Dom Robinson reviews

Cert:

Cat.no: 16160 DVD

Running time: 105 minutes

Year: 1962

Pressing: 2000

Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)

Chapters: 32 plus extras

Sound: Dolby Digital 1.0 (Mono)

Languages: English

Subtitles: English (and hard of hearing)

Widescreen: 1.77:1

16:9-enhanced: Yes

Macrovision: No

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: £19.99

Extras : Scene index, Booklet, Documentaries: "Inside Dr. No" & "Terence Young: Bond Vivant", 1963 Dr. No Featurette, Stills Gallery, Original TV Ads, Radio Spots, Original Theatrical Trailers, Animated Main Menu, Audio Commentary

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Director:

Terence Young (Cold Sweat, Dr. No, From Russia With Love, The Jigsaw Man, Thunderball)

Producers:

Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman

Screenplay:

Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood and Berkely Mather

Music:

Monty Norman

Cast:

James Bond: Sean Connery (The Anderson Tapes, The Avengers, Diamonds Are Forever, Dr. No, Dragonheart, Entrapment, First Knight, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Highlander 1 & 2, The Hunt For Red October, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, Just Cause, The Longest Day, The Man with the Deadly Lens, Marnie, Murder on the Orient Express, The Name of the Rose, The Presidio, Ransom, Rising Sun, The Rock, The Russia House, Thunderball, Time Bandits, The Untouchables, You Only Live Twice)
Honey Ryder: Ursula Andress (The 5th Musketeer, The Blue Max, Dr. No, She)
Dr. No: Joseph Wiseman (The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Dr. No, Jaguar Lives!, Viva Zapata)
Felix Leiter: Jack Lord (Dr. No, TV: Hawaii 5-0)
M: Bernard Lee (The Battle of the River Plate, The Blue Lamp, Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Live and Let Die, The Man Upstairs, Moonraker, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, Thunderball, Whistle Down the Wind, You Only Live Twice)

Dr. No is the first thing I cry out when my G.P. gets out the needle and it's also the title of the first-ever James Bond feature film again starring Sean Connery as the suave and sophisticated non-conformist hero who always gets the girl and defeats the bad guy. There can't be many people out there who haven't seen this before, but I'm one of them so bear with me.

A British diplomat named Strangways has gone missing in Jamaica along with his secretary and Bond is called upon to find him. When he arrives there he meets up with Felix Leiter (Jack Lord) - a CIA agent - and seeks out the dastardly Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman), a member of SPECTRE - SPecial Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, Extorion, who's hell-bent on taking over the world in his own way, this time by destroying the U.S. space programme. His location is rather given away because Strangways had a penchant for geology and it boils down to some rock samples which could only have come from one particular area and it's the one that, surprisingly, no-one is normally allowed to venture into.

While in the sun, he is confronted with the alluring Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress, in THAT outfit, although these days it's clear that time hasn't been kind to her), but then he's always had a soft spot for women, starting with an early scene when he's seen gushing all over Moneypenny in the government office.

As the film progresses, Bond gets into one situation after another as endless henchmen try to do away with him, although he always gets in there first, seeing them off with a one-liner.

"Mmm.. I love these candy cigarettes."

The film was shot an intended for cinematic presentation at 1.66:1 in Europe, while being matted to 1.85:1 for the USA. Here we have an anamorphic 16:9 version which just appears to crop a little of the top and bottom that would normally have been seen in European cinemas - but that's fine since I would have zoomed in the picture to fill my widescreen TV. The only part of the film which remains at 1.66:1 (as a windowboxed anamorphic piece) is the opening credits.

There's a number of flecks on the print used, but these are certainly less noticeable than you'd normally expect for a film that's almost 40 years old, so by that token it looks very good indeed. The average bitrate is a fine 5.92Mb/s, often peaking above 7Mb/s.

The sound is in the original mono as you'd expect. In the days of Dolby Digital 5.1 multi-channel surround sound, any action moments may sound a bit muted compared to that featured in more recent films while the score is lifted to shriek through the speakers, but again you know what to expect and the Bond main Bond theme always packs a punch.

Extras :

Chapters :

Languages & Subtitles :

And there's more... :

• "Inside Dr. No" (42 mins): Narrated by Patrick McNee, this tells the tale of how the Bond novels were a great success, as was the subsequent comic strip, but that it wasn't a walk in the park to translate them from page to screen. There's comments and chat from the late Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli's wife Dana, Harry's son Steven Saltzman, Former President of United Artists David Picker, production designer Ken Adam, editor Peter Hunt, Ursula Andress and the main man himself, Sean Connery.
  It's interesting to note that Roger Moore was also considered for the role before Connery. In similar fashion later on, Pierce Brosnan was in the frame when they eventually cast Timothy Dalton, but Brosnan was tied to his Remington Steele contract at the time.
• Terence Young: Bond Vivant (18 mins): A profile on the original Bond director who also went on to direct From Russia with Love and Thunderball.
• 1963 Dr. No Featurette (8 mins): The sort of made-for-TV featurette you'd get nowadays, but the picture and sound quality during this piece only is decidedly dodgy and in black and white. However, it's nice to see as much of the original footage and extras made as possible.
• TV Trailer (1 min) combining Goldfinger and Dr. No
• TV Trailer (20 secs) combining Goldfinger and Dr. No
• Radio adverts: 6 altogether with soundbites from the film included
• Trailer (3 mins): in 15:9 anamorphic, the same ratio as the film was shot and a good quality picture.
• Trailer (3 mins): another one, in 4:3 fullscreen, but with iffy picture quality. Again, it's good to have something like this included for completists like myself.
• Trailer (2 mins): cinema trailer advertising a double bill of Dr. No and From Russia With Love
• Trailer (2 mins): cinema trailer advertising a double bill of Dr. No and Goldfinger
• The Dr. No Gallery: oodles of press shots and on-location pics covering the filmmakers, portraits, Jamaica, Pinewood, a lost scene and Ian Fleming.
• Audio commentary: As if the above wasn't enough, there's a feature-length commentary track from director Young, plus members of the cast and crew.
• Booklet: The package is nicely rounded off with a lavish 8-page booklet containing plenty of pictures and info about the film, the series and the characters. It also gives a brief, pictured, explanation as to why widescreen is best. I agree, but here it wrongly gives the impression that this Bond film was shot in 2.35:1.

Menu :

Do you want it? Do you want it, Sir?

For his first outing, this is a very entertaining, albeit it comparatively low-key Bond affair, but the overall presentation deserves a commendation for MGM. Not so for Ursula though when taking a shower in the radiation chamber. She's supposed to be in the buff, but can quite clearly be seen wearing a black one-piece swimsuit (!)

Also, when crossing through the river earlier on, she suggested Bond cover himself with water to escape mosquito bites, I half-expected him to suggest a wet T-shirt contest with her being declared the winner...