From Russia with Love

From Russia with Love

Ahhhhhh, “From Russia with Love”… now things are getting more interesting. This is one of my favorite films, not just when it comes to J.B.’s adventures, but generally. As for the ranking of James Bond films, this film is in my “top 5,” and maybe even in “top 3″… and it’s not impossible that it’s “number 1.”

What’s happening now with our smooth operator with a “licence to kill”?

Since he eliminated Dr. No, James Bond is now officially in the crosshairs of the dangerous criminal organization SPECTRE, without being (completely) aware of it. SPECTRE takes a thorough approach to everything, including the method of eliminating Bond, which consists of training an assassin named Donald Grant, specially prepared for eliminating agent 007.

SPECTRE members Rosa Klebb (operative/agent number 3, formerly a high-ranking officer of the Russian counter-intelligence service SMERSH, now defected to SPECTRE… in combination with her appearance and speech, it immediately becomes clear to you why she’s feared and dreaded) and Kronsteen (operative/agent number 5, Czechoslovak chess grandmaster) have prepared a cunning plan for Bond’s elimination.

MI6 receives a tip from its Istanbul branch that a Russian cipher clerk at the consulate, Tatiana Romanova, wants to defect to London, and there’s also information that would give London a unique opportunity to obtain a cryptographic machine, the Lektor. The only condition – Tatiana Romanova only wants to make contact with agent 007, James Bond, whom she saw in a photograph.

MI6 and Bond are aware this is most likely a (fairly obvious) trap, but, again, if there’s even the slightest chance it’s actually possible to get hold of the Lektor, it’s worth the risk (and J.B. certainly won’t complain about “saving” a Russian cipher clerk :D).

And so our J.B. arrives in mystical Istanbul, where he’ll work closely with the branch chief, the humorous but also cunning Ali Kerim Bey, and along the way discover the charms of Istanbul, all in order to meet Tatiana Romanova. But from the moment of his arrival, complications arise between Turkish/English and Russian agents, so for security reasons, our James will have to temporarily hide and count on the hospitality of the Gypsies, which is, lo and behold, full of beautiful and passionate women, so it’s not easy for James. However, complications (in translation, shooting in all directions) happen here too.

After many twists and turns, Bond and Tatiana Romanova finally meet in his hotel room (of course), while she lies naked under the covers (logical, right), and they spend a passionate night (expected). Along with her love at first sight, Tatiana gives Bond information about the Lektor machine’s location.

With joint forces, Bond, Ali Kerim Bey and Tatiana, carry out an organized sabotage at the consulate and manage to get hold of the Lektor. Next activity – escape from the consulate to the Orient Express train. James and Tanya get new fake documents, and Kerim Bey will keep them company for a while until he puts them on a plane to Thessaloniki, and from there straight to London and mission successful!

But will James and Tanya reach London safely and what secrets (enemies) does the Orient Express hide? Weeeell… you’ll find out if you watch “From Russia with Love.” 🙂

The unexpected success of “Dr. No” apparently had such an effect that the bigwigs said to throw away all the cardboard props from the previous film and “loosen the purse strings” a bit for “From Russia with Love.”

Let’s start with the audio-visual aspect. A definite jump in camera quality and audio effects and synchronization. I won’t describe much, you’ll see for yourself, the difference in quality is obvious.

Like the previous film, this one had its challenges (not to say problems), starting with the choice of some actors, serious (but really serious) health problems of Pedro Armendáriz (Ali Kerim Bey), as well as breaking the deadline and budget… and on top of all that, President J.F. Kennedy tells you that Ian Fleming’s novella “From Russia with Love” is one of his favorite books. Not much room for mistakes, right? Luckily, in the end there weren’t any.

Acting… our Sean isn’t questionable at any moment, now even better than the first time as Bond, you simply see that the role fits him like a glove (I could have put in some brand, but no one wanted to pay for advertising, so there! :D), for which he was rewarded with a bonus twice larger than his earnings for this film.

Daniela Bianchi as Tatiana Romanova… ah, what a choice for a Bond girl, man! I think she’s one of the most beautiful Bond girls, she’s gorgeous and really radiates some sex appeal and charm. By the way, three interesting facts about her: she was a contestant for Miss Universe 1960 (obviously); Bianchi had just started learning English for the needs of the film, so a redub had to be done with another actress (something similar happened in the previous film with Ursula Andress, but because of her accent); she was chosen from a competition of 200 girls, according to many stories, precisely on Connery’s recommendation (“Sean, you old fox, he knew what was good” – note from subconscious).

Pedro Armendáriz (a quite popular Latin American actor of the 40s and 50s) was great in the role of Ali Kerim Bey, especially given his serious health condition (which was visible in the film), and his tragic end. There was some unusual charm in his role as the easygoing and jovial MI6 section chief. Lotte Lenya was brilliant as the sadistic villain Rosa Klebb, especially with her behavior and specific voice color and way of speaking… which isn’t surprising, considering that Lotte was also a singer and, so to speak, monologist/reciter/diseuse), as well as Vladek Sheybal in the role of Kronsteen (they really found the face of an evil intellectual) and Robert Shaw as the assassin Grant.

The now standard charming episodic actors, Bernard Lee (M) and Lois Maxwell (Miss Moneypenny) are now joined by Desmond Llewelyn as the immortal Q, the sarcastic and grumpy master of gadgets and gizmos (trivia: Desmond was the only Q in Bond films for the next 36 years).

What interesting facts and novelties appeared in “From Russia with Love,” which will later become standard? 🙂

Bond now becomes much more cautious when it comes to communicating in codes with drivers or checking the hotel room where he’s staying (looking for bugs)… when it comes to women, there, as always (i.e., expectedly), there’s no caution. 😀

Fight scenes are improved and more dynamic (a boxer did the choreography for the famous train fight scene and it was filmed for weeks), and scenes with boat and helicopter chases have been added.

We see J.B. using Q’s gadgets (and technology more seriously in general) for the first time. There’s the famous briefcase with a folding sniper rifle, hidden knife and money for emergencies, as well as the ability to turn into a smoke/gas bomb if not opened in a special way. Bond also gets a pager, a watch with a garrote, as well as a device for detecting bugs. And the villains aren’t unprepared either (Rosa Klebb and her poison-coated knife, hidden in the tip of her shoe).

Bond’s automobile of choice this time was the Bentley Mark IV.

The film was mostly shot in Istanbul, and what makes this film particularly interesting to people from the former Yugoslavia is the famous stops at stations in Belgrade and Zagreb (although the film wasn’t shot in Yugoslavia at all, but it’s actually Sirkeci station).

The budget for the film was two million dollars… and it earned as much as 79 million! Wow, that’s called profit, almost 40 times more! For example, both parts of Avengers (Avengers: Infinity War + Endgame) had a budget of about 750 million dollars, and earned 4.8 billion dollars (something spun in my head X))… and they could have, there you go, earned 30 billion (“Was there any point behind this stupid information, or did you just want to brag that you know how to multiply 750*40 without a calculator?” – note from subconscious).

The opening musical number is just a slightly reworked version of the original “James Bond theme”

Here you have some more (really interesting) trivia about “From Russia with Love,” and I’ll just mention:

• This is the last film J.F.K. saw
• This is the last Bond film Ian Fleming saw
• It’s believed “From Russia with Love” is precisely the film that launched Sean Connery among megastars, not “Dr. No.” By the way, the legendary actor once declared this film his favorite Bond film
• Ian Fleming was only convinced after this film that Connery was the right choice for Bond
• Here we won’t hear the famous “Bond, James Bond…”
• The famous Number 1 appears for the first time (we actually only see his hands and hear his voice)
• Here appears the famous announcement “James Bond will return in…” (which today we mostly associate with the superhero film genre)
• Vladek Sheybal was quite torn about whether to accept the role of evil chess grandmaster Kronsteen, thinking it really wouldn’t help his career, but agreed at the urging of a friend (precisely Sean Connery)… and it turned out to be an excellent move for his further career

And so on and so forth…

As I mentioned, “From Russia with Love” is a top film for me, maybe even the best Bond film, though I also consider it a film classic. A drastic jump in quality in every field. Fun, dynamic and charming film. A film (not just about Bond, but generally) that you shouldn’t miss.

Absolute recommendation! 🙂

And you, dear reader, is “From Russia with Love” in your top Bond films too? 🙂

Trailer

IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic

Format: Film

Premiere: 1963

Duration: 115 minutes