Dr No on DVD

• 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:

Screenplay:

Music:

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. Nois the first thing I cry out when my G.P. gets out the needle and it’s alsothe title of the first-ever James Bond feature film again starringSean Connery as the suave and sophisticated non-conformist hero whoalways gets the girl and defeats the bad guy. There can’t be many people outthere 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 hissecretary and Bond is called upon to find him. When he arrives there he meets upwith Felix Leiter (Jack Lord) – a CIA agent – and seeks out the dastardlyDr. No (Joseph Wiseman), a member of SPECTRE – SPecial Executive forCounterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, Extorion, who’s hell-bent on takingover the world in his own way, this time by destroying the U.S. spaceprogramme. His location is rather given away because Strangways had a penchantfor geology and it boils down to some rock samples which could only have comefrom one particular area and it’s the one that, surprisingly, no-one isnormally 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 thenhe’s always had a soft spot for women, starting with an early scene when he’s seen gushingall over Moneypenny in the government office.

As the film progresses, Bond gets into one situation after another as endless henchmen tryto 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 16:9version which just appears to crop a little of the top and bottom that wouldnormally have been seen in European cinemas – but that’s fine since I wouldhave zoomed in the picture to fill my widescreen TV. The only part of thefilm which remains at 1.66:1 (as a windowboxed anamorphic piece) is the openingcredits.

There’s a number of flecks on the print used, but these are certainly less noticeable thanyou’d normally expect for a film that’s almost 40 years old, so by that token it looks verygood 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-channelsurround sound, any action moments may sound a bit muted compared to that featured in more recentfilms while the score is lifted to shriek through the speakers, but again you know what toexpect and the Bond main Bond theme always packs a punch.

• “Inside Dr. No” (42 mins): Narrated by Patrick McNee, this tells thetale of how the Bond novels were a great success, as was the subsequent comic strip, butthat 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 wifeDana, Harry’s son Steven Saltzman, Former President of United Artists DavidPicker, production designer Ken Adam, editor Peter Hunt, Ursula Andressand the main man himself, Sean Connery.
  It’s interesting to note that Roger Moore was also considered for the role beforeConnery. In similar fashion later on, Pierce Brosnan was in the frame when theyeventually cast Timothy Dalton, but Brosnan was tied to his Remington Steelecontract at the time.
• Terence Young: Bond Vivant (18 mins): A profile on the original Bond directorwho 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 getnowadays, but the picture and sound quality during this piece only is decidedly dodgyand in black and white. However, it’s nice to see as much of the original footage andextras 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 shotand 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 andFrom Russia With Love
• Trailer (2 mins): cinema trailer advertising a double bill of Dr. No andGoldfinger
• The Dr. No Gallery: oodles of press shots and on-location pics covering thefilmmakers, portraits, Jamaica, Pinewood, a lost scene and Ian Fleming.
• Audio commentary: As if the above wasn’t enough, there’s a feature-length commentarytrack from director Young, plus members of the cast and crew.
• Booklet: The package is nicely rounded off with a lavish 8-pagebooklet containing plenty of pictures and info about the film, the series andthe characters. It also gives a brief, pictured, explanation as to whywidescreen is best. I agree, but here it wrongly gives the impression thatthis Bond film was shot in 2.35:1.

Menu :A classy-looking animated and scored main menu is impressive and it leads to the sub-menuswhich are static and silent. The initial screen offers you the choice to start the film,select a scene, choose a language or watch the extras.

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

For his first outing, this is a very entertaining, albeit it comparatively low-key Bondaffair, but the overall presentation deserves a commendation for MGM. Not so for Ursulathough 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 withwater to escape mosquito bites, I half-expected him to suggest a wet T-shirt contest withher being declared the winner…