The Sequel Was Better? is a series of reviews looking at famous movies with sequels that are considered, rightly or wrongly, to be better than the original movies. Typically, sequels are a step down in quality, acting, and/or production value. But not always. See other reviews here.
James Bond remains one of the most popular characters in cinema history. He started out in novels written by Ian Fleming. He made the jump to the sliver screen in 1962 with Sean Connery as the first actor to play Bond. He was considered the iconic Bond until the current Bond, Daniel Craig, has made such a good showing. Fans will debate endlessly about who is their favorite Bond or Bond villain or Bond girl, but I think all would agree that the second film was better than the first. At least, that's what I am arguing here...
After the now-iconic gun barrel opening and flashy/arty credits, three blind Jamaicans wander through Kingston. They arrive at a local club where they kill Professor Strangways (Tim Moxon), a British businessman with some strange habits. He was on his way back to his office to contact his supervisor. The three blind men hustle the body into a hearse. The action moves to Strangways's office, where his secretary turns on a secret radio and calls to the supervisor which happens to be a British intelligence agency in London. After setting up the call, the office is invaded by gunmen who kill the secretary and take two files. One file is marked "Dr. No," the other "Crab Key." Back in England, concern for the fate of their Jamaican branch has M (Bernard Lee) call in one of his agents to deal with the situation. The scene switches to a club where a high-class card game is being won over and over by Bond, James Bond (Sean Connery). The message forces Bond to leave, but not before setting up a date for the next day with an alluring woman at the table. Bond reports to M's office after a bit of flirting with M's secretary, Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell). M fills Bond in--Strangways was a British agent investigating some radio disturbances from the Caribbean that were disrupting American rocket launches in Florida. Bond is sent to investigate Strangways's disappearance after being given a better gun (the iconic Walther PPK) by the agency's armorer (who isn't named Q yet and is played by a different actor than Desmond Llewelyn). Bond goes home to pack and discovers the woman from the club with whom he has a romantic moment before he heads out for Jamaica.
In the Jamaican airport, Bond is met by a driver. He goes back into the building to make a call and is observed by a mysterious stranger (Jack Lord), who we later discover is C.I.A. agent Felix Leiter. Bond calls the local office and finds out they haven't sent a car for him. He tells the office he'll come in later. He gets in the car with the wrong driver and they are chased by the mysterious stranger. The driver is able to escape thanks to some direction from Bond. As they hide on a side road, Bond pulls a gun on the driver and tries to get him to talk. The driver asks if he can smoke. Bond agrees but then the driver bites a cyanide pill out of the cigarette and dies rather than talk about his employer. Bond checks in to his hotel and reports to the local office.
At the local office, Bond arranges to meet the men who last saw Strangways alive and to investigate Strangways's business office. He finds a receipt for the analysis for some rocks. Bond meets Professor Dent (Anthony Dawson) who analyzed the rocks and he claims they were worthless samples but he does act nervous about it. Bond discovers a local boatman named Quarrel (John Kitzmiller) who worked with Strangways and took him once to Crab Key, the island base for Doctor No. Bond gets a Geiger counter from the agency. Using it on Quarrel's boat, he discovers radiation. So the rocks from Crab Key were radioactive, which means the professor was lying.
Meanwhile, the panicked professor has gone to Crab Key to warn Doctor No. The doctor is disappointed in Dent coming outside of protocol and gives Dent a deadly spider with which to eliminate Bond. Dent takes the spider to Bond's hotel room late at night. The spider crawls up Bond's arm but he manages to get it off and squash it. Bond decides to go to Crab Key. Leiter demurs, promising to bring the cavalry if Bond doesn't come back in twelve hours. Quarrel is reluctant to go but is persuaded. Another rocket launch is scheduled for the next day, so time is critical.
Bond and Quarrel sneak onto the island where they meet Honey Rider (Ursula Andress), who walks up from the beach in a bikini, another iconic Bond movie moment. She's on the island to collect sea shells that she sells on the American market. Usually, the local inhabitants threaten people who come to the island, but she knows how to hide from them, including hiding from their "dragon." Quarrel confirms the existence of a dragon but Bond is dismissive. A gunboat comes and the three visitors manage to hide further back on the beach. The people on the boat demand that the visitors show themselves. Soon enough, they open fire but don't hit anything other than Honey's boat. She's stranded with Bond and Quarrel, who make plans to stay. Eventually, the "dragon" comes out--it's an armored vehicle with a flamethrower. Quarrel is killed. Bond and Honey are captured.
After being decontaminated, Bond and Honey are treated well--soft clothes and a meal and a room to relax in. They drink some coffee and are knocked out by drugs in the coffee. When they wake up, they are taken to dinner with Doctor No. The doctor is an agent of SPECTRE, the SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion. They are trying to disrupt the American space plan and he uses the Crab Key base to topple the rockets. No gives his background--he is the son of a German soldier and a Chinese mother. In China, he was rejected by the locals even though he was a brilliant scientist. In America, he got the same treatment. So he joined SPECTRE. He lost his hands at one point, leaving him with metallic hands that can crush everyday objects. He tries to recruit Bond, who adamantly refuses. No then has Honey taken away and Bond beaten up.
Bond is left in a prison cell. He escapes through the air ducts and disguises himself in a radiation suit. He sneaks into the reactor room where he overloads the nuclear reactor before the bad guys have the chance to disrupt the rocket launch. Dr. No and Bond fight, with Bond eventually forcing No into the reactor pool where No dies. Bond escapes, finds Honey, and they flee the island in a boat. The facility blows up. The boat runs out of fuel, so Bond and Honey have time to "get friendly." Leiter shows up in a Royal Navy boat and they tow Bond's craft to Jamaica. As they are being towed, Bond and Honey start making out again. Bond unties the rope, leaving them plenty of time to drift off to happiness as the end credits roll.
In the first ever pre-credits sequence, Bond is infiltrating an estate. A strange blonde man (Robert Shaw) is stalking him. The blonde gets the drop on Bond and kills him! Then the lights come on and viewers discover the place is a training base for SPECTRE. The blonde is named Grant, a star assassin and spy. Someone comes up and pulls the mask off Bond to reveal he's someone else. Then the credits start--it's still the Bond orchestral music with the credits being shown on the body of a belly dancer (who shakes just about everything). The theme song is saved for the end of the movie.
After the credits we see SPECTRE agents plotting in Venice. Russian intelligence officer Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) has gone over to SPECTRE though no one knows about it. Blofeld (unidentified) authorizes a scheme where Klebb will go to the Soviet office in Istanbul. A junior officer named Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) will pretend to defect from the Istanbul office, bringing with her a Lektor decoding machine. Her price is that James Bond will be her escort to the West. When M (Bernard Lee) gets wind of the offer, he clearly sees it as a trap. But the British can't pass up the chance to get a Lektor. During the briefing, a member of Q branch (Desmond Llewelyn!) brings Bond a special attache case that is loaded with weapons and cash. After a dalliance with his girlfriend and some flirting with Moneypenny, Bond is off to Istanbul.
Bond is met at the airport by a car from Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendariz). The car is followed by the Russians. The Cold War is pretty casual in Turkey--both sides let the other keep tabs. Bey is ready to assist Bond with the plan, getting blueprints of the Russian consulate and organizing the meet between Bond and the Russian girl. She's recruited by Klebb for the scheme and is happy to serve the Motherland. She goes to Bond's hotel where they have a romantic evening which is surreptitiously filmed by SPECTRE. Bond and Tatiana plan to meet at a mosque the next day so she can give Bond a map of the Russian consulate.
Before the mosque meeting, Bey is almost killed by a bomb at the British office. Bond goes to the meeting where a Russian agent almost interferes with Tatiana's dropoff. The blonde guy Grant is there and kills the Russian agent, assuring that Bond will get the information he needs. Bond returns to Bey's place to find the near assassination. Bey decides Bond needs to go somewhere other than his hotel so he takes Bond to a Gypsy camp for the night. The Gypsy hosts are very nice and the belly dancer from the opening credits shows up as entertainment. The other entertainment is two women fighting each other over one of the Gypsy chieftain's sons. This catfight is interrupted when the Russians show up and try to kill Bey. Bond helps the Gypsies fight the Russians and is saved at a critical moment by Grant, who is hiding in the wings, making sure the plan stays on track. After the Russians are driven away, Bond asks the grateful Gypsy chieftain to stop the cat fight. The chieftain lets Bond settle the dispute, ensuring he has company for the night.
The next day, Bond and Bey make plans to take out one of the Russians in a humorous revenge scene. Once that's done, they start the plan to extract Tatiana and the Lektor from the consulate. Bey uses an underground reservoir to blow up part of the consulate. Bond sneaks in and gets the girl and the gizmo. They escape through the hole in the floor created by the explosion.
Soon enough they are on a train to the West with a plan for one of Bey's sons to meet them near Trieste. They discover a Russian on the train and get the drop on him. Bey holds the Russian hostage while Bond hangs out with Tatiana, who pretends to be his bride (and really gets into the act). Grant is on the train as well. He kills Bey and the Russian. Then he impersonates the Trieste contact, fooling Bond into thinking he's a British agent. In the dining car, Grant drugs Tatiana's drink. Back at their room, Tatiana passes out. Grant and Bond go into the other half of the compartment where Grant gets the drop on Bond. He tells Bond the whole scheme. Bond tries to bribe Grant, who asks where the money is. Bond says its in his attache case. The case is actually booby-trapped, giving Bond the chance to fight Grant. After a long struggle, Bond succeeds.
Bond then takes Tatiana and uses Grant's escape plan to get back to Venice. He takes Grant's truck and drives to the shore. Along the way he has a fight with a helicopter and (naturally) wins. At the shore, Bond and Tatiana take a boat to Venice. There's a fight with other boats which ends in a spectacular explosion. In Venice, SPECTRE makes a last ditch effort to get the Lektor back by sending Klebb in as a maid to steal it from Bond's hotel room. She winds up fighting with Bond. Tatiana has to choose her loyalty at this point and she chooses Bond, helping him to defeat Klebb. Bond and Tatiana escape in another boat, leaving Venice for England as the title song plays over the end credits.
So is the sequel better? Let's look at some points of comparison.
Dr. No is a fine film and well worth watching. It's just From Russia With Love successfully ups the ante in so many ways. SPECTRE's scheme is more interesting and credible. The larger budget meant Venice and Turkey had a lot more going on than the limited Caribbean island locations. The girl was less interesting but the villains and the allies were more interesting. It's easy to choose which film to watch between the two.
The third film, Goldfinger, established the "Bond formula" for the format and tone of the films that remained more or less unbroken until the 2006 Casino Royale. But that's a story for another review.
James Bond remains one of the most popular characters in cinema history. He started out in novels written by Ian Fleming. He made the jump to the sliver screen in 1962 with Sean Connery as the first actor to play Bond. He was considered the iconic Bond until the current Bond, Daniel Craig, has made such a good showing. Fans will debate endlessly about who is their favorite Bond or Bond villain or Bond girl, but I think all would agree that the second film was better than the first. At least, that's what I am arguing here...
Dr. No directed by Terrence Young
After the now-iconic gun barrel opening and flashy/arty credits, three blind Jamaicans wander through Kingston. They arrive at a local club where they kill Professor Strangways (Tim Moxon), a British businessman with some strange habits. He was on his way back to his office to contact his supervisor. The three blind men hustle the body into a hearse. The action moves to Strangways's office, where his secretary turns on a secret radio and calls to the supervisor which happens to be a British intelligence agency in London. After setting up the call, the office is invaded by gunmen who kill the secretary and take two files. One file is marked "Dr. No," the other "Crab Key." Back in England, concern for the fate of their Jamaican branch has M (Bernard Lee) call in one of his agents to deal with the situation. The scene switches to a club where a high-class card game is being won over and over by Bond, James Bond (Sean Connery). The message forces Bond to leave, but not before setting up a date for the next day with an alluring woman at the table. Bond reports to M's office after a bit of flirting with M's secretary, Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell). M fills Bond in--Strangways was a British agent investigating some radio disturbances from the Caribbean that were disrupting American rocket launches in Florida. Bond is sent to investigate Strangways's disappearance after being given a better gun (the iconic Walther PPK) by the agency's armorer (who isn't named Q yet and is played by a different actor than Desmond Llewelyn). Bond goes home to pack and discovers the woman from the club with whom he has a romantic moment before he heads out for Jamaica.
In the Jamaican airport, Bond is met by a driver. He goes back into the building to make a call and is observed by a mysterious stranger (Jack Lord), who we later discover is C.I.A. agent Felix Leiter. Bond calls the local office and finds out they haven't sent a car for him. He tells the office he'll come in later. He gets in the car with the wrong driver and they are chased by the mysterious stranger. The driver is able to escape thanks to some direction from Bond. As they hide on a side road, Bond pulls a gun on the driver and tries to get him to talk. The driver asks if he can smoke. Bond agrees but then the driver bites a cyanide pill out of the cigarette and dies rather than talk about his employer. Bond checks in to his hotel and reports to the local office.
At the local office, Bond arranges to meet the men who last saw Strangways alive and to investigate Strangways's business office. He finds a receipt for the analysis for some rocks. Bond meets Professor Dent (Anthony Dawson) who analyzed the rocks and he claims they were worthless samples but he does act nervous about it. Bond discovers a local boatman named Quarrel (John Kitzmiller) who worked with Strangways and took him once to Crab Key, the island base for Doctor No. Bond gets a Geiger counter from the agency. Using it on Quarrel's boat, he discovers radiation. So the rocks from Crab Key were radioactive, which means the professor was lying.
Meanwhile, the panicked professor has gone to Crab Key to warn Doctor No. The doctor is disappointed in Dent coming outside of protocol and gives Dent a deadly spider with which to eliminate Bond. Dent takes the spider to Bond's hotel room late at night. The spider crawls up Bond's arm but he manages to get it off and squash it. Bond decides to go to Crab Key. Leiter demurs, promising to bring the cavalry if Bond doesn't come back in twelve hours. Quarrel is reluctant to go but is persuaded. Another rocket launch is scheduled for the next day, so time is critical.
Bond and Quarrel sneak onto the island where they meet Honey Rider (Ursula Andress), who walks up from the beach in a bikini, another iconic Bond movie moment. She's on the island to collect sea shells that she sells on the American market. Usually, the local inhabitants threaten people who come to the island, but she knows how to hide from them, including hiding from their "dragon." Quarrel confirms the existence of a dragon but Bond is dismissive. A gunboat comes and the three visitors manage to hide further back on the beach. The people on the boat demand that the visitors show themselves. Soon enough, they open fire but don't hit anything other than Honey's boat. She's stranded with Bond and Quarrel, who make plans to stay. Eventually, the "dragon" comes out--it's an armored vehicle with a flamethrower. Quarrel is killed. Bond and Honey are captured.
After being decontaminated, Bond and Honey are treated well--soft clothes and a meal and a room to relax in. They drink some coffee and are knocked out by drugs in the coffee. When they wake up, they are taken to dinner with Doctor No. The doctor is an agent of SPECTRE, the SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion. They are trying to disrupt the American space plan and he uses the Crab Key base to topple the rockets. No gives his background--he is the son of a German soldier and a Chinese mother. In China, he was rejected by the locals even though he was a brilliant scientist. In America, he got the same treatment. So he joined SPECTRE. He lost his hands at one point, leaving him with metallic hands that can crush everyday objects. He tries to recruit Bond, who adamantly refuses. No then has Honey taken away and Bond beaten up.
Bond is left in a prison cell. He escapes through the air ducts and disguises himself in a radiation suit. He sneaks into the reactor room where he overloads the nuclear reactor before the bad guys have the chance to disrupt the rocket launch. Dr. No and Bond fight, with Bond eventually forcing No into the reactor pool where No dies. Bond escapes, finds Honey, and they flee the island in a boat. The facility blows up. The boat runs out of fuel, so Bond and Honey have time to "get friendly." Leiter shows up in a Royal Navy boat and they tow Bond's craft to Jamaica. As they are being towed, Bond and Honey start making out again. Bond unties the rope, leaving them plenty of time to drift off to happiness as the end credits roll.
From Russia With Love directed by Terrence Young
In the first ever pre-credits sequence, Bond is infiltrating an estate. A strange blonde man (Robert Shaw) is stalking him. The blonde gets the drop on Bond and kills him! Then the lights come on and viewers discover the place is a training base for SPECTRE. The blonde is named Grant, a star assassin and spy. Someone comes up and pulls the mask off Bond to reveal he's someone else. Then the credits start--it's still the Bond orchestral music with the credits being shown on the body of a belly dancer (who shakes just about everything). The theme song is saved for the end of the movie.
After the credits we see SPECTRE agents plotting in Venice. Russian intelligence officer Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) has gone over to SPECTRE though no one knows about it. Blofeld (unidentified) authorizes a scheme where Klebb will go to the Soviet office in Istanbul. A junior officer named Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) will pretend to defect from the Istanbul office, bringing with her a Lektor decoding machine. Her price is that James Bond will be her escort to the West. When M (Bernard Lee) gets wind of the offer, he clearly sees it as a trap. But the British can't pass up the chance to get a Lektor. During the briefing, a member of Q branch (Desmond Llewelyn!) brings Bond a special attache case that is loaded with weapons and cash. After a dalliance with his girlfriend and some flirting with Moneypenny, Bond is off to Istanbul.
Bond is met at the airport by a car from Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendariz). The car is followed by the Russians. The Cold War is pretty casual in Turkey--both sides let the other keep tabs. Bey is ready to assist Bond with the plan, getting blueprints of the Russian consulate and organizing the meet between Bond and the Russian girl. She's recruited by Klebb for the scheme and is happy to serve the Motherland. She goes to Bond's hotel where they have a romantic evening which is surreptitiously filmed by SPECTRE. Bond and Tatiana plan to meet at a mosque the next day so she can give Bond a map of the Russian consulate.
Before the mosque meeting, Bey is almost killed by a bomb at the British office. Bond goes to the meeting where a Russian agent almost interferes with Tatiana's dropoff. The blonde guy Grant is there and kills the Russian agent, assuring that Bond will get the information he needs. Bond returns to Bey's place to find the near assassination. Bey decides Bond needs to go somewhere other than his hotel so he takes Bond to a Gypsy camp for the night. The Gypsy hosts are very nice and the belly dancer from the opening credits shows up as entertainment. The other entertainment is two women fighting each other over one of the Gypsy chieftain's sons. This catfight is interrupted when the Russians show up and try to kill Bey. Bond helps the Gypsies fight the Russians and is saved at a critical moment by Grant, who is hiding in the wings, making sure the plan stays on track. After the Russians are driven away, Bond asks the grateful Gypsy chieftain to stop the cat fight. The chieftain lets Bond settle the dispute, ensuring he has company for the night.
The next day, Bond and Bey make plans to take out one of the Russians in a humorous revenge scene. Once that's done, they start the plan to extract Tatiana and the Lektor from the consulate. Bey uses an underground reservoir to blow up part of the consulate. Bond sneaks in and gets the girl and the gizmo. They escape through the hole in the floor created by the explosion.
Soon enough they are on a train to the West with a plan for one of Bey's sons to meet them near Trieste. They discover a Russian on the train and get the drop on him. Bey holds the Russian hostage while Bond hangs out with Tatiana, who pretends to be his bride (and really gets into the act). Grant is on the train as well. He kills Bey and the Russian. Then he impersonates the Trieste contact, fooling Bond into thinking he's a British agent. In the dining car, Grant drugs Tatiana's drink. Back at their room, Tatiana passes out. Grant and Bond go into the other half of the compartment where Grant gets the drop on Bond. He tells Bond the whole scheme. Bond tries to bribe Grant, who asks where the money is. Bond says its in his attache case. The case is actually booby-trapped, giving Bond the chance to fight Grant. After a long struggle, Bond succeeds.
Bond then takes Tatiana and uses Grant's escape plan to get back to Venice. He takes Grant's truck and drives to the shore. Along the way he has a fight with a helicopter and (naturally) wins. At the shore, Bond and Tatiana take a boat to Venice. There's a fight with other boats which ends in a spectacular explosion. In Venice, SPECTRE makes a last ditch effort to get the Lektor back by sending Klebb in as a maid to steal it from Bond's hotel room. She winds up fighting with Bond. Tatiana has to choose her loyalty at this point and she chooses Bond, helping him to defeat Klebb. Bond and Tatiana escape in another boat, leaving Venice for England as the title song plays over the end credits.
So is the sequel better? Let's look at some points of comparison.
- SCRIPT--Both movies stick fairly closely to the novels on which they were based. Dr. No was chosen as the first film because of the limited number of locations (thus saving on the budget). I think it was a less interesting story. From Russia With Love has a more going on. The fake-out opening where Bond is killed establishes the deceptions and surprise twists throughout the film. The movie also has a lot of opposed pairs--Bond and Grant, British and Soviets, Bulgarians and Turks, the two Blofeld underlings, Tatiana and Klebb. Also, From Russia With Love is the most normal of the Bond films. It's a Cold War spy film with minimal gadgets and villains who are not over-the-top. The action is realistic and believable (except for Bond shooting the helicopter with his rifle and destroying it, but hey, at least it wasn't a bow and arrow). Advantage From Russia With Love.
- ACTING--Connery is equally good in both films. Bond girls aren't famous for their acting abilities though to be fair they aren't usually given much to work with. Andress in Dr. No has a lot more agency and more character. Bianchi isn't much more than the lure to draw Bond in. She gets some agency at the end but overall is a lesser character. On the other hand, the villains in From Russia With Love are more interesting than Doctor No since they have more than one single plan to execute. Grant and Klebb are fun baddies. Kerim Bey is a more colorful sidekick than Felix Leiter. Advantage From Russia With Love.
- ADVANCES THE STORY/MYTHOLOGY-- Dr. No has a lot of the Bond tropes already in it: the iconic gunbarrel-view opening; the iconic score; the artsy opening credits (though it's all abstract images); Bond beds several women; the villain has a cavernous secret base; SPECTRE is introduced; his American counterpart, Felix Leiter, starts his long career. From Russia With Love adds in the pre-credits sequence which, unlike in later Bond films, actually has to do with the main plot. The movie also establishes the scantily-clad female dancing during the opening credits. Viewers see a little more of SPECTRE's organization. The Cold War is more specifically brought into the plot which became a mainstay for the first twenty years of Bond films. Advantage From Russia With Love.
- SPECIAL EFFECTS--Both movies are before the Bond franchise started going over the top with villain plans and secret agent gadgets. The stunt work and explosions make for a convincing and enjoyable action film in both cases. Advantage neither.
Dr. No is a fine film and well worth watching. It's just From Russia With Love successfully ups the ante in so many ways. SPECTRE's scheme is more interesting and credible. The larger budget meant Venice and Turkey had a lot more going on than the limited Caribbean island locations. The girl was less interesting but the villains and the allies were more interesting. It's easy to choose which film to watch between the two.
The third film, Goldfinger, established the "Bond formula" for the format and tone of the films that remained more or less unbroken until the 2006 Casino Royale. But that's a story for another review.
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