History YMMV / DrNo

** Bond getting assistance from the colonial governor of Jamaica made the film outdated even at the time of its release. Jamaice gained independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962, four months after filming wrapped, but two months ''before'' the film premiered!

* CriticalResearchFailure:
** A minor but rather jarring moment from the otherwise quite good film. When the script reads, "That's a Smith & Wesson, and you've had your six!", it's probably a good idea to make sure the man Bond is saying this to is holding a ''revolver''. Not a Colt M1911, one of the most recognizable ''semi-automatic pistols'' ever made and which almost everyone knows has a ''seven'' round magazine. And on top of this, Smith and Wesson didn't even manufacture a 1911 variant at the time. Even more perplexing is that Smith and Wesson revolvers were used later in the film, making it questionable why the props department chose to use a 1911 in the first place.
*** Definitely a mistake, and an even more perplexing one because after the 6th shot is fired, when Dent steps into the room, you can clearly see the slide locked back, showing that he IS out of rounds, and it would have been totally appropriate for Bond to point this out instead of the 'Smith and Wesson' line.
** Tarantula bites are painful, but hardly lethal. (For that matter, even black widow bites aren't as lethal as Honey Rider makes out.)

* FanNickname: Creator/UrsulaAndress as "Ursula Undress" due to her famous bikini scene. She was actually cast after Creator/AlbertRBoccoli saw her a photograph of her taken by her then-husband John Derek wearing a wet t-shirt.

** Bond getting assistance from the colonial governor of Jamaica is a reflection of the time when Jamaica was a British colony. A few years after the film came out, Jamaica and the rest of the British Colonies would gain independence.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: The book actually sets up a lot of Bond elements for both the movie series as well as later installments of the series. This include an ElaborateUndergroundBase, NoMisterBondIExpectYouToDine, and the villain being WickedCultured. In fact, in the original novel, these elements were meant to mark Doctor No as ''utterly insane.'' Bond is constantly put off by how weird it all is.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Bond does a {{double take}} upon seeing the painting of the Duke of Wellington in Dr. No's lair. That was a real painting that was stolen from London's National Gallery in 1961 and was a major crime story in Britain. It was recovered in 1965.

* AnticlimaxBoss: Dr. No himself. After some grappling, [[OneHitKill he goes down in one punch]].

* FashionVictimVillain: the radiation suit Dr. No wears in the reactor scene. Almost literal since he dies wearing it.

* MagnificentBastard: [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Dr. Julius No]] is one of SPECTRE's top operatives and a man of [[AffablyEvil charm and charisma]] who rules Crab Key, Jamaiaca with his two metal fists. Seeking to disrupt a shuttle launch from America, No outplays everyone sent to the area until Bond's arrival, and even for much of the film Bond is entirely within No's power, only surviving thanks to outwitting No's assassins. When encountered by Bond, No reveals how he completely outwitted [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs the Tongs]] after [[FromNobodyToNightmare crawling up from nothing]] in Hong Kong as the son of a German missionary and a Chinese woman. Joining [[NebulousEvilOrganisation SPECTRE]], No seeks to help overthrow the orders of the eastern and western blocs alike, and remains one of the most dynamic and striking villains Bond ever faces.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: Bond shooting a defenseless man twice for good measure.

** Creator/UrsulaAndress wears an obvious [[NudeColoredClothes flesh-coloured towel]] in an attempt to increase the {{fanservice}} in her decontamination

** Creator/IanFleming hated the casting of Creator/SeanConnery as Bond, calling him "an overgrown stuntman" and believing he was too unrefined to portray his cultured [=MI6=] operative.[[note]]His suggestions for the role were Creator/DavidNiven or his cousin Creator/ChristopherLee; the former starred in the Bond spoof ''Film/CasinoRoyale1967'' and the latter played the villain of ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'' who's specifically set up as an EvilCounterpart to Bond.[[/note]] Later, he was so impressed that he gave a Scottish heritage to Bond in his later novels.

** Creator/IanFleming hated the casting of Creator/SeanConnery as Bond, believing he was too unrefined to portray his cultured [=MI6=] operative.[[note]]His suggestions for the role were Creator/DavidNiven or his cousin Creator/ChristopherLee; the former starred in the Bond spoof ''Film/CasinoRoyale1967'' and the latter played the villain of ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'' who's specifically set up as an EvilCounterpart to Bond.[[/note]] Later, he was so impressed that he gave a Scottish heritage to Bond in his later novels.

* MagnificentBastard: Dr. Julius No is one of SPECTRE's top operatives and a man of charm and charisma who rules Crab Key, Jamaiaca with his two metal fists. Seeking to disrupt a shuttle launch from America, No outplays everyone sent to the area until Bond's arrival, and even for much of the film Bond is entirely within No's power, only surviving thanks to outwitting No's assassins. When encountered by Bond, No reveals how he completely outwitted the Tongs after crawling up from nothing in Hong Kong as the son of a German missionary and a Chinese woman. Joining SPECTRE, No seeks to help overthrow the orders of east and west blocks alike, and remains one of the most dynamic and striking villains Bond ever faces.

* BestKnownForTheFanservice: The scene where Honey Ryder [[SexySurfacingShot emerges from ocean]] wearing only a revealing (for the time) bikini is not only the film's [[SignatureScene most iconic scene]], but one of the most iconic moments in the entire James Bond franchise. It would later be copied by Creator/HalleBerry in ''Film/DieAnotherDay'', and Creator/DanielCraig would do a gender-swapped version in ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006''.

** Creator/IanFleming hated the casting of Creator/SeanConnery as Bond, believing he was too unrefined to portray his cultured [=MI6=] operative.[[note]]His suggestions for the role were Creator/DavidNiven or his cousin Creator/ChristopherLee; the former starred in the Bond spoof ''Film/CasinoRoyale1967'' and the latter would eventually play the villain of ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'' who's specifically set up as an EvilCounterpart to Bond.[[/note]] Later, he was so impressed that he gave a Scottish heritage to Bond in his later novels.

** Creator/IanFleming hated the casting of Creator/SeanConnery as Bond, believing he was too unrefined to portray his cultured [=MI6=] operative. Later, he was so impressed that he gave a Scottish heritage to Bond in his later novels.

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** The use of {{Yellowface}} for every major Chinese character is cringeworthy today, but Dr No and his associates are portrayed as dangerous and competent villains who are [[WorthyOpponent Worthy Opponents]] for Bond.

** Creator/UrsulaAndress wears an obvious [[NudeColoredClothes flesh-colored towel]] in an attempt to increase the {{fanservice}} in her decontamination

** Honey's incredible naivete and ignorance is ''not'' endearing, nor is her incredibly dumb way of trying to prove to Bond it could be a dragon (Note that Quarrel also thought it was a dragon, so she wasn't alone in that. They also thought the same in the book). In the book Honey has the physical body and sexual urges of a fully-grown woman but the mentality and naivete of a child. This is also combined by the fact that she never went to school, raised herself after being orphaned at a very young age and had little to no regular human contact. The problem with the film is that they keep in the key scenes from the book such as the battle with the tank, but leave out the context as to why an adult would be so easily fooled by such a pathetic forgery. Also, the Dragon in the film was a flame-throwing armored car painted with some eyes and teeth, which didn't make it look very convincing. The book had the group being attacked by a truly massive tank--for starters, it had airplane tyres and it had huge fins and a neck and head to make it look like a dragon, with flames coming out of the head's mouth.

* IdiotPlot: James Bond's sabotage of the reactor would have been short-lived if Dr. No had even one armed guard in the control room with them [[note]]Although the argument could be made that having guns inside a nuclear reactor is just as bad of an idea, if not worse[[/note]], or if all the rad-suited workers had rushed Bond ''en masse'' instead of fleeing and leaving Dr. No to fight him alone [[note]]Although one can possibly forgive them for wanting to put as much distance between themselves and a nuclear reactor about to blow as possible[[/note]]. It is also hard to credit that a nuclear reactor could be designed with so few safeguards that all that is necessary to blow it up is turning one dial too far to the right.

* EnsembleDarkHorse: Honey Ryder, for being the first main Bond Girl in the franchise, her iconic scene emerging from the sea, and for being Creator/UrsulaAndress in a bikini for most of the second half of the film.

* HilariousInHindsight: [[Creator/SeanConnery James Bond]] insists that there is [[Film/{{Dragonheart}} no such thing as dragons]].

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: The protagonist was an unknown, and [[Literature/JamesBond the book series]] did not have much recognition. Therefore, Creator/UnitedArtists gave the film a miniscule budget, and for the US release it premiered in the Midwest prior to the big cities, since UA feared it wouldn't find much of an audience. It had a decent run, leading to the even more revered sequel ''Film/FromRussiaWithLove'', and finally a third movie, ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'', a smash hit that made Bond a cultural landmark.

** In the words of [[Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic David Morgan-Mar]], "[[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/comic.php?current=1044&theme=15&dir=next I couldn't reproduce the obvious sheet of glass between James and the spider that you can see in the film.]]"
** It's made up for a bit by the closeup shots of the spider crawling on the bare flesh of stuntman Bob Simmons.
** Creator/UrsulaAndress wears an obvious [[NudeColoredClothes flesh-colored towel]] in an attempt to increase the {{fanservice}} in her decontamination

* ValuesDissonance: The use of {{Yellowface}} for every major Chinese character would ''never'' be allowed today for very obvious reasons.