Dr No ***** (1962, Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman, Anthony Dawson, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Eunice Gayson, Zena Marshall, Jack Lord) – Classic Movie Review 208

British Secret Service agent 007 makes his epoch-making debut in Dr No in 1962. A fresh-faced, youngish-looking, lean and lithe Sean Connery (aged 32) makes his spy début confidently and charismatically in the role he will always be remembered for of smiling womaniser and grim-faced cold-blooded British spy in the first James Bond movie thriller, based on Ian Fleming’s 1958 novel.

It was adapted by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkely Mather, and is still one of the finest in the whole series.

The British cinema poster for Dr No is designed by David Chasman and illustrated by Mitchell Hooks.

Rising like Venus from the waves, Ursula Andress is stunning as Honey Ryder who becomes accidentally embroiled in the espionage crossfire, while Joseph Wiseman is chilling as the first Bond villain, the oriental arch-nemesis Dr No, who sets out for world domination.

The unwanted child of a German missionary and a highborn Chinese girl, Dr No rose to be treasurer of a Chinese Tong, but fled to America with $10 million of their gold. An engineer, he designed his own HQ. He is now working for SPECTRE, (SPecial Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion), which is led by evil genius and super-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld (who does not actually appear in the series until Donald Pleasence plays him in You Only Live Twice in 1967).

The CIA, led by agent Felix Leiter (Jack Lord), are on the case and so is Bond, James Bond, who is sent to Jamaica to sort things out after a fellow Brit agent is murdered.

The movie’s low budget of only $1 million means it relies a lot on its sharp script and the development of its fascinating characters, but there is a shedload of the later trademark explosions, stunts, fast cars and gadgets to enjoy too.

Director Terence Young stages the action with very considerable, brisk flair in a serious-minded thriller that refreshingly entirely lacks the kitsch appeal of many of the later movies. It helps a lot that he Jamaican locations and Ken Adam’s exemplary designed studio interiors look so startlingly eye-catching. Stanley Kubrick hired Adam for Dr Strangelove (1964) on the strength of his work here.

Dr No’s mix of sex, violence and humour may seem a shade mild now but it is still very effective and it provides the perfect blueprint for every other film in the rest of the impossibly long-running series. Dr No starts by introducing Bond through the view of a gun barrel and a highly stylised main title sequence, created by Maurice Binder, whose titles set an inescapable style for the entire franchise, and so do Monty Norman’s score and famous iconic James Bond theme music.

These were the serious days when Bond could lay in wait for a killer, Professor R J Dent (Anthony Dawson, the hired killer in Hitchcock’s 1954 Dial M for Murder), and then just shoot him in cold blood. Professor Dent is a geologist with a practice in Kingston, but he also secretly works for Dr No. Anthony Dawson appears as the actor of Ernst Stavro Blofeld in From Russia with Love in 1963 and Thunderball in 1965 (but only his hands and the back of head are seen, and Eric Pohlmann is the voice actor).

Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell are already in place as spy boss M and his secretary Miss Moneypenny, though not Desmond Llewelyn, who is missing as the armourer Q. Instead we get Peter Burton as Major Boothroyd, the head of Q-Branch, who is brought in by M to replace Bond’s Beretta M1934 with a Walther PPK. It is Burton’s only appearance as Q.

Eunice Gayson makes history as the first Bond girl as Sylvia Trench. She was supposed to play Moneypenny but switched roles with Maxwell. They enjoy a historic exchange over a casino game of chemin-de-fer at the London club Le Cercle, as Bond wins. It is a seminal moment in cinema when Connery introduces James Bond with his trademark statement.

Bond: ‘I admire your courage, Miss…’

Sylvia Trench: ‘Trench. Sylvia Trench. I admire your luck, Mr…’

Bond: ‘Bond. James Bond.’

Zena Marshall (1925–2009) plays the first woman to be seduced by Connery’s 007.

Zena Marshall (1925–2009) plays Eurasian double agent Miss Taro, one of the most iconic of Bond villainesses, and also makes history as the first woman to be seduced by Connery’s 007.  Their bedroom scene took three days to shoot when Marshall had a problem with having to spit in her co-star’s face after Bond has turned Taro over to the superintendent of police. Taro is the secretary to Mr Pleydell-Smith at Government House in Kingston but is actually a double agent working for Dr No.

It was made both on location in Jamaica and at Pinewood studios, though the few studio back-projected exteriors acceptable enough in their day now seem to give it a phoney look that spoils the realism effectively achieved elsewhere.

Also in the cast are John Kitzmiller as Cayman Islander Quarrel, Lester Prendergast, Michele Mok, Yvonne Shima, Louis Blaazer, Reginald Carter, William Foster-Davis, Dolores Keator, Marguerite LeWars and Tim [Timothy] Moxon as Strangways (voiced by Robert Rietty).

Dr No is directed by Terence Young, runs 110 minutes, is an Eon production, is released by United Artists, is written by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood and Berkely Mather, is shot by Ted Moore, is produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R Broccoli, is scored by Monty Norman and is designed Ken Adam.

Dr No to Bond: ‘Unfortunately I misjudged you – you are just a stupid policeman whose luck has run out.’

Sell line: ‘Now meet the most extraordinary gentleman spy in all fiction – James Bond, Agent 007’ (a modest claim). Supposedly, producer Albert R ‘Cubby’ Broccoli offered Mr Universe muscleman Steve Reeves $100,000 to play Bond, less than half his customary fee. That didn’t happen of course and the part finally went to a man who had come third in a Mr Universe contest. Broccoli was impressed by Connery’s performance in the 1959 film Darby O’Gill and the Little People and especially his fight with a village bully in it.

Broccoli was after the style of North by Northwest for the movie and offered the Bond role to Cary Grant. Noel Coward also refused to take part (‘Dr No? No! No! No!’).

Ian Fleming reputedly called it ‘dreadful, simply dreadful’. Ah, well, he wasn’t a film critic.

A collectible hardback copy of the original 1958 novel (Jonathan Cape, originally 13s 6d) will cost you about £1000 today.

RIP Eunice Gayson, the classy British actress who played the first Bond girl Sylvia Trench and is still the only Bond girl to appear in two 007 films (Dr No and From Russia with Love), who died on 8 June 2018, aged 90.

RIP Sir Thomas Sean Connery (25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020). He died peacefully in his sleep overnight at home in Nassau in the Bahamas. His son Jason Connery said he had been ‘unwell for some time’.

http://derekwinnert.com/goldfinger-classic-film-review-403/

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 208

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/

Ian Fleming’s image of James Bond.