Doctor No: the Front or Back Half?

Most Bond films, it seems, either begin well and end in mediocre fashion or vice versa. Somewhat rare are the films that maintain a consistent level of quality from gunbarrel to final credits.

Now to the specific. How do you feel about Doctor No? Do you find its first or second half to be the stronger section?

I prefer the front half, which is truly elite Bond. The film bogs down a bit in the marshes of Crab Key, and Bond's escape through the ventilation shaft and killing of Julius No are not quite all they could be.

I'd say the first half. It does seem to become a different film once they get to Crab Key. Almost a pity they had to go there, not to say it becomes a bad film after Crab Key but seems to be a let down after the first half.

I, too, prefer the first half, though looking back at it now, the second half has some of the most iconic moments - i.e. Bond meets Honey and dinner with the doctor, as well as the Doctor himself and the brilliant set design of his lair.

Eh, it's not really a let down for me. I really like the Bond snooping around in the first half. It's kind of like Goldfinger. Once Bond get's caught, the film slows a little.

I'm one of those who prefer the second half. Ursula Andress running almost naked and Joseph Wiseman's incredible performance.

'nuff said.

I like the back half, especially when Bond and Honey are introduced to No's lair.
Fleming here was introducing fantastical lair-set-design that would rival the movies to come.
The evil bastard Dr.No, disappearing under a steaming pile of guano dung was a very nice touch, and Honey looked quite ravishing scampering about the island and lair-complex with Bond.
Same for the movie, I like the second half most, after we meet Honey and later enter for the first time, into this sublimely fantastical, bizarre and dangerous world of 007, as depicted by No's lair compound.

Largo's Shark wrote:

I'm one of those who prefer the second half. Ursula Andress running almost naked and Joseph Wiseman's incredible performance.

'nuff said.

Strangely enough, I considerably prefer the front half despite Andress and the incomparable Wiseman. Very odd indeed.

I enjoy DN and don't really have a favorite half, but I definitely would have preferred that they stuck closer to the novel during that second half, especially the section with Bond crawling through the ventilation. The whole thing just being an easy escape for Bond really makes Dr. No look like a fool. What was Terence Young thinking?

Python wrote:

I enjoy DN and don't really have a favorite half, but I definitely would have preferred that they stuck closer to the novel during that second half, especially the section with Bond crawling through the ventilation. The whole thing just being an easy escape for Bond really makes Dr. No look like a fool. What was Terence Young thinking?

You're right. In the novel that section was a grueling ordeal. In the film it's a veritable cakewalk. Young could have done so much more with this.

With the movie, if you try to conjure up the book while watching, you can kind of see that he is indeed going through the same ordeal, or close, but we don't feel it to the same extent. Young doesn't manage to bring out the intensity of it. I think the scenario was much harder to depict on film that it was in the book. The tarantula nod was incorporated earlier.
The danger/suspense might have been elevated, if Bond instead of emerging free as a bird, faced more of a challenge when he exited the torture course, even if it was just a fierce battle with some No thugs waiting at the end, in lieu of killer octopuss.
Part one of the film is excellent too. It's good Bond on mission, arriving in the tropics, liason with government house types, encounters with No's minions etc. Very well done, and as for the island, DN's lair was beautifully realized, transporting us into the equalling dangerous fantasy world of 007, which really I think is what helps give the world of 007 a leg up on other spy adventure, and makes Bond's world so fascinating.
Though grounded in the trappings of the authentic spy world, you never know where Bond's adventures might utlimately take him and what fantastical settings and villainy he might experience.
All told though, with a limited budget, DN was a darn good adaptation of the book, and a great coming out for Connery as screen-Bond.

I know they had a limited budget being the first Bond film but I still feel that explosion sequence of Dr. No's lair at the end gave away that it was a scale model.

I think it's because of the camera angle it was shot from.

Maybe if they filmed it from the eye level angle then it would probably had a more realistic look to it.

Model work that looks like obvious model work has it's own cinematic appeal too though, I think. eg the opening to YOLT is quite thrilling especially if one can crank up the music that accompanies it.

The crawling through the vent itself goes fine at first. It's got a great sound mix that gives it a very ominous atmosphere as he's traveling further. It's just the resolution that really kills it and ruins the credibility of Dr. No as a result. Leaving a guard at the end might have worked. Have Bond play dead for a moment as if his body submitted to death, then as he hears the guard approach he makes a fast move on him and dispatches the guard. Wouldn't have been as exciting as the squid, but at least it would work.

I was disappointed few years later when I read the Dr. No novel to find out that Honey was supposed to be naked when she first came out of the ocean on Crab Key and naked again later when she was tied to a rock and eaten alive by crabs!

I really like both halves of the film, but slightly prefer the first half to the second.

Why are both halves good? Because the first half of this film is right up there with the ultimate best hours of Bondage, with Connery and Bernard Lee at their no-nonsense best, a welcome lack of gadgets, plenty of fine character interplay and investigating and a great 50's pulp detective feel aided by the music score while the second half introduces what is still one of the very best villains of the series as well as introducing one of the best and most iconic Bond girls, not to mention Bond's killing of Dent. It's all good, bro.

Great film, but I'd have to go for the first half. Connery at his coolest.

The second half is terrific too, but Bond's escape from captivity is a bit weak compared to the book (though I imagine a giant squid appearing in a low-ish budget 1962 film would look comical).

Python wrote:

The crawling through the vent itself goes fine at first. It's got a great sound mix that gives it a very ominous atmosphere as he's traveling further. It's just the resolution that really kills it and ruins the credibility of Dr. No as a result. Leaving a guard at the end might have worked. Have Bond play dead for a moment as if his body submitted to death, then as he hears the guard approach he makes a fast move on him and dispatches the guard. Wouldn't have been as exciting as the squid, but at least it would work.

Part of the problem is that this section breezes by too quickly. Part of the horror of what Bond goes through in the book is the sheer duration of it all, and the seemingly endless series of obstacles. In the film, Bond gets zapped by the grate, endures a bit of heat, some water, and then he's home free. In the book, he gets fried, has to worm his way up a very long pipe, endures searing heat that threatens to kill him, and then has to pulp his way through a mass of tarantulas. It goes on and on, and you can imagine Bond is really at the end of his tether. The film just does not create the mortal threat because it hurries too much.

The first half is more consistent I find and has a really intriguing atmosphere. The second half scores strongly for the introduction of Honey, the death of Quarrel and the masterly presence of Wiseman but the action is otherwise a bit lacking. I am unsure how much of this is simply the impact of five decades of alternative and increasingly technically accomplished action cinema however, Dr No has always registered high on my list of preferred Bonds though never really challenged for the top, in its day the second half may have been the most startlingly fresh to cinema goers.

I saw DN with a large cinema audience at the great digital film festival, only a few years ago and what I found striking was the air of tension in the cinema, once Wiseman appeared and uttered his famous "One million dollars" greeting.
You could have heard a pin drop in the cinema during the entire very civilized but tension filled encounter that followed between Bond and No.
I think that because there was such a build-up to the DN reveal combined with Wiseman's portrayal being so chilling, along with the spooky atmosphere of the lair itself, the audience reacted with appropriate awe and trepidation.
I found it thrillingly eerie, as this same audience, had been cheering and laughing at the appropriate moments earlier in the film, as audiences expect to do when watching Bond films, but the good Doctor managed to create an atmosphere of fear and dread, thus silencing everyone.
I found it fascinating that this film could have this effect almost 50 years later with an audience conditioned to generally having an escapist good time at a Bond flick.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Python wrote:

The crawling through the vent itself goes fine at first. It's got a great sound mix that gives it a very ominous atmosphere as he's traveling further. It's just the resolution that really kills it and ruins the credibility of Dr. No as a result. Leaving a guard at the end might have worked. Have Bond play dead for a moment as if his body submitted to death, then as he hears the guard approach he makes a fast move on him and dispatches the guard. Wouldn't have been as exciting as the squid, but at least it would work.

Part of the problem is that this section breezes by too quickly. Part of the horror of what Bond goes through in the book is the sheer duration of it all, and the seemingly endless series of obstacles. In the film, Bond gets zapped by the grate, endures a bit of heat, some water, and then he's home free. In the book, he gets fried, has to worm his way up a very long pipe, endures searing heat that threatens to kill him, and then has to pulp his way through a mass of tarantulas. It goes on and on, and you can imagine Bond is really at the end of his tether. The film just does not create the mortal threat because it hurries too much.

I look at all of this differently, in that I don't see why No should have left a guard at the end, because he most certainly would have never thought that anyone would ever escape the cell, the electric shock alone would have devastated any normal person, and someone surviving a crawl through the dangerous tube system is unthinkable, too. There are many of No's men around anyway, so a guard solely for watching the grid at the end of the system seems superfluous to me (and aren't there other exits as well that need special guarding?).
Part of why Bond's escape in the film is so short is that they decided to leave out the whole of No's interest in studies of the human capabilities to endure differing grades of pain, simply because of budget reasons and probably script economy too. There is no need to write in more obstacles for Bond, since the ones he has to take in the tube system are natural ones that the system holds, that is not ones purposefully designed by someone for reasons of a sick, pseudo-scientific interest. That way, the part in the film feels natural and believable, as opposed to having other obstacles in addition, in a scenario that does not involve the abovementioned interest of the Doc.
I feel that this interesting aspect would have made the film too long and I prefer No as he is presented, still mysterious, without portraying him as a sadistic lunatic. They might as well have saved that aspect for a later film villain. I also feel it would have distracted a bit from No's other scientific interest, the toppling, and maybe would have made the reactor room action feel anticlimactic. I am very happy with the way they have handled that section. Only thing they should have changed was to increase the threat for Honey some more. I also think that a giant squid would have changed the film's tone to that of an adventure trash film, because giant squids in film can be very silly, particularly with the special effects technologies of that time and the limited budget.
The explosions in the end are bloody terrific.
I'd also like people to consider that in a novel, it is very easy for a writer to make a reader feel the hero's pain, while in film, you have to resort to pain-face and groans and screams. It just can't be done anywhere near as convincing, even less in a section that features many such obstacles, as was demanded.

Yes the dilemma for the filmmakers was how to depict the torture course, which I don't think they quite pulled off, at least not with the same gravitas and danger as the book did. But without the squid at the end, the course doesn't quite work. The squid was there to finish off anyone that might have managed to straggle their way to the end.
The movie failed to replace the squid.
I don't think filmgoers cared though, but anyone who had also read the book, I think would have thought, hmmm that was rather a little too easy.
Compare with CR06 though. Certainly not an apples to apples comparison, but Campbell and company sure did justice to the horror of Fleming's original version of the rope and chair routine.

An odd little detail of Dr No is how Bond is almost seen more as a glorified copper that a secret agent - 'It's my beat', 'You are just a stupid policeman ... ' and so on.

tiffanywint wrote:

Compare with CR06 though. Certainly not an apples to apples comparison, but Campbell and company sure did justice to the horror of Fleming's original version of the rope and chair routine.

Would have preferred it with less humour. Cheapens the tension, to be honest.

I don't see that at all - Bond is in an extremely vulnerable and desperate situation, and thinks he's likely about to die in a horribly painful and gruesome way. All he's got by way of a defence mechanism is 'Fuck YOU, buddy!' wisecracks.

IIRC, those wisecracks weren't in the novel, so it isn't completely necessary.

The first time I watched it, it was funny. But after each time now, I like it less and less...

I'm fine with it, as it's his way of making Le Chiffre lose it and for the most part it worked. I suspect it was added to soften the torture scene for PG-13.