Dr No

March 4, 2020 · Watch the trailer

Nostalgia is a hell of a thing.

It’s impossible for a film like “Dr. No” to be made in 2020, and not because the illustrious British spy James Bond can’t carry a marketable movie franchise.

The first entry in the EON produced series of films based on Ian Fleming’s novels is a product of pop culture in the 1960s, a time many might consider “simpler” when what they really mean is “less progressive.”

Nostalgia allows viewers to overlook the simplistic sets or the antiquated “movie magic” that created things like the underwater window in Dr. No’s lair or the miniature satellite launch done on a shoestring budget.

Nobody faults the original “Star Wars” trilogy for similar shortcuts to make large destroyers made from plastic float through space and blow up planets.

Where we, in retrospect, can’t be as forgiving in our pensive look back at early spy cinema like “Dr. No” is in its antiquated – or better still, intolerant – use of minority characters and the creation of the bombshell “Bond girl.”

In order to play the titular villain, Canadian actor Joseph Wiseman was outfitted with heavy makeup used to “simulate an Asian heritage,” according to filmmakers. Similar effects were used on British actress Zena Marshall for her supporting role as secretary Miss Taro.

The Bond series has always had a complicated history with its portrayal of diversity on screen, and while “Dr. No” might not be the most egregious offender, trends have to begin somewhere.

A franchise starting film before such a concept existed, “Dr. No” introduced viewers in 1962 to the now-classic British secret agent code name 007 and his international quests to thwart the plans of evil super-organization S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Director Terrance Young’s film follows Sean Connery’s debut in the role of James Bond as he investigates the murder of a British agent in Jamaica and teams up with CIA officer Felix Leiter in stopping a plot to destroy American rockets bound for space.

What makes “Dr. No” rewatchable – aside from all the classic Bond film tropes that began as a creation of Young’s mind – is Connery’s charismatic turn as the lead. He brings a casual, yet cavalier attitude to the role that makes Bond effortlessly charming to the ladies he seduces for information and yet doggedly determined to complete his mission by any means necessary.

The Bond of “Dr. No” is remarkably clever by franchise standards, often outwitting both adversaries and allies with a keen sense of observation that allows Bond to place himself in the right place at the right time, getting the jump on would-be assassins out to kill him at every turn.

A middling screenplay and marginal action are offset by Connery’s winning performance that – with Young’s expert direction and partnership – creates the standard for the cinematic character’s persona for the next four decades. Audiences don’t care to see a well-dressed man play baccarat, insist on a particular drink and engage in innocuous banter, but Connery makes all of it seem intoxicatingly cool.

It’s remarkable that the first credited Bond girl in franchise history – Ursula Andress’s Honey Ryder – nor his girlfriend Sylvia Trench (played by Eunice Grayson) spoke a line of dialogue in “Dr. No” themselves as both parts were dubbed over by German voice-over artist Nikki van der Zyl.

Andress was brought on for her beauty, and thanks to terrific planning in direction by Young and the perfectly scouted location in Jamaica, a rather bland, thinly written character wanting to find seashells becomes the object of young men’s affection and an iconic Hollywood bombshell within the first ten seconds of screentime. It’s a truly brilliant way to introduce a character, one that Martin Campbell pays rightful homage to in a gender-flipped tip of the cap to the franchise’s origins in 2006’s “Casino Royale.”

Action in “Dr. No” is minimal but effective and Young uses elements of surprise and suspense leading into these sequences to offset the limited budget and simplicity of the stunt work. The final faceoff between Bond and Dr. No happens so late in the film and ends so abruptly that it undercuts the momentousness of Bond’s victory and the quality of No’s villain status.

The series’ entrenched connection to iconic musical introductions began in “Dr. No” with the Monty Norman-penned “James Bond Theme” recorded by the John Barry Orchestra filled with pulsing bass line, crashing cymbals and thunderous brass setting the backdrop to the pinhole camera opening sequence of Bond firing on an unseen bad guy behind the camera, which doubles as a gun barrel itself.

Other songs in the film like “Under The Mango Tree” and “Jump Up” play pivotal roles within the plot of “Dr. No,” but neither hold up nor create the legacy of the “Bond Theme” that is extended into the title sequences beginning with 1963’s “From Russia With Love.”

The complicated legacy of “Dr. No” beyond its franchise originating landmark gives audiences iconic moments, a rousing film score and a lead in Connery that will come to define action stars and the character of James Bond especially for decades to come.

These highlights do come at a cost and “Dr. No” quickly becomes simply the first and not the best for Connery as Bond or the franchise as a whole.

It is this problematic history that forced Bond producers to approach the character differently when adapting the classic spy to modern times with films like “Casino Royale” and “Skyfall” and help propel those features to great success with their complex narratives.

This is the first in a series of retrospective reviews of the James Bond film franchise as made by EON Productions in anticipation of the release of the 25th entry in the series, “No Time To Die,” which arrives in American theaters on November 25.