"Tell me Miss Trench, do you play any other games?"

"The name's Bond, James Bond"

Review: 007 in Dr. No

An Augustus Review of 8/10

Today we go back to the 1960s, where Ian Fleming's British secret agent novels first hit the big screen. Dr. No is the first of the worldwide popular James Bond series. In this movie, we meet the handsome 30 year old Sean Connery as 007. 

 In Dr. No, we are first introduced to the iconic aspects of the James Bond series: view of the character through a gun barrel and a catchy opening title sequence. The movie starts with the death of a British secret agent, John Strangways, in Jamaica by a group of assassins, "Three Blind Mice." Here we see secret agent 007 summoned to the case. 

Upon arriving to Kingston airport, Bond has his photo taken by a mysterious woman and is followed by two shadowy men. He is chauffeured by a strange character who Bond believes to be the enemy. After a short brawl, the chauffeur kills himself with a poisoned cigarette filter.

Bond’s investigation at Strangway’s house leads him to a boatman who refuses to be interrogated. Bond realizes that the boatman was the driver who was following him. Soon, the second man arrives and they fight Bond. They realize that Bond is a part of the British Secret Service and they too reveal they are the CIA. Together, they decide to find the mystifying Dr. No, who is tapping into USA space missile radios.

Bond’s exploration leads him to Crab Key, an island off the coast where he meets his Bond Girl, Honey Ryder.  Together, they find the infamous Dr. No who has nothing but trouble in store.

Although Sean Connery played an incredible Bond, Ian Fleming

actually wanted a younger actor for the role. (Pfft, rude!)

This movie does a phenomenal job at introducing the character of James Bond. He is a slick, sexy, a little naïve but very baddass spy. His character is portrayed as quite the lady’s man. (He rolls around in the sack with three different women in this movie!) Although he is sometimes very youthful in the situations he gets himself into, he always seems to know how to save himself.

The music in this movie really screams 1960s. The Bond theme is played numerous times as well as very overdramatic music. But hey, the scene where Bond almost soils himself when interacting with a tarantula wouldn’t have nearly been as exciting without the terrifying background music.

Dr. No opened up a whole new franchise of movies. Introducing the British spy that would be popular for years to come.

- Augustus