60 YEARS OF DR. NO

04 October 2022

The 5th October 1962 saw the premier of the first big screen adaptation of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. The star was that up-and-coming young Scottish actor Sean Connery and after seeing Dr. No, few could forget that John Barry/Monty Norman theme tune, Plus, many cinema goers now craved a Lake Blue Sunbeam Alpine Series II, so here are 10 facts about the first ‘Bond Car’ -

  1. The Alpine II is not the first car driven on screen by 007 – that honour goes to the 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air initially piloted by the sinister ‘Mr. Jones’.
  2. The film company rented the 1961 Sunbeam fitted with optional wire wheels and whitewalls from Jennifer Mary Stiebel-Jackson a local resident.
  3. A memo on a call sheet reminds the crew to “to please pay this lady £10 per day for the two days we have used the car”.
  4. During the chase, No. intersperses Jamacia locations with not terribly good Pinewood studio work. Bond consussiers will note how the Alpine’s tyres make Tarmac-squealing noises on a dirt road.
  5. Plus, the villains 1939 LaSalleFuneral Coach manages to transform into a Humber Super Snipe Mk. II, just prior to careering down a ravine.
  6. On location the director Terence Young found a
    Warner-Swasey excavator blocking the road and decided to make it a feature of the purist. After carefully taking some measurements, he discovered there was just enough room for the Alpine and Connery’s double to pass underneath it.
  7. The stunt expert Bob Simmons later recalled of this sequence “At 45 mph the wheels of the little sports job started to bounce as the tyres bit into the gravel and the steering began to judder in my hands. Could I make it?”. The Alpine had started to bounce before being driven under the excavator and the crew was terrified Simmons might be severely injured, or worse.
  8. Simmons was also responsible for driving the hearse off the road; he jumped clear before it descended the ravine.
  9. No does not only contain the first ‘007 car chase’ it also features Bond using his driving skills rather than Q’s gadgets as in the Aston Martin DB5 of Goldfinger and Thunderball. Of the other 1960s films in the series, 007 does not take the wheel of the Bentley 4¼ Litre Vanden Plas-bodied Drophead Coupé in From Russia With Love or the Toyota 2000GT in You Only Live Twice. As for OHMSS, the DBS Vantage has limited screen-time while Tracy pilots the Mercury Cougar XR-7 during the main chase sequence. In fact, it could be argued that Bond would not outwit hoods using only an affordable production model until the Citroen 2CV of For Your Eyes Only.
  10. A Sunbeam advertisement in The Daily Gleaner the Alpine was “‘very popular with unattached males” – making it the ideal first ‘Bond Car’.
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