Still going strong four decades later, it is sometimes hard to recall where the James Bond franchise began. Dr. No was released in 1962 with the relatively unknown Sean Connery in the leading role. The original Bond author, Ian Fleming, was still alive at the time and wasn't very pleased with the casting of Connery, though he soon warmed to the actor's interpretation of the role when he saw the film.
The big question is: how does Dr. No hold up over forty years on? Personally it has always been my favourite Bond movie and probably will never be surpassed. Even now, it is a step ahead of its counterparts. Connery never appeared in a better Bond flick (some were close), much less Lazenby, Moore, Dalton or Brosnan.
James Bond (Connery) of the British Secret Service is sent to Jamaica to investigate the death of an operative named Strangeway. He learns that Strangeway was looking into alarmingly high radiation readings generating from a nearby island called Crab Cay. Bond heads to the island and learns that it is a suspiciously heavily guarded place, patrolled by gunmen, dogs and armed boats, and none of the local islanders dare venture near because of rumours that a dragon also guards the area. Aided by a Jamaican agent called Quarrel (John Kitzmiller) and diver Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress), Bond searches the island's interior for answers. He discovers that the island is run by the deadly Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman), a visionary megalomaniac who plans to disrupt the American space programme by sabotaging their shuttles from his secret island base, using gyroscopic interference to bring them down mid-flight.
As the series went on, it became less and less related to the Bond of Fleming's creation, and increasingly akin to a comic book. Part of the strength of Dr. No is that it is faithful to its source. I've read Dr. No, and it is such a good book that it didn't really need altering beyond all recognition in order to be filmable - so, it's nice to report that scripters Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood and Berkely Mather have adapted it accurately. The performances are excellent: Connery confident and masculine as Bond and Wiseman fabulously sinister as Dr. No. Terence Young directs with urgency, getting plenty of excitement as well as some lovely location photography into his film (hard to believe he would go on to make such inept bombs as Poppies Are Also Flowers, Bloodline, and Inchon). Dr. No is a milestone in cinema history. It is the film that gave us our first big-screen 007; it is the grand-daddy of all globe-trotting adventure flicks; and it is a classic action film in its own right to boot.
The big question is: how does Dr. No hold up over forty years on? Personally it has always been my favourite Bond movie and probably will never be surpassed. Even now, it is a step ahead of its counterparts. Connery never appeared in a better Bond flick (some were close), much less Lazenby, Moore, Dalton or Brosnan.
James Bond (Connery) of the British Secret Service is sent to Jamaica to investigate the death of an operative named Strangeway. He learns that Strangeway was looking into alarmingly high radiation readings generating from a nearby island called Crab Cay. Bond heads to the island and learns that it is a suspiciously heavily guarded place, patrolled by gunmen, dogs and armed boats, and none of the local islanders dare venture near because of rumours that a dragon also guards the area. Aided by a Jamaican agent called Quarrel (John Kitzmiller) and diver Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress), Bond searches the island's interior for answers. He discovers that the island is run by the deadly Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman), a visionary megalomaniac who plans to disrupt the American space programme by sabotaging their shuttles from his secret island base, using gyroscopic interference to bring them down mid-flight.
As the series went on, it became less and less related to the Bond of Fleming's creation, and increasingly akin to a comic book. Part of the strength of Dr. No is that it is faithful to its source. I've read Dr. No, and it is such a good book that it didn't really need altering beyond all recognition in order to be filmable - so, it's nice to report that scripters Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood and Berkely Mather have adapted it accurately. The performances are excellent: Connery confident and masculine as Bond and Wiseman fabulously sinister as Dr. No. Terence Young directs with urgency, getting plenty of excitement as well as some lovely location photography into his film (hard to believe he would go on to make such inept bombs as Poppies Are Also Flowers, Bloodline, and Inchon). Dr. No is a milestone in cinema history. It is the film that gave us our first big-screen 007; it is the grand-daddy of all globe-trotting adventure flicks; and it is a classic action film in its own right to boot.