The Connery Years
My whole life I’ve been told that Sean Connery is the definitive Bond. Mostly it’s been Boomers telling me this and I don’t think it’s because they grew up with him as their Bond (most grew up with Roger Moore) but because their parents told them “Roger Moore sucks” and that Connery was the real Bond. Since one does not simply talk back to the Silent Generation without getting a smack, Connery as Bond has been the oft-pushed narrative.
This is strange, considering Connery was (according to various reports) their SEVENTH choice after Cary Grant was deemed too ungettable and baby Roger Moore was deemed “too young and perhaps a shade too pretty.” But it also makes sense that the generation of parents who had no qualms about belting their kids would favour a Bond who smacked women across the face with some frequency.
Thankfully, he doesn’t do it in his first installment.
Dr. No (1962)
Synopsis
Enter Sean Connery, Scotland’s punchiest and most barrel aged 32-year-old. His first assignment? Investigate the death of another MI6 agent in Jamaica, help the CIA find out who’s been radio jamming US rocket launches and have a dalliance with a vaguely European woman in a bikini.
Particulars
Director: Terence Young
Writer/s: Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, Berkely Mather
Producers: Harry Saltzman & Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli
Stars: Sean Connery as James Bond, Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder, Joseph Wiseman as Dr. No, Jack Lord as Felix Leiter, Bernard Lee as M and Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny
Budget: $1 million (some say less)
Shot: Kingston, Jamaica and Pinewood Studios
Based on: Dr. No, the sixth book in Ian Fleming’s 007 series
Introducing the man of the hour
Dr. No is a difficult film to place in the Bond oeuvre. It’s always going to be lifted slightly due to firstborn advantage and high levels of iconicity and it features Sean Connery at his hottest and least smacky (I’m not counting playful sexual gestures because neither did the 60s).
As a standalone film, though, I’ve always found it pretty forgettable and slight, save for a few scenes of lasting comedic significance to me. On this revisit, here’s what I liked.
Dr. Yes (aka strengths)
Bond, James Bond
Connery is suave, confident and playful and I immediately get who Bond is. He’s great at delivering the wordplay that would become one of the franchise’s calling cards and he can wear the shit out of every fab 60s outfit they put him in. My favourite scene is wordless and depicts Bond setting up little surveillance traps in his hotel room. It’s Connery at his most cat-like and intriguing and I like him better in Dr. No than in most of his following films (largely because he doesn’t smack any women across the face in this one.)
The theme
Monty Norman’s ‘James Bond Theme’ (arranged by John Barry) is classic, confident and brassy, just like Connery as Bond. In absence of an actual dedicated song for the film (it took a couple of tries before settling into that convention) it functions as Dr. No’s main theme.
Oh, she’s gorgeous
Admittedly, this has more to do with 60s era production design, costuming and film capture, but Dr. No is very aesthetically pleasing. There’s a softness to its colour that makes you feel like you’re on holiday, the interiors and set design are beautiful and well thought out (specifically Sylvia Trench’s pad) and the costuming is lush. Can you see the set lighting reflected in M’s office paintings? Yes. Is it kind of cute? Also yes. That Dr. No feels a bit amateur compared to later films makes it endearing and gives it some much needed individuality.
Late stage villain reveal
I’m a big fan of edging when it comes to eponymous villain reveals and Dr. No takes a whopping 1 hour 24 minutes to show us the villain’s body and gloves and only does a face reveal at 1 hour 27 minutes. Dr. No also calls Bond “a stupid policeman”, which I think is a sick ACAB-style burn.
It’s toight
At 110 minutes, Dr. No is more considerate of its audience’s time and attention span than the majority of the Bond films that come after.
Iconicity
“Bond, James Bond” with a ciggie hanging out of Connery’s lips. Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress) emerging from the ocean, shells in hand and bikini on bod. “What are you doing here, looking for shells?” “No, I’m just looking.” Dr. No may not be the sum of its parts but many of its parts are iconic and many of its cast hang around for quite a long time, including Bernard Lee as M and Lois Maxwell as the absolutely delightful Moneypenny.
Dr. Nah (aka weaknesses)
Plot
I’ve seen this film three times and still could not really describe its what and why. The inciting moment is an assassination by three blind mice? Dr. No is maybe Chinese and is working with SPECTRE to disrupt a US spaceflight launch because Space Race? Are the crabs working for Dr. No? Ian Fleming first wrote Dr. No as a television outline promoting Jamaican tourism, so it was always going to be more vibes-based than plot-based.
Bond girl
Ursula Andress’ cheekbones are strong but Honey Ryder as a Bond girl is weak. What does she do other than hold shells out to admire them, wear the shift out of a bikini and sing about mango trees? There’s an implied rape revenge plot but it has no bearing on the rest of the film and there’s not much chemistry between Honey and Bond.
Opening sequence
While I like the visual design of the titles the opening sequence is all over the place. We get the first gun barrel sequence and it transitions to coloured dots and a credit crawl, then moves to outlines of dancing people shapes. I think I counted three song snippets in the one sequence, emphasising that they really don’t know what they’re doing at this stage.
Action (or lack thereof)
Dr. No was made for fuck all money and that’s evident from the film’s middling plot (which apparently was meant to feature a fight between Bond and a giant squid?) and lack of action choreography. Since the budget was in the toilet, there really aren’t any action sequences or stunts. We meet Q very briefly (kind of; he’s not played by Desmond Llewelyn yet and he’s called Major Boothroyd, head of Q-Branch) and it’s only so he can replace Bond’s gun.
Weighing everything out, Dr. No sits firmly where it sat before I started this Bondathon: somewhere in the middle, kinda forgotten and coasting off retrospective importance. I’ve taken this into account in scoring against seven (7) ranking categories.
RANKING CATEGORIES (70%)
Bond execution = 9
Villain = 4
Bond girl(s) = 3
Song = 5
Opening titles = 3
Plot/action/gadgets = 4
Franchise identity = 7
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT (30%)
6/10