Dr. No (film)

Dr. No is the first James Bond film in the official EON Productions series, and stars Sean Connery as British Secret Service agent James Bond. Based on the 1958 novel Dr. No by Ian Fleming, it was adapted by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkeley Mather and directed by Terence Young. It was released in 1962 and produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli, a partnership that would continue until 1975.

Dr. No's success led to a long, very popular series of films that continues to this day. Although it is the first James Bond film, it does not show Bond earning the rare double-O prefix - the licence to kill in the Secret Service - instead showing Bond as a seasoned veteran. This interpretation continues up to 2002's Die Another Day, whereby the following film, Casino Royale (2006), reboots the series establishing a new timeline and narrative framework.

Many of the iconic aspects of a typical James Bond film were established in Dr. No, beginning with what is known as the gun barrel sequence, an introduction to the character through the view of a gun barrel, and a highly stylized main title sequence, both created by Maurice Binder. Through Ken Adam it established an unique, futuristic, and expansive visual style that is a hallmark of the Bond film series.

Following Dr. No's release, the quote "Bond. James Bond." became a catch phrase that entered the lexicon of Western popular culture as the epitome of polished, understated machismo. On June 21, 2005 it was honoured as the 22nd greatest quotation in cinema history by the American Film Institute as part of their 100 Years Series.^[1]

Plot

The film begins in Jamaica, where British agent Commander John Strangways and his secretary mysteriously disappear; though nobody knows it yet, they have been murdered (by the Three Blind Mice). James Bond is sent by M, armed with a newly acquired Walther PPK (to replace his Beretta M1934) to Jamaica to investigate their disappearances and determine whether it is related to recent disruptions of American rocket launchings at Cape Canaveral.

At the airport in Kingston Bond walks past a suspicious female photographer who tries to take a picture of him, Bond is greeted by Mr. Jones a uniformed driver, saying he's been sent to drive him to Government House. The man, however, is actually an enemy agent who commits suicide after he is found out, rather than risk the wrath of his boss. Later through Pleydell-Smith, the local governor, and General Potter, who regularly played cards with Strangways, Bond learns that Strangways had recently taken up fishing and that he had hired a man in the harbour named Quarrel to guide him around. Bond visits Quarrel who initially is uncooperative because he is unsure of Bond's true allegiance. After Bond beats Quarrel and Puss-Feller, a local barman aiding Quarrel, Bond meets Felix Leiter of the CIA who vouches for Bond being from the British Secret Service.

When investigating Strangways' home, Bond finds a receipt from a local metallurgist named Professor Dent who helped Strangways by identifying rock samples from a nearby island known as Crab Key. Dent claims the rocks are average ordinary pyrites, however, Bond quickly learns that the rocks are actually radioactive. As it turns out Dent is an agent of Dr. Julius No, the resident of Crab Key, and Dent has been ordered to kill Bond. After an unsuccessful attempt with a tarantula, Dent uses the local governor's secretary, Miss Taro to lure him to her home. When Dent arrives to murder Bond, however, Bond is ready for it and instead executes Dent after a brief interrogation in which Bond learns Strangways was murdered.

Bond and Quarrel set sail to Crab Key where they meet Honey Ryder, an innocent scavenger of seashells. Soon after they are discovered and are forced to flee into the depths of the island where Quarrel is burned alive by Dr. No's "dragon tank" and Bond and Honey are captured. Once inside the lair, Bond and Honey are imprisoned in a mink-lined room where they await dinner with Dr. No. During the meal it is revealed that Dr. No lost his hands in an unspecified manner and he has two prostheses. Additionally, Dr. No informs Bond that he was the former treasurer of the Tong and is now a member of SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) and that he is there on Crab Key disrupting American rocket launches at the nearby Cape Canaveral because his 'brilliance' was rejected by both the East and the West.

When the meeting concludes, Bond is briefly beaten by No's henchmen and is taken prisoner until he can be further interrogated by Dr. No. Before the Doctor is ready for him, however, Bond escapes from his prison cell and overloads the nuclear reactor that would have been used to sabotage an American rocket launch. After a hand-to-hand fight with Bond on a descending platform in the heart of No's nuclear reactor Bond manages to knock Dr. No down and escape the lift before it plunged into the reactor's cooling vat. Dr. No, on the other hand, is unable to grip the framework of the lift due to his crude metal hands and sinks to his death in the boiling, radioactive water. Bond then escapes to make out in a raft with Honey. The End.

Cast

• Sean Connery as James Bond.
• Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder (voiced by Nikki van der Zyl): An independent woman who regularly trespasses onto the island of Crab Key looking for seashells.
• Joseph Wiseman as Dr. Julius No: A reclusive member of SPECTRE, he is using the island of Crab Key and his brilliance in the field of atomic energy to get revenge on the Western world by disrupting American rocket launches at the nearby Cape Canaveral.
• Jack Lord as Felix Leiter: A CIA operative sent to liaise with James Bond while he is in Kingston. This is Bond and Leiter's first time meeting one another. Leiter returns for many of Bond's future adventures and in the 2006 reboot of the film series, Leiter and Bond are seen meeting one another again for the first time.
• Anthony Dawson as Professor R. J. Dent: A metallurgist in Kingston, he is a henchman of Dr. No's who is sent to kill Bond before he can learn more of Strangway's disappearance.
• John Kitzmiller as Quarrel: A local islander who was employed by John Strangways to secretly go to Crab Key to collect rock samples. Quarrel later helps Bond trespass onto Crab Key as well.
• Bernard Lee as M: The strict head of British Secret Service. He sends Bond to Kingston to investigate the disappearances of John Strangways and his secretary. This was the first of eleven appearances by Lee in the role throughout the official EON Productions series.
• Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny: The secretary to M. This is Maxwell's first of fourteen appearances in the role.
• Zena Marshall as Miss Taro: The secretary to Mr. Pleydell-Smith at Government House in Kingston.
• Eunice Gayson as Sylvia Trench: Trench first meets Bond from across a Chemin de Fer table at the London club Le Cercle. Later she becomes a semi-girlfriend of Bond's appearing in From Russia with Love. She is the only Bond girl character to appear in more than one film.
• Peter Burton as Major Boothroyd (Q): The head of Q-Branch, Boothroyd is brought in by M to replace Bond's Beretta with a Walther PPK. This is the first appearance of Boothroyd in the series. Due to scheduling conflicts, Burton was replaced in the following film by Desmond Llewellyn who continued to play the role in all but one film till his death in 1999. The character of Major Boothroyd is better known in subsequent films as Q.
• Timothy Moxon as John Strangways (voiced by Robert Rietty): Strangways is the head of the Kingston station for the British Secret Service. He is murdered by Dr. No's henchman which forces the Secret Service to deploy Bond to investigate.

see List of James Bond henchmen in Dr. No

see List of James Bond allies in Dr. No

The search for James Bond

Because James Bond was not that well known in 1961, the producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman originally sought to have a big name star as James Bond. Cary Grant was chosen for the role, but was not selected due to his commitment of only one feature film (it is also said that Grant refused the part because, then 58, he felt he was too old for it[1], ). Other actors purported to have been considered for the role include Patrick McGoohan (on the strength of his portrayal of spy John Drake in the TV series Danger Man; it is frequently reported in histories of his later TV series The Prisoner that he turned the role down on moral grounds), James Mason, and David Niven (who would later play an unofficial version of the character in the 1967 spoof Casino Royale).

There are several apocryphal stories as to who Ian Fleming personally wanted. Some sources, specifically Albert R. Broccoli from his autobiography When The Snow Melts, claim that he favored Roger Moore due to having seen Moore as Simon Templar on the television series The Saint; however, this story is often debunked by fans pointing to the fact that the series did not begin airing in the United Kingdom until October 4, 1962—only one day before the premiere of Dr. No. It is known for sure that Fleming wanted Noel Coward for the role of the evil Dr. Julius No and David Niven for the role of Bond, both of whom he knew personally. Moore wasn't linked publicly to the role of 007 until 1967 in which Harry Saltzman claimed he would make a good Bond, but also displayed misgivings due to his popularity as Simon Templar. Moore was finally selected as Bond in 1973 for Live and Let Die.

Ultimately, the producers turned to Sean Connery, a relative unknown at the time to play agent 007 for five films. It is often reported that Connery won the role through a contest set up to 'find James Bond' - while this is untrue, the contest itself did exist, and six finalists were chosen and screentested by Broccoli, Saltzman, and Fleming. The winner of the contest was a 28-year-old model named Peter Anthony, who according to Broccoli had a Gregory Peck quality, but lacked the technique to cope with the demanding role of Bond.

Themes

Dr. No introduced the many recurring themes and features associated with the suave, witty, and sophisticated secret agent: the distinctive James Bond Theme, the gunbarrel sequence; "Bond girls"; exotic locales; the criminal organization SPECTRE; narrow escapes; Bond's astonishing good luck and skill; Bond's signature Walther PPK and his licence to kill; an over-ambitious villain; quirky, villainous henchmen; and the first meeting with Felix Leiter of the CIA.

In fact, many characteristics of James Bond were introduced in this film (or brought in from the books), ranging from Bond's idiosyncratic introduction (as "Bond. James Bond."), to his taste for fine champagne, vodka martinis (shaken, not stirred), women, and weaponry.

This film established the tradition of venturing from Fleming's original novels to include topical references of the day. During the film series' forty year history, only a few of the films would remain substantially true to their source materials; Dr. No has many similarities to the novel, but almost as many differences.

Crew

• Directed by: Terence Young
• Written by: Ian Fleming
• Screenplay by: Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, Berkely Mather, Terence Young (uncredited)
• Produced by: Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman
• Composed by: Monty Norman
• Cinematography by: Ted Moore
• Production design by: Ken Adam
• Art Direction by: Syd Cain (uncredited)
• Film editing by: Peter R. Hunt

Reception

'Dr. No' was premiered on 5th of October 1962, and the audience loved the film, but the critics were mixed. Bad reviews came from the direction that the sardonic humour was not appropriate, and some did not think that Ursula Andress was paticularly attractive.^{[citation needed]} But in the years that followed it's release, it became more popular amongst critics and fans, and currently has a 97% on www.rottentomatoes.com

Soundtrack

Main article: James Bond music

The original James Bond theme was written by Monty Norman, who also composed the soundtrack for Dr. No. John Barry, who would later go on to compose the music for eleven Bond films, arranged the Bond theme, but was uncredited—except for the credit of his orchestra playing the final piece. It has occasionally been suggested that Barry, not Norman, composed James Bond Theme. This argument has been the subject of two court cases, the most recent in 2001. Some portions of the theme are, however, based on music Norman composed for a stage musical several years previously.

Track listing

1. "James Bond Theme"
2. "Kingston Calypso"
3. Jamaican Rock"
4. Jump Up"
5. "Audio Bongo"
6. "Under The Mango Tree"
7. "Twisting With James"
8. "Jamaica Jazz"
9. "Under The Mango Tree"
10. "Jump Up"
11. "Dr. No's Fantasy"
12. "Kingston Calypso"
13. "The Island Speaks"
14. "Under The Mango Tree"
15. "The Boy's Chase"
16. "Dr. No's Theme"
17. "The James Bond Theme"
18. "Love At Last"

Vehicles & gadgets

Main articles: List of James Bond vehicles and List of James Bond gadgets

• Walther PPK — Technically the only so-called gadget in the entire film is the one where M and Major Boothroyd (Q) force Bond to trade in his Beretta for the new standard issue, the Walther PPK. In the scenes on Jamaica his pistol has changed from PPK to 20 mm longer Walther PP, which longer slide is easy to spot in the scenes where he meets Felix Leiter (who also has similar PP) and where he surrender to the "dragon tank" [2] [3] [4][5] [6]. In the scene were Bond waits for and finally shoots Dent, after mistakenly identified Dents Colt .45 automatic as six-shot Smith & Wesson revolver, he is using a FN Model 1910 .32 ACP pistol [7]. Later, while firing at the dragon vehicle, the Walther PP magically morphs into what looks like a Colt .45 automatic an back to Walther PP [8]. Bond has since used a Walther PPK in nearly every movie up to Tomorrow Never Dies, in which he takes a Walther P99 from a Chinese safehouse. However, in the film "Octopussy", although he refers to his lost pistol as "my PPK", Bond actually wields what is clearly a Walther P-5. This was Walther's signature pistol at the time of the filming and the same gun was being used by Connery in the competing Bond film Never Say Never Again. In the next film, Moore was again carrying the PPK.

• 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible - although not an official Bond car, 007 is a passenger where the driver is one of Dr. No's henchmen. The driver commits suicide by swallowing a cyanide pill, and then Bond drives the Bel Air to Government House in the film.
• Sunbeam Alpine Series 1 — James drives a Sunbeam Alpine during a brief and relatively tame chase scene with a LaSalle hearse and from Miss Taro's house to the dock where he meets up with Leiter and Quarrel. No gadgets were included on the car.

Locations

Film Locations

• London, UK
• Image:Flag of Jamaica.svg Kingston, Jamaica
• Crab Key — island off Jamaica

Shooting locations

• Jamaica
• Pinewood Studios — London, England

Trivia

• The film received titles with the phrase 'licence to kill' in them in Italy, Sweden and Portugal, which caused a minor problem during translations of the title of the sixteenth film.
• The actor in the famous gunbarrel opening is not Connery, but stunt man Bob Simmons. Connery wouldn't film the sequence himself until the fourth official Bond film, Thunderball.
• Thunderball was originally chosen to be the first Bond film, but due to a legal battle with its co-author, Kevin McClory, EON Productions, chose to film Dr. No instead.
• The character of Dr. No was close to his novel counterpart, but original ideas by the writers had him appearing as all sorts of different incarnations, one of which was a monkey.^{[citation needed]} The producers rejected these ideas and proceeded with the human Asian character from the book.
• The infamous scene in which Bond murders Professor Dent is not in the original novel, and fans of Ian Fleming's novels protested, saying even the literary version of Bond was never so cold-hearted. The director defended his decision, saying such a scene was necessary to impress upon viewers the significance of Bond's licence to kill, since it was the first time such a character had been portrayed (outside wartime) in a major motion picture.
• During the scene where M replaces Bond's Beretta with the Walther PPK, M claims that he is head of MI7. The scene is actually dubbed since it is clear that M says MI6 (the subtitles on the special edition DVD release also says "MI6", the ultimate edition DVD and at least one trailer features the undubbed dialogue). Prior to this however, there is another scene in the film where a radio operator talks about contacting MI6. The sequence with M is the only mention of MI7 in any James Bond film or novel. In reality there is no current MI7.
• Sylvia Trench, the woman Bond meets in the casino at the start of the film, is not a character from Fleming's novels, but EON Productions had intended for her to be Bond's regular girlfriend. Ultimately, the character only appeared once more, in From Russia with Love before she was dropped in favour of further developing the playful relationship between Bond and Miss Moneypenny.
• The casino scene at the beginning of the film was set at the "Les Ambassadeurs" Club, Hamilton Place, London W1J 7ED. The club still exists, and is one of London's most exclusive casinos. The Club itself was a Ken Adam set, that was then re-used as Pleydell-Smith's office.
• Most female voices in this film, including that of Ursula Andress, who had a thick Swiss German accent, were dubbed by an uncredited actress, Monica Van Der Syl, in post-production. Only Lois Maxwell speaks with her own voice. This would be a standard procedure with Bond films throughout the 1960s, with few actresses getting the chance to present their own voices, with Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg, and Maxwell being notable exceptions. This practice was down to the relatively low budget afforded to the early Bond films.
• As Bond is being ushered into Dr. No's dining room, he pauses to take notice of a portrait of the Duke of Wellington by Goya. This is actually a joke. The painting was stolen in real-life from the National Gallery, London in 1961 and was still missing when the film was released. It was recovered in 1965.

Comic book adaptation

Around the time of the film's release, a comic book adaptation of the screenplay was published in British Classics Illustrated, and later reprinted in European Detective and in early 1963 in the United States by DC Comics as part of its Showcase anthology series. The comic was drawn by Norman Nodel and was originally intended to be published as an issue of the anthology Classics Illustrated.[9] Due to the Classics Illustrated connection, some sources have wrongly cited this as an adaptation of the novel.

References

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