Dr. No (1962, UK/US)

In director Terence Young's first of the James Bond series of action-packed spy thrillers - it played a key role in establishing the Bond character as a recognizable icon in popular American contemporary culture. Its predictable formula starred the debonair, dashing and charming British "Secret Agent 007," James Bond (portrayed over the years by numerous dashing actors), with great taste in clothes, wine, food, and exotic, sexy women. John Barry's distinctive theme music was also featured.

All of the films had clever opening title sequences and trademark theme music, sexy and beautiful women, great diabolical villains, exotic, international locales, the calm manner and witty, subtle humor and repartee of the mythic hero 007, violence, terrific action sequences, stunts and chase scenes, narrow escapes, gimmicks, and great cinematography.

• in the opening credits sequence, white dots traveled across the screen, opening up into a gun barrel sight as the secret agent stepped into view. He turned and fired toward the audience, causing a bloody-red color to wash over the screen
• in the titles and opening scene to the calypso version of "Three Blind Mice," MI6 Station Chief John Strangways (Tim Moxon) rose from a bridge game on the veranda of the Queens Club in Jamaica, and walked to the driveway where at his car, he was murdered by three apparently-blind black men with five bullets in his back shot from silencers; his limp body was placed in a black hearse that sped away with the killers

John Strangways (Tim Moxon)

Three Blind Men After Murdering Strangways

Murder of Strangways' Secretary

• in a second scene set at a tropical bungalow (the Strangways residence), Strangways' secretary Mary Prescott (Dolores Keator) made a distress call on a concealed ham radio set ("W6N" (Jamaica) to "G7W" (London)) to MI6 (Military Intelligence 6) headquarters - and was murdered with three gunshots by the same assassins; one of the killers removed two files from a cabinet, marked "CRAB KEY" and "DOCTOR NO"
• the famed Agent 007 James Bond (Sean Connery) made his introduction in the fancy gambling casino, Le Cercle (Les Ambassadeurs, London) Club while playing cards at one of the chemin de fer gaming tables against beautiful, wealthy and sexy brunette Sylvia Trench (Eunice Gayson) wearing a red dress; when she asked for his name as he lit a cigarette, he responded simply: "Bond, James Bond"; when Bond was summoned away from the table, Sylvia was disappointed that she would have to wait until the following afternoon to see him and then have a dinner date together, but said: "Sounds tempting"; he gave her his card and number
• Bond was called away to the Secret Service MI6 Headquarters (disguised as a Universal Exports office); in the outer office, he briefly played a flirtatious game of cat-and-mouse (the "usual repartee") with Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell), the secretary of the head of the SS, who hijacked him and playfully attempted to get attention, or a date for dinner ("Give me an ounce of encouragement...You never take me to dinner, period")

Bond with Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) in MI6 Office - "The Usual Repartee"

Bond's Stern Boss "M" (Bernard Lee), Head of MI6

• Bond was briefed by the head of British Secret Service "M" (Bernard Lee) at the MI6 headquarters; he was told that fellow S.S. agent Strangways in Jamaica had disappeared, along with his new secretary; Strangways had been sending reports of massive interference ("toppling" or radio jamming - throwing off the gyroscopic controls of a missile with a radio beam) with Cape Canaveral rockets, originating from the Jamaica area; Felix Leiter (Jack Lord), a long-time compatriot in the U.S. CIA who was working with Strangways in Jamaica, was already pursuing leads; Bond was assigned to see if the agents' disappearance was somehow linked, and was given a new gun to defend himself - a Walther PPK - by armorer Major Boothroyd (Peter Burton)
• when Bond returned to his own luxury apartment, he found that Sylvia had apparently broken in, and golfing on his floor wearing only Bond's own pajama top and high-heeled shoes; she seductively convinced Bond, with a kiss, to not leave immediately for his mission in Jamaica ("When did you say you had to leave?") before they had sex

Individuals Awaiting Bond's Arrival at Jamaican Airport
Photographer "Freelance" (Marguerite LeWars)	Chauffeur Mr. Jones (Reginald Carter)	Felix Leiter (Jack Lord)

• once Bond landed in Kingston, Jamaica on a Pan American jet, he became the instant target of numerous assassins or enemy agents who made attempts on his life; at the Kingston airport, two of Dr. No's operatives (a female photographer "Freelance" (Marguerite LeWars), and a fake Government House chauffeur Mr. Jones (Reginald Carter)) awaited his arrival, while he was also observed by an unidentified Felix Leiter; the two enemy agents failed to deter Bond - Jones committed suicide with a cyanide cigarette after a brief fist-fight with Bond on a deserted road
• at Strangways' place, Bond found a receipt from metallurgist Professor R.J. Dent's (Anthony Dawson) test laboratory (for analysis of a rock sample), and a picture of Strangways standing with a local fisherman/guide, Cayman Islander Quarrel (John Kitzmuller)
• just before dinner in his Government House accommodations, Bond was served his favorite drink preference ("One medium dry vodka Martini - mixed like you said, sir, and not stirred"); that evening at the club, Bond interviewed the final people to see Strangways alive during his bridge game, including Dent; he learned that Strangways had taken numerous fishing excursions with Quarrel
• the next day at the dock after questioning a very reticent Quarrel, Bond was threatened by both a knife-wielding Quarrel and beachfront bar owner Puss Feller (Lester Pendergast), when CIA agent Leiter intervened, introduced himself, and admitted that both Quarrel and a worked for him; it was determined that Strangways had found some rock samples (sent to Dent's lab) on nearby off-shore islands, and it was presumed that the radio-jamming of American rockets was occurring in that area; the only area not searched thoroughly was the off-limits Crab Key - protected against trespassers by armed security guards and low-scan radar, and Quarrel was deathly afraid of the place; it was well-known that "none of the local fishermen will go near the place"; Quarrel had known others who went there and never came back; under cover of night to avoid detection, Strangways had been chartering Quarrel to take him out to Crab Key to gather rock, sand, and water samples
• reportedly according to reconnaisance planes, there was nothing on Crab Key but a bauxite mine (with a "low-scan C-H radar setup"); Crab Key was described as being owned by a reclusive Chinese character known simply as "Dr. No" (Joseph Wiseman)
• the next day, Bond visited Professor R. J. Dent's labs, run by the suspicious-looking geologist-chemist who analyzed Strangway's mineral samples and explained that the samples were only ordinary, low-grade iron pyrites, not the kind of rock found on Crab Key Island ("not geologically possible") - but Bond suspected that he was lying
• immediately following their conversation, Dent took a boat to the heavily-fortified Crab Key to meet with the ominous and reclusive Dr. Julius No; without meeting with Dr. No in person, Dent was reprimanded for visiting during daytime hours; the menacing and villainous Dr. No ordered Dent to make one final attempt on Bond's life - by providing him with a giant, hairy, venomous tarantula in a cage
• that evening as Bond slept, in one of the film's most memorable scenes, the tarantula crawled up his arm, but he was able to bash it with his shoe
• the next day at the Government House, Bond was informed by British foreign secretary Playbell-Smith (Louis Blaazar) and his sexy secretary Miss Taro (Zena Marshall) that the two official Crab Key and Dr. No files that Strangways had checked out were now missing; Bond immediately suspected that Miss Taro was working and spying for the villainous Dr. No, when he caught her listening in at a keyhole
• with a geiger counter sent from London, Bond determined that there were signs of radioactivity where the rocks that Strangways had gathered were placed on Quarrel's fishing boat; Bond deduced that Dent had been lying to him; Bond asked for Quarrel to later take him to Crab Key late that night, although Quarrel was superstitious about a dragon on Crab Key: (Leiter: "Native superstition, started by Dr. No, probably")
• meanwhile, as another ploy to kill Bond, Miss Taro invited Bond to drive up into the steep mountains to her bungalow apartment and pick her up for a dinner date; Bond narrowly escaped death when a large black hearse pursued and attempted to steer him off the winding road; he forced the murderers (the "Three Blind Mice") off a cliff and their car crashed in flames ("I think they were on their way to a funeral")

Secretary Miss Taro (Zena Marshall) Speechless to See Bond Arrive Alive

In Miss Taro's Bedroom

Tryst with Miss Taro Before Arresting Her

• once Bond arrived, the treacherous femme fatale Miss Taro was speechless that he was alive and at her door; after Bond seduced her, she attempted to keep him there for a second murder attempt; he fooled her when she thought he had summoned a taxi for dinner, but he had her arrested and taken away by local police; then he awaited an expected gunman to arrive after making it appear that he was sleeping in bed; Professor Dent emptied his Smith-Wesson silencer-gun into the bed, when Bond noted: "You've had your six," and killed Dent in cold-blood with two bullets from his Walther PPK
• after Quarrel and Bond arrived on Crab Key (with plans to reconnect with Leiter in about 12 hours), in one of the most iconic and unforgettable entrance scenes of all-time fame, the next morning in a small cove, they encountered shell-searching, carefree, white-bikinied Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress) with a thigh-high knife emerging Venus-like from the warm Jamaican water, singing the calypso song "Underneath the Mango Tree"

Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress)

• the group evaded a high-powered patrol boat that fired at them on the beach, and more guard foot patrols with dogs as Honey led them through the water to not leave their scent; the three of them also used bamboo reeds to breathe underwater; during a break, she explained how she believed that Dr. No had killed her marine zoologist father; in the mangrove swamps, they discovered the "Dragon" to be a flame-throwing, diesel-engined armored tank-vehicle leaving tire tracks, which incinerated Quarrel alive before the two were both beaten and taken captive by the radiation-suited tank crew, and brought to Dr. No's underground lair at his private island; they were forced to shower in a decontamination chamber to be scrubbed clean of radiation

Bond and Honey Taken Captive by the Dragon

Subjected to a Decontamination Area

Bond and Honey Dressed For Dinner With Dr. No

• after being ushered to luxurious quarters, the two were drugged with coffee; while unconscious, a door slid open, and only a pair of white shoes and starchly-pressed white trousers were seen stepping inside and walking over to Bond's bed; a plastic, black metallic-like hand reached down and pulled back the sheet from under Bond's face
• the two were dressed up and invited to have dinner with a very gracious Dr. No in his private study next to his giant aquarium with a huge glass observation panel - a decorated living room a la Captain Nemo; Dr. No - who wore a plain white Nehru jacket with a pair of shiny black, plastic hands, admitted what had been suspected - he was a member of SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, Extortion), and dreamed of "world domination" by interfering with and sabotaging American space rockets (and their launches) with an atomic nuclear-powered, "toppling" radio beam; after a discussion with Bond and tempting him by joining SPECTRE ("I thought there might even be a place for you with SPECTRE"), tensions increased and Dr. No was not amused by Bond ("I never fail, Mr. Bond"); Dr. No ordered his guards to "soften him up. I haven't finished with him yet," and then left for the control room to prepare for another "toppling" of a US rocket guidance system with a nuclear-powered radio beam
• after being further subdued and imprisoned in a small prison cell, Bond escaped through a ventilation shaft, stole a uniform, and set about to sabotage the facility and cause it to self-destruct; he infiltrated into the laboratory control room, where the atomic reactor was shielded in a pool of water; his main objective was to destroy the nuclear reactor and abort Dr. No's sabotage of the impending launch; on a metal catwalk above the reactor, Bond succeeded by turning a wheel on the reactor's control panel, sending the radiation indicator up beyond the danger level to a point of no-return; both Bond and Dr. No battled on the descending gantry which was progressively moving down into the furiously boiling pool of water containing the reactor; Bond was able to climb up to safety, while Dr. No was left below

The Demise of Dr. No in Pool of Boiling Water Containing the Reactor

• in the memorable death scene of Dr. No, his metallic, artificial hands desperately clutched at the steel supports of the descending, sinking gantry-platform and he could not get a grip - he was submerged into the bubbling, scalding-hot radioactive water of the reactor and sank into the steaming, boiling mixture and drowned; the Project Mercury US rocket was successfully launched, but the entire island complex approached toward a major self-destructive meltdown
• Bond rescued strapped-down Honey from a slanted, flooding sluice-gate chamber, and in the chaos of everyone trying to escape, they safely exited from Crab Key in one of Dr. No's motorboats; as the reactor reached critical mass, Dr. No's complex was blown to pieces in a shattering explosion
• their motorboat conveniently ran out of fuel and sent them drifting; Bond suggested: "We can swim, or come here..."; soon, they were given a tow line back to shore by CIA ally Felix Leiter on a rescue boat, although Bond released the tow-line rope to let them go adrift and continue kissing and embracing

Time For Curtain-Closing Kisses
After Their Rescue - Together on a Towed Rescue Boat: "We can swim, or come here..."