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The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.
For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for Dr. No can be found here.
All of the James Bond movies are based, in some part, upon novels by British author Ian Fleming [1908-1964]. Dr. No is based on Fleming's 1958 novel of the same name. It was adapted for the screen by American screenwriters Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkeley Mather.
Yes, this is the first big screen adventure of James Bond 007, and Sean Connery is the first to play Bond in the movies. However, in 1954 there was a live television presentation of Climax!: Casino Royale (#1.3) in which Barry Nelson starred as an American James Bond.
Our very first glimpse of Sean Connery as James Bond is of the back of his head as he is sitting at a baccarat chemin de fer table at Club Cercle, a gentlemen's club. He makes a comment to one of the other players (Sylvia Trench [Eunice Gayson]), who is losing to him, then she asks his name, and he replies in his signature way, "Bond...James Bond."
Bond is in London when he is summoned by M (Bernard Lee) and informed that British Intelligence agent John Strangways has disappeared while investigating interference with U.S. Cape Canaveral rockets. Since the missile toppling seems to be arising from Jamaica, Bond quickly finds himself on a flight to Kingston, Jamaica where he links up with CIA agent Felix Leiter (Jack Lord). Bond and Leiter learn from Strangways' fishing guide Quarrel (John Kitzmiller) that they had been visiting nearby islands and taking mineral samples. Of particular interest is the off-limits island of Crab Key, owned by the mysterious Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman), so he and Quarrel head for Crab Key to investigate.
"Toppling" refers to the use of some method, e.g., a radio beam, to throw off-balance the gyroscopic control of a guided missile.
The only explanation the film offers is Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman)'s anger at the US for rejecting his services and the presence of men in "Red China" uniforms in the background of the nuclear reactor. Another possible motive, given Jamaica's proximity to Cuba, is to trigger war between the USA and that nation by framing the Cubans for sabotage.
Dr. No's mother was Chinese and his father was German. According to the original novel, he renamed himself Dr Julius No, Julius after his father and No after his rejection of him.
A Sunbeam Alpine 1961 Series II.
Honey (Ursula Andress) was singing Under the Mango Tree by Monty Norman. Andress' singing voice was dubbed by English actress and singer Diana Coupland.
SPECTRE stands for "The SPecial Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion." SPECTRE is an international terrorist organization run by Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Its members were recruited from the Gestapo, Smersh, the Mafia, and the Union Corse among others. With the exception of Goldfinger (1964), all of the Bond villains from 1962-71 came from this organization. After 1971, SPECTRE no longer appears in the Bond movies because of a lawsuit brought by film-maker Kevin McClory. McClory had worked with Ian Fleming to create what was to be the first 007 movie. It was scrapped, however, and Fleming went on to use various ideas from the abandoned film, such as SPECTRE. The movies altered the storylines to include SPECTRE, as when Dr No says that he is with SPECTRE. McClory later sued for the rights to Blofeld and SPECTRE. Thus, they had to stop using SPECTRE in the movies. This is also what enabled McClory to make the "unofficial" Bond movie, Never Say Never Again (1983).
Bond escapes from his cell by crawling through a steamy shaft that takes him to the decontamination showers. There, he knocks out a worker and dons his protective suit. He makes his way to the control room, which houses a nuclear reactor. As he watches undetected, Dr No instructs the workers to synchronize the toggling beam, which is aimed at a U.S. missile about to launch from Cape Canaveral in four minutes. When the countdown reaches 15 seconds, Bond jacks up the nuclear reactor. Too late for Bond to be stopped, the reactor reaches danger levels, and the control room starts to blow just as the missile launches. Dr No attempts to stop Bond in a fistfight, but he falls into the reactor's cooling vat. As the workers begin to evacuate, Bond goes in search of Honey ([link=]), whom he finds strapped to the bottom of a spill basin. He releases Honey, and they pirate a motorboat, escaping just as the reactor blows. In the final scenes, the motorboat has run out of fuel. Just as James and Honey begin to make out, Felix arrives on a Coast Guard boat and offers them a tow. As he and Honey begin to kiss again, Bond surreptitiously releases the tow, setting them adrift again.
Although Dr No was the first movie made in the Bond series, it was actually Fleming's sixth novel in the series, so some of the differences in the book have to do with the fact that there were five other books previous to the story. For example, Bond survived being poisoned in the previous book (#5) From Russia With Love thanks to quick thinking on Rene Mathis' part. Bond had previously met Quarrel and Strangways in book #2, Live and Let Die. Strangways wears an eye patch. Felix Leiter is not in the book, neither is Professor Dent. The photographer wasn't a Chinese/African mix, she was completely Chinese. Her name was also revealed as "Annabelle Chung". Bond was never in a relationship with Ms. Taro. The tarantula was originally a poisonous centipede. There was no radiation on Crab Key. Honey was originally nude except a sheathed knife in a belt. Her nose is also broken. Dr. No was bald and his robotic hands were pincers. Dr. No wasn't working for SPECTRE but for the Russians. He wasn't toppling rockets but missile prototypes. Bond was put on an obstacle course in the air vent suffering through heat, cold, and poisonous animals before being dumped into the ocean and doing battle with a giant squid that he overcame with a table knife and a lighter he had stowed away in his clothes. He got back to land and dumped bird dung on Dr. No from a crane, killing him. Honey escaped from being tied down with crabs running over her because animals didn't bother her. The two escape in the mechanical dragon and once back on the mainland, Honey treats Bond's wounds. Honey later takes James to the basement of her ruined house and they make love.
When Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli set about creating the James Bond film series, they did not have the screen rights to Ian Fleming's first 007 novel Casino Royale. As a result, they decided to film the novels out of sequence. Thunderball was the original choice to kick off the series due to its cinematic potential, which is natural given its origins as a movie project. However, due to the legal wranglings between Ian Fleming and Kevin McClory, they lost the rights to Thunderball. Dr. No was chosen due to the similarity in locations and theme to Thunderball, not to mention the fact that its story and locations did not require a sizeable budget.
It is said that he didn't like it when he saw it at the beginning. Some reports say that he wanted Cary Grant to play Bond, and other reports say he wanted Roger Moore (who would later portray Bond in a record seven-straight Bond movies). In the end, however, he admitted it was hard to imagine anyone but Connery in the role. Incidentally, Dr No and From Russia with Love are the only James Bond movies that Fleming saw before his death in 1964.
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