The Giant James Bond Rewatch – Dr. No (1962)

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Tawney Markham

May 15, 2020

Got this back when I was pregnant, but I’ll be keeping it forever, it’s just so handy. I don’t go to the movie theater that often (even back before quarantine when you actually could…) but I make sure the app and the movie list are all current and updated, cause it’s so handy! It’s great for running late cause you can read their

What people are saying
about the RunPee app.

summary, obviously awesome for bathroom or snack breaks mid movie, and I also love that it tells you if there’s anything after the credits which is very handy.

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More Bond Firsts

Other firsts include the first car driven by Bond (Sunbeam Alpine Series II), the first appearances of all the regulars (M, Q, Moneypenny, Felix Leitner, etc.), first appearance of Universal Exports, first issuing of the Walther PPK, first card game, first extravagantly designed villain’s lair, and so on and so forth.

Of course, everything that appears in Dr. No is, by definition, a first — even though bizarrely, Dr. No was the sixth novel in the series and the novel series does benefit from being read in order. But the first thing most often misattributed is the first Bond girl.

When asked, most people would give that honour to Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder. That is understandable, as she is the one that the story pivots around in the second half — introduced with the iconic walking out of the sea scene. However, she was only the third to indulge in gland-to-gland combat; the first was Sylvia Trench (Eunice Gayson) and the second was Miss Taro (Zena Marshall).

Incidentally, originally Eunice Gayson was to play Miss Moneypenny and Lois Maxwell was to play Sylvia Trench, but they switched roles. Director Terence Young had said that when he looked at Eunice Gayson she seemed to smell of sex whereas Lois Maxwell seemed to smell of soap.

The Name’s Bond…James Bond

Whenever there is a poll of “who was the best Bond,” Sean Connery is always within the top two. With an average Metacritic score of 71.6, his films are the highest-rated to date. Daniel Craig edges him out for adjusted global box office; $924.9 million against $776.1 million. How much of that is due to him being the first Bond is impossible to tell without a time machine and something to persuade/convince/blackmail Cubby Broccoli with. What you’d need is something very persuasive/convincing/compromising, as a lot of things were moved around to make sure that Connery worked as Bond.

For instance, even though at 1.88m (6’2”) Connery was the tallest actor to play Bond, all of the sets and furniture were slightly smaller than they would be in reality, so that Bond would look larger. Maybe that wouldn’t have been necessary if Ian Fleming’s original choice for Dr. No had been taken up. He wanted his cousin, Christopher Lee, for the role, but at 1.96m (6’5”), he would have seemed enormous with the oversized sets. Fortunately, Joseph Wiseman was a relative midget at a mere 1.83m (6’0”).

Yes to No

Contrary to popular belief, Sir Sean Connery was not wearing a hairpiece in his first two outings as James Bond. Although he was already balding by the time Dr. No was in production, he still had a decent amount of hair and the filmmakers used varying techniques to make the most of what was left. By the time of Goldfinger (1964), Connery’s hair was too thin and so various toupees were used for his last Bond outings.

Despite that, unlike some of his successors, Connery didn’t need a couple of movies to figure out the character. He had the role of Bond sorted within a few minutes of Dr. No. He also contributed to the Bond franchise’s signature sense of humor using the sly, subtle self-awareness which laid the groundwork for much more on-the-nose winks to the audience in later Bond films. At the time, it offered a fun counterpoint to the dreary, self-serious spy thrillers audiences had become inundated with such as The Thirty Nine Steps, Carve Her Name With Pride, and The Manchurian Candidate.

Movie Grade: A

There are no extra scenes during, or after, the end credits of Dr. No. (What we mean by Anything Extra.)

James Bond Rewatch – Live and Let Die (1973)

Remembering James Bond — Seeing Goldfinger live in the theater

The Giant James Bond Rewatch – Casino Royale (1967)

Rob Williams

Former teacher, lecturer, homelessness administrator, pharmacy dispenser now happily retired, happily married, and a very happy granddad. I live next to the Mersey but on the side Daniel Craig and Taron Egerton come from rather than the side the Beatles came from!