When "Dr. No" was released as the first James Bond film, I don't suppose anyone imagined that the franchise would still be going strong fifty years later, even though there were plans for sequels. After all, there weren't any film franchises in 1962 which had been running ever since 1912.
The plot is the sort of thing which would later become standard fare in Bond films. When John Strangways, the British Intelligence chief in Jamaica, and one of his assistants are assassinated, Agent 007 James Bond, one of Britain's top spies, is sent out to investigate. He discovers that the deaths were connected to a plot to disrupt American rocket launches from Cape Canaveral by radio jamming, and that a reclusive industrialist named Dr. Julius No is the mastermind of this conspiracy. Of course, Bond is able to thwart this evil plot, with (as in all the Bond films) the assistance of a beautiful girl and a little help from the CIA.
The film was produced on a comparatively low budget, and perhaps for this reason lacks some of the features of later Bond films. Apart from a few brief scenes in London, it is set in a single location, Jamaica, whereas later films often included scenes set in various exotic locations around the world. (It is fitting that the first Bond film should have been shot on the island where Ian Fleming lived for many years). Bond has to fight the villains without the aid of the high-tech gadgets which were later to become such a feature of the series, and the inventor of those gadgets, the eccentric scientist Q, does not appear.
Several other recurring characters are introduced, however. These include Bond's boss M, his secretary Miss Moneypenny and Bond's friend the CIA agent Felix Leiter. Bond's girlfriend Sylvia Trench was also intended to be a recurring character, but in the event she only appeared in one more film, "From Russia with Love". Perhaps the producers felt that having a steady girlfriend would cramp Bond's style when it came to women.
"Dr. No" also introduced a number of what were to become iconic traditions of the Bond films, including the distinctive "James Bond Theme" and the opening "gun barrel" sequence. It also established the tradition of a charismatic villain and a glamorous "Bond girl". Dr. No himself, like a number of Bond villains from the sixties and seventies, as well as some more recent ones such as Gustav Graves in "Die Another Day", is a megalomaniacal industrialist with ambitions of world domination; he is also linked to the international terrorist organisation SPECTRE, which plays an important role in several early Bonds. Like several villains in the series, he has a physical peculiarity, in his case pincers instead of hands, a peculiarity he shares with Tee Hee in "Live and Let Die". Joseph Wiseman plays him as icily calm but sinister, a man who hides his evil nature beneath a veil of surface politeness and self-control.
Nobody would claim that Ursula Andress was a great acting talent; she always strikes me as one of the few actresses to become a major star on the basis of looks alone. In "Dr. No" she doesn't even speak her own lines- apparently someone thought that her strong Germanic accent sounded out of place. (Her character, Honey Ryder, is supposed to be a white Jamaican. Nobody seems to have thought of the obvious solution of rewriting the story to make Honey a Swiss tourist). Despite her limited acting skills, however, Ursula had enormous charisma. The scene where she emerges from the sea, wearing a white bikini and singing "Under the Mango Tree", has gone down in history as one of the iconic Bond moments and helped to make her a star. (It also, apparently, did wonders for the sales of bikinis). Zena Marshall also looks strikingly beautiful as the secondary Bond girl Miss Taro.
Most importantly, the film also introduced the character of Bond and made a star of Sean Connery. The series does not, of course, present a realistic picture of espionage. Bond must be the world's least secret secret agent. He never bothers to disguise himself or adopt a false identity, always introducing himself as "Bond, James Bond". In Connery's interpretation he is sophisticated- a lover of good food and drink (especially vodka martinis, shaken not stirred) as well as beautiful women- but this sophistication hides a steely ruthlessness. Connery always played the role slightly tongue in cheek, if rather less so than his successor Roger Moore, and I think that this approach was precisely the right one.
Previous spy films had either taken a very serious approach to their subject (as in something like "The House on 92nd Street") or had featured innocent civilians caught up in the world of espionage (as in most of Hitchcock's films on the subject). "Dr. No" was something new. It launched the genre of "secret agent" films that flourished in the sixties, such as the Matt Helm, Derek Flint and "Man from UNCLE" franchises, all aiming to be cool, stylish and light-hearted without actually descending into outright comedy. But it was Bond and Connery who got there first and did it best. "Dr No" is better than any of its imitators, and at least as good as any of the later entries in the Bond canon. In my view it has never been bettered and only equalled by some of Connery's other efforts, notably "Goldfinger" and "You Only Live Twice", and perhaps by the Daniel Craig "Casino Royale". 8/10
The plot is the sort of thing which would later become standard fare in Bond films. When John Strangways, the British Intelligence chief in Jamaica, and one of his assistants are assassinated, Agent 007 James Bond, one of Britain's top spies, is sent out to investigate. He discovers that the deaths were connected to a plot to disrupt American rocket launches from Cape Canaveral by radio jamming, and that a reclusive industrialist named Dr. Julius No is the mastermind of this conspiracy. Of course, Bond is able to thwart this evil plot, with (as in all the Bond films) the assistance of a beautiful girl and a little help from the CIA.
The film was produced on a comparatively low budget, and perhaps for this reason lacks some of the features of later Bond films. Apart from a few brief scenes in London, it is set in a single location, Jamaica, whereas later films often included scenes set in various exotic locations around the world. (It is fitting that the first Bond film should have been shot on the island where Ian Fleming lived for many years). Bond has to fight the villains without the aid of the high-tech gadgets which were later to become such a feature of the series, and the inventor of those gadgets, the eccentric scientist Q, does not appear.
Several other recurring characters are introduced, however. These include Bond's boss M, his secretary Miss Moneypenny and Bond's friend the CIA agent Felix Leiter. Bond's girlfriend Sylvia Trench was also intended to be a recurring character, but in the event she only appeared in one more film, "From Russia with Love". Perhaps the producers felt that having a steady girlfriend would cramp Bond's style when it came to women.
"Dr. No" also introduced a number of what were to become iconic traditions of the Bond films, including the distinctive "James Bond Theme" and the opening "gun barrel" sequence. It also established the tradition of a charismatic villain and a glamorous "Bond girl". Dr. No himself, like a number of Bond villains from the sixties and seventies, as well as some more recent ones such as Gustav Graves in "Die Another Day", is a megalomaniacal industrialist with ambitions of world domination; he is also linked to the international terrorist organisation SPECTRE, which plays an important role in several early Bonds. Like several villains in the series, he has a physical peculiarity, in his case pincers instead of hands, a peculiarity he shares with Tee Hee in "Live and Let Die". Joseph Wiseman plays him as icily calm but sinister, a man who hides his evil nature beneath a veil of surface politeness and self-control.
Nobody would claim that Ursula Andress was a great acting talent; she always strikes me as one of the few actresses to become a major star on the basis of looks alone. In "Dr. No" she doesn't even speak her own lines- apparently someone thought that her strong Germanic accent sounded out of place. (Her character, Honey Ryder, is supposed to be a white Jamaican. Nobody seems to have thought of the obvious solution of rewriting the story to make Honey a Swiss tourist). Despite her limited acting skills, however, Ursula had enormous charisma. The scene where she emerges from the sea, wearing a white bikini and singing "Under the Mango Tree", has gone down in history as one of the iconic Bond moments and helped to make her a star. (It also, apparently, did wonders for the sales of bikinis). Zena Marshall also looks strikingly beautiful as the secondary Bond girl Miss Taro.
Most importantly, the film also introduced the character of Bond and made a star of Sean Connery. The series does not, of course, present a realistic picture of espionage. Bond must be the world's least secret secret agent. He never bothers to disguise himself or adopt a false identity, always introducing himself as "Bond, James Bond". In Connery's interpretation he is sophisticated- a lover of good food and drink (especially vodka martinis, shaken not stirred) as well as beautiful women- but this sophistication hides a steely ruthlessness. Connery always played the role slightly tongue in cheek, if rather less so than his successor Roger Moore, and I think that this approach was precisely the right one.
Previous spy films had either taken a very serious approach to their subject (as in something like "The House on 92nd Street") or had featured innocent civilians caught up in the world of espionage (as in most of Hitchcock's films on the subject). "Dr. No" was something new. It launched the genre of "secret agent" films that flourished in the sixties, such as the Matt Helm, Derek Flint and "Man from UNCLE" franchises, all aiming to be cool, stylish and light-hearted without actually descending into outright comedy. But it was Bond and Connery who got there first and did it best. "Dr No" is better than any of its imitators, and at least as good as any of the later entries in the Bond canon. In my view it has never been bettered and only equalled by some of Connery's other efforts, notably "Goldfinger" and "You Only Live Twice", and perhaps by the Daniel Craig "Casino Royale". 8/10