Composition & framing

A little background on actor Timothy Moxon, who plays Strangways. At the time of Dr. No, Moxon was making his living as a charter pilot and crop duster in Jamaica. But before he moved to the Caribbean, he had been an actor in London, where he knew director Terrence Young, which led to Moxon being cast in the role of Strangways. Actor Anthony Dawson plays Professor Dent. Dawson appeared in many films for director Young, beginning with They Were Not Divided in 1950 and continuing with Action of the Tiger in 1957.

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Lois Maxwell also worked with Terrence Young on 1949's Corridor of Mirrors. She recalls discussing the role of Miss Moneypenny with the director. I said, Terrence, look, if we can give a background to Miss Moneypenny, and I don't have my long hair in a bun, and I don't have to wear glasses, and I don't have a pencil over my ear, I think I'd be more interested in playing Miss Moneypenny. And he said, good girl.

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Sean and I and Terrence decided on the background of the relationship between James Bond and Miss Moneypenny. And that was that when he was a tea boy and she was in the secretarial pool, they had gone off together for a lovely bank holiday weekend to a rose-covered cottage.

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Tim Lucas

I can't find a distinct identification for the actor playing this ousted hotel guest, addressed as Señor Martinez. Let's appreciate the beautifully layered composition of this shot. For a few dollars more was photographed by Massimo Dallamano, who shot A Fistful of Dollars so brilliantly. He had already photographed close to 40 films, but this was his last major assignment before he graduated to the position of director.

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Tim Lucas

For a few dollars more was the first time that Sergio Leone had Ennio Morricone compose and record the film's music before he began filming. And this, I believe, is the reason behind this film's tremendous leap in musical imagination. Morricone was not tailoring his music to the action on screen. Leone was tailoring his images and indeed his actors' performances to Morricone's music, which the maestro could now approach from the purer vantage point of composition.

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Tim Lucas

He read the script and scored what he experienced in his imagination. Of course, Leone had to be agreeable to the directions he was taking first. They had a simple way of synchronizing themselves. Morricone would play for him, very badly, he said, the basic themes that he had in mind on the piano. And if Leone felt moved by them, even in the context of a poor piano performance, he was told to go ahead with the full composition.

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Oh, well, oh my God, look at this. This is such a tragic ending. And there she goes. I like the color composition. I love all the colors. You know, this is nice, bright color. This is really good. I'm just saying the light blue, the red. Yeah, yeah. The tits. I'm serious. Yeah, I know, I know, yeah. Like when Pat Barrington's out there, we're looking at color, right?

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Tim Lucas

What we see is already invested with depth of focus and breadth of composition. It feels quite complete. We need nothing else. And then the camera crane rises to reveal an unexpected extension of depth and composition that is absolutely majestic. This railroad station sequence was filmed at the La Calahorra station between Granada and Almeria.

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