Dr. No

Dr. No introduced the James Bond formula that has been a box-office fixture ever since. An explosive cocktail of action, spectacle, and sex, the film transformed popular cinema. James Chapman provides a lively and comprehensive study of Dr. No , marshaling a wealth of archival research to place the film in its historical moment.

Dr. No: The First James Bond Film by James Chapman is particularly well researched. I especially appreciate the time the author took to dispel myths and legends about the movie. He delved into archives, first-hand sources, as well as unfinished scripts to separate fact from fiction.

Dr. No is a potentially invaluable resource for Bond scholars and cultural historians, as well as Bond fans keen to engage with the films at a more developed level. The lively writing and assured knowledge make the ideas and analysis feel fresh and revelatory. Chapman investigates and interrogates the many myths and half-truths surrounding the making of the film and the relationships between the key players in order to fully reassess the reputations and reception of the film both at its time of release and now.

An impressive and thoroughly enjoyable book. More than twenty years after the landmark volume Licence to Thrill , the author’s latest contribution to the field is meticulously researched and engagingly written. Merging the rigor of the historian with the enthusiasm of the aficionado and consistently illuminated by fresh archival discoveries, Chapman’s Dr. No reminds us that, in the field of Bond studies, nobody does it better.

The reward of James Chapman’s inquiry is that it explains how and why Dr. No "got it right" from the start while considering the “first” Bond film as a text on its own. Excavating a wealth of primary research, Chapman spearheads the archival and industrial turn in Bond studies to arrive at a new understanding of the ongoing appeal of the James Bond franchise.

James Chapman's brilliant-realised study of the first Eon-produced James Bond film is a testament not only to the current renaissance of James Bond studies as a field but also the cultural significance of Dr. No in its own right, a film that arguably spawned the modern franchise blockbuster as we know it. Of course, Chapman's rigorous scholarship is the primary draw, here; he proves, once again, that, when it comes to matters of James Bond, "nobody does it better." Dr. No: The First James Bond Film breaks new ground, here, and is likely to pave the way for subsequent "deep-dive" scholarly examinations of specific films in the Bond series. This is film and cultural history scholarship at its finest.

James Chapman is professor of film studies at the University of Leicester and editor of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television . His books include Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films (second edition, 2007), Hitchcock and the Spy Film (2018), and The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945–1985 (2022).