Last week after dinner, I decided to relax with a glass of red wine, and screen Ian Fleming’s film Dr. No. I haven’t seen it for several years. I was surprised that it evoked several memories. Okay, okay, so it was several glasses of wine!
It was the summer of 1961. President Kennedy, touted Fleming’s books, and Dr. No was the first one that I read. I had just started my graphic design career. I was working for the largest, at that time, ethical pharmaceutical advertising agency. Ethical, only meant that we only advertised to doctors. My girlfriend’s family, rented a bungalow for the summer. So, on Friday after work, I would take the subway to Far Rockaway beach, in the borough of Queens. Before dinner, I would sit by the Atlantic Ocean, reading, and sipping my gin, and tonic. Vodka martinis, would come two years later.
Bond’s first car chase in Jamaica, was with General Motors, left hand drive Chevrolets, on the left-hand side of the road. All the English cars in the film were right-hand drive. It can get confusing. I know, having driven a left-hand drive car in St. Thomas, USVI. To make matters worse, it was also a standard shift. Luckily, they had lots of signs on the road, saying, KEEP TO THE LEFT. The most difficult part was coming to a cross road, and navigating the correct lane to turn onto. After a while, it all fell into place, just as when crossing the street in London, remembering to look right.
The next was not a memory, but watching the editing during the club scene. They’re all sitting at a table drinking rum. The producers obviously couldn’t get a rum company to use their product, since the bottle’s label was not shown. On the wide shot, the bottle was almost full. But on the close-ups, the bottle is half empty. I know it’s not a big deal to the general audience, but when you’re an editor, these little things are bothersome. During the time I was editing, picture, and sound, I would point out to friends that the last dialogue in the scene was out of sync by two frames. They stopped going to the movies with me.
In his second car chase, Bond’s driving a Sunbeam Alpine, right-hand drive. Before I started my careers, I first worked as a counselor, and later as the waterfront director, at various summer camps. There were three of us. We all had worked at a summer camp, located in the Catskill Mountains. That next summer we were working in New York City, but spent the weekends driving up, and helping out. I was a Red Cross Water Safety Instructor, so I ran the waterfront, and gave the present instructor, the weekend off. We all took turns driving up in this red Sunbeam Alpine. It was a two-seater, with a jump seat in the back. Lots of fun.
My next memory, is where this big spider is in bed with Bond, and crawls out from under the sheets. It brought back memories of diving on the Island of Tobago. In the early eighties it was not as developed as it is today, and it turned out to be a great place to dive since it offered a variety of dive experiences. The diving experience that they offered which I had never experienced was drift diving. It is really a simple kind of diving. First you had to do a back roll off of the dive boat, and quickly submerge to the bottom. Next you have to find a way of staying put, in a two or three knot current while waiting for the other divers. Of course, you have to do this without using coral as a hand or foot hold, and harming the reef. Now that everybody was ready, you simply let go and let the current take you on a trip soaring above reefs. There is just the sensation of flying over the ocean bottom. If you run out of air all you do is surface, and the chase boat is there to pick you up. The dive master is holding a line which is attached to a surface buoy so the chase boat knows where the group is. The dive ends when the direction which you are traveling ends at a reef, and the current dissipates. It was the experience with the condo that I was staying in that made this a very memorable Dr. No experience. The bedroom only had bunk beds. Since I was alone, I had a choice of one of eight beds. The first night I chose a lower bunk, and started to mellow out. Suddenly at the foot of the bed under the covers there was movement, and it wasn’t me. My mind flashed to the scene in Dr. No, I was out of that bunk in less than a second. Then I quickly pulled the light blanket off the bed, only to revel a small land crab, who was trying to run away from me. After I caught my breath, I caught him, and put him outside. From then on, I always checked the bed, and under the bed before getting in. It was fun watching the film, and bring back these memories.
