Dr. No

(Terence Young, UK/US 1962, 110 min., 35mm)

With a mix of sly wit and thrilling espionage action, this first film in the legendary James Bond franchise laid the foundation for all that was to follow. A power-hungry scientist named Dr. No is terrorizing Cape Canaveral from his secret base in Jamaica. When the chief of British intelligence on the island disappears, the capable and suave James Bond 007 (embodied by the capable and suave Sir Thomas Sean Connery) is sent to investigate, where he joins forces with superstitious but loyal islander Quarrel and seminal Bond Girl Honey Ryder. Never quite a serious Cold War spy film and never quite a farce, Dr. No, with the vision of director Terence Young, established the tongue-in-cheek tone that became the distinguishing mark of the next forty-plus years of Bond.