Sean Connery 007 Collection: Volume 1

First of all, the good; there's no Bond like Sean and these transfers are stunningly good. The color is a little over saturated, but probably true to the Technicolor palette of the early 1960's. The crispness of the images and lack "fly specking" is remarkable. They advertise these as "state of the art" restorations and if these first three are any indication, they've broken the code on how to transfer older film onto digital format. Now, the bad news. There's only three films in the package on 6 discs; one for each movie and one for the "extras" for each movie. Additionally, they've gooberd up the intros with a whole batch of adverts and way too many alternates before you get to the start. However, once the opening credits end you're transported back to a pre Vietnam 1962 where everybody assumed spies traveled the world knocking off bad guys and didn't particularly care about the moral implications. The first couple Bond films weren't considered campy by the standards of the day and most people assumed this stuff actually happened. Ian Fleming's first Bond book ("Casino Royale") had been out since 1952 and the fiction of the day was rife with spy stories of all stripes. The public was conditioned to accept the "spy superman" as a cold war hero and found the more restrained literary Bond as credible as one might find one of Scott Turow's lawyerly protagonists today. I might add in somewhat of a defense of the "intro" extravaganza that the 1960's were the film birthing of the iconic opening credits for a great many films; the Pink Panther* series comes to mind.

The three films contained herein are "Dr. No", "From Russia With Love", and "Goldfinger" which are the first three of the MGM films in chronological order. One can only hope for "Vol. 2" to be out shortly starting with the fourth film, "Thunderball". I say hope only because these properties have been subject to more litigation than you can shake a stick at. In my opinion the first seven are the best of the bunch as the ones that followed attempted to top each previous film to the point of silliness. Ironically, the best film of the entire series is generally thought to be the 6th, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (not included in Vol. 2), with 007 played by unknown George Lazenby. Sean Connery was let out of his contract for that one film as the producer's knew he was tiring of the role and wanted to work on another project. His only other non Bond role during that time had been 1965's critically acclaimed "The Hill" and he was anxious to expand his career with more challenging material. Connery reprised his 007 in 1971's "Diamonds Are Forever", the next film in the series, but then severed his ties with the producers for good. When asked at the time of his departure why he was leaving he famously said he didn't want to become typecast as a comedic actor; an acceptance that the social cauldron of the late 1960's had forever altered the public's simplistic perception of spy craft and that the only way forward was by producing a more bloated and fantastic pastiche of the original films; which is exactly what Cubby Broccoli (producer) did during the Roger Moore era. Compounding the public's growing skepticism, Michael Caine burst on the scene in the "Ipcress File" shortly after "Goldfinger" was released and the public turned from Ian Flemming to new spy writers such as Len Deighton and John Le Carre who brought more perceived realism to the genre. Connery returned for one last go in 1983's "Never Say Never Again", but with different producers and somewhat disappointing results.

So, 3 films rather than the first 6, that you might have hoped for given the disc count (the amazon description at the time of the pre-release was totally silent on the collections content) and sloppy intros and adverts versus visually stunning transfers of the first 3 films in a legendary series still equals 5 stars in my book.... can't wait for volume 2!

* If you watch Goldfinger closely you'll see another 007/Pink Panther tie in; Burt Kwouk, who went on to be Clouseau's nemesis/houseboy, plays the totally forgettable Mr. Ling.

How can you go wrong with the original James Bond? This is a collection of the finest beginning movies that Sean Connery did. Dr. No, From Russia,with Love and Goldfinger. I bought this to add to my already existing collection so that I could watch these movies when I'm feeling nostalgic. Most of the time I am feeling this way because now I am retired, living alone and need the diversion of some really great entertainment. You won't go wrong ordering this DVD Movie collection.

Undeniably, though some will argue the point, Sean Connery is the best Bond of all time. Countless polls continue to rank him as number one! He was the orginator of the role when the late Albert Brocolli & his then partner, the late Harry Saltzman started producing the Bond films almost 50 years ago! How time flies!
This volume set contains in chronological release order Dr. No, From Russia With Love & Goldfinger. It is a 6 disc set which mirrors the ultimate editions which were released on dvd years ago. Therefore, the Special Features should be identical without the inclusion or deletion of any previously released material.
For those of us on a budget this year & must scale down the amount of purchases, this is of great value. Also it gives the potential buyer the option to buy exactly what he or she wishes, without buying every volume scheduled for release.
Highly recommended for any & all Bond fans!

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