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From Russia With Love | Year: 1964 Classification: Action/Adventure Directed: - Terence Young Actors/Actresses: - Sean Connery - Lotte Lenya - Robert Shaw Easily one of the greatest in the James Bond series Most James Bond fans have their personal favorites among all the films in this forty-year series: FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE is mine. In many ways, this was actually the first film with the full James Bond formula in tact. DR. NO was enjoyable, but Sean Connery's Bond was very different in that film than in the subsequent films. In DR. NO, Bond was a serious, unironic, humorless secret agent, very much like the character in the Ian Fleming novels. In FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, Bond departed from the character in the novels, and became witty, ironic, and very much tongue-in-cheek. In short, he became the Bond we all know and love. This is also the first film in which Desmond Llewelyn appeared as Q, who went on to play in all the remaining films (excepting Sean Connery's comeback with a different studio). Q provides Bond with his trick attaché case, the first of the many gimmicks we associate with Bond. The story is a great improvement as well. On top of this, the villains in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE represented a huge leap forward from DR. NO. In the list of the great Bond villains, both Robert Shaw's Donald 'Red' Grant and cabaret legend Lotte Lenya's Rosa Klebb rank near the top. Shaw comes across less as a human being than a highly programmed cyborg, and Lenya's sadistic turn as a poisoned-knife-in-shoe harpy has been often imitated. The setting for the film, Istanbul, is one of the best in the entire series. It perfect set the international tone for all subsequent Bond films. The city is used as a perfect backdrop for much of the film. Among all the other distinctions of this film, it also belongs on the short list of the great train films, with much of the film taking place on the train that travels along the route of the former Orient Express. The only film that I think rivals this one in the James Bond series is the immediate sequel, GOLDFINGER, which is my second favorite Bond film. By the way, this is one of the few films in which Bond does NOT say, "Bond, James Bond." Best Connery Bond, Best Bond Ever After a rather static performance in Dr. No, Sean Connery starts to hit his stride in the second Bond of the series, From Russia With Love. It is in this 1963 classic that Connery sets the bar for how to play James Bond with flying colors. This plot is more complicated, more purist in the sense that the storyline sticks to the original espionage-savvy theme of Ian Fleming's spy novel itself and the dialogue is much more sophisticated than say, the Brosnan Bonds. However the motive in this storyline isn't some deranged megalomaniac's wildly concocted scheme of global domination in one way or another. It's simply a plot not only to kill Bond, but to humiliate him. Knowing that our hero can't refuse a voluptuous babe, Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) a Russian agent who is in all actually a defector and a SPECTRE agent (Number 3, to be exact), recruits Tatiana Romanova, played by Italian supermodel Daniela Bianchi to seduce Bond. But she isn't just ordered to seduce Bond with her good looks and body; Tatiana or Tanya is ordered to seduce Bond into capturing the Lektor, a decoding device that the British have wanted for quite some time from the Russian consulate in Istanbul. For love and country, Bond is off to Istanbul, however aware that this arrangement may very well be a trap. Enlisting the services of a local Turkish double agent to keep an eye out, Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendariz), Bond swipes Tanya and the Lektor on the way back to England via the Orient Express. But SPECTRE is one step ahead. SPECTRE hires "Red" Grant (Robert Shaw), a stoic assassin with a garotte in his wristwatch and ice water in his veins, to spy on Bond and eventually kill him and Tanya when the time is right to secure the Lektor. To add icing to the cake, SPECTRE plans to release to the public Bond and Tanya's "scandal" and to falsify their deaths in scandalous fashion. From Russia with Love is an intelligent, savvy spy movie that sets the direction of the Bond series. From Bond's first gadgets (i.e. an atache case when opened incorrectly detonates a talcum gas canister/semi-automatic rifle) to memorable villains (i.e. Red Grant, Rosa Klebb) to breathtaking and charming locales (i.e. Istanbul, Venice) to a well-developed Daniela Bianchi in more ways than one, and last but not least, a more dynamic Bond performance from Sean Connery, From Russia with Love is one of the best-crafted Bond movies of all time. The second Bond satisfies FRWL has, if anything, a more-interesting and complex storyline than its predecessor, while retaining DR. NO's plot-driven deliberate pacing. The "Bond movie" is beginning to coalesce here. M, Moneypenny and Q have their roles to play, chases and explosions abound, and the gadgetry, while more realistic than ridiculous, makes its appearance. The tragic Pedro Armendariz plays one of the best "helpful locals" in the Bond series, the colourful Kerim Bey, ably holding our attention despite the presence of Sean Connery, who has developed his James Bond into a smoother, more charming and more relaxed agent; extra-competent, but still human. Unfortunately, a great deal of time is spent on a scene which treats the Romany like nothing so much as an alien race from Star Trek, the same location for a later scene which begins the tradition of irrationally-behaving minor female characters in Bond movies. Daniela Bianchi, however, plays the sympathetic and well-crafted character of Corporal Tatiana Romanova as if she were as integral to the film as the character actually is. The movie, in spite of its larger budget, does have a couple of post-production problems. The dubbing is, in places, almost amateurish, and the camera, unfortunately, lingers on Armendariz while he applies his wound in one shot. FRWL is one of the best of the classic Bond movies, with an engaging story, interesting characters and locations, a solid orchestral soundtrack, and one of the best movie fistfights ever. It will take James Bond only one more movie, GOLDFINGER, before the real suspension-of-disbelief superheroics begin, but for those who appreciate the less-overblown Sean Connery era, FRWL will likely be a favourite. AUSTIN POWERS fans will have an additional appreciation for this movie, as it introduces the S.P.E.C.T.R.E. characters who are so thoroughly spoofed in that series. The DVD's title menu is, thankfully, much less irritating than DR. NO's. The "Inside of..." documentary is, like the one on the earlier release, interesting and remarkably reserved for a chronicle of film history. It focuses a great deal of attention on the complications involved with the production of FRWL, which were considerable, and that makes for a more exciting "making of" documentary than one might expect. This "Special Edition" DVD makes, overall, for a great Bond package. Beautiful looking DVD James Bond is given the opportunity to obtain a Russian Lektor decoding machine but he needs the services of a beautiful Russian defector, Tatiana Romanova (Daniella Bianchi) to help him steal it from the Russian Embassy in Istanbul. The British think it's a trap, but one worth taking as they are desperate to get their hands on the Lektor. It is indeed too easy to be true - but the treachery and manipulation comes not from the Russians, but from a totally unexpected quarter. The story may appear simplistic but if you let your concentration lapse you'll miss key information to understanding the plot. Because there is more dialogue it helps to own this movie so you can watch it again. Everything becomes much clearer after a repeat viewing. This was the first 007 DVD I bought because it's one of my favourite Connery Bonds. It features ice-cold assassin Red Grant (Robert Shaw), and one of the best bond girls ever ('James, will you make love to make all the time in England?'). Pedro Armendáriz fits the role of 007's ally Kerim Bey very nicely. From Russia With Love doesn't overwelm you with a main villain's secret fortress blowing to pieces, nor does it have a heart-pounding car chase scene. The real action is between the characters and within the story. Buy From Russia With Love at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on From Russia With Love Search with the Priority Search Engine on From Russia With Love This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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