Someone once described Casablanca as the happiest of happy accidents but a good argument could be made for Dr No as well: the well-established James Bond series of novels had been sniffed around by producers for years, turned into one TV show, but never made until the early 60s... when censorship had relaxed enough to allow enough sex and violence to do justice to the stories; it was British at a time when the Empire was in decline, which made it reassuring yet non-threatening; the producers were North Americans with experience in the British film industry, so they knew how to export "Britishness" to the world; the key creatives had worked together for several years making action flicks for Warwick Productions; the cold war was morphing; the sexual revolution was taking hold; colour location photography became the norm.
Consider the incredible group of people here: Terence Young, whose sophistication added so much to the role of Bond and whose brisk handling has probably been underrated (due in part to his lack of decent non-Bond credits); Richard Maibaum the screenwriter who worked on the series until the late 1980s, who had a wonderful wry sense of humour; Ken Adam's set designing genius (this is meant to be a low budget movie - it did cost over a million dollars - but it looks like a blockbuster with these incredible wide rooms); Broccoli and Saltzman who brought it all together; Peter Hunt's dynamic editing; Maurice Binder's groundbreaking titles; that music score.
Also the cast. First and foremost there is Connery's Bond - his combination of sexuality, polish, intelligence, sadism and animal violence has ever been matched. Does anyone serious think the series would have been as successful with Richard Johnson, Patrick McGoohan or David Niven? Who else could be introduced in a casino, seduce a woman straight away (Eunice Grayson), smoke so elegantly, karate chop villainous henchmen send to kill him, seduce a woman who has arranged to kill him then arrange for her to be arrested, befriend local fisherman and CIA man, outsmart and outfight Dr No... it's an incredible star performance.
In support is the magnificent Ursula Andress (Honey Rider randomly coming out of the surf in a bikini with a knife while singing is everything we love about Bonds), so sexy and matter of fact deadly (a rape victim who killed her attacker), if a bit of a native girl fantasy, following Bond around like a puppy dog. Joseph Wiseman is a very effective villain, ice calm and dodgy hands (I wonder what Noel Coward would have been like?). Jack Lord is the first in a long, long line of "whatever" Felix Leiters but Anthony Dawson is a terrific traitor and John Kitzmiller a lively Quarrel, a faithful black servant (interestingly sadistic in his treatment of that photographer at the nightclub and more conventionally scared of dragons). Throw in Bernard Miles and Lois Maxwell who would become so iconic.
Let's look at the film as a film and not a piece of history: Jamaica seems a ugly in places (lots of dirt roads); the women are good looking (not just Andress but also the support); the colour is gorgeous; the story is relatively simple but effective with memorable set pieces - the opening murder by the three blind mice, the tarantula attack, visiting Crab Key. It is a bit racist, with its white man's burden, tropic outpost setting, Fu Manchu villains, superstitious black friends, half-caste femme fetales, etc; the finale isn't as good as the build up (things exploding really, no decent henchman to kill).
But it's gripping and very entertaining; people sometimes say it was Goldfinger that set the template, but really Dr No had it all from the beginning.
No comments:
Post a Comment