A British Government agent, James Bond, must go to Jamaica and find an evil mastermind known as Dr. No, who plans to destroy the U.S. space program. Bond meets a beautiful woman named Honey Rider as he searches for Dr. No.
Blaine: Author Ian Fleming first introduced James Bond through the spy novel, “Casino Royale” in 1953. It became very popular and Ian would write more James Bond adventures through novels. A lot of producers were interested in turning the novels into movies, but what they were offering wasn’t good enough, until Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Salesman. Albert and Harry had to figure out which James Bond book they should do first and “Dr. No” felt like it would be easy to make. They hired three screenwriters to do the screenplay, but one of them dropped out believing the movie wouldn’t be successful. Albert and Harry informed the other two screenwriters that they wanted the script to be true to the novel. While the script was in works, Albert and Harry went looking for a director. The guys they had in mind all turned it down. Terrence Young was a director with a lot of style and when he was offered the director’s position he wanted to make “Dr. No” traditional to Ian Fleming’s words. He wanted to bring Ian Fleming’s creation to life.
The next thing was to find an actor to play James Bond. Harry Grant was a close friend to Cubby and he offered him the part, but Harry turned it down because they were planning to make more than one James Bond movie and Harry wasn’t big on sequels. The editor who was hired to do “Dr. No” was already working on a movie called “On the Fiddle” starring Sean Connery and the producer of that movie suggested that Sean be James Bond because he thought he’d be great. The producers met with Sean Connery in London and felt positive that he should be James Bond. Sean worked on developing his James Bond performance with Terrence Young. Sean never read any of the books, but Terrence told him what type of character James Bond is and told him what he needed to do in order to bring the character to life. They had to find a tailor for Sean Connery to figure out James Bond’s suit. Terrence told Sean to sleep in those clothes in order to feel the James Bond character. It felt comfortable as soon as he woke up.
Lois Maxwell was offered to play Sylvia Trench, the Bond girl at the beginning of “Dr. No” when James Bond is first introduced. Lois didn’t want to play Sylvia Trench because it required a scene where she is at James Bond’s apartment wearing nothing but high heels and Bond’s pajama top. She didn’t think she was suitable wearing Bond’s pajama top, so she went with Eve Moneypenny instead. Eunice Gayson had been in a few of Terrence Young’s films and he felt she should play Sylvia Trench. Bernard Lee looked suitable for the part of M.
“Dr. No” was two weeks away from starting principal photography and there was one person they still needed to add to the cast. They needed an actress to play the main Bond girl of “Dr. No", Honey Rider. Producer Harry Saltzman found a photograph of a woman named Ursula Andress. The producers sent Ursula the script for “Dr. No”, along with a note asking if she could play Honey Rider. They never met with or tested Ursula out to see if she was perfect for the part, they just offered the role to her. Ursula would read the script with her husband and they would share a few laughs and have fun while doing it. Ursula’s husband told her to do the project because he thought it would be fun to be apart of “Dr. No”. During post-production, Ursula’s voice was replaced by a woman named Monica van der zyl because her voice sounded sexual, where as Ursula’s was a little heavy.
Ian Fleming had recommended a good location manager who could help Terrence Young and the crew scout the right spots to shoot at in Jamaica. Chris Blackwell, the location manager took them all over Jamaica. Principal photography began on January 1962 in Jamaica. The first thing they shot was James Bond arriving at the Jamaican airport. The producers went back to London while the movie was shooting to cast the actor who would be playing the Bond villain, Dr. No. Ian Fleming asked a close friend of his if he would play the character and his reply was “no”. The producers had Joseph Wiseman in mind and he said yes. The character, Dr. No, is half Chinese and half German, so Joseph had to wear makeup in order to look Asian. He also had to wear these gloves that look like metal hands.
Ursula Andress hadn’t met the cast and crew of “Dr. No” until the end of January while the film was in production. They shot the ending where James Bond and Honey Rider are on a boat with no fuel and stranded on sea. Ursula Andress and Sean Connery developed a friendship after getting along so well. Production continued on a private island where they shot the scene when James Bond first meets Honey Rider. Honey Rider was supposed to be tan and Ursula was white when she showed up on set. The makeup department sprayed her from head to toe with this stuff to make her look tan and she was naked while they were doing it. A lot of people wanted to see her nude. Ursula slipped on some coral and scraped her leg while shooting the scene where she and Sean Connery are running on the beach and trying to get out of sight from the bad guys. Ursula’s knee was swollen and coral injuries take a while to heal, so the makeup department put makeup over it.
Everyone didn’t like being in the swamps because it smelled and there were bugs everywhere. The dragon was built on a tractor. It sunk in the swamp mud and they had to get it out which was very difficult because leaches would get on them. The last scene they shot in Jamaica was when Dr. No’s layer is on fire and Bond and Honey Rider are trying to get on a boat. Digital technology didn’t exist back then so the smoke and fire had to be real, which was scary for everyone. It was an athletic experience for Ursula to be running up and down through the factory and then jumping onto a boat.
Production continued at Pinewood studios where sets were built while the crew was in Jamaica. The producers and Terrence Young were blown away by these sets and the set designer was relieved because he was nervous of what they might think of them. The sets were Dr. No’s layer and the casino where James Bond is first introduced. Terrence Young thought it would be a good idea not to show James Bond’s face just yet. He thought it would be better if the camera just showed his hands and his back side before his face is revealed. James Bond saying his name when his face is revealed was the best way to introduce the character for the first time. Dr. No’s introduction was a challenge and they wanted to show it through a set. Joseph Wiseman was nervous while he was performing as Dr. No.
The last scene that was shot before production wrapped was Bond saving Honey Rider from being flooded as water rises. Originally there was going to be crabs surrounding her, but they were frozen when they brought them on set and they didn’t look menacing. So they took the crabs out and decided to go with flooding the set. “Dr. No” wrapped after that. Composer John Barry was trying to figure out how the James Bond theme should sound and he had to think fast because the movie’s release date was getting close. The opening shot of the pistol focussing on James Bond and him shooting it was graphic designer Maurice Bender’s idea. It wasn’t Sean Connery in that shot, it was a double. “Dr. No” was released on October 9,1962 in London and became a huge hit. It wasn’t released in the United States until the Spring of 1963. When it finally opened it attracted in audiences all over the world.
