Dr. No Parent Guide
While the 1962 Bond still doesn't qualify for great family entertainment, older audiences may enjoy watching the birth of Bond on the big screen.
Parent Movie Review
The James Bond film franchise celebrates an anniversary in 2012. Fifty years have passed since the 1962 London Premier of the movie Dr. No introduced the charming, self-possessed British secret agent to the big screen and spawned a surge in spy genre films.
In this story, James Bond (played first by Sean Connery who starred in a total of six Bond movies) flies to the tropical island of Jamaica to investigate after Agent John Strangways (Tim Moxon) suddenly disappears. From the moment Bond steps foot in the Kingston airport, he suspects he is under surveillance. Then minutes later he finds himself pursued by the occupants of a large black car in a high-speed chase.
After successfully evading them, James arrives at the British Government House and begins asking questions. He soon discovers Agent Strangways had collected a number of radioactive rocks from the nearby Crab Key Island where Dr. Julius No (Joseph Wiseman) runs a mining operation. Yet it appears that Dr. No is more interested in scuttling the Americans’ moon launch than retrieving minerals from the ground.
At first, Quarrel (John Kitsmiller), the Cayman boat owner who shuttled Agent Strangways to the isolated landmass, isn’t eager to ferry James to the island to confirm his suspicions about the lunar launch. Fortunately with a little intervention from the American CIA, the ever-persuasive 007 soon has Quarrel quietly paddling a boat onto the sandy beach of Crab Key island.
Famous for his womanizing ways, Bond engages in flirtations with the home office secretary, finds a half-dressed woman in his apartment, seduces the Government House secretary and charms the front desk girl at his hotel (although few details are shown on screen). But the sexual repartee begins in earnest when James meets a knife-wielding, bikini-clad shell collector named Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress) on the island.
The film’s sexual overtones (including the discussion of a rape) and Bond’s fondness for firewater and a cigarette are only eclipsed by the depictions of violence. While the special effects are often kitschy and underwhelming by today’s standards, the movie still contains several shooting deaths, poisonings, a car explosion that kills the occupants, brutal beatings and a drowning scene.
Compared to Daniel Craig’s interpretation of the super spy, this agent seems more interested in taking off his shirt and engaging in sexual banter than bullet-laden brawls with the bad guys. While the 1962 Bond still doesn’t qualify for great family entertainment, older audiences may enjoy watching the birth of Bond on the big screen.
Directed by Terence Young. Starring Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Bernard Lee. Running time: 110 minutes. Theatrical release October 5, 1962. Updated July 17, 2017
Dr. No
Rating & Content Info
Why is Dr. No rated PG? Dr. No is rated PG by the MPAA
Violence: Several characters are shot at close range including a woman whose bloody torso is seen. Characters engage in numerous fistfights and hand-to-hand combat. One character is left bloody and bruised with his clothes in tatters. A man poisons himself. His dead body is shown. A man wipes away some blood after a woman scratches a man’s face with a broken light bulb. Men in a car chase another character. A car goes over a cliff and bursts into flames killing the occupants. A gunman repeatedly shoots a form in a bed. A poisonous spider is placed in a man’s bed. A woman talks about killing her attacker with a poisonous spider. Characters are beaten, choked to death, burned, stabbed and drowned.
Sexual Content: A woman wears a bikini. A man kisses several different women. The script suggests a man has intimate relations with several women. A male character takes his shirt off in several scenes. A woman’s bare shoulders are shown in the shower. A woman tells about a rape. A couple is told to take off their contaminated clothes. Women provocatively flirt with a man.
Language: A brief profanity is heard. Infrequent sexual banter and innuendo is included in the script.
Alcohol / Drug Use: Characters smoke on numerous occasions, using cigarettes, cigars and pipes. Characters also drink frequently. A pair of people is drugged. Other attempts are made to poison or drug a man. A character eats a poisonous pill.
Page last updated July 17, 2017
Dr. No Parents' Guide
James Bond is a fictional character created by author Ian Fleming in 1953 and featured in twelve novels. When explaining his choice of a name for his hero, Fleming said in the 21 April 1962 New Yorker, “I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened. When I was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought… (James Bond) is the dullest name I ever heard.” Fleming named his spy after American ornithologist James Bond who wrote the field guide Birds of the West Indies. Fleming is also said to have given the literary character many of his own traits.
Would you like a famous literary character named after you? What kind of character would he or she be?
How are women portrayed in Dr. No? Do the female characters play a different or similar role in today’s adaptations? In what ways does the hero of the 1962 movie differ from the current character?
Does smoking in movies influence people to smoke? Is it more appealing when the protagonist uses tobacco? How does the depiction of cigarette use in Dr. No compare with movies today?
Home Video
The most recent home video release of Dr. No movie is October 2, 2012. Here are some details…
Release Date: 15 September 2015
Exclusively available through Amazon, MGM/UA releases to home video (in Digital HD) a collection of every Bond film made up to 2015. The package includes:
- 23 films on Blu-ray from Dr. No to Skyfall plus space reserved for Spectre (Coming November 6, 2016).
- Digital HD copies of all 23 films
- Bond poster book
Over 120 hours of Special Features including:
- 2 all-new featurettes
- Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007 – a 90 minute documentary
Home Video Notes: 007: The Sean Connery Collection: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 Release Date: 15 September 2015 MGM/UA releases to home video two collection of all the James Bond films starring Sean Connery. These include: Volume 1 - Dr. No - From Russia with Love - Goldfinger Volume 2 - Thunderball - You Only Live Twice - Diamonds Are Forever
Dr. No re-releases on October 2, 1012 as part of the 50th anniversary of the James Bond franchise.
Home Video Notes: Dr. No
Release Date: Oct 21, 2008
Dr. No releases on Blu-ray with the following bonus extras:
- Audio commentary with director Terence Young and members of the cast and crew
- 007: License to Restore
- The Guns of James Bond
- Premiere Bond: Opening Nights
- Terence Young: Bond Vivant
- Dr. No 1963 featurette
- 007 Mission Control interactive guide
- Inside Dr. No
Related home video titles:
Other big screen adaptations of James Bond’s adventures include the 2006 Casino Royale and the 2009 Quantum of Solace with Daniel Craig and Die Another Day, The World Is Not Enough, and Tomorrow Never Dies with Pierce Brosnan. Sean Connery stars in the 1964 Bond movie Goldfinger. Craig will reprise his role as 007 in the 2012 release Skyfall.