double-crossed). Also, Dr. No is described as well over six feet in height, which helps explain why the producer considered Christopher Lee for the part.

The credits attribute the music to Monty Norman, but specify that the famous “James Bond Theme” is performed by John Barry and his orchestra. Barry would score most of the subsequent Bond films; Norman would never be called back.

This is one of the few classic Bond films which does not feature Desmond Llewelyn as the head of Q Division. Instead, the character (here called by his name, “Major Boothroyd”) is played by Peter Burton.

DR. NO (United Artists, 1962). Directed by Terence Young. Screenplay by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, Berkely Mather, based on the novel by Ian Fleming. Cast: Sean COnnery, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman, Jack Lord, Bernard Lee, Anthony Dawson, Lois Maxwell.