Movie-A-Day #148: Dr. No (1962).

Happy birthday to novelist Ian Fleming, whose creation James Bond is one of the defining characters of the 20th century. That status is due mostly to the hugely successful movie franchise that began with “Dr. No” nearly 50 years ago. But that wasn’t the first Bond movie. Fleming’s first Bond novel, “Casino Royale” was first adapted for the TV movie anthology series “Climax!” in 1954. But because Fleming didn’t own the copyright to “Casino Royale,” it got another non-canonical production in 1966 before finally returning as a part of the main franchise series in 2006. But that’s all trivia – for most of the world, their first sight of James Bond was in “Dr. No,” which also provided us with the iconic vision of Ursula Andress in her bikini.