Dr No

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General		Extras
Category	Bond	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 4 - TT x 2, Dr No/From Russia With Love, Goldfinger/Dr No
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	Yes, 2 x Goldfinger / Dr No (TV trailers)
Year Released	1962	Commentary Tracks	Yes, 1 - Terence Young (Director) et al
Running Time	105:12 minutes	Other Extras	Menu Audio & Animation Featurette - Inside Dr No Featurette - Terence Young: Bond Vivant Featurette - 1963 Dr No Featurette B&W Radio Ads (6) The Dr No Gallery (Production Notes, Gallery, Posters)
RSDL/Flipper	RSDL (83:20)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	2,4	Director	Terence Young
Studio Distributor	Fox Home Entertainment	Starring	Sean Connery Ursula Andress Joseph Wiseman Jack Lord Bernard Lee Anthony Dawson Lois Maxwell
RRP	$34.95	Music	John Barry Monty Norman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Dolby Digital	Dolby Digital 2.0
16x9 Enhancement		Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, 192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, 192Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	1.66:1 (Europe) 1.85:1 (USA)	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes	Smoking	Yes
Subtitles	English English For The Hearing Impaired	Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Unlike the martini-swilling Bond himself, the plot to Dr No is not too sophisticated. We have your good old-fashioned evil villain doing things only they know why, which in this case is to prevent U.S. missiles from reaching their destined targets using a sophisticated heat beam which we call a "laser". Yes, Dr No even wears quasi-futuristic clothing and lives in an underground lair, as should all truly inspired evil villains. Bond's assignment is simple: stop Dr No, get with as many girls as possible whilst doing it, and at all costs - and this is important - do not wrinkle your tailored suit. Not to stress this point, but during production, Sean Connery actually slept in his expensive suit in order that he felt "at one" with it.

    Okay, the effects are a bit rough. Take the instance of a large and deadly Tarantula walking up Bond's arm during one scene. It wouldn't be too bad if the glass the spider was walking on wasn't pressed so tightly against Sean's arm, which turns white in the process. Then, take the car-chase scenes with the appallingly bad projection scenery, which if anything is actually quite funny to watch. Ever wonder where Intel got its inspiration for people running around in silly multi-coloured costumes? You won't after seeing Dr No's minions at work in his nuclear-powered lair. It's all good stuff, and since this movie is tongue-in-cheek anyway, you can feel free to enjoy it, which I certainly did.

    This is a jolly good start to things, and I for one am looking forward to seeing the next instalment. If it is as good as this DVD, then I think it is safe to say that I will be a Bond convert! Now, does that mean I have to drink Martinis? (shudder).

Video

    The movie is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.

    The first thing which struck me about this transfer was its clarity. The image is very clear, with sharp definition. Wherever you look you will find a level of detail which matches and in many cases exceeds many contemporary transfers, and puts a lot to shame. This is helped in no small way by a total absence of edge enhancement - there simply isn't any, and it lends the image a film-like quality. There is grain visible, slightly more than you would find in modern transfers, but nothing that is intrusive, and if anything it reminds you that this is film anyway, and old film at that. One thing which did give the age of the movie away was the shadow detail. Whilst it is acceptable most of the time, there were instances where much was lost, especially during scenes featuring simulated night-time conditions, something which has never traditionally been handled well anyway, and I dare say it would have looked equally poor in the cinema at the time.

    Another aspect of the transfer which betrayed its age was the colour palette, which just seemed a little dated-looking. Flesh tones were slightly off, and in general colours were undersaturated; if the contrast of this transfer had been turned up a notch or two I suspect that this would have improved the situation somewhat. However, given the age of the movie, the colour palette is very good with no chroma noise, bleeding or any problems of any kind.

    There were no MPEG artefacts to mar the presentation, and this is a fine compression job given the ever-present low-level film grain. Film artefacts were present throughout the movie, mostly being tiny flecks now and then, but sometimes they were rather large. Now and then a frame would be lost and the film would skip a beat, and it is hard to say whether this is as a result of the editing of the time. I counted two instances of aliasing, both from the front grille of the same car, and in this respect the transfer is outstanding.
 

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain
Film-to-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Dialogue was quite good, though there were occasions when it was difficult to make out some words spoken. Sync was occasionally poor, though given that much of the dialogue was re-recorded, including everything that came out of Ursula Andress' lips, it is a wonder they managed to keep everything as tight as they did. There were also a couple of instances when M's dialogue sounded deliberately altered, especially when he mentions "MI-6". Was this done on purpose at the time? Maybe.

    The sound is not what you might call high-fidelity, and sound recording techniques were on the primitive side in 1962 to say the least. If you have ever seen pictures of recording studios of the day, you might shudder. Imagine huge grey-metal boxes with great dials and levers and clunky switches much like something out of a Dr Who episode, and you would be close. It is therefore a testament to the producers of this DVD that the sound is as good as it is, and it is well acceptable for this vintage of movie. Whilst the sound source is mono (as you might expect), the producers have decided to place the same source into the left and right speakers. I am not a fan of this practice, and would rather have a simple mono 1.0 soundtrack since imaging tends to be a bit wishy-washy otherwise. To counter this, I placed my receiver in Pro-Logic mode, and all was well - not that there was much for the processor to do, but it does firmly place the sound central to the image.

    The sound was never shrill or bright, although the frequency spread was rather thin, with little use of the lower frequencies. The subwoofer was never used apart from the end, where Dr No's lair is destroyed, and my subwoofer was awakened and fair leaped into the air with a start.
 

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use	N/A
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu (16x9 enhanced)

Featurette - Inside Dr No (42:07)

Featurette - Terence Young: Bond Vivant (17:55)

Featurette - 1963 Dr No (B&W) (8:18)

Trailers

    Theatrical Trailers

    Trailer #1 (3:12) - 1.78:1 and 16x9 enhanced, this would have been stylish for its time, and is interesting and of fairly good quality.
    Trailer #2 (3:07) - 1.33:1, non-16x9, B&W, this is the reverse and is almost unwatchable, suffering severe film artefacting and strangled audio. Even though it is in bad shape, its inclusion is still welcome.
    Dr No / From Russia With Love (1:55) - 1.33:1, non-16x9, this is a combination trailer touting the screening of these two movies back to back.
    Goldfinger / Dr No (2:12) - 1.33:1, non-16x9, same as above.

    TV Trailers

Radio Ads

The Dr No Gallery

Audio Commentary

    The video transfer is stunning for its age, and will surely please.

    The soundtrack is wanting in fidelity and is monaural. Still, it does the job.

    An extensive collection of extras on a very well produced disc, this is a reference example of how well a DVD can be authored. Congratulations to the team responsible.
 

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall