The Summer of Bond: The Connery Five, a Retrospective
Taking a look at the first five entries in the Bond franchise.
Here at Cinemantics, Amazon’s purchase of creative control of the James Bond franchise inspired us to take a trip through the highs and lows of the 25 film series. It just so happens that May marks the 62nd anniversary of the release of Dr. No, so what better way to commemorate the event than with a retrospective on the Sean Connery years?
Watching the initial run of Sean Connery’s Bond movies is one of the more fun trips through cinematic history. The first film, Dr. No (1962) is Connery doing a toned version of Ian Fleming’s sixth novel in the series — almost like Connery doing Bond as a John le Carre novel. The fifth, You Only Live Twice (1967), cements the official shift of Bond from a toned down spy into the larger than life symbol of the British Empire we know and love today.
So much of Dr. No focuses on Bond’s actions. There’s the great dialogue-less sequence of Bond sweeping his room for bugs upon his arrival in Jamaica. Or the famous poisonous tarantula sequence where we get to see Connery really sweat under pressure. Or Bond lying in wait playing cards while he waits for his target to walk into his trap. The low budget comes through at moments, but Dr. No is a great toned-down film that shows the audience Bond’s competence in spy craft. The iconic moments still sing, but it’s the film’s required restraint that gives it real staying power.
If Dr. No is Bond doing le Carre, From Russia With Love (1963) is Bond doing Hitchcock. The franchise’s second entry is arguably its best. From Russia With Love holds up stunningly well thanks to tight, focused directing from Terence Young and a sharp screenplay from franchise mainstay Richard Maibaum. Take the moment when Red Grant and Bond face off in the train car. In a masterful bit of visual storytelling, Bond manipulates Grant into opening the booby-trapped briefcase as his way out of a seemingly hopeless situation. It’s a brilliant bit of maneuvering by Young and shows Bond outthinking his opponent, which isn’t always the route the franchise takes. And Connery’s desperation is palpable as he engages in a gambit that’s his only chance of survival. It’s the finest bit of acting Connery does as Bond: he does everything with his eyes as he searches for options, tries to hide his genuine fear, and works to stall Grant. It’s the finest single scene in the franchise and set a high bar for all that follows it.
Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), and You Only Live Twice all progressively move the franchise away from the spy craft and towards the bombast the middle portion of the series became known for. Goldfinger expands the scope of the series with a huge third act set-piece that marks the climax for a movie that feels, and looks, bigger in every way. It’s pound-for-pound the most entertaining of the Connery Bond films, a movie that’s more about the images on screen than about any story beats. This focus causes the third act to flat narratively after a strong first two-thirds (outside of the Bond/Oddjob fight). The whole climax hinges on Pussy Galore’s change of heart after sleeping with Bond, which feels, at the very least, weak on a narrative level. But the set pieces still amaze and the film never lags, giving us some of the most recognizable iconography in the whole series.
While Goldfinger is arguably the most iconic film in the franchise, Thunderball is the archetypal Bond movie. (The book was famously the object of a decades-long intellectual property battle between Ian Fleming and Kevin McClory.) The plot, featuring a ransomed nuclear weapon, would later be parodied in the Austin Powers series, and the film clocks in at a (then) whopping 130 minutes. It’s big and it’s bloated — the film’s tagline, “Here comes the biggest Bond of them all!” feels quite appropriate. The underwater action does hold up well, and credit to the film for trying to make good the prior film’s treatment of Pussy Galore by featuring the two most interesting female leads of the Connery era between Domino and Fiona Volpe.
You Only Live Twice marked the end of this initial Connery run, and Connery fittingly begins the trend of Bond actors going out with a whimper. The third act set-piece in the volcano is a fantastic bit of large-scale action filmmaking. But the first two acts are languid and lack any real forward momentum, and Connery seems to just be going through the motions. And the less said about the subplot featuring Bond “becoming” Asian, the better.
The Connery era contains the most variety across its five initial films. Consecutive Bond films wouldn’t feel this different until 20 films later, when Daniel Craig takes over. Of the five, I don’t think there’s any doubt that From Russia With Love holds up the best. I could quibble with putting either Dr. No or Goldfinger second, but I’ll give the edge to Goldfinger because of how instantly recognizable so many moments from that movie are. Coming up a close fourth is the bloated Thunderball, which does a lot of things well, but lacks the momentum of Goldfinger and the tight focuses of Dr. No and From Russia With Love. And a distant fifth goes to You Only Live Twice. But we’d meet Connery’s Bond again…
The Goldfinger slander shan’t stand!
Splendid list! I'd put Thunderball just above Dr. No as the former has the Fleming sweep and is one of the few movies from the Connery era where the plot is still relevant in 2025.