# Dr. No (1962) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2018, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-no-1962/813943 "2018-05-10T21:48:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-no-1962/813943/21 "2018-05-14T13:59:01Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > That would be [Moe Berg](https://www.fold3.com/page/3123897-morris-berg/photos). Yikes for a second I thought you meant this [shlub](https://www.google.com/search?q=moe+berg+musician&client=firefox-b&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwie66ChrYXbAhXEylQKHdYUCtMQ_AUICigB&biw=1023&bih=819) of a Moe Berg. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-no-1962/813943/22 "2018-05-14T14:42:35Z")
[Cite](https://flemingsbond.com/hoagy-carmichael/) that Ian Fleming pictured James Bond as resembling Hoagy Carmichael. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-no-1962/813943/23 "2018-05-14T15:00:11Z")
Wasn’t Bond basically an amalgam of Roald Dahl and Christopher Lee? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-no-1962/813943/24 "2018-05-14T17:15:45Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Wasn’t Bond basically an amalgam of Roald Dahl and Christopher Lee? Gadget-laden cars and seducing women who wind up dead? Yeah, pretty much. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-no-1962/813943/25 "2018-05-14T18:20:12Z")
> [@MonkeyMensch](#): > > Professor Dent points his gun at 007 and pulls the trigger on a dead cartridge: > OO7:" _That’s a Smith & Wesson, and you’ve had your six."_ [shoots Dent twice]. It’s just the cold bloodedness of the way Bond kills Dent that I admire: he isn’t a 00 agent for nothing… What struck me about that scene on rewatching it was not just Bond’s cold-bloodedness, but his incompetence. Here he has Dr. No’s right hand man at gunpoint with (as Bond knows) an empty weapon. Dent could presumably supply him with large amounts of information about No, his plans, his lair, his other accomplices, and everything else. Yet Bond just guns him down rather than subduing him and calling for backup to take Dent into custody. A total waste of a potentially critical intelligence asset, and by all appearances simply out of revenge for Dent having tried to kill him. (I suppose excuses could be made that Bond didn’t want to risk Dent attacking him even unarmed, or didn’t want him to get away, or didn’t think he could get backup soon enough, or that he didn’t think Dent would give him more information anyway. But a really good agent should have been able to find away to capture Dent without killing him, even if just by shooting him in the kneecaps.) ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-no-1962/813943/26 "2018-05-14T19:21:56Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > From 1954, the first - and worst - James Bond, 007: > > [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0310853/?ref\_=nm\_flmg\_act\_30](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0310853/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_30) I think Woody Allen qualifies as worst James Bond if we’re going by that standard. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-no-1962/813943/27 "2018-05-14T19:28:05Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > I think Woody Allen qualifies as worst James Bond if we’re going by that standard. Definitely, _Casino Royale_ is nearly unwatchable. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-no-1962/813943/28 "2018-05-14T20:28:25Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Definitely, _Casino Royale_ is nearly unwatchable. I regard _Casino Royale_ (1967) as the greatest Bond film ever made, or that ever will be made. It manifests the Bond (movie) ethos distilled to its essence, then blown out of all sensible proportion, exposing just how silly it is. Exploiting sex jokes and cartoonish violence, the flick is so overdone as to be grotesque…yet there is a certain beauty (some might say “fascination”) in it. Like all authentically grotesque phenomena, it attracts and repels simultaneously. Alongside its humongous-for-the-time budget, all-star cast, cool Derek Meddings miniatures and scattered great lines and gags, it boasts one indisputable claim to greatness than no other film before or after will ever match: more prime ‘60s babeage than any other movie, including (but not limited to): the divine Ursula, Jacqueline Bisset, Tracey Reed, Joanna Pettet (never looked better), Daliah Lavi, Veronica Carlson, Mireille Darc, Caroline Munro, Gabrielle Licudi and stealing the flick from all, imo, Barbara Bouchet as Moneypenny. > [@Asuka](#): > > I think Woody Allen qualifies as worst James Bond if we’re going by that standard. Although Woody Allen is code named “James Bond” in the film – along with much of the rest of the cast - he in fact plays “Jimmy Bond” a.k.a. “Dr Noah.” ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-no-1962/813943/29 "2018-05-14T20:52:10Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I did like the way Bond is incredibly cold in the film, much more than in any subsequent film. As Benson observe in _The James Bond Bedside Companion_, the first time he utters the now-famous line “Bond, James Bond” in the casino, he does so _with absolutely no warmth_. When he shoots Dent, he is stone cold. I don’t know if I heard Fleming intended this or if I just sort of read it into the character, but isn’t James meant to be a bit of a sociopath and more reactive than proactive? It really helps me to make sense of his character if I think of him that way. No compunction about using & killing people as he sees fit in the moment, not the best strategist but good at getting out of the situations his lack of preparation gets him into. If Q’s attitude about James’ attitude about equipment is any indication, it seems like James is unusually clumsy compared to his peers. It also seems like he gets plenty of his peers killed, but I’m not prepared to back that up without going through my own box set. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-no-1962/813943/30 "2018-05-14T21:43:15Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Gadget-laden cars and seducing women who wind up dead? Yeah, pretty much. I don’t mean their stories and characters; I mean the actual people. Both of them were intelligence agents, both were acquaintances of Fleming; Dahl was the sophisticated spy, and Lee was the stone-cold killer. Bond is a mixture of them both. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-no-1962/813943/31 "2018-05-14T22:30:21Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > What struck me about that scene on rewatching it was not just Bond’s cold-bloodedness, but his incompetence. Here he has Dr. No’s right hand man at gunpoint with (as Bond knows) an empty weapon. Dent could presumably supply him with large amounts of information about No, his plans, his lair, his other accomplices, and everything else. Yet Bond just guns him down rather than subduing him and calling for backup to take Dent into custody. A total waste of a potentially critical intelligence asset, and by all appearances simply out of revenge for Dent having tried to kill him. > > (I suppose excuses could be made that Bond didn’t want to risk Dent attacking him even unarmed, or didn’t want him to get away, or didn’t think he could get backup soon enough, or that he didn’t think Dent would give him more information anyway. But a really good agent should have been able to find away to capture Dent without killing him, even if just by shooting him in the kneecaps.) Remember when the driver that picked bond up at the airport bit into a cyanide capsule rather than let himself be captured. And the photographer who’d rather let her arm be broken than say anything. I think Bond’s approach with Dent was to let him think he could get to his gun (which Bond knew was empty) long enough to keep him talking. Once that was done, it wasn’t likely he’d get anything more out of him. > [@Dropo](#): > > I regard _Casino Royale_ (1967) as the greatest Bond film ever made, or that ever will be made. It manifests the Bond (movie) ethos distilled to its essence, then blown out of all sensible proportion, exposing just how silly it is. Exploiting sex jokes and cartoonish violence, the flick is so overdone as to be grotesque…yet there is a certain beauty (some might say “fascination”) in it. Like all authentically grotesque phenomena, it attracts and repels simultaneously. > > Alongside its humongous-for-the-time budget, all-star cast, cool Derek Meddings miniatures and scattered great lines and gags, it boasts one indisputable claim to greatness than no other film before or after will ever match: more prime ‘60s babeage than any other movie, including (but not limited to): the divine Ursula, Jacqueline Bisset, Tracey Reed, Joanna Pettet (never looked better), Daliah Lavi, Veronica Carlson, Mireille Darc, Caroline Munro, Gabrielle Licudi and stealing the flick from all, imo, Barbara Bouchet as Moneypenny. Hmm, never heard of Carlson, Darc, or Licudi, before, and don’t remember Reed or Munro being in it. I know Tracy Reed from _Dr. Strangelove_ and _A Shot in the Dark_; will look for her the next time I see it. _Casino Royale_ (1967) is amazing as a 1960s time capsule, but it’s still a hot mess of a movie. You forgot its other undeniable achievement among Bond films, a great theme song (although it really only works without lyrics). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-no-1962/813943/32 "2018-05-14T23:16:02Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Remember when the driver that picked bond up at the airport bit into a cyanide capsule rather than let himself be captured. And the photographer who’d rather let her arm be broken than say anything. I think Bond’s approach with Dent was to let him think he could get to his gun (which Bond knew was empty) long enough to keep him talking. Once that was done, it wasn’t likely he’d get anything more out of him. Bond didn’t get any real information out of Dent at all. Bond told Dent a few things he had already figured out and Dent admits them. Dent confirms Strangways was killed, but doesn’t say by whom or how. Bond asks him who he is working for, but Dent goes for his gun and Bond shoots him before he reveals it. Bond didn’t just shoot Dent when he knew he was disarmed. He put another bullet into him after he was already down. (Apparently Bond put even more bullets into him but they were edited out.) Like I said, you can make the excuse that Bond thought he wouldn’t be able to get more information out of Dent. Killing someone because you think they might commit suicide doesn’t seem to me to be a very professional espionage strategy. And Bond had Miss Taro arrested, even though she had set him up to be assassinated. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-no-1962/813943/33 "2018-05-16T16:03:36Z")
I saw _Dr. No_ a few years ago and didn’t think it had aged well, although Connery was of course very good in the role. One gag that most people miss these days is that the painting which Bond notices in Dr. No’s lair was an actual one which had been stolen in a notorious London heist not long before the movie was made. > [@Colibri](#): > > …Bond didn’t just shoot Dent when he knew he was disarmed. He put another bullet into him after he was already down… Rule 2. Double tap. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-no-1962/813943.md?page=1)