“If you carry a 00 number it means you’re licensed to kill … not get killed.”
1961 was a pretty big year for many of us. In the NFL one of the new teams entering the league was one in Minnesota called the Vikings, and they would draft a quarterback named Fran Tarkenton as one of their first acts. I was born that June, and a couple of weeks later one of the most important deals ever made in Hollywood was consummated. EON Productions had just been formed as the partnership between Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and their partnership started off with a bang when they acquired the film rights to Ian Fleming’s British secret agent, James Bond. Fleming’s first choice to play his spy was Roger Moore, who later did take over the role, but long after Fleming had died. Sean Connery would fill that role nicely, and within a short period of time Fleming was on board with Connery in the title role.
Sean Connery, for me at least, will always be the James Bond by which every other version will be measured. He is still my favorite, followed closely by (now don’t laugh) Timothy Dalton. Unfortunately I count Daniel Craig and Roger Moore as the lower versions of the spy. Dr. No is the perfect example of why Connery was so good in the role. He wore it as comfortably as the tailored suits that his alter-ego so cherished. Each line was natural and spoken with such ease that it’s honestly hard to define where Connery ends and Bond begins. Many of the flippant one-liners were Connery’s own contribution to the character. Next to Connery, you really have to credit director Terrence Young with creating the Bond we know from the films. By all accounts he was every bit as cultured and suave as Bond himself. The balding middle-aged director wasn’t all that good-looking, but he had a charm and magnetism that made him the ladies’ man that we associate with Bond. Connery himself credits Young with providing the overall persona that his character would inhabit. From his manner of speech to his impeccable dress, Terrence Young might have been more James Bond than Ian Fleming himself.
Now MGM/Amazon has released the entire 6-film collection of the “official” Sean Connery James Bond films on one collection. It’s one of the best collection’s I’ve seen all year, and you might consider this gem for an early Christmas present. Knock of few people off your list now, and save that December time for sipping eggnog and watching a few of the better Christmas television specials. Beats going out in to that crazy traffic looking for an elusive better gift, which you won’t find. It’s a mission I don’t think we’d send Bond himself out to accomplish. Just do it now. You’ll thank me later.
Here’s what you get:
Dr. No (1962)
“SPECTRE – Special Executive for Counter Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, Extortion. The four great cornerstones of power headed by the greatest brains in the world.”
James Bond first appeared in the pages of Ian Fleming’s novel Casino Royale. Fleming was himself a former British Intelligence Officer and had been engaged in what he liked to call “shenanigans” in that role. He admits that many of Bond’s tastes are lifted from his own experiences. It can be safe to say that Ian Fleming was as much James Bond as any of the men who have played him. The books were written one a year during his 2-month vacation as a news writer. He would escape to his vacation home in Jamaica during those 6-8 weeks and in short order produce a Bond adventure. It’s likely not a small coincidence that the first Bond film would feature the island location predominantly as its setting. While Dr. No wasn’t the first Bond novel, it was considered one of the easiest to film, and that’s very likely true. Still, Dr. No features for the first time on film many of the trademark Bond elements, all of which are essential parts of any Bond film decades later. There are the lavish locations and settings. Dr. No would originate a long line of over-the-top Bond villains, usually content with nothing less than global domination. The stylish title sequence with the gun barrel open is already firmly in place, as is the tremolo-heavy guitar riff that still signals the arrival of 007 even now. And, of course, there are the “Bond Girls”, beginning with one of the all-time best in Ursula Andress. Her emerging from the waters to the beach of Crab Key has become an iconic Bond moment, even later reproduced by Halle Berry in Die Another Day. Dr. No might not be the very best of the Bond films, but it is certainly in the top 5. Finally, it can’t be argued that it set the tone for each of the films that followed and will continue to follow.
It’s not just Bond that makes Dr. No the unmitigated classic it is. The casting was near perfect. Again, it was Young who could visualize these parts like no one else could. He cast Connery even though few knew his name at that time. Andress was known only as a model and not as an actress at that time, but who can argue with her placement in the film? It would have been easy to cast merely a body or look, but she develops wonderful chemistry with Connery, making her more than mere eye candy. Jack Lord would later rule another island paradise on television as McGarrett, but here he becomes the first of many to play Bond’s CIA friend, Felix. Lois Maxwell starts her long running stint as M’s flirtatious secretary, Moneypenny. Joseph Wiseman takes his place in Bond history as the first of Bond’s eccentric bad guys and our first glimpse of the evil organization SPECTRE. Finally, Bernard Lee is still the longest running M in the franchise. All of these casting elements add the essential believability to the mix. If the audience had been unwilling to stay for the ride, think of all of the later Bond adventures we would have missed out on.
We are first introduced to James Bond at a gaming table, sparring with the intended franchise regular Sylvia Trench (Gayson). It was expected she would be the steady girl in his life, but that plan was scrapped after just the first two films. While Trench didn’t become the character that many intended, she does elicit for the first time our hero’s trademark, “Bond; James Bond”. Called away from the tables, Bond is informed that another 00 agent has broken contact and is feared killed. When Bond flies to Jamaica to look into the incident, an attempt is made on his life by an agent posing as his chauffeur. On the island Bond meets up with a CIA operation that is also looking into strange events on a neighboring island, Crab Key. It is here that 006 was taking geological samples when he was killed. On the Island Bond discovers naïve “island girl” Honey Ryder, who is able to get him around the secretive installation. Of course, they’re captured and treated to the hospitality of Dr. No, a disfigured man who lost his hands in a radioactive experiment. He has built a massive underground facility where he intends to sabotage American missiles and eventually control the world. Bond has to save himself, the girl, oh, and the world, before the facility explodes.
For most of you, Dr. No will likely appear awfully dated and perhaps irrelevant. It is my hope that bringing these films to HD in this restored form will allow the more recent generations of Bond fans to explore and finally fully appreciate Bond’s origins. It’s amazing how many of the conventions are still with us over 22 films and almost 50 years. So yes, the film is terribly dated, but in some ways it is still very relevant. There aren’t really the gizmos and gadgets that became a staple over the years, but you get Bond here in his most human form. If you think about it, have Bond’s missions changed that much over the years? The means may change and the faces morph into more modern heroes, but the motivations are still the same. “Global domination, the same old dream.”
From Russia With Love (1963)
“They follow us. We follow them. It’s a sort of understanding we have here … very friendly.”
James Bond had finally arrived with the publication of From Russia With Love. It would become one of Fleming’s most popular books. It didn’t hurt that President John Kennedy gave a list of his 10 favorite books of all time, and this one was on it. It was a natural follow-up for EON to film. There was a surge in popularity of Cold War films and books at the time, and this one fit more than most of them did. Just having Russia in the title was good for a couple extra million at the box office. Fortunately, the team of Sean Connery and Terrance Young were on board early for this film.
You would think that with the extraordinary success of Dr. No, doing the second Bond film would be much easier. You would be wrong. The production of From Russia With Love was plagued by problems. A car delivering some of the stars to the set crashed, nearly injuring Daniela Bianchi in the process. Connery did suffer an injury, albeit a minor one, on the set. There were quite a few stunt mishaps, and equipment problems constantly haunted the production. Pedro Armendariz, who played Bond’s partner Ali Karim Bey, was diagnosed with terminal cancer during the production. The crew had to scrap the intended schedule and film all of his parts while it was still possible. Days after he finished, he checked into a UCLA medical facility and killed himself with a gun. Ian Fleming himself would pass away during the production of the film. These events caused there to be constant rewrites, and Bianchi hadn’t even been cast before shooting began. One of the Bond traditions that would emerge because of the chaos was the now-traditional split credits. A scene was inserted before the lavish title scene which is now the standard for Bond films. In spite of such a tumultuous production, From Russia With Love would become one of the best Bond films to date.
Sean Connery returns to the role he originated in Dr. No. He’s noticeably more comfortable, and so Bond is noticeably more comfortable. In this film we also get to see the inside workings of the SPECTRE organization that would be a thorn in Bond’s side for generations to come. The organization was hinted at in the previous film but is a major player here. This film also diverges quite significantly from Fleming’s original story. Fleming had this a Cold War thriller with the main bad guys being the Soviets. In the film, SPECTRE is the one pulling the strings in an attempt to ignite a hot war between the USSR and the West. Here a Soviet operative, Tatiana Romanova (Bianchi) is tricked into thinking she is working for her country. She is to bait James Bond (Connery) into coming to Istanbul using the promise of a Soviet decoding machine to lure him there. Bond knows he’s walking into a trap, but even the remote chance of getting the decoding machine is too much of a temptation to resist. The intent is to kill agents of both sides while making the other party look responsible. Getting Bond is just a bonus as revenge for his killing Dr. No. Of course, all of their attempts on Bond fail, and failure is quickly punished in SPECTRE, as you’ll see. The film’s climax occurs as Bond and Tatiana attempt to get the machine out of Istanbul on the Orient Express while a SPECTRE assassin’s mission is to stop them.
Again there’s a solid cast here. Robert Shaw shines as the hit man, Red Grant. He doesn’t really say that much, but he certainly shows us that he means business. It’s often an underrated role for Shaw. Bianchi fits well as the new “Bond Girl”. And while she may not have the looks of Andress, she holds her own pretty well. The standout role has to be for SPECTRE’s Number Three, Lotte Lenya, playing Rosa Klebb. She reminds me of one of those sadistic nuns I ran into in Catholic school years ago armed with a metal edged ruler and a scowl that can curdle milk. Eunice Gayson returns for the final time as Sylvia Trench. The most important addition to this cast, however, is the first appearance by the adorable Desmond Llewelyn as the inventive Q. Llewelyn would continue to appear in every official Bond film thereafter until his tragic death in an automobile accident in 1999. While it’s true that all of his appearances amount to less than an hour of film time, he soon became the heart of the Bond franchise and is still missed. His character would introduce us to all of the gadgets that Bond was going to use on the current mission. This would also be the first time that the end credits feature the familiar: “James Bond will return …” tag. Up until recent years it would even tell you what the name of the next Bond film would be, until they finally ran out of Fleming books to film.
Even with all of the troubles the production encountered, these first two films form a nearly complete definition for James Bond that would carry over for now 20 more films to come. The addition of Q Branch and Llewelyn’s own charm completes the Bond mythology. It was a very small role, particularly in this one, but it helped to define a franchise. I can’t tell you how happy I am to see these films finally in HD with such tenderly restored images. For me, it’s as if James Bond has been reborn, and now I’ve got 20 more films to see as if for the first time. Each film built us up for the next one, revealing just a little more of the world of James Bond. “It’s the old game; give a wolf a taste and keep him coming back.”
Goldfinger (1964)
“My dear girl, there are some things that just aren’t done, such as drinking Dom Perignon ’53 above the temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s just as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs!”
I think for many fans Goldfinger literally set the “gold” standard for future Bond films. This one had everything, and still today Auric Goldfinger is one of film’s best bad guys. Orson Welles was initially tapped to play the exotic villain, and that was very much pushed by Ian Fleming himself. Welles was keen to take on the part, and he would have been great, but he just wanted too much money and control. He also insisted on a piece of the profits, something Connery got to make his demands work out. One has to understand that at this time these were pretty much independent films with limited budgets. They were not the kinds of huge productions they would soon become. But let’s be a little honest here. Gert Frobe did a wonderful job, along with his amazing henchman Odd Job with the killer derby hat. Harold Sakata played this iconic Bond bad guy, and Goldfinger survives today as an essential Bond film.
“Man has climbed Mount Everest, gone to the bottom of the ocean. He’s fired rockets at the Moon, split the atom, achieved miracles in every field of human endeavor… except crime!”
In this case we have a bad guy who isn’t out to take over the world. With a name like his, he collected tons of gold in his life, but he wants to increase its value. So he has his eyes on Fort Knox, but not to steal the gold there, but to contaminate it with radiation, thus making it unusable. The new gold shortage makes his cut much sweeter.
The film sports one of the most iconic of Bond Girls, with Honor Blackmon as the Fleming classic Pussy Galore. She’s more that a pretty face and body. She’s a great pilot and runs her own flying circus made up of all female pilots. Her fleet is how Goldfinger intends to take Fort Knox by storm. Of course, leave it to Bond to change a lady’s mind, and another global plot is stopped. Goldfinger kills a woman by painting her entire nude body in gold paint. The idea is she died from skin “suffocation”. Not only does that not really happen, but for years there has been this urban myth out there that the actress died on the set. Not only isn’t that true, but actress Shirley Eaton is the last surviving cast member from the film today.
Unfortunately, Fleming never saw Goldfinger make it to the big screen. He was alive for production but died before the film was released. He was only 56 years old, but he left us with one of the most popular film characters of all time. Heck, the books aren’t too bad either.
You can create and build a time machine to go back and enjoy this film for the first time on a big screen, or you can pick up these discs and get a pretty good look at some film classics. What’s your poison? “As for me, I prefer the easy way.”
Thunderball (1965)
“You may now open the folders in front of you. Code name: Thunderball. As you can see, we have very little to go on. All the members of the crew had top security clearance. You’ll find their photographs and service records in your files. You’ll be working with NATO, CIA, and all allied intelligence units. Well, that’s all – until you’ve discussed your individual assignments with me.”
Thunderball was actually the first James Bond story that began life, not as a Fleming novel, but a film screenplay. Long before Harry Saltzman acquired the film rights to the novels, Fleming himself considered bringing Bond to film. He worked with screenwriter Kevin McCoy to write an original James Bond film. Fleming eventually grew discouraged trying to make the film, and the story elements were used to create a new Bond novel instead. When the book was released, Kevin McCoy realized that he had created many of these story elements and sued for his share of the credit and money. This would make the Thunderball story a unique one in the James Bond collection. The rights issues would extend all the way into the 1980’s when another production company would attempt to make a Bond film of their own, starring no less than the original Sean Connery. The result was Never Say Never Again, which would begin life tied up in the English court system for years before seeing a release. It was Kevin McCoy, the awarded co-author, who would pen the remake script and therefore allow the “unauthorized” James Bond thriller to be made. It would be the only one that could be made, since Fleming’s estate and therefore EON Productions still owned not only all of the remaining 007 stories but the character itself, halting even other original stories filmed by other parties. Thunderball was also intended by EON as the first picture, but the rights issues at the time made it unavailable, leading to Dr. No being produced instead.
SPECTRE is at it again. This time they have surgically altered the appearance of a man to look exactly like a NATO officer. This impostor would be used to gain access to a test flight of a bomber carrying two nuclear bombs. The plane is hijacked and landed under the sea, where SPECTRE’s number two, Largo (Celi), uses his swank yacht to recover the bombs. Largo then delivers a ransom demand, promising to use the bombs on an American and British city if he is not paid a million pounds sterling. Unfortunately for SPECTRE, the hospital where the agent imposter recovered from his surgery had another agent recuperating there; Bond, James Bond. 007 immediately recognizes the NATO officer’s face in the mission file photographs as a man who was killed at the medical facility. Of course, Bond himself was nearly killed in that investigation. Bond decides his best course of action is to go to Nassau, where the real NATO officer’s sister, Domino (Auger), is living. She’s an attractive girl. Why does Bond always get the rough assignments? There he makes contact with the spear-totin’ diving-expert girl, who also happens to be the ward of Bond’s number one suspect, Largo. The usual sparring and investigation take place, and, naturally, Bond finds himself in a few lethal jams along the way. Bond gets help from his old CIA buddy, Felix (Van Nutter), and Q (Llewelyn) shows up with some rather nice toys for 007 to play with. Together Bond and Domino manage to stop Largo and his plan to destroy Miami.
Thunderball is became one of the most spectacular productions of a Bond film up to that time. A large portion of the movie is filmed underwater using armies of good and bad guys handling science-fiction-like personal subs and sleds. The task of directing these crucial underwater scenes fell to Ricou Browning, who was no stranger to underwater adventure himself. The expert swimmer and former stunt man played the Creature in all three Creature From The Black Lagoon films for Universal as the underwater version of the Gillman. Browning put his decades of underwater knowledge to good use, creating one of the most stunning underwater action sequences of all time. There’s no question that these sequences brought James Bond films to a new level. These kinds of scenes would come again in Bond films, but never to this extent. Terrance Young returned after a one film absence to direct the film. Unfortunately this would be Young’s final go at the character, but he made it one of the most visually stunning Bonds to date. Ken Adams also returned to the Bond fold, scouting locations and designing the grand sets used for the picture. Largo’s home, complete with shark pool, is one of the most memorable villain lairs in Bond history. Largo’s yacht was an amazing two-piece affair that featured a large catamaran and a detachable hydrofoil in front. Of course, the Bond crew made excellent use of more exotic locations, including France, Miami, and Nassau, and plenty of open-ocean action.
Once again the production crew for Thunderball put together a rather impressive cast. Sean Connery returns to the title role. We have the familiar faces of M (Lee), Moneypenny (Maxwell), and lovable Q (Llewelyn). The main bad guy, Largo, is played with a definite flair by Adolfo Celi. We get two “Bond Girls” to play with here. Largo’s associate from SPECTRE, Fiona Volpe, is played by Italian actress Luciana Paluzzi, who originally auditioned for the role of Bond’s girl Friday, Domino, who was played by Claudine Auger. I think they got it right, as Volpe is more character, while Domino is more body. We expect Bond to eventually end up with the better-looking girl, don’t we? This time the ever-changing face of CIA Agent Felix Leiter is played by Rik Van Nutter.
While Thunderball was visually one of the best Bonds, it was a slight disappointment coming after Goldfinger, considered one of the best Bonds to date. I think the expectations with the return of Terrance Young were too high, and the enormous success of Goldfinger created its own built in expectations. The film runs entirely too long and lingers too much on the underwater action. The story’s a pretty good one that holds up today and begins with a lot of promise. It appears that somewhere in the film the emphasis shifted to a “look how cool this all is” aspect and dropped the ball on story development. The chases through the street festival, as are all of these kinds of sequences, appear to drag the film’s momentum. This is one James Bond that required some mission briefing.
I like Thunderball. I like all of the Sean Connery Bond films, but this was one of my least favorites. Part of the problem, I discovered, is that in my mind I have confused elements from this film and its remake. Somehow I have combined elements and so found watching this version again less familiar to me in this form. Now, that’s my problem, and not one with the film itself, except to say that it should have stood out on its own. I’ve seen plenty of remakes over the years and usually have little trouble keeping them separate in my mind. The film runs entirely too long. Still, it’s always a hoot just watching Connery play the character, and that more than anything else makes this film worth having in the new UHD transfer. There’s just something about the Connery Bond. “He obviously has a highly developed sense of … shall we say drama?”
You Only Live Twice (1967)
“Now that you’re dead, perhaps some of your friends will pay a little less attention to you for a while. Give you more elbow room. You need it.”
This one starts out with James Bond being assassinated. Of course, we know it’s not real. We’ve already seen Bond get killed only to find out it was a mock-up so the bad guys could practice taking him out. Now it’s his own agency that fakes his death with a wonderful reveal after a burial at sea. It’s one of the better introductions to a Bond mission. The big bad villain of Blofeld was originally cast to be Jan Werrich, but a few weeks later he was suddenly replaced by Donald Pleasence. To this day no one has revealed why the role was recast during the actual production. Pleasence was actually one of the better Blofelds, and I would have loved to see him return in the next film where Bond has a vendetta against his arch-villain and we get to see many “clones” of him, but the role appears to have been always replaced until the recent Daniel Craig films with Waltz in the role for multiple movies.
The film had some competition with itself when it was released. Columbia Pictures released Casino Royale, which is not to be confused with the Daniel Craig Bond film of the same name. It was a spoof with Peter Sellers, and the “real” James Bond doesn’t appear as a character. The big joke is that several people claim to be James Bond. Fortunately, EON took advantage of the event and produced a PR campaign reminding folks that the real James Bond would appear in this film.
This film was still low-budget, but it was starting to increase. It was filmed for $10 million and was one of the few films released with quadraphonic sound in select theaters.
Up until this time Richard Maibaum was active on all of the James Bond scripts, but Cubby wanted to freshen the franchise a little, so he wasn’t invited to join this film. EON was already working with child’s book author Roald Dahl on the Disney-like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which starred Dick Van Dyke and stole Disney’s songwriters, the Sherman Brothers, to write the catchy songs. It’s obvious they were trying to capture the box office magic of Mary Poppins. So Cubby asked Dahl to take a spin on the Bond franchise, and this was the result. By this time Sean Connery was suffering from Bond fatigue and did not want to continue in the role. He was about to direct his first Broadway show and was looking to freshen up his own career. He was lured back with the promise he would only do two more films in the franchise and a big enough payday to help finance his Broadway play. He made more for this film than the entire budget of Dr. No just five years earlier.
“This is the big one, 007; that’s why I’m out here. I take it you’re fully briefed. This damn thing could blow up into a full-scale war.” This time Bond finds his way to the Orient and a showdown with Blofeld. The bad guys have been capturing American and Russian spaceships and have devised a space-age plan to pit the superpowers against each other. He plans to have the USA and Soviet Union fire nuclear weapons at each other.
This was one of the most elaborate of Blofeld lairs. It took crews working 12-hour shifts around the clock for seven days to build the set. The thing stood 126 feet. It was one of the largest sets ever constructed up until that time.
The film was supposed to take away the gadgets and bring the franchise more down to earth but ended up being a huge, almost sci-fi adventure and would be the last of the films written by Dahl. Of course, the collaboration worked well, and both movies brought in some serious cash. Perhaps it was time to start going bigger. “Japanese proverb say, “Bird never make nest in bare tree.”
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
“I tend to notice little things like that – whether a girl is a blonde or a brunette.”
The time was coming to start thinking about who might replace Sean Connery. Barbara Broccoli was starting to get involved. She would take over with her husband once Cubby passed. She was fond of Adam West and thought his portrayal of the Bruce Wayne part of the Batman show was perfect for an American James Bond. Maybe this was the time to cast the new Bond. Connery had a great idea which put it all on hold for a while. He agreed to do this last film, and he donated his entire salary to the Scottish International Education Trust. Who could resist the great PR and the chance to do one more Sean Connery James Bond movie?
For the first time a Fleming title was used, but this story bore little resemblance to the one in the Fleming novel. Blofeld was not even in the story, but dominates this film. Donald Pleasence was not available, and Charles Gray took over the role, and he wasn’t very good. The film itself is pretty good, but it might have been better to avoid the Blofeld angle.
The film begins with Bond out knocking heads because he wants to get to Blofeld. When he finally tracks him down, he thinks he has killed him, and we all believe we can get to the new story. But Blofeld shows up in multiple ways as a “cloned” guy, who by this time is far more annoying than menacing. Jimmy Dean, the breakfast sausage king and singer, gets to play a huge millionaire Vegas hotel kingpin much like Howard Huges as the guy Blofeld has been impersonating to use the man’s millions to finance his big plot. There was a Sammy Davis, Jr. cameo that was cut, and the film relies on the glitz of Vegas instead of the usual exotic locations. Been there. Done that.
To make things worse, Connery was having a fling with both of his Bond girl actresses, and that created some tension. Both Lana Wood and Jill St. John would be involved, and there was a rather nasty Robert Wagner connection. St. John would end up marrying the guy Lan Wood believed was responsible for the death of her sister. It didn’t help that she had to get thrown in a pool where a girl mistaken for her character was drowned as her sister had been in real life only months earlier.
The film also breaks some barriers in the henchmen here. Bruce Glover plays Mr. Wint, and Putter Smith plays Mr. Kidd. They carry out the assassinations as Bond tries to find out who is behind a diamond mine smuggling operation. They are the ones tasked to take out each link in the chain so that no one gets to Blofeld. They have this off-beat banter of referring to each other as Mr. Wink and Mr. Kidd after some wiseacre remarks about their killing. They are also one of the first rather openly gay characters to appear in a major film like this, and the point is often overlooked in recent conversations of gay characters in the James Bond franchise, with one vocal group lobbying for an openly gay James Bond. They got a major villain, but who is James Bond if not a womanizer, a role that’s likely pushing against the offended crowd of late.
Video
Each Bond film is presented in an aspect ratio. The time has finally come to see these films in a way that hasn’t been possible maybe even in the theaters during their original releases. This benefits from not only a wonderful UHD transfer but the recent 4K restoration from the camera negatives. The result is something far better than I had expected to see. Most impressive of all has to be the films’ flesh tones. They are near reference, and this starts with a 63-year-old film. You notice it in the film’s opening scene where a woman is turning dials on the shortwave. Her hand is so detailed that I see the makeup and her skin pores as well as incredibly realistic color. There are moments of high grain, but you have to remember the film stock and the director’s intent in considering if that’s a flaw or not. Black levels are also simply fantastic. There is a scene where Bond is preparing to sail to Crab Key. It’s rather dark, but just take a look at how the deep blue of the water manages to assert itself even in such low lighting. The picture does tend to get soft at times, but again consider the film stock. Sharpness is better than anything released to date. I think it’s rather remarkable-looking. No Bond fan will have any complaints about these transfers. From Russia With Love is one of the better looking films here. Again I was impressed with the film’s color, particularly flesh tones. Black levels were even more important here, as this film was a decidedly darker film in both tone and actual lighting. There were far more cramped spaces on this one, and more night scenes. If you want to see one of the best examples of black levels delivering solid shadow depth and definition, go to about an hour and nineteen minutes. Here you will see the engine of the train setting out in motion. You get black parts against a black background and in almost complete darkness. Yet you can see the clear definition of each of the parts and the outline of the engine against the night sky. It’s one of the best black level examples of excellence I’ve seen yet. Colors are understandably a little dark, but they manage to come through pretty well every time. Again, grain and sharpness might be considered by some to be defects, but are an inherent part of the cinematic experience.
Audio
Each film sports a new Dolby Atmos audio presentation that defaults to a nice 7.1 track. The quality of the sound is all there, however. From the opening moments of the familiar Bond theme to the dialog, you’re going to get everything you came here for. The dynamic range is considerably stronger than previous releases have provided. Not as much sub as I would have liked, particularly when Dr. No’s facility explodes at the film’s ending, but it pleases just enough.
Special Features
The extras are pretty much ported over archive stuff. Nice to include, but if you have the Blu-rays you already have it all.
Final Thoughts:
I worry about where James Bond is headed. EON has just sold the rights to MGM/Amazon, and that has been cause for alarm with fans all over the world. This release is an absolute step in the right direction. It gives me hope that the past will be honored. We don’t know who will play the spy, and we don’t know what direction the franchise will take. I think a lot of us will be paying attention with a little concern as we hear news start to leak. I hope it will continue strongly, but this will be Bond’s biggest threat yet. While we await that fate, we now have a chance to relive Bond’s beginnings, and that’s OK with me. For now Connery is back as Bond, and everything is right with my fictional world. “One is never too old to learn from a master.”
