may have the stumbles that most newborns
suffer from when taking their first steps, but
its hero’s introduction is nothing short of
sublime. Sylvia Trench, Bond’s soon-to-be-
girlfriend (who also briefly appears inFrom
Russia With Love— proving that even the
Connery Bond believed in monogamy, once),
sits across from a nosey, fellow Chemin De Fer
player in the Les Ambassadeurs club. For a full
minute, we see Bond only from behind. Then
we see his hands opening a cigarette case, and
hear his voice admiring Sylvia’s moxie at the
cards table. He asks for her name; she asks for
his in return. And then, finally, as he brings
a cigarette up to his lips, we finally see his face,
as he murmurs, “Bond. James Bond,” through
the side of his mouth.
As introductions to popular characters go,
you’d be hard-pressed to find one as classic
or as memorable. Terence Young ’s inspired
decision to have a staggered reveal of Bond,
saving the killer face for last, ensured that within
that shot, a legacy was immediately, urgently
born, a moment so outrageously perfect that
it’s often voted as the top Bond moment in
history. It has been riffed on in all of 007’s films
up toSpectre.
Dr. Nowas released on 5 October 1962 to
some pretty grumpy reviews.Timemagazine
referred to Bond as “a great big hairy
marshmallow” who seemed to be “slightly silly”,
while numerous other publications gave the film
a mild kicking. More positive wasThe Guardian,
describing it as “a neat and gripping thriller”.
The Vatican called it “a dangerous mixture
of violence, vulgarity, sadism and sex”. But despite
middling reviews, commercially it fared rather
well, ending up as the fifth-highest-grossing
movie of 1962, making, from a $1 million budget,
$16 million in the US alone — a healthy return
which ensured that James Bond would return
for another adventure.
James Bond had arrived on the big screen,
and he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Nearly 60 years on he’s still with us, continuing
a wildly successful cinematic journey that
would never have been possible without that
first film, and without that perfect star, the
right director and a team of passionate, hungry
creatives, who took James Bond from the
pages of a book, and shot him out of the barrel,
into the stars.JOHN RAIN IS THE AUTHOR OF BOND MOVIE GUIDE
THUNDERBOOK, AVAILABLE NOW IN HARDBACK AND
AS AN E-BOOKversion of the novelA House For Mr Biswas.
With some delicate fine tuning, and lush, brassy
orchestration from John Barry, Norman’s theme
flew out of the traps, running with Bond every
step of the way as he laid waste to Jamaica and
Dr. No’s forbidden Crab Key island.
For the film’s opening shot, title designer
Maurice Binder had an idea. He was after
something simple yet effective, and following
a burst of inspiration he used a pinhole camera
to take a photograph of the inside of a gun-
barrel, asking stuntman Bob Simmons to double
for Connery.
On screen, as Bond turned and fired down
the barrel, blood dripped down, and a legend was
born. In the last interview recorded before his
death in 1991, Binder said: “That was something
I did in a hurry, because I had to get to a meeting
with the producers in 20 minutes. I just
happened to have little white price-tag stickers
and I thought I’d use them as gun shots across
the screen. That was a 20-minute storyboard
I did, and they said, ‘This looks great!’” This
throwawayidea became immediately iconic,
even becoming the franchise’s logo. And with
that, nine years after Fleming ’s first 007 novel
was published, the first James Bond motion
picture was done.•••
DR. NOMAY well be a patchwork demo tape of
what Bond would later become (at times it feels
more akin to the pleasingly odd 1960s espionage
TV seriesThe Avengersthan Ian Fleming), andClockwise
from top left:
Bond gets flirty
with Miss
Moneypenny
(Lois Maxwell);
Escaping
from Dr. No’s
compound;
Terence Young
directs John
Kitzmiller (who
played local
guide Quarrel),
Ursula Andress
and Sean
Connery on
location in
Jamaica; Bond
is captured
— note Dr. No’s
fire-breathing
‘dragon tank’
at the rear;
Bond, CIA
agent Felix
Leiter (Jack
Lord) and
Quarrel;
Bond waits
for Professor
Dent at Miss
Taro’s house.