Dr. No (1962) Film Review

Dr. No (1962) Director: Terence Young

“Bond. James Bond.”

★★★★★

The origins of the James Bond cinematic saga can be traced to the joint partnership of producers Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman who formed their now-famous company, Eon Productions (or “Everything Or Nothing”). Although there was an early television show focused on Ian Fleming’s James Bond which aired on CBS’s Climax! anthology show in 1954 (a retelling of Fleming’s Casino Royale starring Barry Nelson as “Jimmy Bond” and the great Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre), Dr. No became the first Ian Fleming Bond novel to be adapted for the big screen. But Fleming’s original novel Dr. No (published in 1958) was actually the sixth James Bond novel, which led to a variety of amusing continuity challenges for the Bond saga (by this point in the book series, Fleming’s novels had become increasingly baroque, and the villains grew increasingly flamboyant which nevertheless makes for some amusing reading), though Dr. No actually became the first Bond film owing to the fact that Fleming had initially sold the film rights to the first Bond novel Casino Royale separately for the television show. At first, Eon had plans to make either Goldfinger or Thunderball as the first Bond film, however those were both more expensive films to make, and a legal battle ensued with the rights holders (Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham) so they settled on making Dr. No. In terms of writing, the credited writers include Johana Harwood, Berkely Mather, and also Wolf Mankowitz (the man who initially introduced Cubby Broccoli to Harry Salzman but who declined to be a credited on Dr. No because he thought the film was sure to bomb), but the key ingredient was the introduction of Richard Maibaum, who had previously worked with Cubby Broccoli, Terence Young, Ted Moore and others who were involved with Broccoli on the Warwick films of the 1950s, a collection of post-war tax-incentivized films produced in the United Kingdom. It was Broccoli’s initial partnership on the Warwick films alongside Irving Allen that fell apart amidst the acquisition of the Bond film rights and led to his new partnership with Harry Salzman and Eon Productions.

At the start of the film, we see several white circles appear (with the production credit: “Harry Salzman and Albert R. Broccoli present”) and there is befuddling collection of beeping sounds (perhaps a nod to Dr. No’s radio beam) as we see Maurice Binder’s famous gun barrel sequence unfold. It was shot through a gun barrel with a pin hole camera (reminiscent of 1903’s iconic silent short film entitled The Great Train Robbery in which the closing shot of the film features outlaw-actor Justus D. Barnes firing his gun point blank into the camera directly at the audience). Similarly, the gun barrel sequence for these first three Bond films (Dr. No, From Russia with Love, and Goldfinger) features Sean Connery’s stunt double Bob Simmons strolling across the screen before suddenly shooting directly at the audience. It is a thrilling start to each film in the series (or at least nearly every film in the series). Some of the more recent Bond films have neglected to include a proper gun barrel sequence at the start of the film which is a shame. Bob Simmons continued to be featured in the opening gun barrel sequences until Thunderball, the fourth Bond film, which sees Sean Connery, himself, perform the opening gun barrel sequence. Cue Monty Norman’s famous James Bond theme song (inspired by a piece of music he wrote titled “Bad Sign, Good Sign” for an abandoned musical he wrote in 1959) which was arranged by John Barry. However, there has been a dispute as to which one of the two men actually wrote the song (it was the subject of two court cases) but Norman ultimately received royalties all his life for the creation of the song.

The opening credits are sunny and colorful, reminding us of the tropical adventure we are soon to embark upon, and the silhouette of Martine Beswick dancing is featured prominently (she also appears in From Russia with Love and Thunderball). She had initially auditioned for a role in Dr. No but was given a role in From Russia with Love as the gypsy girl, Zora, and in Thunderball she appears as Paula Caplan.

As the film begins, we see that a British agent, John Strangways (played by Timothy Moxon), has been murdered outside the Queen’s Club in Kingston, Jamaica, along with his secretary, Mary TrueBlood (Dolores Keator) by a trio of men disguised as blind beggars (or “three blind mice”). They are played by Eric Coverly, Charles Edghill, and Henry Lopez. The three men break into Strangways’ home and steal his secret files on “Crab Key” and “Dr. No.” Espionage! What could this mean? Here, we have a classic Bond set-up: an undercover British agent has been mysteriously assassinated. It sets up a critical dilemma in need of a solution. And it should be noted that the film, as with Fleming’s original novel, takes place in a transitionary period of post-colonial Jamaica –an age which Fleming held in very low regard. But to the naked eye, this is simply a travelogue to an exotic coastal locale, especially for viewers in the 1960s, many of whom would never get the chance to travel to far-flung places like Jamaica.

Back in London (on one of the starker sets designed by Ken Adam to highlight the use of modern technology), a radio operator (played by John Hatton) flags the urgent issue of the dropped connection with “W6N” to the “foreman of signals” (played by Maxwell Shaw). He then contacts MI6 immediately. Next, we enter into an iconic scene at Le Cercle Les Ambassadeurs, London, an opulent private club where an anonymous man is tracking down Mr. James Bond. Slowly, the camera pans through the casino until we arrive at a chemin de fer table (pronounced “sh-man de fah”). We see a radiant woman named Sylvia Trench being roundly beaten by a mystery man (Sylvia Trench is played by Eunice Gayson whose voice is dubbed over by Nikki van der Zyl). The idea for Sylvia Trench was that she would serve as a recurring character in the Bond films, a gag in which he would be constantly pulled away for work from his girlfriend. However, she only wound up appearing in the first two Bond films. At any rate, in a series of wonderfully cut sequences by Peter Hunt we only see the mystery man’s hands as Sylvia Trench pipes up to one of her colleagues “I need another thousand.” Then we hear the mystery man calmly state, “I admire your courage miss –uh” “Trench,” she interrupts. “Sylvia Trench. I admire your luck, Mr…” To which the man peers up while lighting a cigarette so that a smooth and suave Sean Connery can utter his famous line: “Bond. James Bond.” Cue the James Bond theme as all the hours of high-class training from Terence Young has clearly paid off –Sean Connery is the epitome of sleek and debonair in this brilliant introduction to the character. Prior to the production of Dr. No, there was a large search for the right actor to play the role of James Bond –Eon considered Cary Grant (a Bond aficionado who was simply too expensive, though he was best man at Cubby Broccoli’s recent wedding), David Niven, James Mason, Gregory Peck, Peter Sellers and many others for the role, and apparently Ian Fleming was not a fan of “country boy” Sean Connery, but Director Terence Young, himself a refined bon vivant and the prototypical James Bond who had previously met Ian Fleming while staying at Noel Coward’s house in Jamaica, he gave Sean Connery many pointers to help him craft his gentlemanly image.

From here, James Bond is whisked away for urgent MI6 business –but not before making plans with Sylvia Trench in a tongue-in-cheek scene filled with plenty of playful innuendo. When Bond arrives at MI6, he enters the office of M’s secretary, Miss Moneypenny (played by Lois Maxwell who would go on to reprise her role in each canonical Bond film, ending with A View To A Kill in 1985). There is a brief gag here wherein Bond tosses his fedora onto a nearby hat rack and immediately begins flirting with Miss Moneypenny –the chemistry between Lois Maxwell and Sean Connery is charming and delightful. For example, she asks Bond why he never takes her out to dinner dressed like that, or more to the point why he never takes her out at all, to which Bond retorts that M would have him “court-martialed for illegal use of government property.” Then a buzzer and a light lets James know it is time for him to enter M’s office.

Inside, we meet the curmudgeonly head of MI6 under the direction of M (played by Bernard Lee in his first of eleven appearances as M beginning with Dr. No and ending with Moonraker in 1979). In a briefing from M, we learn that Strangways was stationed in Jamaica because he was checking on an inquiry from the Americans who had complaints about massive interference they had been experiencing from rocket launches off Cape Canaveral. “Does Toppling mean anything to you?” M asks, to which Bond responds: “It’s throwing the gyroscopic controls of a guided missile off balance with a radio beam or something, isn’t it?” M nods: “More or less.” Here, M seems frustrated by the American’s loss of a $5 million rocket in the Brazilian jungle and that now they are attempting to orbit a rocket around the moon. I have to imagine Fleming delighted seeing his contempt for the United States come to life on the big screen. At any rate, M notes that: “The American CIE sent a man down to work with Strangways. A fellow by the name of Leiter. Do you know him?” Bond responds that he is vaguely familiar with Leiter. Now, M orders James Bond (or Agent 007) to investigate Strangways’ death, since it may be connected to the issues affecting the United States. M has booked Bond on the 7 o’clock flight down to Kingston, giving 3 hours twenty two minutes. M then chides Bond. He tells him to take off his jacket and hand over his gun. “Just as I thought. This damned Beretta again.” He then hands it over to the “armourer” named Major Boothroyd (played by Peter Burton, brother of Richard Burton who ultimately rejected the role of Bond in the film). “Nice and light,” he says. “In a lady’s handbag.” Boothroyd is intended to be the representative from Q-Branch (in the next film, the role will be taken over by Desmond Llewlyn who will appear in each Bond film until his death around the release of The World Is Not Enough in 1999). Bond confesses he has used a Beretta for ten years, and never missed yet. However, it did get jammed on his last job and he spent six months in hospital. This appears to be an allusion to the narrative continuity in Ian Fleming’s novels in which the gun jams at the end of From Russia, with Love in Bond’s final confrontation with Rosa Klebb (recall that Dr. No is technically the sixth story in the series). Fleming gave the armourer the name “Boothroyd” as a nod to a man named Geoffrey Boothroyd, a British firearms expert who wrote to Fleming about switching Bond’s weapon of choice from a Beretta to a Walther PPK. This is a fun little in-joke for fans of the series. M tells Bond that a “double-O number means you’re licensed to kill, not get killed” and he shared that there has been a 40% drop in casualties since he became head of MI6. So he instructs Bond to carry the Walther PPK 7.65mm (a gun with a delivery like a brick through a plate-glass window). Bond is also given a Brausch silencer which leaves very little reduction in muzzle velocity (the American CIA swear by them)… unless of course he would prefer to go back to “Standard Intelligence Duties.” Before Bond leaves, M catches him attempting to steal the Beretta again, and he prohibits any repartee between him and Miss Moneypenny since Bond is in a hurry.

In the next scene, we are given a rare glimpse into Bond’s private residence in London –and lo and behold, a half-clothed Sylvia Trench is found putting golf balls inside. Terence Young later admitted that she was supposed to be naked in this scene, but that idea was ultimately scrapped. Bond and Sylvia embrace as we fade to his Pan American flight landing in Kingston, Jamaica. Bond strolls through the airport with his fedora while a mystery man watches him from the upper airport balcony, and a female photographer watches him from afar (she is played by Marguerite LeWars –notice how she oddly licks her camera). Then a chauffeur from Government House named “Mr. Jones” (played by Reggie Carter) greets Bond and claims to be his driver. Bond steps into a phone booth to call MI6 (introducing himself as “James Bond, Universal Exports”). He confirms a meeting time of one o’clock with his local MI6 contact and also confirms that headquarters never actually sent a car for him (rendering Mr. Jones some sort of liar). Bond strikes a clever, mischevious smirk as he watches Mr. Jones from afar and signs off with “forgive me if I’m a few minutes late.”

Bond hops into the car with “Mr. Jones” all the while being shadowed by the mystery man from the Kingston airport balcony. This leads to a classic high-speed chase and when they lose the tail, they stop behind a bush along the freeway and Bond pulls a gun on Mr. Jones until he finally agrees to talk. Bond strangely allows him a cigarette which turns out to be laced with a cyanide capsule. As he dies, Mr. Jones says: “to hell with you!”

Next, Bond meets with his local MI6 contact, Chief Secretary at Government House in Kingston, Mr. Pleydell-Smith (Louis Blaazar). He agrees to meet with the last men Strangways had spoken to before his death –he plans to visit the club during the evening. And Bond visits Strangways home where he finds a receipt for geological work from Dent Laboratories and a photograph with a local fisherman –he seems to be the man who was driving the car that tailed him earlier.

Back at his hotel room, Bond cleverly pours talcum powder on his briefcase the see if anyone has attempted to open it and he places a thin hair over his closet door so that if it is opened, he will easily find out. Both of these careful tactics remind us that Bond is a small fish in a large pond –he is very much aware that he is on foreign soil and he is being watched. An evening at the club with Strangways’ bridge partners leads Bond to Quarrel (John Kitzmiller) a Cayman islander and big game fisherman who often charged Strangways for fishing expeditions. Bond trails Quarrel to a local bar owned by a man named “Pussfeller” (played by Lester Pendergast) –apparently, since crew was filming on location, there actually was a man named “Pussfeller” who owned the bar. In this scene, we are given the recurring song “underneath the mango tree” which is woven throughout the film at key moments. Bond is quietly led into the backroom where he is confronted by the two men (Quarrel and Pussfeller) and after he quickly outmaneuvers them we are at last introduced to the mystery man from the airport balcony –Felix Leiter, the CIA agent referenced by M (played by Jack Lord in his only outing as Felix Leiter). After Dr. No, Jack Lord wanted a much bigger role in the series, so he sought co-billing and a larger salary, but with a limited budget, he was simply replaced in future films. Interestingly enough, Felix Leiter does not appear in the original novel for Dr. No –this is but one of a few notable deviations from the novel in the film.

That evening Bond learns that Leiter and Quarrel have been searching the whole area for the mysterious disruptions to American rockets. The only area they haven’t scoured is Crab Key, a tiny island owned by a private Chinese man named “Doctor No.” Quarrel shares stories about friends who went out to Crab Key and never returned –and a legend about a fire-breathing dragon on the island. At the bar, there is a wonderfully relaxed, casual, light musical performance atmosphere which masks something dark and sinister happening here in the Caribbean (cheery songs like “Jump Up” and “Underneath the Mango Tree” contrast with the ominous mystery facing Bond). Over drinks, Bond, Leiter, and Quarrel are photographed by the woman from the airport and after Quarrel grabs her, Bond strips the film out of her camera.

The next day, Bond pays a visit to Strangways’ friend, Professor R.J. Dent (played by Anthony Dawson) whom he previously engaged with at the club. Bond stops in to share the geological receipt he found at Strangways’ home, but Professor Dent acts suspiciously when asked about Strangways’ rock samples from Crab Key. Bond takes his receipt back with him and Professor Dent races off to Crab Key, in apparent violation of a secret procedure, to warn Dr. No. In this famous scene, Professor Dent is ushered into a strange, echoing facility as we hear a booming ethereal godlike voice –that of Dr. No– as Professor Dent is handed a spider in a cage and he is simply instructed “tonight…” This was a famous set constructed by Ken Adam on a shoestring budget.

Back in his hotel room, Bond finds fingerprints on his briefcase and a deadly spider crawling across his skin in the night (in the novel, Fleming described it as a centipede). The next day, Bond continues to inquire about Dr. No and the trail leads to Miss Taro, an Asian assistant to Mr. Pleydell-Smith (played by Zena Marshall). She claims she cannot find the agency’s files on Dr. No and Crab Key, but Bond grows suspicious she may be working for Dr. No –especially when he finds her listening at a keyhole. Nevertheless, Bond asks her to show him around the island as he takes a Geiger device from the MI6 office. Using the Geiger, Bond and Quarrel discover that Strangways’ rock samples from Crab key were indeed radioactive (and thus Professor Dent had been lying). Bond arranges to visit Miss Taro’s apartment located high up in the mountains at her invitation but Bond is tailed in a car chase. before sending the enemy car rocketing down a cliffside and exploding beside a construction zone. A construction worker looks down the gorge and says “how did it happen?” To which Bond says, “I think they were on their way to a funeral.” That night, Miss Taro is shocked to find Bond alive and at her doorstep. When he enters her home, she receives a call and promises to try to keep Bond at her home. She and Bond embrace and later in the evening Bond pretends to call for a taxi but in reality he has arranged for her to be booked into jail by the superintendent while waits with his gun drawn and silencer fixed for the next man to step through her door (he fashions a pile of pillows to be himself in bed). The man who arrives turns out to be Professor Dent. As they briefly talk things over, Dent tries to subtly inch his dropped gun closer but, Bond replies “that’s a Smith & Wesson… and you’ve had your six” before he shoots Dent in cold blood.

Realizing the stakes of the situation, Bond persuades Quarrel to take him to Crab Key (while Leiter stays behind) where, in the morning, Bond encounters a beautiful local diver and shell collector named Honey Ryder (played by Swiss actress Ursula Andress who spoke broken English at the time so her voice was dubbed over by Nikki van der Zyl). She is singing the memorable tune “underneath the mango tree” as she emerges from the ocean in a white bikini with a knife strapped to her side. Memorably, in Fleming’s novel she first appears naked on the beach in Crab Key. Naturally, she and Bond quickly strike up a romance. Before long they realize that a high-power boat is circulating in the waters (it must have tracked Honey Ryder’s sail via radar). And the boat starts to open fire while they hide in the sand (somehow sand can stop bullets?), a man speaking through a horn announces they’ll be back with the dogs. Thus, despite rumors of a fire-breathing dragon, Bond, Quarrel, and Honey Ryder head deeper into the island. At first, they try to let honey escape but her small boat’s hull has been shot through, leaving her with no choice but to join mission, narrowly escaping the island security forces by hiding underwater breathing through reeds (in a very tense scene indeed) until they are attacked by a flame-throwing vehicle that tragically kills Quarrel in a fiery inferno. It is a harrowing end to a loyal, trustworthy character. Meanwhile, Bond has learned a few things about Honey –her father was an experienced diver who died on a voyage to Crab Key, she never went to school but has managed to read through the Encyclopedia from A-T, and she then lived with a bad man in Kingston who apparently assaulted her so she killed him with a female black widow spider and “it took him a whole week to die.” Bond and Honey Ryder are then captured and taken to a secret lair where they are decontaminated and drugged with coffee (we are given a brief scene of the spectral, shadowy Dr. No who looks over them while they sleep). After being introduced to the creepy attendants of Dr. No, Sister Lilly (Yvonne Shima) and Sister Rose (Michel Mok), they soon meet the stoic, cold-eyed Dr. Julius No (played Joseph Wiseman) in a dining room located hundreds of feet beneath the ocean surface (as wit the introduction of Bond, with Dr. No at first we only hear his voice as he says, “one million dollars, Mr. Bond. You were wondering what it cost…”) For the role of Dr. No, Fleming wanted his cousin, Christopher Lee, to play the part. Imagine that! Of course, Christopher Lee would later appear as the villain Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). At any rate, Dr. No has Bond outfitted with a medium dry martini lemon peel shaken not stirred –“Vodka?” Of Course.” As well as a lavish meal complete with a bottle of Dom Perignon ’55 (Bond later remarks that he prefers ’53). And they watch the obvious screen recordings of fish go swimming past like windows to the sea. You might notice an odd little moment in which Bond pauses and looks at a painting prominently placed in the middle of the room. This is another inside joke as, at the time, Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington had been stolen from the National Gallery in 1961 for 19 days causing an uproar in the press. The suggestion here is that Dr. No stole the painting and brought it to his underground lair. However, in reality a bus driver had stolen the painting and Ken Adam painted a recreation for the film.

Dr. No describes his past to Bond: he was the unwanted child of a German missionary, and rose to become the treasurer of the most powerful criminal society in China –the Tongs– before escaping to America with ten million dollars stolen from them. Now, he has metallic hands (unlike the pincers for hands he has in the book, along with a genetic defect in which his heart was apparently located on the wrong side of his chest). Dr. No identifies himself as working for SPECTRE an acronym which stands for “Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, Extortion.” Once Dr. No is finished, Bond attempts to negotiate for Honey’s release, but as she is being led away Dr. No remarks on how she will provide amusement for the guards. And when Bond tries to respond, Dr. No scolds him: “clumsy effort, Mr. Bond.” At the end of dinner, Bond is beaten and imprisoned with Dr. No realizing that Bond is not the kind of man who can be bought off with an invitation to join SPECTRE. But Bond easily escapes his cell through a prison vent, reminiscent of the obstacle course of horrors described in the novel which only ends with Bond battling a giant squid while scaling a huge fence (this whole giant squid sequence was removed from the film entirely for obvious budgetary reasons).

Dr. No’s plan is to disrupt American rocket launches and hopefully spark a global conflict, but Bond escapes his prison cell, knocks out a henchman, takes his radiation suit, and then sabotages the operation before it can launch (Dr. No’s team is running a test to takeover a Cape Canaveral rocket). Bond sends the project into a meltdown and he kills Dr. No, whose metallic hands are unable to save him from climbing out of a grate that is slowly lowered into boiling fissile material. As Crab Key begins to enter an urgent crisis, Bond rushes deeper into the facility and rescues Honey Ryder in a room slowly filling with water (there were supposed to be crabs in this scene to match the novel, but the crabs were too frozen so everybody just took a crab home for dinner). They escape together in a boat that runs out of fuel on the ocean. They are unexpectedly rescued by Felix Leiter who begins towing their boat, but they don’t care –Bond simply releases the rope tying them to Felix Leiter and we see them kissing as the boat quietly floats away.

In all, Dr. No remains mostly true to the book –however there are some notable distinctions: Bond’s girlfriend Sylvia Trench was a unique creation just for the first two films, the books do not feature the same playful banter between Moneypenny and Bond as found in the films (Moneypenny was played by Lois Maxwell in the next thirteen Bond movies), the extended scenes of Dr. Dent and Miss Taro are only featured in the film, Felix Leiter is absent in the novel, when we first meet Honey Ryder in the book (or “Honeychile Rider”) she is fully nude, also by this point in the novels, Bond had already known Quarrel from their previous adventure in the earlier novel Live and Let Die, in Bond’s bedroom he has a centipede rather than a tarantula crawling up his body, Dr. No has pincers for hands (instead of metal hands) and his heart is seated on his right-side, Bond steals a knife and lighter and battles his way through a torturous obstacle course arena which ends with a giant squid, and Bond kills Dr. No by commandeering a crane and burying him alive inside a giant pile of guano. These were a few of the distinctions I noticed between the book and the film.

Is it dated? Corny? Slightly uncomfortable at times? Sure. But Dr. No is a classic film, one of the best Bond movies in my view –it reinvigorated the spy genre for many years to come. It established many of the familiar Bond tropes, including the three-girl formula (a fun dalliance, a femme fatale, and an encounter with the leading lady). The tone of Dr. No is mysterious and exotic, almost as if we are invited to uncover some hidden plot on the strange island of Jamaica alongside James Bond. Sean Connery gives a suave and exceedingly confident performance as everyone’s favorite gentleman spy, thanks in part to the careful tutelage of Terence Young. A low budget film, Dr. No was shot on location in London and Jamaica, and the sets Ken Adam was able to construct are simply astounding in this film, especially considering the entire film budget was approximately $1 million.

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Credits

• James Bond actor: Sean Connery
• Director: Terence Young
• Producers: Harry Saltzman and Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli
• Screenplay: Richard Maibaum and Johanna Harwood as well as Berkely Mather, adapted from Ian Fleming’s novel
• Cinematography: Ted Moore
• Editor: Peter Hunt
• Gun Barrel Sequence: completed by stunt-man Bob Simmons (the same spherical clip was used in From Russia with Love and Goldfinger, as well) and it was designed by Maurice Binder
• Villain(s): Dr. Julius No (Joseph Wiseman), Professor R.J. Dent (Anthony Dawson), and Miss Taro (Zena Marshall), “Mr. Jones” (Reggie Carter), and the photographer named Annabel Chung (Marguerite LeWars, former Ms. Universe Jamaica)
• Bond Girl(s): Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress), and Sylvia Trench (Eunice Gayson, dubbed over by Nikki van der Zyl)
• MI6: M (Bernard Lee), Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell), and Major Boothroyd (Peter Burton)
• Bond Gadgets: Geiger Counters and Cyanide Cigarettes
• Allies: Felix Leiter (Jack Lord), Quarrel (John Kitzmiller)
• Score: John Barry
  • There has been a dispute over who actually wrote the score for Dr. No. Monty Norman did write a couple songs for the film such as “Jump Up” and “Underneath the Mango Tree.”
  • Byron Lee and the Dragonaires performed much of the Jamaican music in the film, such as “Jump Up.” Lee and his band including guitarist Ernest Ranglin and trombonist Carlos Malcolm recorded the Jamaican parts of the score Ken Khouri’s Federal Studios in Kingston.
• Theme Song: “The James Bond Theme” was credited to Monty Norman (even though John Barry arranged the theme). At lawsuits followed in later years in which John Barry claimed under oath that he was the true originator of the theme song. The famous guitar-work was performed by John Barry collaborator Victor “Vik” Flick. At the time, John Barry was leading a jazz group called The John Barry Seven.
• Locales: England and Kingston/Crab Key in Jamaica

Other Notes:

• Dr. No opens with the beeping sounds of Dr. No’s radio beam.
• Many of the minor actors in the film were simply amateurs who worked ordinary day jobs in Jamaica. They were hired in order to save money. For example Dolores Keator, who plays Strangways’ secretary Mary TrueBlood, was hired simply because she owned the home where her character was shot. Another example Lester Pendergast who owned the Jamaican bar and also played the character who owned the bar, “Pussfeller.”
• The other men at the table playing cards at the Queen’s Club in Jamaica with Strangways are Professor Dent (played by Anthony Dawson), General Potter (played by Colonel Burton), and Pleydell-Smith (played by Louis Blaazer). Anthony Dawson also later appeared as Ernst Stavro Blofeld (with his face obscured and voice dubbed over) in subsequent Bond films From Russia with Love (1963) and Thunderball (1965), breaking an unspoken early rule that no actor would reprise a role in a James Bond film. He was perhaps most famous for his role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder (1954).
• The silhouette of Martine Beswick can be seen in the opening credits (she also appears in Thunderball and From Russia with Love) overlaid with the bongo theme music followed by the three blind mice motif (Kingston Calypso by Byron Lee), a sunny and hopeful song which echoes the coastal locale for the film; it is carefully woven in throughout Monty Norman’s score for the film.
• When Strangways’ secretary Mary TrueBlood calls London she identifies Kingston as “W6N” calling for “G7W” in London.
• None of the wood in M’s office is real, it was all constructed on the cheap, and was reused in From Russia with Love.
• If you pause the film at just the right moment when Bond arrives to investigate Strangways’ home, you can see the “three blind mice” walking away in the background, presumably they were there to spy on Bond.
• Peter Hunt’s signature jump cuts can be spotted at several points in this film.
• Robert Rietti completed the voice-overs for Strangways and Superintendant Duff in this film (Duff is the local authority who leads Bond around Strangways’ home). He later completed the voice-overs in other Bond movies, for characters like Largo, Tiger Tanaka, and even the “Blofeld” character as featured in the opening of For Your Eyes Only.
• The Le Cercle Les Ambassadeurs Club was the fictional location of the first time we see James Bond in the film Dr. No (1962). Apparently, it was also the real location of the first meetings between Ian Fleming and Albert R. Broccoli in (summer 1959) and later with Harry Saltzman (December 1960). The club is also featured in The Beatles’ film A Hard Day’s Night (1964). It is still an exclusive club and casino today, located at 5 Hamilton Place, London.
• Apparently, Lois Maxwell was originally slated to play Bond’s girlfriend Sylvia Trench, however she didn’t like the scene that required her to wear only one of Bond’s shirts, so she and Eunice Gayson agreed to switch roles.
• “Universal Exports”can be briefly seen on M’s office door.
• Bond tells Felix Leiter his suit tailor is located on Saville Row, though his suit was actually made by Anthony Sinclair on Conduit Street.
• Product placements in this film including Red Stripe (visible in Pussfeller’s bar in Jamaica) as well as Rolex.
• Apparently, Zena Marshall (the actress who played Miss Taro) led a storied and fascinating life, especially during the outbreak of WWII when she was caught on a train with a group of Nazis disguised as priests.
• John Kitzmiller, who played Quarrel, was a captain who served in the Army Corps of Engineers in WWII in Italy. After the war, he remained in Italy in part to escape racism in the United States.
• In a now allegedly “banned” laserdisk commentary on the Criterion special features, Richard Maibaum described Ian Fleming as a “snob” who clearly got bored with writing the James Bond books, and that Dr. No was not among the best of the novels. The only thing Fleming ever said to Maibaum was to ask if the “rats” would be featured in From Russia with Love, and he also commented that Maibaum’s film scripts were considerably funnier than the original novels.
• In another one of the “banned” original laserdisc commentaries, Terence Young notices a young man appear in the film who was working as an assistant to him (and dancing at the club) whose name is Chris Blackwell. The young man and his friends were apparently high on pot and asked Terence Young to invest in their up-and-coming record studio in Jamaica, but at his wife’s recommendation, Young declined. The record studio would go on to become Island Records and it sold for $400 million. Also, Terence Young described another amusing situation on the set in which the governor of Nassau and his wife stopped by the set to greet the crew but Sean Connery, who was cooling off, greeted them fully nude from the waste down (he was quickly given a towel to cover-up). He also tells another amusing story of selecting Ursula Andress for the film.
• The 007 logo with the integral pistol (which became the signature of the brand) was conceptualized by Joe Caroff (1921-2025).

Book Review: Dr. No (1958) by Ian Fleming