davlghry wrote:

I always thought the fight on the beach opening was ahead of its time in terms of staging and cutting.  The cuts actually jump the action ahead in places and don't always match but it's still super effective.  This was kind of revolutionary at the time and I give Peter Hunt a lot of credit.   Earlier, he had cut the great train compartment fight in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.  Thanks to the great fight arrangers and Hunt's editing skill, the Bond fights really set the standard for film fights to come.  

This.  In an 1981 interview Terence Young, the director of DR. NO, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, and THUNDERBALL, acknowledged there were all sorts of illogical plot holes in the original Fleming stories.  So a conscious decision was made by the filmmakers to keep the cinematic versions rolling along at a brisk clip so moviegoers wouldn’t have time to contemplate the plot failings.  Young credits the initially wary editor Peter Hunt with much of the success of this technique:  “Peter Hunt did a wonderful job of editing.  It’s the first time, in DR. NO, that you cut in the middle of pans, in the middle of tracks…  Peter was horrified.  He said, “I’ll never get a job.  If you want me to do it, I’ll do it, but it’ll look awful, and furthermore, I’ll never get another job – they’ll just think I can’t cut.  But I said, “Let’s have a go.”  When the picture was finished and we ran it without a soundtrack, Peter was absolutely delighted.  And on FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE he was doing things that had me saying, “Peter, for God’s sake, you don’t do that!  That’s not editing.”  And he said, “Who’s talking?”  He really was the most perfect editor for that picture because he was young enough to be enthusiastic and try things, whereas somebody else with a great reputation would have been more prudent.”