Actor: Sean Connery
US Release Date: 8 May 1963
US gross, $ [adjusted]:$16,067,035 [$84,563,342]
Worldwide gross, $ [adjusted]: $59,600,000 [$313,644,210]
World Premier - 5th October 1962 at the London Pavilion
Locations: London, Jamaica, Crab Key
Source for above info: The " mother " of all James Bond books - James Bond: The Legacy .
Happenstance
On a total budget of $900,000, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman produced the classic that, although primitive compared to the later Bond films, defined a genre. Terence Young directed James Bond s first screen adventure, with a raw talent named Sean Connery playing the world's most recognizable screen icon.
Any Bond movie starts with the teaser (the short film which mostly has no link to the rest of the film), the gun-barrel,the Bond musical number and lots of girls prancing about. Not so in this film. The gun-barrel is there, but no Bond musical number. The screen is filled with a multitude of flashing, multicoloured circles. Later the Bond theme and flashing lights are replaced by silhoutes of gals dancing to a Calypso tune. Suddenly the gals are replaced by three doddering chaps with walking sticks to the accompaniment of the tune of three blind mice and we're straight into the movie.
Connery is introduced in the gambling club scene where he meets
Sylvia Trench (Eunice Gayson) across the card table.
Bond: I admire your courage Miss....?
Sylvia: Trench, Sylvia Trench. I admire your luck Mr....?
Bond: Bond, James Bond!!
uttering for the first time the immortal Bond...James Bond line.
Coincidence
Bond in his first screen mission investigates a disappearance
of a British agent in Jamaica where mysterious energy waves
are interfering with U.S. missile launches. This film
launched the list of mandatory items like he orders vodka
martinis (shaken, not stirred), visits countries, and is told
he will die by the villian. Another mandatory item shows up in
the film when Bond is driving a sporty Sunbeam Alpine (before
the Aston-Martin DB-5, Lotus Esprit and BMW became synonymous
with 007) and being chased by the enemy agent car when he
comes up on men working on the road. Bond makes it under the
crane but the other car loses control and crashes downhill.
Bond takes a look at the wreck...
Construction Worker: How did it happen?
Bond: I think they were on their way to a funeral!
Agent 006 in
Goldeneye
later mocked this wittiness was later as "What, James, no
glib remark, no pithy comeback?" But that was 32 years later.
Further he visits Crab Key, the island of Dr. No (no
relation to Dr. Munro, who also had a island). Here on the
island Bond/we ogle at the beautiful Honey Ryder (Ursula
Andress). The first ever Bond girl, Honey Ryder emerged
from the sea in a skimpy white bikini singing "Underneath
the Mango Tree", Ursula Andress guides Bond through Dr.
No's island. Looking at Honey, Bond is also tempted to sing
(yikes, Thank God this is not a mandatory item) "Underneath
the Mango Tree".
As Honey emerges from the water dressed provocatively in a
bikini:
Honey: What are you doing here, looking for shells?
Bond: No, I'm just looking.
007 must fights a poisonous tarantula ( he smashes it with his shoe) and encounters sexy femmes fatales like Zena Marshall as Miss Taro who makes an offer to Bond which he naturally doesn't refuse (another mandatory item) in her house while trying to keep Bond busy.
Enemy Action
Bond searches for the headquarters of Dr. No, a fanatical
scientist who is implementing an evil plan of world
domination (P.S. The most mandatory item), by working for
SPECTRE to play havoc with the NASA space program.Only
James Bond, can now save the human race from a horrible
fate. Dr. No has no hands, which might explain for his
name. Look Ma, No hands!
Bond and Honey are captured and taken to the hideout where
they are given a royal treatment and a lecture by the
honorable Doc where he reveals his diabolical plan to
control mankind (mandatory again).
Bond: Tell me! Does the toppling of American missiles
really compensate for having no hands?
Dr. No: Missiles are only the first step to prove our
power!
Bond: Our power? With your disregard for human life you
must be working for the East.
Dr. No: East, west, just points of the compass, each as
stupid as the other. I'm a member of SPECTRE!
Bond: SPECTRE?
Dr. No: SPECTRE. Special Executive for Counterintelligence,
Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. The four great
cornerstones of power, headed by the greatest brains in the
world.
Bond: Correction, criminal brains.
Dr. No: The successful criminal brain is always superior.
It has to be.
Finally Bond succeeds in dunking Dr.No into a boiling
concoction of some radioactive liquid and leaves Crab Key
in a spate of explosions with Honey. Finally Bond gets to
know Honey better, when he Bond let go of CIA agent Felix
Leiter's (Jack Lord) towrope when drifting in the ocean.
Later we would see Bond repeat this feat an astounding 25
times in, around, under, or by water, most recently in
Tomorrow Never Dies
with Michelle Yeoh as Wai Lin.
This entertaining adventure succeeded in a huge way at the Box Office (final mandatory item) and hence Sean Connery returned as 007 in From Russia with Love
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