Night 1 (and 2) - Dr. No.

Since I recently decided to watch ALL of the Bond films, I figured I'd watch them in (film) chronological order. One of these days, I might try to round up all of the novels and read them in the order they were published ... but I don't see that happening any time soon.

Even though we all know that Casino Royal was the first of 14 James Bond novels, by the series creator Ian Fleming. Dr. No was the first film, even though it was the 6th novel.

I remember seeing Dr. No as a kid ... several times. It was one of several movies we owned.


My mom was kind of a light-weight audio/visual fanatic when I was growing up, this is likely where I get my 'gadget freak' tendencies from. Light-weight in the respect that we almost always had the different A/V formats as they were available, but never the high-end expensive stuff ... which is completely understandable since we were not incredibly wealthy.

We owned Dr. No on an old CED Video Disc. For those not familiar, this precursor to the LaserDisc format was an analog medium, similar to that of an LP (Long-Play record) but with video capabilities. The player was this big "tank" of a machine that had a sliding front intake slot and the Discs themselves were encased in a protective caddy. These things were pretty cool at the time. There were even a few places that rented them ... way before Blockbuster came to be.

Video Disc in its protective caddy.

Dr. No in the CED format.

Along with 'Star Wars' (you know ... what we used to call 'A New Hope' before the prequel trilogy came out) and 'Superman: The Movie', Dr. No was one of the movies I could watch on my own.

As I watched Dr. No again ... now, as an adult, I picked up a lot more about time movie that went completely over my head as a kid. For one, I understood the plot a lot better than I did when I was younger. If you asked me what the plot of Dr. No was as a pre-teen (or tween, as they are referred to now days) I would have told you that James Bond gets a new gun, goes to Jamaica for some reason, beats up a bunch of dudes, goes to another island with a fire-breathing tank and a dude with robot hands, and then floats off into the sunset in a boat with Ursula Andress at the end.

Dr. No ... observed as an adult, is not incredibly complex. A British Agent (Strangways) and his assistant, which happen to be stationed in Jamaica, have gone missing (actually, they were killed .. but British Intelligence doesn't know what yet) James Bond is sent to investigate. Turns out that Strangways was assisting CIA agent (Felix Leiter) in investigating some mysterious sabotage in the Mercury spacecraft program. After several attempts on his life, James Bond and Felix convince a very superstitious local fishing boat captain to take them to this remote island owned by a mysterious recluse named Dr. No. Felix stays behind, while James and Quarrel go to the island, James meets Honey Ryder, played by Ursula Andress and wearing that iconic white bikini

While attempting to infiltrate the No compound, Quarrel dies and James and Honey get captured. Upon their capture, we find out that they acquired some radiation contamination along the way. It turns out that Dr. No is a brilliant scientist and build a nuclear reactor to power his island compound ... and the long-range microwave jamming machine he has been using to sabotage the early progress of the American space program. Bond escapes his cell, makes his way into the control room, and manages to initiate a reactor meltdown. Dr. No boils to death in the cooling pond of the nuclear reactor and the island compound explodes while James and Honey manage to escape.

A few things of note:
The debut of the infamous line "Bond ... James Bond" is delivered in a scene early in the film. James is playing a game of ... against a woman in a red dress named Sylvia Trench.

How smooth is James Bond?
After he wins all of Sylvia's money, she chases him down and all but asks him out. Later (after he receives his assignment to fly to Jamaica) she shows up at his apartment ... dressed in nothing but his dress shirt heels and practicing her golf swing. The Bond has swag.

Watching old movie special effects in High-Definition can be a bad thing sometimes. In the scene where the thugs are trying to run Bond off the road, we can see that the projection screen behind the stunt car is maybe a little too close. There are times where the car chasing James is almost three-times larger than the little roadster that James is driving. Oh ... and some of the expressions on his face as Sean Connery is simulating a hot pursuit are just priceless ... see for yourself.

 While not a fantastic Bond movie (especially compared to a few of Connery's later efforts) this film does a decent job at establishing how much of a bad-ass James Bond is and sets up several of the common Bond film tropes we will grow to love later.

Things I learned about Dr. No
Honey Ryder's voice is not actually Ursula Andress' voice. The speaking parts were done by Nikki Van der Zyl (who did A LOT of female voices for the early Bond Movies)

Dr. No on Wikipedia
Dr. No on IMDB

Rating: 2 out of  5