Dr. No
I love James Bond movies even though they can be cheesy or tone deaf in terms of sexism and racism. I’ve been rewatching them lately with Marci and wanted to also go through all the James Bond tropes along with the usual ridiculous things found throughout each movie.
Dr. No
Starring: Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman, Jack Lord, John Kitzmiller
Directed by: Terence Young
Written by: Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, Berkely Mather, Ian Fleming (novel)
Length: 1 hour 50 minutes
Release Date: October 7, 1962
Rotten Tomato Score: 96% Certified Fresh
Rotten Tomato Critical Consensus: Featuring plenty of the humor, action, and escapist thrills the series would become known for, Dr. No kicks off the Bond franchise in style.
Locations: Jamaica
Tagline: NOW meet the most extraordinary gentleman spy in all fiction! JAMES BOND, Agent 007!
Plot
Strangways is a British agent that is killed while on assignment in Jamaica. Bond goes to investigate his death and also finish his mission of working with Felix from the CIA to see if a Chinese man named Dr. No is messing with radio frequencies at Cape Canaveral to disrupt rocket launches.
Theme Song
The theme song is what would become the James Bond theme in all future movies. It is used in the title credits before it awkwardly segues into “Three Blind Mice.” The theme song is used periodically in the movie, for example, when James Bond is first introduced. It is also used in really random times like when Bond returns to his hotel and gets a message from the front desk.
Bond Girls
The first woman to meet Bond and immediately sneak into his apartment to seduce him was the unfortunately named Sylvia Trench. At least she was really good at arching her eyebrows.
The first official Bond girl in the movie is Honey Ryder who Bond comes across on Crab Key where she is searching for sea shells. At first, she seems like she can take care of herself since she had pretty much raised herself, but soon Bond is bossing her around and putting her in dangerous situations that he then has to rescue her from.
Gadgets
No gadgets in this movie. None!
Drinks
The first official martini is made for Bond — medium dry vodka martini, mixed not stirred. Also, not in a martini glass.
We had to wait until almost the end of the movie for another drink! Dr. No seemed to know how Bond likes his martinis so he made him one. He didn’t describe what Honey got to drink but it looks like wine.
For dinner, Dr. No serves a Dom Perignon ’55, even though Bond says he prefers the ’53.
Racist Characters/Comments
For unknown reasons, Professor Dent’s secretary (who is really working for Dr. No) is supposed to be Chinese even though she is obviously a white British lady. Later on in the movie at Dr. No’s lair, there are tons of Asian women walking around. I’m not sure why none of them couldn’t have played Miss Taro’s part.
Then, there is the big baddie, Dr. No, who is supposed to be half-Chinese. NOPE!
Random Odd Moments
Attempts to Kill Bond
#1
First henchman picks him up at the airport even though Bond’s spidey senses are tingling and he knows that the hotel has not sent a car to pick him up. He goes along with it so he can catch the guy by surprise at the right time. After roughing him up, the henchman finally is able to give himself a cyanide pill and dies in Bond’s arms. How romantic.
#2
When Bond wasn’t killed as Dr. No wanted, he ordered Professor Dent to take a tarantula so it could be put in Bond’s bed. It crawled on him before he jumped up off the bed and smashed it on the ground. No way am I going to post a picture of a spider so let’s check out Bond killing it.
#3
On the way to visit the non-Chinese Chinese woman, some more henchmen tried to drive him off the road. Of course, Bond is better at fake driving than the other guys since they go flying over the side of a cliff into a ball of flames.
#4
After failing to kill him with a tarantula, Professor Dent tries to shoot him in bed, but shifty Bond has put pillows in the bed! Bond chuckles at him falling for his trick before killing him.
#5
Bond and Quarrel head to Crab Key and come across Honey Ryder. While there, some of Dr. No’s henchman show up in a boat and start shooting a machine gun randomly up and down the beach while yelling through a bullhorn that they know they are there. They give up shortly while threatening to come back with dogs. Not dogs!
Sexist Characters/Comments
After surviving the 1930s announcer guy shooting at them, Bond demands that Honey get out of there. I feel like if it was a male character they had run into, he would just separate company and be on his way, but since it is a woman, he puts her in a damsel-in-distress role and demands that he has to keep her safe.
Honey shares a story about an older man taking advantage of her as an orphaned girl and raped her. She had her revenge by putting a black widow spider in the man’s mosquito net to kill him. Bond does not seem disturbed by the rape part of the story, but of the spider part. He tells her to “not make a habit of it.”
Evil Lair
The evil lair on Crab Key looks mostly like some kind of mining operation with all the cool lair stuff being underground.
The other parts of the island (that aren’t all mining equipment or the evil lair) are quite pretty!
Dr. No’s evil lair is really like a fancy spa. No wonder everyone keeps trying to come to Crab Key.
Big Baddie
Dr. No was an unwanted child of a German missionary and a Chinese girl. He was a treasurer for some Chinese baddies, but then stole $10 million of their dollars and escaped to America. He offered his services to the West and the East. No one wanted them. Now he wants them all to pay! He joined S.P.E.C.T.R.E., which is still the most ridiculously named evil organization– SPecial Executive for Counterintelligence Terrorism Revenge Extortion. It rolls off the tongue! I think the real reason he hates everyone is because no one seems to recognize his awesome evil lair building skills.
Our first introduction to him involves him coming into Bond’s room while sleeping and lifting up his covers to stare at him for a bit before leaving. WTF.
He has learned to harness atomic power, but there were some mistakes along the way, leading to his big rubber glove hands that are super strong. He shows off his strength by crushing a gold buddha statue. Other times, it is like he can barely do anything with them, like grab onto a pole to keep from drowning.
Evil Plot
Shockingly, Dr. No does not tell Bond his entire evil plan. Bond pretty much knows what it is already. He is going to disrupt the missile launch at Cape Canaveral with his atomic-powered radio beam. Instead we listen to Dr. No go on about S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and world domination. He was hoping Bond would join him!
Bond Saves the Day
After being roughed up after dinner, Bond is put in a room with a HUGE air shaft. It does seem to be electrified, but after shocking him once, it then acts like a normal air vent. He escapes his room through it and stumbles into another room where he hides in a worker’s radiation suit.
Bond finds the huge control room where all the evil stuff is happening. His big plan? Grab some nearby paper and stand behind Dr. No for a while. When Dr. No is looking for Chang to get the fuel readings, someone points to Bond behind him, as if he is Chang. Dr. No yells at “Chang” to get back to his station!
After getting yelled at, Bond heads over to the huge Danger Wheel. He has a plan! He waits for everyone to be looking somewhere else and then he starts turning that wheel as fast as he can to turn the reactor back on. Brilliant!
Dr. No is angered! He yells at everyone to get out and then goes to fight Bond himself. Bond shoves him into the reactor water and No falls in since he can’t grab onto anything with his crazy rubber hands.
After saving the day, Bond goes to find Honey who was taken away at dinner. He roughs up some of Dr. No’s help until someone tells him what room she is in. She’s been chained to a ramp where water is slowly seeping up to eventually drown her in about a year. She also somehow lost her pants along the way.
They jump into a boat and cruise off back to Jamaica until the boat runs out of gas. Felix and the CIA come to save them but they decide making out in the boat is a better idea.