To the soundtrack of a low but almost
screeching percussive arpeggio, a fast moving succession of white dots moves
across a black background, pausing centre-screen to allow the names of the
producers to show for a split-second. The dots continue their journey towards
the right hand side of the screen until the final dot enlarges to a larger
circle and within it the profile of a silhouetted figure enters. While the
figure takes a few steps towards the centre, the spiral design of the rifling
of a gun barrel is revealed around the circle; suddenly the figure swivels
to face the camera and shoots. You can almost smell the cordite as blood starts
to trickle down the screen and a brass section starts to belt out the chorus
to the "James Bond Theme". 007 has arrived on the big screen in no uncertain
terms.
Following the disappearance
of the head of the local secret service station in Jamaica and his assistant,
M send James Bond to investigate. Bond quickly teams up with the CIA's Felix
Leiter and with the help of the CIA man and his local hand, Quarrel, Bond follows
up a series of leads. His investigations point him towards Crab Key, home to
the enigmatic Dr No, and he and Quarrel set sail at night to investigate. After
arriving, Bond awakes to find a bikini-clad girl collecting shells on the beach.
It turns out that Honey Rider also sailed overnight, but alerted by the sail
on her dinghy, Dr No sends a motor patrol boat to deal with the trespassers.
Disappearing into the mangrove swamp, the three come face to face with a march
buggy armed with a flamethrower dressed up to look like a dragon. After seeing
Quarrel being scorched to death, Bond and Honey are taken to Dr No's base after
surrendering, where the two are surprised to find they have been expected in
what appears to be some kind of luxury clinic. After dinner with the Doctor,
during which he reveals that he has been interfering with American missile tests
on behalf of SPECTRE, Bond is taken to a cell. Escaping though a ventilation
shaft, Bond tracks Dr No down to his laboratory and kills him. While a chain
of gigantic explosions begins to rock the complex all around, Bond rescues Honey,
and they make their escape from the island in a boat.
Although following Ian
Fleming's plot quite closely, the scriptwriters added some characters, such
as Felix Leiter, Professor Dent and Miss Taro. They also added a central section
in which Bond has time to firstly bed Miss Taro, and then cold bloodedly kill
Dent. However, the script ignores one of the best sections of the book, in which
rather then escape through a ventilation shaft, Bond enters Dr No's obstacle
course, designed as part of his experiments on human endurance.
It is difficult to imagine
the impact that Dr No would have made on unsuspecting audiences in 1962. Although
audiences have come to expect the gun barrel sequence and opening credits from
40 years of James Bond films, the groundbreaking start to Dr No was hugely influential.
With a strong visual identity, fast pace and tight editing the straightforward
plot cracks along with just the right balance between action and humour, while
a combination of spy craft with an absence of gadgets make the film both harder
and more believable than more recent Bond outings. It is, of course, also the
film in which Sean Connery first introduced two iconic phrases to modern culture,
without which the English language would be all the poorer; "Bond, James Bond"
and "shaken, not stirred".
Connery's hard edge,
flawless delivery of one liners, a simple plot and absence of gadgets all work
in the film's favour and with a freshness that has evaded the series since Goldfinger,
Dr No remains one of the best Bond films.
|
Sean Connery
|
James Bond
|
|
Ursula
Andress
|
Honey Ryder
|
|
Joseph
Wiseman
|
Dr. Julius
No
|
|
Jack Lord
|
Felix Leiter
|
|
Bernard
Lee
|
M
|
|
M Anthony
Dawson
|
Professor
R. J. Dent
|
|
Zena Marshall
|
Miss Taro
|
|
John Kitzmiller
|
Quarrel
|
|
Eunice
Gayson
|
Sylvia
Trench
|
|
Lois Maxwell
|
Miss Moneypenny
|
|
Peter Burton
|
Major Boothroyd
|
|
|
|
|
Director
|
Terence Young
|
|
Screenplay
|
Richard
Maibaum, Johanna Harwood & Berkely Mather
|
|
The books
and films below are provided in association with
|
|
|
James
Bond films |
From Russia With Love
