Review of Dr. No: Special Edition (James Bond)

Introduction

It was in 1962 when Ian Fleming`s suave secret agent took to the screen in "Dr. No", Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman made the popular Fleming creation the most successful franchise in movie history. Although basic by looks compared to say the last 3 later Bond movies, it`s always nice to relive those early classics and see their differences, both the starting and end credits to this movie are a perfect example of that.

Video

The famous gunbarrel animation we all love so well appears followed by very simplistic credits and animations. This special edition DVD has a clean, crisp transfer despite the age of the movie and the skintones of the characters are fresh looking and are contrasted well against all the other colours within the picture. Check out Bond`s black jacket at the casino, it is bold and you can still see the dark differences between the collar and jacket material. Another well contrasted scene to test out the picture is at the beach before we are introduced to Honey, morning has arrived and the scenery features trees, sandy shore, the sea and a waterfall. As expected there are white specks and dropouts in the picture, more in dark scenes like in the boat on route to Crab Key. This movie uses far off camera shots to advertise the bigger scenes (which have cost more to make most likely), but they look `empty` and too simple to boast with. The lab/control room set is one of these scenes but fits its purpose with only delicate ambient sounds like voices and beeping heard. It`s like a scene from the bridge of the Enterprise from the early Star Trek series. Dr. No`s aquarium and dining room are impressive enough, a bit more less empty and is well built to suit Dr. No`s character.

Audio

Differences in the movie can also be in the audio too, in the starting credits as the sights lock onto 007 you have got what sounds like effects similar to that of the early years children`s program called "The Clangers" English Mono 2.0 has it`s good and bad points in this movie, the dialogue throughout is clear and some of the various ambient effects work well enough. In the jungle for example, the ambience does give a `dense` feeling to the scene, when Bond is being "softened up" in Dr. No`s residence the smacks and thuds also sound damaging enough here. It`s only on the louder scenes where the audio loses it`s realism, after Bond sends the car chase pursuer down the hill only rumbling can be heard for such a big stunt, the bass and effects here sound flat as with the final scene explosions on the rig they too only seem to rumble around and don`t seem to pound out of those speakers! Slight crackles in the audio track can also be heard and are not part of the movie action, a good spot to notice this is when Bond has aquired a radiation suit and enters the lab through a swing door, the scene is quiet and it`s easy to pick up. The music score is loud enough if only reduced to minimal speaker usage the 007 theme really emphasises Bond`s screen presence while he walks around and some parts go well with the action even at dramatic points, like in the killing of the spider scene. Set in Jamaica the movie does include some `calypso` type tunes, "3 Blind Mice", "Jump Up" and "Underneath The Mango Tree" which gives the movie a `holiday` feel I guess.

Features

The menus have a scientific look to them, an assortment of buzzing, UFO style humming and communication warble can be heard and can get on your nerves if the menu is left unattended for a while. Filtered shots of the movie are in the background too, pretty good but simplistic. The 2 documentaries are quite lengthy at 42 and 22 minutes, one is "Inside Dr. No" and the other is about Terence Young, there is also a 9 min featurette made in 1963 in black and white which is of poor quality. The trailers are long compared to nowadays `teasers` and the DVD features 4 of these alongside some TV and radio spots. A gallery and commentary top them off.

Conclusion

Due to this being the 1st James Bond 007 movie you can`t really expect a lot of everything like the ones we have lately come to know, there are some scenes in this movie which may not be effective but probably were good and looked great back in 1962! The car chase is more similar to one of those theme park 3D rides apart from the long shots of the cars, it just wasn`t gripping or exciting, but the car drop looked great. The spider scene was done well, it`s slow movements and Bond`s sweat glistening makes this scene pretty tense. A good foundation movie to lean the future 007 adventures on, and is classic proof that the James Bond 007 character can make it to screen.