Dr. No and From Russia With Love

Amid barrels of burning gasoline, cars crashing down jagged hillsides, and gorgeous women quivering their lips seductively, James Bond has returned to Cambridge.

James Bond is a natural-born gambler, and herein lies his appeal. Bond first appears in Dr. No dressed suavely in a tuxedo (Bond always first appears dressed in a tuxedo) at a gaming table in London. The casino represents his natural habitat, and his missions only draw him away from where he actually belongs

The same gambling spirit pervades Bond's work. When he craftily discovers that a government secretary is spying for Dr. No, he invites him self to her home. Other secret agents would merely have had her arrested, but. Bond grabs his situations as firmly as he grabs his women. By so staking his life, he succeeds in catching a second culprit.

The plot of From Russia With Love is based on Bond's gaming instinct. The chief of an underworld organization called SPECTRE calculates that the carrot of a secret Russian decoding machine along with a sensuous blond would be more than 007 could resist. By eliminating his enemies for him, SPECTRE attempts to build his confidence in his own luck until he finally overplays his hand. But they fail to consider that James Bond is that special kind of gambler, he always wins.

With our post-Goldfinger perspective, we can observe the evolution of technique in the Bond series, Ian Fleming wrote novels rich in particular detail, such as the sensation of driving a sports car or sipping vintage wine. In Dr. No, the first film adaptation, these details are carried over with little success, for taste or tactile impressions are difficult to transmit by film.

From Russia with Love includes a healthy serving of such details, but now they are bound up in situations. For example, Bond recognizes a SPECTRE agent when the boor orders red wine with fish. The motorboat chase gains tremendously when an overhead shot reveals several SPECTRE boats closing in on Bond's boat from all directions. In this way the thrill of the speedboat becomes frosting rather than the cake itself.

As Bond continues his adventures on the movie screen, the budgets of the films steadily climb. The producers were hesitant about investing in Dr. No, but the success of From Russia with Love tempted them to pour millions into the special effects of Goldfinger and even more into the forthcoming Thunderball. The elaborate settings are half the fun of James Bond pictures, and J suspect that their mounting ventures will, like Bond's own, surely pay off.