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| Sean Connery strikes an unusual pose on this poster for Terence Young's Dr. No |
QUICK REVIEW:
Dr. No is the first James Bond movie ever, based on Ian Fleming's 7th Bond novel of the same name.
Agent 007 is sent to Jamaica, because one of his colleagues in the British intelligence service is reported missing there. The clues lead him to the island Crab Keyes, where the evil genius Dr. No has a lab that makes something unspecified which produces nuclear radiation. SPOILER - Bond blows that up!
The concept for the following 22 Bond movies to date, (movie # 24, Spectre (2015), will be released later this year) is impressively determined already here from the solid get-go, and Dr. No is an instant pleasure as the slightly chauvinistic male agent fantasy that the Bond character and universe is.
Sean Connery (Time Bandits (1981)) is perfect and very dashing as the suave gentleman hero without any ties, except for his employer, and Ursula Andress (Clash of the Titans (1981)) is beautiful and perfectly lovely as Honey Ryder, one of the series' most memorable Bond babes. Canadian New York-actor Joseph Wiseman (The Valachi Papers (1972)) is the titular, ice-cold villain, whose gimmick, - often a physical defect, which most of the Bond villains have, - is his crab-like steel hands. He isn't among the series' most exciting, and there are parts of Dr. No that draw out a bit.
Ken Adam's (Barry Lyndon (1975)) spectacular sets are a main attraction already from the first film here, and John Barry's (Howard the Duck (1986)) legendary theme also gets imprinted forever in our audial memory in Dr. No.
Much has happened for James Bond since the film: In Dr. No, 007's mission really gets hairy as he arrives to the island of Dr. No in the dead of night. - And lies down to sleep!
The film is written by Richard Maibaum (Thunderball (1965)), Johanna Harwood (Call Me Bwana (1963)) and Berkely Mather (The Long Ships (1964)) and directed by British, Shanghai-born master filmmaker Terence Young (The Valachi Papers), who would later direct two more of the franchise's best films, From Russia with Love (1963, # 2) and Thunderball (1965, # 4).
Watch the original, corny-fun trailer for the glitzy Technicolor movie here
Cost: 1.1 mil. $
Box office: 59.5 mil. $
= Mega-hit
[Dr. No was given its relatively low budget by United Artists, who were not certain what kind of an animal they would have on their hands and therefore rolled the film out without great confidence in North America, at first on double-bills and on a limited number of screens. The film would go on to gross 16 mil. $ (27 % of the total gross) in North America, from a reported 19 mil. admissions. The film was pushed by an elaborate PR campaign that included tie-ins to various products. Dr. No is also infamous for booming the sales of bikinis, through its scenes of exotic Swiss beauty Andress in the two-piece.]
What do you think of Dr. No?
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