Dr. No

Dr. No (sometimes published as Doctor No) is the sixth James Bond novel by Ian Fleming, originally published in 1958. The novel was adapted as the first official James Bond film in 1962. The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman with Sean Connery in the first of six official appearances (1 unofficial) playing the role of British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond.

The film

Because James Bond was not that well known in 1961, the producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman originally sought to have a big name star as James Bond. Cary Grant was chosen for the role, but was not selected due to his commitment of only one feature film. Roger Moore, famous at the time for his role on the television series, The Saint was then requested by Ian Fleming; however Moore was unavailable due to his contract obligations with the show. Moore would later be selected to play James Bond in 1973 for Live and Let Die. Other actors purported to have been considered for the role include Patrick McGoohan, James Mason, and David Niven (who would later play an unofficial version of the character in the 1967 spoof Casino Royale). The producers then turned to Sean Connery, a relative unknown at the time to play agent 007 for five films. It is often reported that Connery won the role through a contest set up to 'find James Bond'. This is untrue, however, the contest did exist and six finalists were chosen and screentested by Broccoli, Saltzman, and Fleming. The winner of the contest was a 28-year-old model named Peter Anthony, who according to Broccoli had a Gregory Peck quality, but lacked the technique to cope with the demanding role of Bond.

Related Topics:
Cubby Broccoli - Harry Saltzman - Cary Grant - Roger Moore - Television series - The Saint - 1973 - Live and Let Die - Patrick McGoohan - James Mason - David Niven - 1967 - Casino Royale - Sean Connery - Gregory Peck

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It has been reported that Ian Fleming also requested that his cousin Christopher Lee play the role of Dr. No, but that too fell through. Later Christopher Lee would play the villain, Francisco Scaramanga, in 1974's The Man with the Golden Gun.

Related Topics:
Christopher Lee - Villain - Francisco Scaramanga - 1974's - The Man with the Golden Gun

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Plot summary

This film introduced the recurring themes associated with the suave, witty secret agent: The code number "007" ("double-oh-seven"; the double-oh prefix is his licence to kill), the distinctive theme, the gunbarrel opening credits sequence, the "Bond girl" (here, Ursula Andress), exotic locales, the criminal organization S.P.E.C.T.R.E., narrow escapes, Bond's astonishing good luck and skill (including at gambling), an over-ambitious villain (here, Dr. Julius No disrupting U.S. missile launchings), quirky, villainous henchmen, oddly-named characters (here, "M", "Honey Ryder", "Miss Moneypenny", and of course "Dr. No", himself), and the first meeting with Felix Leiter of C.I.A.

Related Topics:
Bond girl - Ursula Andress - S.P.E.C.T.R.E. - Dr. Julius No - M - Miss Moneypenny - Felix Leiter

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In fact, many characteristics of James Bond were introduced in this film (or brought in from the books), ranging from Bond's idiosyncratic introduction (as "Bond. James Bond."), to his taste for fine wine, women, and weaponry.

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This film established the tradition of venturing from Fleming's original novels to include topical references of the day. During the film series' forty year history, only a couple of films would remain true to their source materials; Dr. No has many similarities to the novel, but almost as many differences.

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The movie starts in Jamaica, where British agent Commander John Strangways and his secretary mysteriously disappear; though nobody knows it yet, they have been killed. James Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate the disappearances and determine whether they are related to recent disruptions of American missile launchings.

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Soon after Bond leaves the airport in Kingston, a taxi driver greets him, saying he's been sent to drive him to government house. In reality, the man is an enemy agent who commits suicide after he is found out, rather than risk the wrath of his boss. Bond learns that Dr. Dent was Strangways' last contact before his disappearance. Unknown to Bond, Dent is an agent of Dr. Julius No, and is ordered to kill Bond. He is unsuccessful and, after a brief interrogation in which Bond learns Strangways is dead, Bond executes Dent. During the mission, Bond meets CIA agents Felix Leiter and Quarrel. Following evidence in the form of radioactive rock samples, Bond and Quarrel go to Dr. No's island, Crab Key, meet Honey Ryder, and discovers the Doctor's plot, which is, as suspected, to sabotage an American missile launch. Bond overloads Dr. No's reactor, kills the villain and escapes with Honey.

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This is the first Bond film to mention the criminal organization S.P.E.C.T.R.E., though its role in this film is minor. Dr. Julius No, the film's villain, is also a member of S.P.E.C.T.R.E.; it would later be a more formidable foe in From Russia With Love through You Only Live Twice. The head of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. would continue to be Bond's nemesis until Diamonds Are Forever, and again (briefly) in For Your Eyes Only.

Related Topics:
S.P.E.C.T.R.E. - Villain - From Russia With Love - You Only Live Twice - Diamonds Are Forever - For Your Eyes Only

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Cast & characters

• James Bond — Sean Connery
• Honey Ryder — Ursula Andress, voice Nikki van der Zyl
• Dr. Julius No — Joseph Wiseman
• Professor R. J. Dent — Anthony Dawson
• Quarrel — John Kitzmiller
• Felix Leiter — Jack Lord
• M — Bernard Lee
• Miss Moneypenny — Lois Maxwell
• Miss Taro — Zena Marshall
• Sylvia Trench — Eunice Gayson
• Major Boothroyd, aka: Q — Peter Burton
• John Strangways — Timothy Moxon, voice Robert Rietty

Crew

• Directed by: Terence Young
• Written by: Ian Fleming
• Screenplay by: Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, Berkely Mather
• Produced by: Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman
• Composed by: Monty Norman
• Cinematography by: Ted Moore
• Production design by: Ken Adam
• Art Direction by: Syd Cain (uncredited)
• Film editing by: Peter R. Hunt

Soundtrack

The original James Bond theme was written by Monty Norman, who also composed the soundtrack for Dr. No. John Barry, who would later go on to compose the music for eleven Bond films, arranged the Bond theme, but was uncredited. It has occasionally been suggested that Barry, not Norman, composed The James Bond Theme, and this has been the subject of two court cases, the most recent in 2001. However, Norman based the music upon a song he wrote for a stage musical several years previously.

Related Topics:
Monty Norman - John Barry - The James Bond Theme

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Track listing

• James Bond Theme
• Kingston Calypso
• Jamaican Rock
• Jump Up
• Audio Bongo
• Under The Mango Tree
• Twisting With James
• Jamaica Jazz
• Under The Mango Tree
• Jump Up
• Dr. No's Fantasy
• Kingston Calypso
• The Island Speaks
• Under The Mango Tree
• The Boy's Chase
• Dr. No's Theme
• The James Bond Theme
• Love At Last

Vehicles and gadgets

• Walther PPK — Technically the only so-called gadget in the entire film is when M and Major Boothroyd (Q) force Bond to trade in his Beretta for the new standard issue, the Walther PPK. Bond has since used a Walther PPK in every movie up to Tomorrow Never Dies, in which he takes a Walther P99 from a Chinese safehouse.
• Sunbeam Alpine Series 5 — James drives a Sunbeam Alpine during a brief and relatively tame chase scene. No gadgets were included on the car.

Locations

Film Locations

• London, UK
• Kingston, Jamaica
• Crab Key — island off Jamaica

Shooting locations

• Jamaica
• Pinewood Studios — London, England

Trivia

• A number of amusing stories exist about how the title was supposedly translated in various languages (as, for instance, "We Don't Want a Doctor"). Many of these stories are untrue.
• The film received titles with the phrase 'licence to kill' in them in Italy, Sweden and Portugal, which caused a minor problem during translations of the title of the sixteenth film.
• The actor in the famous gunbarrel opening is not Connery, but stuntman Bob Simmons. Connery wouldn't film the sequence himself until the fourth official Bond film, Thunderball.
• Thunderball was originally chosen to be the first Bond movie, but due to a legal battle with its co-author, Kevin McClory, EON Productions, chose to film Dr. No instead.
• The infamous scene in which Bond murders Professor Dent is not in the original novel, and fans of Ian Fleming's novels protested, saying even the literary version of Bond was never so cold-hearted. The director defended his decision, saying such a scene was necessary to impress upon viewers the significance of Bond's licence to kill, since it was the first time such a character had been portrayed (outside wartime) in a major motion picture. Nonetheless, Bond would rarely act this same way again, though he would act in similar fashion in The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only, Licence to Kill, and Tomorrow Never Dies. According to several Bond film histories, as originally filmed, Bond fires all six bullets from his gun into Dent's body (hence the significance of his famous line "You've had your six.") but this was deemed gratuitous and was edited down to two shots. Most commercial TV prints of the film shown in America and Canada have, until recently, shown Bond firing only once.
• During the scene where M replaces Bond's beretta with the Walther PPK, M claims that he is head of MI7. The scene is actually dubbed since it is clear that M says MI6 (the subtitles on the special edition DVD release also says "MI6", and at least one trailer features the undubbed dialogue). Prior to this however, there's another scene in the film where a radio operator talks about contacting MI6. The sequence with M is the only mention of MI7 in any James Bond film or novel. In reality there is no current MI7. The original MI7 was a temporary subsection dealing with propaganda that operated during World War I. It has been suggested that there might have been a prohibition on mentioning MI6 in the media at this time; if true this changed and not only would MI6 be referenced frequently in future films, its real-life headquarters building would be seen and used in GoldenEye, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day decades later (although the real-life MI6 is not known to have a 00-Section).
• Sylvia Trench, the woman Bond meets in the casino at the start of the film, is not a character from Fleming's novels, but EON Productions had intended for her to be Bond's regular girlfriend. Ultimately, the character only appeared once more, in From Russia With Love before she was dropped in favour of further developing the playful relationship between Bond and Moneypenny. Eunice Gayson, the actress who played Sylvia, had a daughter who would later appear as an extra in The World Is Not Enough. Gayson herself was originally hired to play Moneypenny, and Lois Maxwell was to have played Sylvia, but the two actresses swapped roles.
• The casino scene at the beginning of the film was shot at the "Les Ambassadeurs" Club, Hamilton Place, London W1J 7ED. The club still exists, and is one of London's most exclusive casinos.
• Viewers of the film series might be surprised to discover that very little of the playful banter and flirting between Bond and Moneypenny actually exists in the novels; much of it was developed for the movies, although later Bond novelists would incorporate the movie relationship into their takes on the characters.
• Most female voices in this film, including that of Ursula Andress, were dubbed by an uncredited actress, Monica Van Der Syl, in post-production. This would be a standard procedure with Bond films throughout the 1960s, with few actresses getting the chance to hear their own voices (Honor Blackman and Diana Rigg in later films being notable exceptions, as was Lois Maxwell (Moneypenny)). The theatrical trailer for Dr. No, included on the special edition DVD, features footage of Sylvia Trench/Eunice Gayson speaking with her own voice.
• As Bond is being ushered into Dr. No's dining room, he pauses to take notice of a portrait of the Duke of Wellington by Goya. This is an inside joke. The painting was actually stolen from the National Gallery, London in 1961 and was still missing when the film was released. It was recovered in 1965.

Comic book adaptation

Around the time of the film's release, a comic book adaptation of the screenplay was published in British Classics Illustrated, and later reprinted in European Detective and in early 1963 in the United States by DC Comics as part of its Showcase anthology series. The comic was drawn by Norman Nodel and was originally intended to be published as an issue of the anthology Classics Illustrated.

Related Topics:
Comic book - British Classics Illustrated - European Detective - 1963 - United States - DC Comics - Showcase - Norman Nodel - Classics Illustrated

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