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UK: Terence Young, 1962

Last night was my very first time watching the very first James Bond film, a title that has somehow managed to elude me all these years. Still, in a sense I'm glad I waited so long, because watching it for the first time on a pristine BD is undoubtedly a somewhat different experience to catching one of those grotty TV screenings on ITV. This one does take a while to get going, the first half being more appropriately titled "James Bond, PI" as he strolls leisurely around Jamaica, investigating the murder of a British agent. It seems to take an age for him to actually get to the island on which the eponymous Dr. No has his base, but there are some fine moments along the way, most notably Bond dealing with a crooked chauffeur and experiencing a tense nocturnal encounter with a deadly spider. My prior experience with the Bond films being rather limited, I suspect I'll find myself measuring all the Bond girls I subsequently encounter against Eva Green in Casino Royale, who made by far the strongest impression on me. Compared to Green's Vesper Lynd, Ursula Andress' Honey Ryder doesn't have a lot going for her beyond her ability to look fetching in a swimsuit. I also can't help thinking that director Terence Young and his writers couldn't quite work out what her role was (beyond that of "eye candy"). In particular, her hysterical reaction to Bond killing an armed guard is jarringly at odds with her calm, po-faced statement, not five minutes later, that she herself once killed a man in the most excruciating way ("It took him a whole week to die").

Still, a fine start to the venerable series. It may take its sweet time to get going, but once it does it really cooks, Bond's dinner encounter with the unflappably polite Dr. No being the high point by far.

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