From Russia with Love

Plot synopsis:
At the Spetsyalnye Metody Razoblacheniya Shpyonov (SMERSH), aka, Special Methods of Spy Detection, training facility, a man made up to look like British MI6 Agent 007, James Bond, is making his way through the grounds. He is followed by a white-haired man dressed in black. The white-haired man emerges from behind a hedge, pulling a garrote wire from his watch, which he slips around the imposter Bond's (John Ketteringham) neck. Bond is dead in a few moments. The assassin's supervisors emerge, documenting the mission time and revealing that the mission is a training exercise for SMERSH.At a championship chess match, Chief Planning Officer for the Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion (SPECTRE), Kronsteen, aka Number Five (Vladek Sheybal), wins the match and is called away to meet with the Chief of SPECTRE, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, aka Number One (who's face is never seen). Also at the meeting is ex-SMERSH Colonel, now Chief Operations Officer for SPECTRE, Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya), aka Number Three.Blofeld holds a white Siamese cat in his lap when he meets with his underlings. He also kept three Siamese fighting fish in an aquarium. Blofeld comments that the fish naturally fight each other, but while two are fighting, there's always one that holds back until the other two stop. Then, that cunning fish attacks the weakened victor and kills it easily. Thus SPECTRE's main strategy is to instigate conflict between two powerful enemies, hoping that they will exhaust themselves and be vulnerable when SPECTRE moves to seize power.Kronsteen devises a plot to steal a Lektor cryptographic device from the Soviets and sell it back to them, while exacting revenge on Bond for killing their agent, Dr. No the previous year (in the first James Bond film). The plan is to trick Agent 007, James Bond (Sean Connery) into collaborating with a Russian in stealing the Lektor from the Soviet embassy in Istanbul, which they will then take from Bond, while framing him and the Russian for the deed. Klebb will be in charge of the operation.To lure Bond into the trap, Klebb recruits Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi), a cipher clerk at the Soviet consulate in Istanbul. Romanova is an unwitting pawn, as she thinks Klebb is still working for SMERSH. Tatiana's cover story will be that she is a Soviet consulate clerk in Turkey who wants to defect to England.Bond is in a small boat near a river, making out with his sometime girlfriend, Sylvia Trench (Eunice Gayson), when he's summoned to MI6's London headquarters to meet with "M", Chief of British Intelligence, (Bernard Lee). As he enters the main office, Bond tosses his hat across the room and neatly onto the hat rack.M tells Bond that Romanova has contacted their "Station 'T'" in Turkey, offering to defect with a Lektor, which MI6 and the CIA have been after for years; however, Romanova has stated she will only defect to Bond, whose photo she has allegedly found in a Soviet intelligence file. M and Bond suspect a trap with this Lektor business, but M orders Bond to Istanbul anyway, telling him to meet with British Intelligence Station Chief in Istanbul, Ali Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendáriz).Bond's armorer, Major Boothroyd (Desmond Llewelyn), the head of Q Section, provides Bond with a briefcase containing a tear gas bomb that detonates if it is improperly opened, a folding AR-7 sniper rifle with twenty rounds of ammunition, a throwing knife, and 50 gold sovereigns.At the SMERSH training facility, Klebb meets with Morzeny (Walter Gotell), the SPECTRE thug who trains personnel on SPECTRE Island. Morzeny takes her to a man named Donald 'Red' Grant (Robert Shaw), the same assassin that killed the impostor Bond during the training exercise. Grant is in the process of getting a massage from a beautiful woman (Jan Williams) on the lawn outside. Klebb directs Morzeny to call Grant over. Grant hurries over and Klebb looks his body up and down, then slides some brass knuckles onto her fingers and delivers a solid blow to his solar plexus. Grant doesn't even flinch from the blow, so she decides he'll do, and she orders him to be sent to Istanbul, where he will be the second main player in her plot.Bond arrives in Istanbul and is driven to Kerim Bey's offices. The car is followed from the airport, by both the Russians, and Red Grant. Bond's driver, Bey's son, assures Bond that there is no danger, as they and the KGB's operatives tail each other constantly in Istanbul. However, Grant ambushes and kills the Russian driver, leaving the body in the backseat of the car, where it will be quickly discovered. Thinking the British killed the Russian driver, Kerim Bey's office is bombed by the KGB in retaliation.Bond meets with Bey, who informs him that the Soviet embassy, though heavily protected, can be infiltrated, and the Lektor can be stolen.Bond checks into his hotel, asking to be given another room when he finds a listening device behind a painting in his assigned room. He is told the bridal suite is the only other room available, so he takes that.Meanwhile, Bey, relaxing with his mistress (Nadja Regin) at his office, is nearly killed when the retaliatory bomb goes off. Nadja had lured him away from the blast zone only moments before. Bond goes to Bey's office, where he's briefed on the incident.Bey takes Bond to the city's underground reservoir below his offices. They climb into a rowboat and travel a short distance to the area directly beneath the Soviet embassy. Bey has installed a surplus British submarine periscope, which elevates under a table in the embassy's conference room. Bey and Bond then look to see who is meeting there.They identify Krilencu (Fred Haggerty), a Bulgarian assassin who works as a killer for the Soviets in the Balkans. Bey tells Bond that Krilencu has been gone from Istanbul for a year, so it's curious that he's returned. Bey suspects it must have been Krilencu who planted the bomb that nearly killed him. Bey desires revenge, but chooses not to, not wanting to do anything that might jeopardize Bond's mission.Bey takes Bond to a gypsy camp outside the city for the evening. Bond meets Vavra (Francis de Wolff), the chief of the tribe who does dangerous work for Bey now and then. After watching Leila (Lisa Guiraut), a belly dancer, perform, the chief of the camp orders two young women, Vida (Aliza Gur) and Zora (Martine Beswick), who both seek to marry his son, to be brought from their wagons. In accordance with Gypsy tradition, the two women must fight, with the winner to be the bride.Vida and Zora are in the early stages of their vicious fight, when the camp is attacked by Krilencu and his Bulgarian thugs. In the ensuing gunfight and chaos, Bey is shot in the right arm and Bond is saved by Grant, who, from a hidden position observing the camp, shoots a man intending to attack Bond with a sword. Grant wants to make sure Bond is able to complete his mission.After the KGB men withdraw, Vavra declares Bond to be one of his "sons," in honor of Bond's bravery and assistance. Bond thanks him, then requests a favor of the chief. He asks that the fight between the women be stopped. The man laughs, suggesting that Bond is too softhearted to be a gypsy, but he agrees to let Bond make the decision.Bey resolves to kill Krilencu. He and Bond go to Krilencu's hideout, where Bey has two of his operatives working as Turkish policemen. The policemen knock on the Krilencu's door. They then see Krilencu attempting to use an escape hatch built into a large billboard on the building. Krilencu drops a rope along the outside the building and starts down. He's an easy target for Bey, who uses Bond's sniper rifle, with Bond's shoulder as support, to shoot Krilencu. Krilencu falls to the ground dead.Bond returns to his hotel room and is just about to take a relaxing bath when he hears noises in the main room. He puts on a towel and sneaks out of the bathroom, moving over to where he had set his pistol. He picks up his gun and then sees a human shadow disappearing out on the patio. He follows in that direction and into the adjacent room, where there's a beautiful young woman lying in her bed. It is Tatiana. She'd lured him over there.They introduce themselves and within minutes they are making love, deciding to discuss the details of how they'll go about obtaining the Lektor machine in the morning. The two are unaware that their lovemaking is being filmed from behind a one way mirror by Klebb.The next day, Bond arranges to meet with Tatiana at the Hagia Sophia Cathedral, intending to receive a map of the Russian Consulate from her. Tatiana leaves the map at the base of a pillar, but a KGB agent, who was trailing her, reaches it before Bond can. Grant moves in and kills the KGB agent, unseen by Bond or Tatiana. Bond reaches the dead KGB man and finds the map still clutched in his hand. He takes the map and leaves, wondering who might have killed the agent.Bond takes the map to Bey, who determines that a bomb set off in the consulate would be enough of a distraction for Bond to enter the communications room, steal the Lektor, and escape with Tatiana into the caverns below the city.Bond later meets with Tatiana on a ferry, where he uses a tape recorder made up to look like a camera, to record Tatiana's description of the Lektor. The recording is subsequently listened to by M and several other high level officials, who determine that the device Tatiana speaks of is authentic. Q's secretary, Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell), was also listening to the tape, until M told her to leave, as Tatiana kept flirting with James in between her statements describing the Lektor. Miss Moneypenny is able to listen in via the office intercom. She seems both amused and jealous at what she's hearing.M orders Bond to go ahead with the plan to acquire the Lektor.Bond reports to the Soviet embassy at precisely 3:00 p.m. Moments later, a bomb goes off, having been placed near the wall to the communications room. The explosion breaks a hole in the wall of the room and Bond slips in easily, to grab both the Lektor and Tatiana, and they escape into the caverns. They are led outside by Bey.Bond's escape from Istanbul involves a lengthy ride on the Orient Express to Trieste in Italy. Bey has reserved a sleeper car for both Bond and Tatiana, who are posing as a married couple. They are to meet another of Bey's sons, who will give them documents and assistance in smuggling the Lektor across the Italian border.On the train, Bey identifies a Soviet security officer named Benz (Peter Bayliss), who is tailing them. Bey makes it his duty to keep a close eye on Benz during the train ride. Bey and Benz later turn up dead in Bey's compartment. The train's conductor (George Pastell), believes they killed each other and he goes to Bond, whom he knew to be an associate of Bey, to let him know. Bond follows the conductor to Bey's compartment and witnesses the scene. He pays the conductor to keep the deaths a secret for the rest of the trip. Bey and Benz were actually the victims of Grant, who was also on the train.At the Zagreb stop, Bond meets with one of Bey's sons and, after regretfully telling the man that his father had been killed, asks him to arrange for an MI6 agent to meet him at the next stop in Sarajevo.Grant leaves the train in Sarajevo and intercepts British Agent Nash, from Station Y, there to meet Bond. Grant kills Nash and assumes Nash's place in meeting with Bond. Bond seems immediately suspicious of Grant, because he was late in coming to meet with him. Grant invites Bond to dinner on the train and Bond accepts, but he sends Tatiana on ahead with Grant, telling them he had to tend to something first. Bond then opens the briefcase Grant had been carrying and checks the contents. Inside, he finds Nash's clothes and pistol. Bond then heads for the dining car.Bond finds it curious that Grant orders red wine with his fish dinner, but says nothing. Toward the end of the meal, Grant drops a sleeping pill into Tatiana's drink. She becomes drowsy and falls asleep in their room. In the adjoining room, Grant deceives Bond into looking at a map. Then, while explaining how he plans to effect their escape across the border, he sneaks a pistol from an ankle holster and hits Bond over the head with it, knocking him out temporarily.When Bond comes to, Grant reveals that he has been sent to kill both Bond and Romanov and steal the Lektor. Grant further taunts Bond, boasting that SPECTRE has been pitting the Soviets and the British against each other, and claims that Romanova thinks that "she's doing it all for mother Russia".He also tells Bond he plans to frame him for Tatiana's murder and cause a scandal involving Bond's earlier tryst with her, which was filmed by Klebb. He tells Bond that after he kills both of them, he will plant the film in her handbag, along with a forged blackmail letter, so it looks like it was a murder-suicide.Bond comes to the realization that Grant is not with SMERSH, but is working for SPECTRE. He is impressed by the genius of the plan.Bond offers to double whatever Grant is being paid by SPECTRE, but Grant isn't interested. In fact, he tells Bond that he intends to torture him before killing him. Trying to stall for time, Bond plays his final card; Bond asks for a cigarette, but Grant refuses. Bond offers to pay for it with some gold sovereigns he has in his briefcase. Grant tells Bond to show him the sovereigns. Bond removes the sovereigns from his briefcase (he'd actually transferred them from Nash's briefcase to his own). With a clear hint of greed in his voice, Grant then asks Bond if there are any more gold sovereigns in Nash's briefcase. Bond says 'yes', that it's standard issue. Bond offers to take a look, and it is here that Grant falls right into the trap. Thinking that Bond has a weapon hidden in the other briefcase (Nash's pistol) Grant decides to open the other case himself.Grant opens the other case the incorrect way (without turning the latches on the briefcase) and the tear gas canister explodes in his face when Grant opens it briefcase and Bond attacks him. The two fight viciously, slamming each other around, into the room where Tatiana lay sleeping, and then back to the adjoining compartment. Grant attempts to strangle Bond with a garrote wire that he had hidden in his watch, but Bond is able to get to the knife hidden in his briefcase and stab Grant in the arm. Bond eventually strangles Grant with the garrote.One of Grant's co-horts parks a flower truck across the train tracks and forces the train to stop a few minutes later. Bond is barely able to revive Tatiana enough to jump off the train. He hides her behind some shrubs, then jumps back on the outside of the train as it starts up again, riding it just a few hundred feet to near the flower truck, that had been moved from the tracks by a couple of trainmen. James jumps off and the train continues on. The driver is calling out to Grant, wondering where he is. James rushes the driver and knocks him down and out. He binds the man's hands with a belt, then puts him in the cab of the truck and Tatiana in the bed of the truck, with the flowers.Bond is driving the truck down the road when a helicopter approaches. There are two men, the pilot and one other. The passenger starts lobbing grenades down at the truck, trying to force it off the road, or at least to stop. James jumps out with his briefcase, puts Tatiana under the truck, then takes off running. He hides under a rock, assembles his rifle, and shoots the helicopter passenger just as he's preparing to toss another grenade at Bond. Bond hits the man's arm causing him to drop the grenade inside the helicopter. It explodes and crashes.At Number One's office, Klebb and Kronsteen are being admonished for the plan having failed. Number Five blames Klebb, while she blames him. Number One presses a button on a panel on his desk and Morzeny enters the room, coming up behind Klebb and Kronsteen. Number One tells them that SPECTRE does not tolerate failure, and he appears to be blaming Klebb directly. Klebb lowers her head and acknowledges, believing she's about to die. Morzeny releases a dagger hidden in the toe of his boot and prepares to kick out at Klebb, but at the last second, he twists his foot and stabs Kronsteen instead. The blade is tipped with a fast-acting poison and Kronsteen falls dead within 12 seconds. Number One remarks that they'll need to work on developing a faster acting poison.Number One tells a frightened Klebb that she now has total control of the mission and has one last chance to get the Lektor and kill Bond in Italy.Meanwhile, Bond gets the flower truck driver to tell him that Grant was planning to escape by boat, so Bond drives there. They get in the boat and head for Trieste. Bond asks the driver if he can swim, then unbinds his hands and pushes him overboard, probably a couple of hundred yards from shore.A few hours into their long boat trip, Bond and Tatiana are intercepted by Morzeny and others, dispersed among three boats. They lob grenades and fire automatic weapons at Bond, trying to get him to stop. Some of the bad guys didn't particularly understand their objective, however, and end up hitting several large drums of fuel that were on Bond's boat. Bond is forced to release the holds on the barrels, sending them into the water. When Morzeny sees the barrels floating by, he orders the boats to slow down. Tatiana then hands Bond a flare gun, which he uses to set all the floating fuel and the barrels on fire. Morzeny and his men, crashing into each other's boats, are either killed or forced to jump into the water, as the fire envelopes them.Bond and Tatiana reach Venice and are making preparations to leave for England when Klebb enters their hotel room, disguised as a maid. She holds Bond at gunpoint, ordering Romanov out of the room with the Lektor. Klebb then raises the pistol to kill Bond, but Tatiana rushes back into the room and knocks the gun out of her hand. Bond and Klebb fight. Bond has to grab a chair and pin Klebb against the wall with it, as she was attempting to kick him with the dagger in the toe of her shoe. Tatiana recovers Klebb's pistol and, after a brief and confused hesitation, shoots Klebb, killing her.In the final scene, Bond and Tatiana take a romantic pleasure cruise on Venice's Grand Canal. Tatiana returns the wedding band that MI6 had provided for the mission and Bond puts it in his pocket for safekeeping until he can return it. He then removes from his pocket the film of his and Tatiana's night together, pulling it out partway and examining some of the frames. He kisses Tatiana passionately and throws the film in the river.

Tags: cult, murder

Review:
So, like 'Dr. No', there's only a single sex interest (let's not use the term 'love' too lightly), rather than the good-girl-survives, bad/tragic-girl-dies dichotomy that would later structure all the films (bar OHMSS and, interestingly, the Dalton films), and unlike 'Dr. No', the villainous plot is rather small beer and resolutely real-world - to steal a code machine and humiliate the British Intelligence community in the process.
Unsurprisingly, it has a good claim to being the best film of the series, and it's certainly the least self-conscious (compare with 'Thunderball', an artificial attempt to replicate 'Goldfinger' but making everything bigger).So, Daniela Bianchi isn't really just the latest 'Bond Girl', but the character at the heart of this thriller - she pretty much is the story.
By contrast, the crucial pivot of 'From Russia With Love' is whether Bianchi's Tanya will side with Bond or SMERSH - the age old 'love or duty' dilemma.The film also takes time with detours that have little to do with the main plot - as in the sequence at the gypsy camp.
There is a real feeling of a functioning world around Bond's escapades, rather than just colourful 'exotic' backdrops.There also isn't an undue emphasis on big action set pieces - Bond's encounter with a helicopter (very 'North by Northwest' - in fact Hitchcock's influence is detectable throughout this film, from the Cathedral sequence, to the cool Blondeness of Bianchi, to the train setting of the second half) and the climactic speedboat chase are well-executed, but miniature next to those of later films.
Lotte Lenya and Pedro Armendariz are both excellent in their supporting turns, reminders of a time when the series actually featured fully developed supporting characters, and Bianchi is good - she may lack the overt sex appeal of Andress, but she's a better actress, playing innocent without being either stupid or dull.
But 'From Russia with Love' proved to be an equally effective, if slightly quieter little film, with more focus on the undercover espionage portion of James Bond's occupation, and less of the glamorous saving the world which would later become daily routine for him.
(an utterly intimidating and menacing Robert Shaw, the film's standout) And of course, there is still a slew of beautiful women for Bond to seduce, especially Russian decoding clerk Tatiana Romanova, played by the immensely gorgeous Daniela Bianchi.
Their choice this time was From Russia With Love, a novel once pointed out by US president Kennedy as one of his favorite books.Trying to capture the unique mood and look of Dr No, the producers brought back almost everyone involved in the first Bond outing ( excepting mediocre composer Monty Norman, whose clumsy tunes were replaced by a magnificent John Barry's score, in his first "official" collaboration in the Bond series).
This includes Broccoli's long-standing collaborator Terence Young, screenwriter Richard Maibaum ,and, of course, Connery, that rough Scottsman, initially despised by everybody as a "lorry driver" , who nevertheless delivered an unforgettable performance as James Bond.All these talents combined to produce what no doubt is one the best Bond films of all time.
The helicopter chase, in particular, is a moment of brilliant film-making.(And it's even better than the sequence From North By Northwest that inspired it) The shot of Bond and Romanova embracing in the foreground with the helicopter exploding in the background perfectly encapsulates what the entire movie is about:danger, romance, violence.As for the cast, Connery seems more confident and relaxed this time, but when it comes to his job, he is as ruthless and cold as Fleming originally envisioned the character.
But it is legendary supporting actor Robert Shaw who nearly steals the show as a cold-blooded hit-man with a psychotic strain to him.All in all, From Russia With Love is definitely a must-see not only for Bond fans, but for every discerning film lover.A true classic..
Connery gets a really outstanding cast in support including Pedro Armendariz for whom this was a final performance as Bond ally Ali Kerim Bey.Robert Shaw has a part of few words as the paid assassin SPECTRE has trained for the purpose of killing James Bond.
His confrontation with Connery on the Orient Express is one of the great fight scenes ever done on film.However I have a warm spot in my heart for Lotte Lenya as Rosa Klebb, the Russian defector now working for SPECTRE, the woman with those killer orthopedic shoes.
Kenneth Cole never designed better.From Russia With Love has everything you want in a James Bond film, action, sex, and exotic locations.
Sean Connery never failed to charm as James Bond.His charm,coupled with the terrific story line that you see here in from Russia With Love,makes this film second only to Goldfinger in terms of ranking all of Connery's efforts as 007.Nearly stealing the show is a fresh faced Robert Shaw as a trained assassin with his eyes zeroed in on the agent.Sadly,we also see the final performance of Pedro Armendariz,who committed suicide the year of the film's release upon learning he had terminal cancer.Even if you are not a Bond fan,this is a very well done good versus evil story that is carried out very well.If you are a Bond fan,you probably have all the films in your collection,whether they are good or bad,but if you are someone who only collects films you consider good,you'll want to consider this one..
In his second adventure agent 007 goes to Istanbul, Turkey and to Venice.SPECTRE is after him wanting Mr. Bond to die.Terence Young directed From Russia with Love (1963) as he directed the first Bond film ever, Dr. No the previous year.Sean Connery made a perfect first ever James Bond.He had the looks, he had the charm.He had everything this character required.He still has a lot of that left.Daniela Bianchi plays Tatiana Romanova, the beautiful Bond girl.There have been many of those since, and I must say she does her job well.Robert Shaw does excellent job as the bad guy after our beloved secret agent.Lotte Lenya's work as the bad woman Rosa Klebb is far from bad.Pedro Armendariz is seen in his last movie as Bond's friend Ali Kerim Bey.He's brilliant in his role.Q is seen for the first time in this movie.He isn't known as Q though but Major Boothroyd.He's played by who else but Desmond Llewelyn.Bernard Lee is M and Lois Maxwell is Miss Moneypenny.There are many moments to remember in this movie, like at the gypsy camp.Some thrilling moments happen in a train.James Bond is the man who gets all the ladies and gets to travel all around the world.It's probably better to watch that in the movies than actually live that life.He isn't too much liked among the villains.Ian Fleming created James Bond.From the books he made it to the movies.This year is Bond's 45th year in movies.He has come a long way from Dr. No to Casino Royale.Mr. Bond, we salute you!.
The SPECTRE Number 1 assigns the SPECTRE Number 3, Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya), who was ex-SMERSH operative before defecting Russia, and the SPECTRE Number 5 and expert planner Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal) to plot a scheme to steal the Russian's Lektor decoder and revenge on James Bond (Sean Connery) for killing Dr. No.
Very helpful are Daniela Bianchi as a touching woman finding herself way out of her depth and Robert Shaw as the ruthless assassin Red Grant."From Russia with Love" is up there with the very best of Bond in that it keeps growing on you with repeated viewings.
This solidified the 007 films as less of a joke and more of a masterclass of espionage/action/mystery filmmaking.James VS Grant is bound to be a Top 3 moment in the history of the franchise-or what I have examined of it so far.From Russia With Love is essentially the "full-price" version of Mendes's Spectre.You will be fairly embarrassed when you don't recognize Robert Shaw as the blonde antagonist once you've IMDbed the cast.Verdict: A-.
Of course there is the usual sprinkling of beautiful women, bare fist fights and action that is woven into the story, but the main drive here is the spy theme and the tension, not the action that we are all used to seeing in the later films.It's definitely not my favourite Bond movie, but it's does still stand alone in many respects, one of them being the first appearance from 'Q' although he's not known as 'Q' just yet.7/10.
I like the fact that in this film 007 is an agent and not some kind of action hero who kills 100:s of villains in order to save the world from some capitalistic maniac (I don't like the later bond-movies that much).
While most people usually cite Goldfinger as their favorite of the Connery Bond films, I will stick with the second underrated entry in the series.Bond: Connery is still at his peak in the role exuding charm, sex appeal, machismo and humor.The villains: Robert Shaw and Lotte Lenya are excellent and create two of the most memorable villains in the Bond pantheon.
This is probably the only GENUINE spy movie in the series, and it contains (in my opinion) the best-sustained sequence of all the Bonds (the Connery-Shaw fight and the 15 minutes leading to it).
The scripting is fantastic and the character interplay, introduced in "Dr. No," are more fully developed here.The story involves a plot by SPECTRE to steal a soviet encoding/decoding device (the Lektor) and discredit James Bond at the same time.
the East to the profit of SPECTRE, all the better.A soviet encoder tech in the Russian consulate in Istanbul, Tatiana Romanova, (played by Daniela Bianchi) is asked to fall in love with Bond and promise to hand over the decoder if he helps her defect.
Bond is pursued by a hulking blond assassin named Red Grant (Robert Shaw) , whose character provided a template for a number of blond European henchmen that would proliferate the James Bond series .This solid , slick thriller with magic mix of action-packed , dazzling stunts, gadgetry, and romance provided by sexy company as Daniela Bianchi .
Here appears three wonderful women ; both of them Beauty Pageant Queens are actresses in this film: Daniela Bianchi, Martine Beswick, Aliza Gur. Bianchi (Italy) and Gur (Israel) were roommates at Miss Universe 1960, which Bianchi won.The picture contains comic-strip adventure , sensational pursuits , silly set pieces, great stunts , tongue-in check humor ,frantic unstopped action , amazing gimmicks and stimulating images like are the spectacular chases , the overwhelming scenes, and the breathtaking fights .
My favorite chapter was the scene in Rosa Klebb's office :Tatiana is intrigued to know why her boss has sent for her;she's asked very indiscreet questions about her(very) private life and she's offered a chocolate she finds hard to swallow (Fleming's depiction is priceless).But the second part of the chapter was totally ruled out by the scenarists: Klebb puts on a hideous negligé and makes advances to scared Tatiana ...who takes to her heels.The poor girl thinks her final hour has come,but nothing happens.Lotte Lenya is an excellent Rosa Klebb,she's exactly as Fleming wanted her to be ,even if she does not show her lesbian side.Daniela Bianchi is a gorgeous Bond girl.Martine Beswick,who would play a small part (Paula Caplan) in "Thunderball" plays one of the wrestling gypsies.Robert Shaw is one of the best villains of the series.And of course Sean Connery will remain the best Bond of all time.All the other ones cannot hold a candle to him.At the time,the Bond were getting better and better since "Russia" was superior to "Dr No' and is ,IMHO,itself inferior to "Goldfinger".It was not to last..
Thus begins one of- if not the- best James Bond movie, From Russia with love.Today, the Bond franchise is second only to Star Wars in value, and second only to Godzilla in number of films.
It's a hell of a fight scene.From Russia with Love has got action, suspense, humor, romance, beautiful locations, and beautiful girls- in short, everything a good Bond movie should.
Simply my most favorite James Bond movie with some great performances, memorable characters and exotic locales like the Istanbul Mosque and the Orient Express.Sean Connery is perfect as Agent 007 with his suave wit and legendary presence.If you ever get sick of all the gadget saturated Bond Movies then this is a must see.
Yet, for James Bond purists, this movie will always rank high and I can understand that.That's because I, too, will always consider this the best of the non-hokey Bonds, a solid Cold War action-suspense film in which Robert Shaw ("Red Grant") makes for a chilling villain.
Now we see tons of Russian beauties, on film and in real life.Overall, there aren't enough action scenes, which sounds strange since Bond movies often suffer from the opposite.
However they don't know that the whole mission is a set-up by SPECTRE who plan to lure Bond to his death in revenge for his killing their best agent Dr No.As a child of the Moore era I have grown more with a Bond who is slightly tongue in cheek and surrounded by sexy girls with dirty names and lots of gadgets and action scenes.
Sean Connery is typically smooth and suave as James Bond--arguably the best actor to ever fill this role--here thwarting evil, powerful SPECTRE agents including striking Russian Robert Shaw, who really cuts a menacing figure.
Ian Fleming wrote many stories with his hero, James Bond, and this second film release with our favorite spy saw a similar future for his presence in film.This entry is more mature than 'Dr. No.' There is a proper Bond beginning with the gun barrel, then a little action scene, and the theme song with fancy credits.
Sean connery did other james bond movies including Dr No, From Russia with love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You only live twice, and Dimonds are forever.
I did like Robert Shaw as the assassin who's role and character was done in such a mysterious way that we really didn't know much at all about him, and neither did Bond meaning we were left with very little information about him as Bond met him.I said about the film's stunts which are pretty good and it's the action scenes that really bring this movie to life, one scene with boats is fantastically done and although you can tell the bombs are being set off by a studio team strategically, it still makes for a thrilling sequence which Bond has to negotiate.
The film is a good one indeed and although my review might criticise it a lot, the movie is in fact very entertaining and brings even more to the screen that we love about Bond than many other Bonds do, a great job.
The plan is for Number 3 Klebb (Lotte Lenya) to trick Russian girl attaché Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) to lure James Bond 007 (Sean Connery) into stealing Russian super secret Lektor decoding machine.
It has high levels of suspense, along with one of the greatest action sequences ever to be filmed in the finale, which involves a helicopter and one of the best fight scenes you'll ever see between Sean Connery & Robert Shaw on a train.
he seduces a young sexy Russian girl to get his hands on a Russian decoding machine,, what makes thing get interesting is that SPECTRE is back and they are trying to get their hands on it as well,, this movie pays more attention to the spy work that is involved,, less action,, more seductive romance,, still have the great cars, and hot women, overall a very good entry into the series , just a little slower paced..
This film also includes one of the most exciting hand-to-hand combat sequences in a Bond movie when James Bond fights SPECTRE agent Red Grant, played menacingly by Robert Shaw, on board a train.Even though this film drags less than Dr. No, some parts do drag slightly, but not enough to turn you off of the film.
Like "Dr. No", seeing this follow-up was far from being my greatest movie-watching experience, but fortunately, both films left me reasonably impressed, enough for both of them to get a 7/10 in my book.James Bond, Agent 007, is sent to Istanbul, Turkey to search for Lektor, a Russian decoding machine, for the British Secret Service to gain access to Russian codes.
From Russia With Love is arguably the best James Bond movie:  it has the young Sean Connery, a great supporting cast, exotic locations, and the right amount of 007 gadgetry (without overdoing it).
From Russia With Love is absolutely the greatest Bond movie ever in many ways: it's very realistic, whole case better said whole action that has Bond to do could have happened in those times.
FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE (1963) ***1/2  One of the best Bond flicks with our hero facing the evil SPECTRE and facing hulking Robert Shaw (in one helluva fight sequence)  and most memorably Lotte Lenya's Rosa Klebb with her poisoned knife in the shoe scuffle at the film's conclusion.
The locations range from classic countrysides over exotic oriental belly dancing occasions to a moving train scene, where the film directed by reprising director Terence Young (1915-1994) plays out the full strength of iconic production-values-in-the-making for future Bond pictures to come with hand-to-hand combats, gun-shooting, helicopter to boat action scene, when 21-year-old actress Daniela Bianchi at Sean Connery's side dining with the highly-trained spy nemesis character Grant, portrayed by Robert Shaw (1927-1978), before the action takes his turns to an accelerated showdown sequence of putting James Bond in on-going motion from train interiors to a Venetian hotel room of surprising second suspense infusions.Producers Albert R.
From Russia With Love was the second official Bond film, starring Sean Connery and was released in 1963.
"From Russia With Love" established many Bond movie traditions.Old-schoolers will always regard Sean Connery as the best James Bond.