Heavy Bondage: Dr. No

Those who've read the book are likely to be disappointed, but those who haven't will find it a wonderful movie.
- Ian Fleming, to Time (October 1962)

Dr. No
Film: 1962
Book: 1958 (6th in chronology)

Irreverent Synopsis: Strangways, the intelligence agent in Jamaica, is killed; Bond comes to investigate and finds the trail leads to an island called Crab Key, feared by the natives and owned by the mysterious Dr. No, whom the CIA is also interested in. While snooping on Crab Key, Bond meets Honey Ryder, who ekes out a living diving for shells, and who has no significance to the plot whatsoever, but looks good in a bikini. Dr. No captures them and reveals a diabolical and implausible scheme to "topple" rocket launches using The Wonders of Atomic Energy. Bond and Honey escape his deathtrap and blow up Dr. No's reactor with him in it.

Major Observations: The contemporary viewer would probably do well to consider this film a warmup exercise. Not being able to appreciate the buzz it must have caused when it first appeared, I can only assess it as a fairly slow film (for Bond).

"Are you looking for shells too?" "No, I'm just looking." »

Some of it may be because its better visual cliches (Ursula Andress rising from the ocean) were already cliches by the time I got around to seeing it. Familiarity breeds contempt.

Actually, the beginning of the film has some credible detective work from Bond, as he tries to find out the secret of Dr. No's island (leaving a trail of bodies, most of which aren't his fault). It even approaches suspensefulness. The film doesn't begin to fall apart until the action moves to Dr. No's secret base and we see the doctor for the first time (Joseph Wiseman doesn't actually appear as the doctor - although we hear him earlier - until 24 minutes before the end of the film). Not coincidentally, this is where the film begins to deviate sharply from the book. (I'm not defending the book's ending, though, which is in some ways even more ridiculous. Giant squid, anyone?)

The book Kiss Kiss Bang Bang notes that this film "feels like two films: the first a colourful detective story in the Our Man In Havana mold; the second a rather naive and sometimes poor science fiction flick." I'd have to agree with that.

This film scores pretty high on Blunt Instrument. The fights are nasty and the wounds gruesome, and Bond is mostly without visible compassion (even after Quarrel's nasty death). It's a sweaty movie in a hot place, and even when Bond is doing the stalking portion at the beginning, it's not an elegant sort of stalking.

It was pretty clear that the producers wanted to sell the violence of the film, an idea that might not fly today. Don't forget that the posters for this film gleefully noted the 00 number "means he can kill whom he chooses ... when he chooses ... where he chooses!" There are two nasty and wholly untelegraphed murders in the first five minutes of the film, when the audience is still rubbing their eyes from the credits. Let that be a keynote.

Contrariwise, there is very little suavity. More like ruthless efficiency throughout. The notorious scene (see below) where Bond calmly plays solitaire while waiting for Professor Dent to come kill him, lets Dent empty his gun and then shoots him in cold blood has a certain chutzpah, but not exactly style. Only the Sylvia Trench scenes show the flirtatious, suave Bond at work.

Ursula Andress (who was dubbed, by the by) is not an auspicious starting point for Bond women. In fact her idiot-semi-savant role, as scripted, is possibly the most annoying Bond female until the first two Roger Moore films. Her only good scene is the one where she describes stalking and killing the man who raped her, remaining all innocence throughout. Note that Honey(chile) Ryder is considerably more tolerable in the book version - and more capable. (She escapes her deathtrap, on her own, before Bond gets out of his.)

Originally the film contained a scene where Honey was menaced by crabs, as in the book. Upon attempting to film this, it was correctly realized that crabs are just not that menacing.
Then again, I don't think tarantulas are menacing either.

This film is actually fairly low on women by Bond standards; the only other one who gets any real lines (always barring Moneypenny) is Sylvia Trench, who fortunately gives as good as she gets.

Dr. No is actually a sort of a washout for being the first of the Gray-Coated Masterminds. He is so poker-faced that it's fairly uninteresting. The compelling villain of the piece is actually the treacherous Dent (and the mysterious "dragon," which is well-handled). This may be one reason why the major confrontations with Dr. No are anticlimactic. Also, Dr. No is a villain of the classic "I will now tell you my evil plan before I kill you" school (in fact, he may have set the mold) which gets a bit old, especially on repeat viewings. Dent's a worthless specimen, but at least he's taciturn.

By the by, the character of Professor Dent isn't in the book; good addition. Dent is a fine villain (when Bond shoots him, you feel he deserves it) and keeps the first half of the movie going. Felix Leiter isn't in the book either, but then, he's barely in the movie. (Frankly, Jack Lord - yes, THAT Jack Lord - is the best of the many Felixes; I wish they'd brought him back later for a few more appearances.)

Minor Observations: Dr. No does not work for SPECTRE in the book; he works only for himself. This will become important in the Thunderball section.

There was a fair amount of hand-wringing among the decline-of-civilization types about the scene where Bond shoots Dent knowing he can't fire back ("you've had your six"). In fact another version of this scene had been filmed - where Dent has one bullet left and fires at the same time as Bond, but misses. I believe they picked the correct one to use.

The M and Moneypenny sequence in this film is actually one of the best. Bernard Lee and the quartermaster (AKA the Armourer, AKA Q, AKA Major Boothroyd - but not yet Desmond Llewellyn) taking Bond's beloved Beretta away from him shows, from the beginning, that M understands Bond's foibles perfectly well. This scene is near-verbatim Fleming, by the by.

Dent puts a spider in Bond's bed. But the spider is a tarantula. Poor tarantula! I wish everyone would get this straight: Tarantulas aren't the least bit deadly! I've never been able to take this scene seriously because of this. (They're also pretty fragile. Bond could just have rolled onto it and killed it.)

Bond films are notorious for bad bluescreen, but the car chase in this film is one of the few places where I actually find it intrusively bad.

There is a joke in this film which no one gets anymore, when Bond walks into Dr. No's office and does the slightest of doubletakes. The Goya on Dr. No's wall is one which, in the real world, had been stolen from the British National Gallery in August 1961 and was, at the time of the film, still missing.

I could live without ever hearing "Underneath the Mango Tree" again in my life. This is the second worst use of a song with lyrics in a Bond film (see On Her Majesty's Secret Service). Connery even sings a bit of it, which demonstrates instantly why he was smart to choose an acting career.

I can understand dubbing Andress if her English was limited or impossible to make out, but why would they then dub her so she sounds exactly like a Gabor sister? (Incidentally, when she shows up in Casino Royale, they use her real voice.)

Lois Maxwell was either initially offered Sylvia Trench, or was given a choice between Trench and Moneypenny (depending on whose version you hear). Reportedly she chose Moneypenny because she was concerned about the scene where Trench turns up in Bond's flat wearing one of his shirts (it's difficult for us now to realize just how daring Trench's conduct toward Bond was, circa 1962). Maxwell was 35 and offered 100 pounds a day with a two-day guarantee. She would play Moneypenny for another thirteen years, the second-longest recurring role in the films.

Ian Fleming, on the set of ... one of the Bond films. Possibly Goldfinger.
He reportedly liked Connery, just not the films.

Ian Fleming's public statement (seen at the top of the page) is reportedly toned down for the press. His research assistant Peter Garnham remembers him being very dismayed by the film: "... 'Dreadful. Simply dreadful.' We never mentioned the movies after that." Fleming did, however, visit the sets of the next two Bond films.

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