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Agent James Bond travels to Jamaica to investigate the
sabotage of US space rocket tests, and finds himself battling
against an enigmatic megalomaniac called Dr. No...
I
have to confess, I wasn't going to buy the Bonds on DVD. I
already owned them all, barring The World is Not Enough,
on widescreen VHS, and so I was loathe to part with my hard-earned
cash to buy the same films over again, despite the promised
extras. But then I figured I might as well get TWINE on
DVD. There was an offer on at the video store, and so I bought
Dr. No as well... Then I was hooked, and it wasn't
long before I was collecting the whole darned lot. Curse you,
MGM, for making these special-edition DVDs so irresistible!
Each
release features at least two "making of" documentaries -
one covering the specific movie, the other on a more general
theme. In the case of Dr. No, the second doco deals
with director Terence Young, who also oversaw From Russia
with Love and Thunderball. Young is revealed to
be a veritable James Bond himself, with a taste for the finer
things in life, whose contribution to the series, in particular
the smoothing out of Sean Connery's rough edges, is frequently
underestimated.
Each
movie can also be played with at least one audio commentary.
With the earlier films, these are usually spliced together
from various interviews, both old and new, rather than being
the specially recorded reminiscences of members of the production
team. The former is the case here, but I happen to prefer
this type, as it can often prove more informative than the
latter, being less dependent on the fading memories of the
commentators. Vintage publicity material has also been dug
up and dusted off (though not cleaned up half as well as the
main movie has been). These goodies include trailers, radio
adverts and a crackly black-and-white American featurette
from 1963. Watch out for the presenter reading quite obviously
from an autocue!
With
so many features to play with, the film itself seems almost
incidental. However, the documentaries help to rekindle one's
interest even if, like me, you've seen the film many times
before. What appears in retrospect to be comparatively cheap-and-cheerful
by Bond movie standards is put into historical context. One
is reminded that there had never been a movie like this before,
certainly not a British one, and it is fascinating to see
how the production team found ways to stretch their meagre
budget to create a film that appears far more expensive than
it actually was. For instance, the actor who played Strangways
was a resident of Jamaica, who was cast on location, and the
extra who gunned him down on screen just happened to be his
dentist!
Although
the famous Bond gadgets do not make an appearance, and the
humour is not as apparent as in later films, Dr. No
is far from humourless. Dark wit is present in the dialogue
("See that he doesn't get away," says Connery, referring to
the corpse in his car), in the larger-than-life Ken Adam sets,
and even in the fast-cut editing style of Peter Hunt. Say
"yes" to Dr. No!
Richard
McGinlay.
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