From Russia with Love (1963) (Revised Review)

Composed by John Barry

Ian Fleming’s novel From Russia with Love made President John F. Kennedy’s top ten book list. It was thus natural that it would be one of the first James Bond novels to make it to the big screen. The movie sported twice as large a budget as its predecessor Dr. No and it shows in more visually appealing locations and a little more in the way of action scenes. From Russia with Love is one of my top three Bond films. It’s tightly placed, actually improves on the novel’s plot, and starts to nail down the franchise formula while still being a proper spy thriller. It was also the first movie to be officially scored by the franchise’s number one composer, John Barry.

Barry had assisted with Dr. No, allegedly being the one to properly arrange the James Bond theme. For From Russia with Love he does not quite nail down his own consistent style for the franchise, but makes great strides towards it. Most of the music is more properly orchestral this time around. There is still ethnic source-style material on the album, such as the atmospheric “Guitar Lament” and the playful yet somehow suspenseful “Leila Dances.” John Barry also seemed inspired by Istanbul when it came to scoring many pieces. But there is also proper themes and variations that were woefully absent from Dr. No.

Dr. No (1962) (Revised Review)

 

Composed by: Monty Norman (with an assist from John Barry)

Dr. No is the sixth novel in Ian Fleming’s series of British spy novels, but the first in the James Bond film series. After the assassination of several MI-6 agents in Jamaica, agent 007 James Bond (Sean Connery) is assigned to investigate. The trail leads him to an insidious plot by Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman), who is considerably toned down from his Fu Manchu-like roots in the novel into a scientist working for international criminal organization SPECTRE. It didn’t quite have the formula of the series down yet. There was no pre-credits sequence, no frustrated Q, and no fantastic gadgets for Bond (but a couple for the titular villain). It’s a solid spy thriller that was good enough to ensure a couple sequels, which in turn catapulted James Bond into an iconic movie franchise.

Among the elements that hadn’t been nailed down yet was the music, which moreso in the 007 franchise has been important. Compared to the \brassy and romantic scores that John Barry would establish as the regular standard, Monty Norman’s Dr. No’s score is almost entirely made up of Jamaican and Caribbean style music, much of it acting as source cues, and so-so orchestral suspense. There’s not even a proper theme song, a surety in following Bond films. The music covering the opening credits is four different cues spliced together in near-haphazard fashion.