Dr. No: Special Edition #124 (1962) [CC1234L]

NOTE: the original price listed for this set is wrong, when i would go to tower video back in the day
it was a 124.99 set, if it were that cheap my father would have bought this and not the connery box set.

just watched this, took some time since i did watch Dr. NO from the connery box set about 4 or so months ago.
Connery Collection #1: Dr. No/From Russia with Love/Goldfinger [ML102713]

now this review is for the Criterion Dr NO CAV and the box set connery Dr. NO.

BOTH are from film and have cue markers in the corners.

now the picture quality on the CAV Criterion set is darker, a little more read color and has less bass in the audio than the Connery box set.

the Connery box set Dr. NO is a little cleaner but the same film print used. brighter and more bass in the audio.

either is a nice addition to the collection, i personally will keep both the Criterion and the box set.
reason being that if i ever have guests over to watch it i'll put the CLV on, not due to picture quality
but less side changes and i don't want to mess up ones night who may not be used to LD disc changes.

so if you want the films and want the commentary then you must get this CAV set.

i will try and review the other two released by Criterion and the box set soon.

I was just about to post about this same film! I was bored to tears.... Actually sleep...im not a big fan of movies with one on one situations..f.e. A wimpy "regular guy" harrison ford mano a mano at the end of the movie offing the bad guy..... And in this movie there were way too many of these situations..... And not enough cool gadgets to make up for it!!!!

Perhaps if your a little older than me,and were watching Bond pre Roger Moore,no Connery film can go wrong.... But it was tough for me

The highlight of the film for me was the live appearance of Byron Lee and the Dragonaires to the whole crowd doing that new dance craze the ska.

Glad to know however that my pressing stands up to that expensive criterion one.

well, this film was closest to the books by fleming, they didn't have the gadgets etc.
i think all after this one are much better.

i picked up the Criterion CAV goldfinger at a local shop for 3 bucks, then it was on to find the other 2 criterion CAVs
not too bad, dr no was 15 and from russia with love was around 15.

i always wanted them but never got them due to the cost from the commentary, it is a nice addition since
some of the people died after recording the commentary and it's the only way to hear it.

another thing on the CAV Dr. NO that i forgot is at the end of side 2 there are BOND bread commercials that are
really annoying and should have been at the end of side 4.

they are on one of the other two and i'll post that when i watch them.

To be honest I just can't get into the early Connery James Bond films. I mean Connery himself is perfect as Bond but the pacing of these films is dreadfully slow. They all do have some great individual moments and scenes through out (I love the fight in the train at the end of From Russia with Love for example) but overall I just find them boring. Dr No is probably actuelly the best of them from the ones I've seen IMO.

I actually appreciated rein-o's insight as to referencing the book...i read all my Ian Fleming at age 7 before i got into films

thanks jazz, i've just started to read them, i've finished about 4-5 of them.

i got into the books after, but they are very good, some better than the movies and some worse.
all depends on the story.

There's a movie about Ian Fleming's time when he was in the service...i forget what it's called but it is pretty interesting...anyone???

one thing i need to add that is really an odd feature on this set is:
at the end of side 2 the last chapter is a bond bread commercial
very odd to have this after side 2 and ruin the continuity of the film.

Odd to have a bonus feature at the end of a movie side like that, but the extra frames repeated are on a few Criterion CAVs. I thought it was a nice feature, a way of ensuring no loss of frames between side changes and a chance to get back into the film just before where you left off instead of the usual immediate continuation.

If I found one of these for $3 I'd be doing some kind of crazy triumphant pose.

Highly disagree on the idea that the early Bonds are slow paced. In fact I think that the initial films are some of the best cut if not among the two or three best edited films ever made. They're perfect in allowing action/plot to build, develop and climax in just the necessary amount of time. The relative simplicity of DR. NO belies a more heightened sense of reality, bringing the tone closer to Fleming's novel. This is generally recalled as the Terrence Young style, with the GOLDFINGER refined sense of humor being the Guy Hamilton style.
You can't tell that I feel that editor/director Peter Hunt was the series secret weapon. Absolutely genius work that went beyond what Godard tried with BREATHLESS and incorporated fast cutting throughout a narrative feature in all kinds of subtle and not so subtle ways.

I like Dr No because at that point Connery wasn't a star yet and had to speak normally in order to get work. After he became a huge star he went all mush mouthed.

A lot of people think this is a "Scottish accent" but really it's just a totally screwed up speach impediment. Maybe he had a coke overdose or motorcycle accident at some point in the late 60s/early 70s?

i love it.

anyway sdraper, i was really shocked that i was able to get there before you did that day

Every time I get in and check the LD bins it's always battered copies of stuff nobody wants...

But $3 for the CAV Goldfinger??? That is insanely cheap! I always get outbid for these like crazy!

The speech impediment is at its strongest when Connrey got old. Hell even though he was in good shape for his unofficial return in 1983's Never Say Never again, his voice was vastly different to any of the official Bond films he did in the 60's and early 70's.