Dr. No (1962) Facts
| Director(s) | Terence Young |
| Producer(s) | Harry Saltzman, Albert R. Broccoli |
| Featured Cast | Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman, Jack Lord, Bernard Lee |
| Total Facts | 72 |
The gun Bond puts the silencer on at Miss Taro's house is not his famous PPK. It's a FN 1910 easily distinguishable by the FN logo on the grip. The reason is that the prop department couldn't get a silencer fitting the PPK.
The initial reason that MI6 launches an investigation, mysterious radio interference being picked up at Cape Cenaveral isn't as far out of the question as one might think. A memorandum to the Pentagon in the year the film was released, reported unusually heavy radio emissions from Cuba, and that if John Glenn's upcoming orbit of the Earth were to fail, a case could successfully made (whether true or not) of Cuban sabotage.
The Jamiacan production office was the Courtleigh Manor Hotel in Kingston. Terribly wet weather was a big problem for the crew.
The literal translations of some of this film's foreign language titles include Licence to Kill / Agent 007: Licence to Kill (Italy); James Bond Versus Dr. No (Belgium & France); Dr. No: Mission-Killing / Agent 007 - Mission: Kill Dr. No (Denmark); James Bond Chases Dr. No (Germany); Dr. No: 007 Is The Killing Number (Japan); Agent 007 With A Licence To Kill (Sweden); Agent 007 Versus Dr. No (Spain); James Bond, Agent 007 Against Dr. No (Greece); 007 Seized The Secret Island (China); 007 - The Secret Agent (Portugal); 007 And Dr. No (Finland) and 007 Against The Satanic Dr. No (Brazil & Spanish-speaking South America). In Japan the translators first interpreted the title as "Dr.? No!" and produced posters with a translation that meant "We don't want a doctor". The mistake was discovered at the last moment.
The location of the classic scene where Honey Rider (Ursula Andress) walks out of the sea and meets James Bond (Sean Connery) was Laughing Waters Beach on the Laughing Water Estate owned by Mrs. Minnie Simpson in Ocho Rios, St. Ann, Jamaica. Mrs. Simpson had been a fan of the Ian Fleming James Bond novels.
The movie's line "Bond. James Bond." was voted as the #22 movie quote by the American Film Institute, and as #51 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere.
The only James Bond movie that does not feature a pre-titles sequence.
The script for the classic scene where Honey emerges from the water read: BOND'S EYELINE : DAY. WHAT HE SEES - HONEY, staring at the water's edge, her back to him. She is naked except for a wisp.
The sounds of birds whistling were made by a child's bird call whistle.
The white bikini worn by Ursula Andress in the movie was sold by her at Christie's Auctions in London on 14 February 2001 for 35,000 UK pounds. It was purchased by Robert Earl of Planet Hollywood and with commission and tax fees, the total was actually around 41,000 UK pounds. Before the auction, the bikini had been estimated to fetch 40,000 UK pounds.
The World Premiere of Dr. No was held on 5th October 1962 at the London Pavilion, Piccadilly Circus, London. The launch of the first ever James Bond film in a cinema was attended by Sean Connery, Zena Marshall and James Bond creator Ian Fleming.
There is a longstanding rumor that in the early drafts of the script, Dr. No turned out to be a monkey. When first approached by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, screenwriters Wolf Mankowitz and Richard Maibaum discarded most of the source material and wrote a story treatment about a shipping magnate called Buchwald attempting to blow up the Panama Canal. Dr. No was a monkey god worshiped on the island, and the villain kept a capuchin monkey as a pet. Broccoli and Saltzman told them to try again and this time stick more closely to the source material. Mankowitz was dissatisfied with the script and had his name removed from the credits. He later co-wrote the James Bond parody film Casino Royale, which co-starred Ursula Andress, who played Honey Ryder in Dr. No.
This is the only James Bond movie to feature SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) without showing its supreme commander Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
This movie won a Golden Globe Award for Ursula Andress as Best Newcomer.
This was chosen to be the inaugural film in the James Bond series as the plot of the source novel was the most straightforward. It had only one major location (Jamaica) and only one big special effects set piece.
To get a feel for the clothes, director Terence Young asked Sean Connery to sleep in his finely tailor fitted suit which was purchased at Turnbull and Asser Tailors and made to play James Bond.
Two weeks before filming was due to start, the part of Honey Ryder was still to be cast. The producers then saw a photograph that actor John Derek had taken of his wife, Ursula Andress, and offered her the part without even meeting her. Some sources claim that the photograph allegedly featured Andress in a wet T-shirt competition. Andress, who wasn't overly interested in acting at the time, only agreed to do it when family friend Kirk Douglas read the script and urged her to take it on.
United Artists executives were first screened a print of the film at 10:00 am one morning with Arthur Krim in attendance. When the movie finished around midday, there was a silence at the end of the screening. The European head exec stated that the only good thing about the picture was that they couldn't lose with it with only a budget of about $(US)840,000. Producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli were shaken and stirred.
Vehicles featured included the swamp vehicle Dragon Tank at Crab Key; a marine blue 1961 Sunbeam Alpine Series 5 Sports Tourer convertible II Tiger rental car which James Bond drives whilst being tailed by a pre-war Packard LaSalle hearse; Bond rides in a taxi driven by Mr. Jones which is a black 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible; a motorboat; Mk II Ford consul taxi; Quarrel's boat; an Austin A55 Cambridge and a Ford Zephyr.
When James Bond sings "Under The Mango Tree" in this movie, it is the only ever time that James Bond has sung in a Bond movie.
When the film was released in L.A. in May 1963, it was double-billed with The Young and the Brave.
Bob Simmons:
The series regular stuntman is the actor appearing in the gun barrel sequence at the beginning of the film. The same footage was used in From Russia with Love and Goldfinger.