The James Bond Film Festival. Part 2: From Russia with Love

Welcome to Part 2 of The James Bond Film Festival: From Russian with Love. For those of you who missed it, here is The James Bond Film Festival. Part 1: Dr. No.

The Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion (otherwise known as SPECTRE) rears its ugly head. SPECTRE wants a secret Russian decoding machine known as the “Lektor”, so they put Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) on the job. Klebb was a colonel in the KGB before she defected to SPECTRE. Of course, the KGB hushed it up. The plan is this: SPECTRE will recruit an unsuspecting Soviet code worker (Tatiana Romanov, played by Daniela Bianchi) to contact MI6 and offer them the decoding device. MI6 sends Bond to Istanbul to make the transaction. In the meantime, SPECTRE has sent Donald ‘Red’ Grant (Robert Shaw) to be Bond’s “guardian angel” - at least until Bond has the machine, at which time Grant will kill him and give the machine to SPECTRE.

The beginning of the film is rather provocative. Grant kills Bond in before the titles!

I liked Dr. No. I loved it for its straightforward storyline and its low budget. From Russia with Love is where Bond gets his legs. Connery is much more the spy we love. We also get to meet Q (Desmond Llewelyn) for the first time - as well as some “gadgets”. Bonds toys are contained in a briefcase. There is a gas bomb that explodes if you fail to open the case correctly, 50 gold sovereigns for bribing one’s way out of sticky situations contained in the walls of the briefcase, and a concealed knife that springs to hand at the touch of a button. In addition, there is an AR-7 rifle (which they erroneously say is .25 caliber instead of .22).

Robert Shaw has a “real” gadget - a garrote concealed in his wristwatch that seems to be his favourite weapon.

From Russia with Love does have a lot of action in it, as well as many hallmark shots (who can forget Bond aiming the flare gun?); but the story is so chock-full of stuff that it plays like a spy thriller from an earlier era. It’s almost noir. And that’s a good thing. Dr. No was great for its simplicity. From Russia with Love is great for its complexity.

In my opinion, this is one of the weakest evil plots, possibly shadowed by the wonderfully ridiculous spaceship-eating war firestart in You Only Live Twice. Sure, SPECTRE wants the Lektor, but the reason they want to kill Bond is because he killed Dr. No. Revenge? You gotta have a better reason to bump off Bond than that.

(Thought: That guy next to the train? Contrary to popular belief, he ain’t Ian Fleming. John Cork and Bruce Scivally, authors of James Bond: The Legacy, discovered that nobody started thinking this until the film was shown on TV and video. The man appears dressed in Fleming clothes on a small screen, but on the big screen, the truth comes out.)

(Another thought: They’re still experimenting. This film features an original song…but it’s performed during the end credits-the opening features an instrumental. It wasn’t until Goldfinger that the formula was set.)

I love FRWL, I absolutely love it! But I believe that Goldfinger edges it out as Connery’s best performance and generally the better film.

Killing Bond was just an “added refinement” that would provide them with their revenge and also humiliate the British. But the primary plan was to get the Lektor.

Reasons I think FRWL is the best Bond film:

  • It has a great plot in that it’s a real Cold War secret agent plot. Not one of the tedious Global Conquest villains but your standard spy stuff.

  • Similarly, all the gadgets are real world stuff–things you could actually believe would be invented and are of some practical use. Goldfinger ended this.

  • John Barry’s music. Awesome.

  • Daniela Bianchi is Hot.

  • The villains are fun without being absurd caricatures. And Pedro Armendáriz remains one of Bond’s best allies.

  • Lots of great action setpieces that build one after the other (Train Fight! --> Helicopter --> Motorboat)

The only real complaint is that I don’t like Tatiana saving Bond at the end. He should be able to take care of Klebb himself. And the theme song’s only so-so.

I’m not sure if it needs to be in a spoiler box since everyone should have seen the film by now, but…

IIRC, the book From Rissia with Love came before Dr. No. I think that’s why Bond was sent to Jamaica – to recuperate after being stabbed by Klebb’s poisoned spike.

So if Tatiana hadn’t saved Bond, he would probably have been poisoned – which would probably have to be explained later since Bond had already been sent away to recuperate. Better to deal with it then and there.

Ah, ah… but someone is forgetting Dr. No’s explanation to Bond:

“SPECTRE. Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, Extortion. The four great cornerstones of power headed by the greatest brains in the world.”

From Russia with Love is one of my favorites, for many of the reasons covered above. It’s also one of the closest to the book, as many of the scenes are lifted directly out. Even the gypsy girl-fight, which hardly seems consequential to the plot except for Grant “protecting” Bond.

I also like the simple exchange the Service uses with their contacts:
“Pardon me, do you have a match?”
“I use a lighter.”
“Better still.”
“Until they go wrong.”
“Exactly.”

Grant must have learned it at some point, because you can see him using it on Bond to earn his trust before getting on the train.

Johnny L.A., you left out Walter Gotell’s appearance as a SPECTRE agent, several movies before his regular appearance as Soviet General Gogol. First time I saw this movie, I thought that’s who he was supposed to be!

Or I could be wrong. He might have been sent to the Fontaine Bleu in Florida to recuperate, in Goldfinger. (Where’s the “shrug” smiley?)

Grant was eavesdropping from the train.

I never noticed that bit about Gotell.

Also forgot that this movie has a scene with Sylvia Trench, who we met in Bond’s first scene in Dr. No. The scene in FRWL establishes that the events in this movie take place 6 months after Dr. No. Sylvia was intended to be a recurring character, but that idea was scrapped.

I think he was just in Florida on vacation. I don’t recall it explicitly stated, but it’s not usually important why Bond is where he is at the beginning of each movie.

I agree that “From Russia With Love” was one of the best of the series, and one of the least infected with “series-itis”… it was just a good movie, not beholden to any form of series formulae, not needing to mirror previous movies or set up future movies. It is quite possibly the most “free standing” of the Bond films. Even “Dr. No” seemed more rigidly constrained to a formula, if that is possible.

Loved that giant chess board! And I loved the song by Matt Munro (end credits or beginning, who cares?). And of course Pedro Armendáriz is great, and foreshadows his own son (PA Jr.) in the also-great “Licence to Kill” who is on the receiving end of the erie line: “Remember… you are only president… for life!”…Timmy

I read that the guy who played Kerim Bey was dying of cancer, and pushed himself to complete the role to get a payday for his family. As soon as shooting was done on FRWL, he committed suicide.

Do I need a cite in Cafe Society?

Regards,
Shodan

Tatiana Romanov (Daniela Bianchi) was the most beautiful Bond girl ever.

Shodan: I don’t know if a cite is really necessary, but here’s a little something about Pedro Armendáriz.

From this page:

Open wide for a plug for Call Me Bwana, a now-forgotten Saltzman-Broccoli comedy, in one jaw-dropping scene.

“She should have kept her mouth shut.”

I liked the gypsy camp scene. It added a lot of color to the film without relying on flashy explosions. I don’t know how accurately the gypsies were portrayed – my suspicion is, not very – but for something done in the 60s, there was a distinct air of respect for them and their culture, however exotic, much as in “You Only Live Twice,” my favorite of the older Bond films.

Plus of course, hot belly dancing and girl-girl fighting is just plain fun to watch.

I have rarely studied a film as much as this one. One of my all time favourites.

I could go on and on but I’d like to bring to your attention one of the many scenes that make this a stand out film…

During the famous helicopter chase scene take time to study the composition of the movement (my cinema lexicon is limited…sorry). You’ll notice in one long beautiful take that as Bond runs away from the camera towards the rocks, the helicopter flys towards the camera, then, Bond runs back towards us and the helicopter takes a long turn in the distance, but still on camera. this back and forth of our hero and the impersonal deadly threat is thrilling in it’s unfairness. How can one man win in a fight against a machine gun-wielding, grenade-dropping helicopter? It’s just amazing that the director could frame this in one take, all on camera at once and without an intrusive musical score to “keep up the excitement”. He knew that music would be superfluous. The tension is very high all on it’s own. The music only comes in when Bond is aiming at the S.P.E.C.T.R.E. goon with the grenade.

Anyway, that’s my 2 cents.

P.S. I took one of my best loved lines from that movie. I often quote it to my sons

Bond to Kerim-Bey after being thanked for saving his life a second time:

Kerim-Bey “I am in your debt.”

Bond "How can a friend be in debt?"

Ah, Tatiana. My all-time favorite Bond girl. Hot, hot hot.

Another tidbit not mentioned here - one of the two women gypsies fighting each other was also the evil girl “Paula” in Thunderball. “She’s just dead.”

I was watching this the other night (along with that damn tampon commercial) and noticed something I never bothered to realize before. The 50 gold sovereigns were in the special exploding suitcase. I never made the connection before that Bond moved them into his other suitcase before they went to dinner. IOW, he was onto Quint - err, Grant almost from the beginning. I gave myself a :smack: after realizing that - I always thought Grant got the drop on him.

I hope you’re all watching Goldfinger, because I’m going to post about Part 3 of the Film Festival in a few days. :wink:

Not quite: Paula is the agent who is killed by the bad girl, Fiona Volpe (played by Luciana Paluzzi).

Didn’t Grant explain that he knew the passwords because SPECTRE had kidnapped a British agent in Japan and “sweated” their passwords out of him–or was that just in the book?