ROBERT COTTON From the eponymously named first film in the series, Dr. No is far more menacing than he has any right to be. A far more successful "orientalization" than Bond's own in YOLT, Dr. No has serious stage presence. When he's onscreen, your eyes automatically go to him. His soulless voice is by far his best feature. While there are elements of No in Hugo Drax as portrayed in Moonraker, the menace here is in the tension caused by No's lack of emotion, his cool detachment until things finally turn sour for him. That detachment makes his sudden race to the gantry to kill Bond personally that much more believable. As far as henchmen go, Professor Dent disappears too quickly to be anything more than an annoyance to 007, but the manner of his exit raises him above a good number of those who followed him. He's a petty little man who deserves the coldest end Bond supplied in the '60s. Miss Taro was simply sex on wheels, dark wig and all. A good start for the Bond bad girls. JAMES McMAHON Doctor No - Wiseman plays it straight, the only way to make the role work, and pulls it off beautifully.  He's no Noel Coward, but with his eerie monotone, utter calm and confident sophistication, he projects a menace not equaled in the series.  He easily achieves the Fleming "father lecturing a naughty son" relationship to Connery's Bond.  An amazingly sure footed performance, considering this was the very first 007 film.  Wiseman's Asian make up is excellent.  He makes one of the most convincing of the Anglos-playing-Asians in film.  And those glossy black metal hands lent a wonderfully macabre touch. Professor Dent - Anthony Dawson brings the shifty eyes, nervous manner, and cowardly "shoot him in the back" technique that a viewer wants in a sacrificial evil underling.   Miss Taro - Zena Marshall, actually a blonde, does a great job transforming herself into a Jamaican island girl.  She turns in a pitch perfect performance for a Fleming femme fatale; voluptuous, duplicitous, and highly bedable.  Marshall brings a lot of fire and flirt to the role. TOM ZIELINSKI Dr. No - Perhaps Fleming's most fleshed out and complex villain, Dr. Julius No ("Spelled like "Yes"?"), was described as having studied in Milwaukee(!), working his way up within the ruthless Chinese Triad gang, only to have his arms cut off for embezzling millions from them.   Fleming created an indelible villain with metal hooks for hands and contact lenses (cutting edge in the 1950's) for eyes and a heart on the right side of his chest that allowed him to survive the Triad assassination attempt; Dr. No was described as "gliding across a room like a reptile" when he walked.  Dammit if Joseph Wiseman didn't bring Fleming's vision to the screen brilliantly.  Never playing for laughs the ridiculous notion of a mad scientist on his own island complete with fire-breathing dragon, Wiseman simply nailed the role and left big shoes for subsequent villains to attempt to fill.  Great dialogue and acting between Dr. No and Bond over dinner in the underground lair may be the highlight of the film.  A brilliant debut for a Bond villain that became the blueprint for almost all the Bond bad guys. Professor Dent - Not the typical henchman, Dent is a legitimate metallurgist and seems to be more a pawn caught up in Dr. No's evil plans.  Of course Dent did set up Strangways' assassination…and he did put a poisonous centipede (tarantula) in Bond's bed...and then he did empty his Smith & Wesson into a supposedly sleeping 007.  So in terms of mayhem created, Dent is up there with the best henchman.  Anthony Dawson brings just the right touch of resignation and fear to the role, and his assassination at the hands of Bond ("You've had your six.") is one of the great scenes in all the Bond movies. Miss Taro - As secretary at Government House, Taro is Dr. No's inside connection to the goings-on in Jamaica.  As part of a failed plan to trap Bond, Miss Taro is then at his mercy and he takes full advantage; and notably becomes the first of Bond's conquests while on mission.  When Bond completely turns the tables and has Taro arrested, she spits (spits!) in his face.  Perhaps an under-rated villainess, and Zena Marshall does a very good job.  As a side-note, Bond and Taro have one of the oddest if not funniest exchanges in all the films; when Miss Taro suggests they stay in and she would cook dinner for them, Bond replies "Forget it.  I'm feeling Italian and musical."  I love that line!

ED WERNER Obviously, Dr. No had the advantage of having no predecessors to compare with. Unfortunately, he does not show up on screen until more than half of the movie is over, so we really do not have a whole heck of a lot of screen time to judge him. However, what screen time Joseph Wiseman does have, is used quite well. Personally, I prefer a villain that is physically equal to Bond. We all know that in the last reel, there will be the final physical confrontation between the two and if the villain does not stack up physically, there is no suspense what so ever. However, even though he may not be too menacing, Joseph Wiseman plays Dr. No with a sublime oiliness, which captures the mood and feel of Fleming's words almost perfectly. The movie had its faults, but there is not a lot of room for improvement here. I just wish he could have been a little more intimidating. BILL KOENIG Joseph Wiseman s restrained, almost robotic Dr. No is an improvement over Ian Fleming' s original, avoiding the racist stereotypes of the original. Even now, 45 years after the film 's debut, Wiseman can send a chill up the spine. Wiseman was a superb character actor and is often overlooked. DEBORAH LIPP Although the scheme has definite value in harrying the enemy, ultimately it cannot work. Unlike the similar scheme in YOLT, toppling doesn't happen on a grand enough scale to cause major international tensions quickly enough. Inevitably, an agent will investigate, as both Bond and Leiter did, before an East vs. West showdown occurs. Minor characters in Dr. No-Dent, Miss Taro, the photographer-work to create the atmosphere so essential to this film; of No controlling everything that happens under his nose. Their true function is to build Dr. No's mystique, and they fulfill it very well indeed. PAUL BAACK Many Bond fans decry the film series not following the order of the books. However, in retrospect I think it may have been a good thing to lead off with Dr. No -- the film then established, right from the start, the iconography of the Bond Film Villain. Dr. Julius No represents, to my way of thinking, the very model of a proper James Bond villain: Preternaturally intelligent, coldly asexual, possessed of some strange physical abnormality, and a complete sociopath. No matter that he's rich as Croesus, his grasping need for more leads him to bizarre machinations designed to help slake his unquenchable thirst. In many ways, a Bond villain is an evil wizard straight out of a fairy tale, living in a magic castle on a remote and mysterious island, guarded by dragons, and with an army of monsters at his command. Joseph Wiseman so thoroughly inhabits the character that he makes it almost realistic, instead of the potential cartoon any Bond villain is. He looks odd; he dresses odd; and he talks odd, with the requisite unplaceable accent. Possessed of an almost reptilian coldness, Wiseman's Dr. No is a walking illustration of the phrase "method to his madness." Having long since checked out of reality, he still maintains such an even keel that he almost seems rational; that's DOCTOR No to you, buddy. Rich and wonderful stuff. There's a couple of different kind of Bond Film henchman. There is the physically powerful killing machines, and then there's the nasty little weaselly types. Professor Dent is of the latter school; an oily little creep who'd just as soon shoot a sleeping man in the back. Anthony Dawson invests the professor with a suitably sweaty shiftiness. Like 007 himself, the Bond Film Femme Fatale enjoys, amongst other things, sex for the sheer -- and momentary! -- fun of it. Zena Marshall's Miss Taro, a yummy little morsel, does her requisite spying for her principal; enjoys a romp in bed with a Bond long since twigged to her game; and, unusually for her type of character, winds up in the hands of the authorities. Instead of dead, so she's got that going on for her.

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