Blogging Bond - Part 1

This seems as good a use for this blog as anything - I am now, slowly but surely, making my way through all the 007 movies in sequence.
Now, I've seen them all before. Most of them more than once. Most of them not in years. So this should be illuminating.
Our first experience, natch, is Dr. No.
Here are notes, in no particular order, gleaned from viewing:

-I'm not sure what exactly Dr. No was trying to do. He explained it, I think, but I didn't get it. I did get that he has metal hands and a killer aquarium. Something to do with a rocket? World domination, maybe?

-These movies are harder to watch once you've seen Austin Powers. What the HECK are those radiation suits?

-One gets the sense that Ian Fleming was not a huge fan of "natives" in the colonies, nor "women." Witness Quarrel's constant rum drinking and his inability to recognize a tire track for what it is.

-"The Dragon." So...Dr. No has some kinda truck that breathes fire and is painted like a shark and the natives think it's a dragon. Okay...Now, what exactly does this thing DO? It's not explained...all we know is that the swamp is toxic and that may (or may not) be because the Dragon burned it.

-And if Dr. No is so dangerous that most people won't even sail nearby, why does Ursula Andress go there to collect shells? Is there no better location?

-Crab Quay is really pretty. I'd vacation there.

-Funniest Scene: Bond, Honey and Quarrel are hiding behind a sand dune while Dr. No's henchmen (in a boat) are off-shore asking them to come out. He's actually trying the ol "come out and we won't
hurt you" thing. Then he just gives up. "you won't
come out? Fine. We'll be back though! You just wait!
If only we could come ashore you'd be in BIIIIG
trouble!"
Also, dude's voice sounds like he's talking through a megaphone even after he puts it down.

-Second Funniest Scene: The car chase. Connery is SO obviously in front of a screen during the cuts to him it really takes you out of the scene. It seems unfair to pick on the FX but I wonder if this played even in 1962. Sometimes the enhanced resolution on DVD actually reveals things you couldn't see before.

-Bond is awesome. Even if he knows a chick tried to kill him and even if she has already called the dudes to come and try again, he'll still fuck her.

-I can't believe Bond fell for the, "Have a drink of tea...I SWEAR it's not drugged or anything" trick. Tsk tsk.

-Never once in my life has someone introduced themselves and then asked me my name in such a way that would allow me to say my last name first a la "Bond, James Bond." But it happens to this guy ALL. THE. TIME.

DID YOU KNOW?
-Ursula Andress' voice was "too continental" so all her dialogue was dubbed.
-In this, and EVERY SINGLE Bond movie he was in, Connery is wearing a toupee. That sound is your testosterone dribbling out into the ether.
-Dr. No does not have an opening action sequence. It barely has action sequences at all, in fact. But the whole pre-credits thing is not established yet. Still, all the raw ingredients are there.

SPECIAL NOTE:
Bond gets his martini mixed, not shaken here.
Still, if you get your martini mixed/shaken instead of stirred and you are not James Bond, you are a pussy. (Aside from the fact that you're obviously copying him, shaking reduces the amount of alcohol.)
See Daniel Craig's recent, "Do I look like I care?" reaction to how he wants his martini blended.

Even better - go get a martini like the one Craig ordered in Casino Royale. It'll be cool for a bit longer.

Vesper
Makes 1 large cocktail
1/2 part Lillet Blanc
3 parts Gordon’s gin
1 part vodka
1 lemon twist
Pour the Lillet, gin and vodka into a shaker part-filled with ice. Shake and then strain into a large martini glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.