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3. Goldfinger (96%)

If the first two 007 films crafted the mold, Goldfinger is where James Bond as we know him comes into focus. It contains the first instance of his most famous line ("A martini. Shaken, not stirred."). Bond's reliance on gadgetry is at its early acme (his beloved Aston Martin is particularly tricked out). It's got a brilliantly bombastic theme song by Shirley Bassey ("Goooolldd-FINGAH!"). It's even the first big-budget movie to feature a laser! The plot: the nefarious metallurgist Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobbe) wants to use atomic radiation to poison Fort Knox's gold supply; 007 must outwit his henchman Oddjob (he of the razor-sharp bowler hat) and the whimsically-monikered Pussy Galore ("I must be dreaming," Bond says, speaking for all of us). If Goldfinger can't quite match the taut sharpness of Dr. No and From Russia with Love, and if the campy elements that eventually crept into the series are hinted at here, it cemented the Bond mythos in the popular mind. "Goldfinger is a crucial work in the development of the Bond legend," wrote Philip French of London's Observer.

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2. From Russia with Love (97%)

If Dr. No kicked off a worldwide phenomenon, its follow-up, From Russia with Love, kept the ball rolling, deepening the Bond mythos with another sharp Cold War thriller. SPECTRE's at it again, trying to exact revenge on Bond for killing Dr. No and setting a trap for 007 by getting him to steal a Russian cryptographic device. Soviet agent Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi), tricked into doing SPECTRE's dirty work, helps Bond steal the machine from the Russian consulate in Istanbul, but the pair finds danger at every turn in their trek across Eastern Europe. From Russia with Love was a personal favorite of Connery's, and it's not hard to see why: the story is well-paced, and there are several scenes (including a wild shootout in a gypsy camp, and a surprisingly brutal fight between Bond and SPECTRE agent Red Grant) that are electrifying. And, unlike some later Bond flicks, 007 is more reliant on his wits than on gadgetry. "For my money, [From Russia with Love is] still the best Bond, with a screwball plotline that keeps the locales changing and the surprises coming," wrote Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader.

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1. Dr. No (98%)

Dr. No was the first of the official James Bond pictures (though a little-seen television version of Casino Royale from 1954 predates it). As such, it established many of the elements that audiences would come to expect from the series: beautiful locales (in this case, Jamaica, where Ian Fleming dreamed up the character while on vacation), beautiful women (as Honey Ryder, Ursula Andress is perhaps the definitive Bondgirl), and ruthless villains intent on world domination (the title character). With his laconic cool, Sean Connery set the template for future Bonds: suave, hypercompetent, and callously efficient, working with panache in the investigation into the death of a fellow agent that leads him to SPECTRE operative Dr. No's underwater lair. For many, Dr. No is the Bond series at its best, and it spurred audience enthusiasm that has yet to abate. "With a debut like this, it's no wonder that it spawned one of the biggest franchises ever," wrote Kim Newman of Empire Magazine.

Check out the rest of our 007 features here at Quantum of Solace Headquarters, including Bonding With Bond, in which RT Community Manager Ryan Fujitani watches every 007 movie in order. And be sure to browse our Total Recall archives here.

Finally, we leave you with a clip from the very first James Bond production: Casino Royale, made for CBS' Climax! program, and starring Barry Nelson as Bond and featuring Peter Lorre.