Film Reviews: Dr. No (1963) Part 4

We then cut to the next scene where we see a beaten Bond in a cell and Honey nowhere to be seen.

He then discovers a conveniently placed vent large enough for him to escape through. The whole scene in the vent is quite mysterious and strange as the only sounds you hear are of unusual high pitched humming echoing through the different passages, and a very strange alien noise that I don't quite understand.

Poor Bond also burns his hand on the hot metal as well!

But not to worry...

He then gets cooled down by splash of water! :)

Bond then escapes the vent and steals a Hazmat suit off of one of the scientists, before entering the control room where Dr. No is located.

I think it's safe to say that this set is a result of the films low budget, its not really what we've become accustomed to with glamorous Bond villain hideouts. In some cases an open space like this would work in creating a cold effect around an antagonist, but as the area of the final confrontation it is very linear and quite bland.

Bond makes his way over to the controls and begins raising the temperature of the reactor, causing quite a stir. 

By setting it into meltdown, all of the scientists panic and run around, whilst Dr. No heads over to confront Bond.

I have to say it was quite a disappointing confrontation,

it barely lasts a minute before James Bond forces Dr. No

down into the radioactive water.

Although one interesting thing is that Dr. No's metal hands are what turn out to be his downfall as he struggles to grip the metal bar and sinks down into the water.

After escaping the control room, Bond then finds Honey and rescues her, although I'd like to point out how easily he removed the cuffs she was trapped in, which probably means that Honey could have easily got up and walked away at any point.

 After Bond and Honey escape on a boat the hideout blows up and the two protagonists then become stranded at sea, with nothing to do, how would they pass the time?

Soon Felix arrives with a rescue boat and finds Bond in his stranded boat, but despite throwing a rope to bond as the boat begins to be dragged away, Bond lets go and the film finishes with Bond kissing Honey to the tune of some unbelievably cheesy music, thus ending Dr. No.

Conclusion:

All in all not the best of the Bond films, the low budget had a lot to play in that. But to be honest it really was the 'Pilot' of the Bond series as it obviously shows that it has the potential to start the Bond franchise as they have all the right characters in place to really kick off the series. 

Sean Connery shows a lot of potential to evolve into a terrific James Bond, the film gives a lot of insight into Bond as a character and what he's really like, as we see how ruthless he is when he doesn't even hesitate to shoot Professor Dent and how he's great with the ladies. This is quite interesting with all the different styles that different actors have adopted for Bond, but Sean Connery nails the character almost off the block with establishing characteristics that we even see in Daniel Craig's Bond today.

As for Dr. No, we could have seen more of him in this film, as a character he could have added something more to the film. If he was introduced earlier then we could have seen more of how Joseph Wiseman portrayed him, instead we only see what we expected and nothing more, and with more time on screen we could have seen the development of a great Bond villain. His 'Master plan' is quite small in scale compared to what we expect from Bond villain master plans, you have to watch the film a few times to really grasp what Dr. No's grand scheme actually is.

Some characters were pretty pointless, one being Taro. Although she does sleep with Bond it seems like that is the only reason why they included her, but in terms of the narrative she doesn't add anything to it as one minute she's sleeping with Bond the next she's being arrested. The whole build up to killing Professor Dent could have been done without her. As for Ursula Andress' Honey Ryder, she too doesn't add a lot of depth to the narrative but 'Dr. No' would not be complete without her.

Quarrel is a useful sidekick for James Bond but again the way in which he is written in doesn't make him seem like a very useful sidekick. Again I don't think he was used right and believe that he could have been seen doing a little bit more to help Bond; because of this he's quite an underrated character. But then again, Quarrel lacking in some places allows more focus for the character of Bond to come through.

The Three Blind Mice as well just seem to disappear half way through the film, what is the point in them if they aren't even going to stay?

The music for this film is strange and loud in places and will be improved upon in future films, although we were given a masterful piece of music with the 'Bond Theme Tune' that has been rarely changed to this day. This film also includes some great scenes and shots like Dr. No meeting Bond, Bond killing Dent and Honey Ryder walking out of the water.

The roots are there for Bond, but I wouldn't recommend any 'Bond Virgins' to start with this film as it isn't the most enticing of Bond films. It is fairly difficult to talk about it in this way because it was the first Bond film and there weren't any to compare it to so you could understand it being lacklustre in some aspects. But we will see these improvements built upon in the form of 'From Russia With Love' which we will be looking at next time!