Too often I bypass Dr. No (1962) right to "Goldfinger" unfairly. Even "From Russia With Love" has seemed to surpass "Dr. No", but there had to be a starting place for the James Bond franchise. I revisit "Dr. No" and often recognize that I take it for granted. Perhaps I don't appreciate the film enough for setting the template for how exciting, creative, and clever the franchise would be. Joseph Wiseman was the very first Bond villain. No one could ever take that from him. He's very assured of himself. He carries himself as if he'll be unstoppable. The mechanical hand (lost his human hand to radioactivity) that can crush. Dr. No brings up SPECTRE, and 007 refers to him as any madman in asylums considering themselves as Napoleon or God. When Dr. No talks about how invincible he is, failing to kill Bond (only "softening him up"), the template sets up how Bond villains often make that major critical mistake not to be finished with him. Throwing him in prison with a tunnel system is never a wise thing to do, even if electrified. We forgive such obvious hero escape in the screenplay...they have to give outs to Bond. And that tunnel or ventilation shaft to all the different networking connection rooms and halls for the hero to travel is an action film and television staple. How many "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" episodes used the shaft of escape? Probably too many to count. But you can't kill Bond. Whether Jamaiican agents for Dr. No are about to sniper shoot Bond and car lights throw off a distraction or a spider Bond is able to keep perfectly still as it moves up his arm and eventually off of him until he can smash it with a shoe; "Dr. No" finds ways for the hero to avoid certain death. Plenty of other British agents can take his place. The MI6 Red Shirts are in plenty of the James Bond films. Not Bond, though. Connery was 32 when he made his first Bond film. My daughter was asking me about Connery's age when he started as Bond, and I imagine if things were different in casting now, Bond would be 23 or so. Connery was already in his 40s during his next-to-last Bond outing, but his star power wasn't the least bit waning. Connery never seemed to struggle with that...it was effortless. Or at least he sure made it look effortless. Never lost it. Even "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman" didn't take that from him. He lights that cigarette in "Dr. No" as he's about to add to his card game winnings, later having sex with the very woman he defeated during that game. And, you know what? Of course she would be perfectly fine losing a lot of money if the end result is fucking him before he has to fly off to Jamaica on a secret mission that ends with him conquering evil. I guess if I had a problem with this first film is that Bond disposes of Dr. No rather easily compared to others in later films. Granted some of the villains escape Bond's clutches, but Dr. No seems to drown with relative ease. Bond just floods the lab and that is that. Eventually Dr. No's entire facility goes KABOOM! I forget about Ursula Andress' Bond companion being a tourist obsessed with collecting shells. Afterward, Bond companions often were given a bit more pizzazz, but Andress leaves the water for the beach and nothing more needs to be said. She is basically at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and Bond obviously is attracted to her and vice versa. I forgot entirely about the open of the film, for some reason. Strangways, MI6 operative in Jamaica, killed by No's assassins. I, weirdly, always seem to expect the film to open at the gambling table in some expensive resort with Bond lighting the cigarette. And this made us aware that Bond was nearly killed because he used the Beretta for ten years, forced by his superior M to take a new gun: the Walter PPK. The vodka drink, shaken not stirred, the Saville Row suit fitting Connery just right, and the instincts and mental acumen to always avoid the setups meant for him (when fate doesn't intervene). This character had all the right moves, whether professionally or romantically/sexually. Connery left behind a template also...but no matter who is cast as Bond, Connery is always the MI6 agent that comes to mind, even if I have a soft spot (and always will) for Roger Moore.
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