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Dr. No and Stromberg do not shake hands - what's the deal?


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#1 Dmitri Mishkin

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Posted 14 December 2003 - 10:26 AM

Hi all,

Is there a peculiar connection between Dr. No and Carl Stromberg?

Watching Dr. No the other night, I noticed a particular characteristic of the doctor. When Bond and Honey meet Dr. No for "dinner", the doctor makes a point of not shaking hands with Bond, referring to the unfortunate byproduct of having worked with radioactive material - odd hands!

In The Spy Who Loved Me, when Moore Bond, alias Robert Sterling meets Stromberg, Naomi warns him that Stromberg does not like to shake hands. Later, this is confirmed as 007 tries to anyway and is promptly rejected. Now I always wondered why it is that Stromberg has an aversion towards such a task, mundane as it is. Something to do with handling his marine "pets" (e.g. feeding the shark), I wondered?

But watching Dr. No do the same, I was reminded that the character of Stromberg was originally Blofeld himself, prior to the McClory affair and subsequently having to remove all reference to SPECTRE. Yet I can't help but wonder. Was this somehow originally meant to be an unusual reference back to the original SPECTRE character we all know? Perhaps a trademark of the organization's members itself? Or perhaps just a bad coincidence, and I'm off base. :) I don't know.

What do others think?

#2 brendan007

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Posted 14 December 2003 - 11:15 AM

It's because Stromberg has webbed hands, supposedly like a fish. However the film barely mentions the facts and they can only really be spotted once or twice in the film.

#3 Righty007

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Posted 14 December 2003 - 01:53 PM

Dr. No's hands are fake because of the "accident" with radioactive material.

#4 Johnboy007

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Posted 14 December 2003 - 02:02 PM

Personally, i wouldnt want to shake their hands, they are kind of messed up.

#5 Triton

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Posted 14 December 2003 - 07:20 PM

I agree with my colleagues that Carl Stromberg does not wish to shake hands because of his webbed fingers and Dr. No does not wish to shake hands because of his mechanical hands.

The aversion to shaking hands has never been a part of the Ernst Stavro Blofeld character, so I don't believe that it was a characteristic that was inherited by Carl Stromberg.

It is also well know that Howard Hughes had an aversion to shaking hands because he was terrified by germs.

#6 Qwerty

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Posted 14 December 2003 - 07:43 PM

Yes, while the hand defects were very clearly flashed out and put to good use in Dr. No's case, the same cannot be said with Stromberg in The Spy Who Loved Me. It seems to me that they were a nice idea for a villainous trademark for Stromberg's character, however, it was not executed very well in the final film, but it is fun that they are there.

If you'd like to catch the best glimpse of them Dmitri Mishkin, take a look at the scene where Stromberg presses the button to blow up the helicoptor, and also, later in the film, when he gestures with his hand to his aquarium's when talking with Bond under the alias of 'Sterling.' Hope this helps! :)

#7 Blue Eyes

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Posted 14 December 2003 - 09:37 PM

Strombergs webbed hands are something I always forget to look out for and have never actually noticed. It was only recently that someone told me of their existance!