007: Dr. No
(Terence Young, 1962)
Perhaps it was the best that when I decided to seriously try and watch all of the Bond films back many years ago, that I decided to start at the very beginning (as is usually the best thing to do with large film franchises.) Dr. No isn’t the best, or most elaborate Bond film, but it’s a somewhat decent place to start a franchise with so many ups and downs in quality that the films have experienced over the years.
Sean Connery is still my favourite Bond of all time; yes, beyond Daniel Craig and Roger Moore. Aside form the fact that Connery was the first to portray Bond on the big screen, he gives Bond a personality that every other Bond actor has tried to build upon by various means, but never fully eclipsing him. What makes Connery’s Bond so good is that he projects a confidence while still being extremely suave, yet he can also become cold-blooded at a second’s notice; plainly said, he has by far the most dexterity and range of any of the Bonds, and the 1960s were the 007 franchises’ first Golden Age.
Looking back at it, as a story, Dr. No isn’t at all the most three-dimensional, and it indeed suffers from the flaws of EON having to eliminate all of it’s story-arc ties with Dr. No as a novel being in the middle of the 007 series. Aside from it’s story limitations, it is a resounding smash as a spy and suspense film, although not nearly as good and seamless as it’s successor film.
With the Bond multi hundred million dollar budget films that are getting doled out every three or four years these days, it’s often difficult to remember the limitations that the Bond films earlier on (especially in the early sixties) had to deal with. This is especially the case of Dr. No as it was the first in the franchise, and thus dealing with even a more paltry budget than it’s immediate successors. Despite the limitations, though, the classic Hollywood influence does seem to seep into and shine in this film, although I think they could have structured it a tad better overall with director Terence Young showing more of his film making abilities on From Russia With Love, the Connery era Bond film I believe to be the finest of his time in the suit.
Aside from being the first film of the series, Dr. No is also quintessential to the franchise as it was the film that introduced a few aspects of the typical “Bondsy” stuff which would more or less be continued throughout the series to varying degrees and make the 007 films the ones we know and love to this very day (the martini, the suits, the gadgets, the small exotic sports cars, the elaborate lairs and villains, etc.). And although in comparison to Thunderbolt and From Russia with Love, the climax seems somewhat lesser-dramatic and kind of left me wondering if that was all as the credits began to roll, but as a debut spy film made in a time when The Beatles were still playing dingy clubs, it’s a pretty damn good one.
