Dr. No
60th Anniversary 1962-2022

In addition to Peter Hunt’s ground-breaking editing techniques, and Maurice Binder’s pop art main titles and iconic gun barrel sequence, another innovator was Dubbing Editor Norman Wanstall, who emphasised the sound effects and the bone-crushing blows of the fight scenes to a tremendous degree, and created a whole new sound to go with the flashy visuals. After an enthusiastic sneak preview of Dr. No at the ODEON Kensington in early August, the first James Bond film was then shown at a trade show held at the ODEON Haymarket on the morning of Friday August 31, 1962. Dr. No opened to the public on Friday October 5, 1962, at the London Pavilion cinema on Piccadilly Circus, with the first performance at 10.45am. The London Pavilion was operated by United Artists as their flagship venue to premiere films distributed by the company in the UK until its closure in 1981.

Dr. No then had a Gala Screening at 8.50pm, often mistakenly labelled as the ‘Premiere’. The event was attended by Sean Connery, accompanied by Zena Marshall (Miss Taro in the film), director Terence Young and producers Harry Saltzman & Albert R. Broccoli. Composer Monty Norman was also one of the invited guests. James Bond author Ian Fleming also attended the Dr. No Gala Screening and brought as his special guest the noted playwright and novelist Somerset Maugham (1874-1965). A party was then held at The Milroy Nightclub, housed within Les Ambassadeurs club in London's Mayfair. Swedish actress Anita Ekberg (in London to film the Saltzman/Broccoli produced comedy Call Me Bwana) also attended the screening and after-show party, and is often mistakenly identified as Ursula Andress by press agencies when captioning photographs from the event. Ursula Andress did not attend the Dr. No opening as she was filming Fun In Acapulco (1963) at the time in the USA with Elvis Presley.

Dr. No played exclusively at the London Pavilion for two days before going on release across the UK on Sunday October 7, 1962. The first James Bond film went on to take $424,564 in its first week at 82 cinemas. Still unsure about what they had on their hands, and in an effort to quickly recoup their investment, distributor United Artists chose to release Dr. No ‘day-and-date’ - that is, the film played simultaneously in 198 cinemas across the British Isles concurrently with its West End engagement. The gamble paid off, and within two weeks of release in the UK Dr. No had grossed $840,000 and quickly became one of UA's all-time box-office champions in that market. The film also did outstanding business in Italy, Germany, and other countries on the Continent. Many UK cinemas held the film over for a second, and sometimes third week, causing havoc with booking schedules in the process. At this time cinemas only had one screen, and films were usually booked for only one week in order to give cinemagoers more variety. Such was Dr. No’s popularity that it was frequently rebooked within months of its first screening in many towns and cities.

Selling Dr. No in the USA proved more of a problem for United Artists, who had screened the film for several bookers who doubted they could promote a British film with ‘a Limey truck driver playing the lead’. Sean Connery undertook a promotional tour of four major US cities accompanied by three ‘James Bond Girls’ in the month before starting filming on From Russia With Love (1963). Starting at the ‘SHOW-A-RAMA’ exhibitor’s convention, held at the Hotel Continental in Kansas City on March 5th, 1963, the pair then flew to New York to attend a preview screening of Dr. No at the Astor Theatre, Broadway on Thursday March 7th, followed by a Supper Party at the Tower Suite of the Time-Life Building. The special preview screening has often been called the US ‘premiere’ of Dr. No, and although there were invited celebrity guests including actress Phyllis Newman (1933-2019) and composer & conductor Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), the film would then not screen publicly at the prestigious Astor Theatre until the New York release on May 29, 1963. Sean Connery and United Artists publicist Jerry Juroe then flew to Chicago to meet with press on March 11 and 12, ending the tour in Los Angeles, March 13-15, 1963.

United Artists then released Dr. No in New York as a ‘Premiere Showcase’ attraction in 17 major cinemas (including The Astor - pictured below right) across the city on May 29, 1963. Following this five-week run, UA saturated the metropolitan area by booking Dr. No in 80 cinemas. Call Me Bwana (1963) [also produced by Harry Saltzman & Albert R. Broccoli] replaced Dr. No as the next ‘Premiere Showcase’ attraction; further cementing EON Productions’ success at the US box-office in 1963.

It is interesting to note that the advertising materials for the US release of Dr. No included the now iconic 007 and gun logo that is so emblematic of the franchise - devised by United Artists executive David Chasman and graphic designer Joseph Caroff. Puzzlingly, the logo was not used in the UK advertising campaigns for the Bond films until the release of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969). Production on the second James Bond film From Russia With Love began as Dr. No was enjoying its success in the USA. As had been the case with Ian Fleming’s novels, it took a little while longer for American audiences to embrace James Bond, and From Russia With Love (1963) was not released in the USA until April 1964 - six months after its record-breaking UK debut. By the time of Goldfinger (1964) the USA had caught up with the cultural phenomenon of ‘Bondmania’, and the third 007 adventure became a smash-hit at the end of 1964… and the rest is history.

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