Starring Sean Connery, From Russia with Love, is the second James Bond film in the official EON Productions series, and the second to star Sean Connery as the suave and sophisticated British Secret Service agent James Bond. The film was released in 1963, produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and directed by Terence Young. It is based on the eponymous 1957 novel by Ian Fleming.

It is considered the best of the James Bond film series by many fans and critics, and by actor Sean Connery (who restated his view in a 2002 interview with Sam Donaldson for ABC News). Though the film's low-key tone contrasts with the popular outlandishness of Goldfinger and Thunderball, From Russia with Love is often considered the ideal Bond film that each film strives to aim for. Michael G. Wilson, the current co-producer of the series with his half sister Barbara Broccoli, has stated "We always start out trying to make another From Russia with Love and end up with another Thunderball." In 2004, Total Film magazine named it the ninth-greatest British film of all time.

In 2005 it was adapted into a video game, James Bond 007: From Russia with Love. The game was made by Electronic Arts and featured all new voice work by Sean Connery as well as his likeness and the likeness of a number of the supporting cast from the film.

Film poster

Background

As President Kennedy had named From Russia With Love among his ten favourite books of all time, producers Broccoli and Saltzman chose this as the follow-up to the cinematic debut of James Bond, Dr. No. Ian Fleming's novel was a Cold War thriller, however the producers made the villains SPECTRE instead of the Soviet undercover agency SMERSH. From Russia With Love is significant in that - with the exception of On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Dr. No - it showed Bond without significant amounts of hi-tech gadgetry which became a hallmark of the later films. (The attaché case he is given by Q in From Russia With Love is innovative but very believable.) The film introduced the now standard pre-credits sequence and the use of a popular singer to sing the theme.

Plot summary

The film follows the plot of Fleming's novel almost to the letter; however, the villain is the major change between the literary and cinematic versions of the story. At the Cold War's height, EON Productions felt it inadvisable casting the Russians as villains, so SMERSH was replaced by SPECTRE, the criminal organization who is a mutual enemy of both superpowers, introduced in the first James Bond film, Dr. No. As such, this film is a sequel to the previous film in that SPECTRE seeks revenge upon James Bond for his killing of Dr. Julius No.

The film features the first appearance of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, leader of SPECTRE, although he wouldn't directly confront Bond for several more cinematic adventures. To integrate SPECTRE to the storyline, minor changes were made so that SMERSH agent Red Grant is responsible for actions committed by other characters in the novel. Other than these topical changes, the film's plot is the same as the novel's—James Bond is lured to Turkey, where Corporal Tatiana (Tania) Romanova is stationed to assist her defection, and obtains a LEKTOR decoder (renamed from the novel's Spektor to not confuse the audience with SPECTRE).

Cast

Also Known As:

Ian Fleming's 'From Russia with Love' (UK) (complete title)
Runtime: 110 min
Country: UK
Language: English / Russian / Turkish
Color: Color (Technicolor)
Sound Mix: Mono (Westrex Recording System)
Certification: Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) / Iceland:12 / Canada:A (Nova Scotia) / Canada:G (Quebec) / Ireland:PG / UK:PG (video rating) (1987) / Argentina:13 / Australia:PG / Finland:(Banned) (1964) / Norway:15 / Norway:16 (original rating) / Peru:14 / Sweden:15 / USA:Approved (original rating) / USA:GP (re-rating) (1971) / West Germany:16 / UK:A (original rating) (cut) / Finland:K-16 (re-rating) / UK:PG

The film notes the first appearance of Desmond Llewelyn as Major Boothroyd, known as Q, the character he would play in nearly all of the series' films, until his death in 1999. The Q character appeared in the previous film, Dr. No, but was portrayed by actor Peter Burton, and was addressed by M initially as Armourer (though 007's boss volunteers a "thank you, Major Boothroyd" after he demonstrates the Walther to Bond). The cast also features Robert Shaw, perhaps best known as Quint in Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975), as the villain Red Grant.

Crew

• Directed by: Terence Young

• Produced by: Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman

• Written by: Ian Fleming

• Screenplay: Richard Maibaum

• Music composed by: John Barry

• Cinematography by: Ted Moore

• Film editing by: Peter R. Hunt

• Production design by: Syd Cain

• Titles designed by: Robert Brownjohn

From Russia with Love is the first series film with John Barry as the primary soundtrack composer. The theme song, "From Russia with Love", was composed by Lionel Bart of Oliver! fame and sung by Matt Monro, although the title credit music is a lively instrumental version of the tune (segueing into the "James Bond Theme"). Monro's vocal version is later played during the film (as source music on a radio) and properly over the film's end titles.

John Barry, arranger of Monty Norman's "James Bond Theme" for Dr. No, would be the dominant Bond series composer for most of its history and the inspiration for the current lead Bond movie composer,  (who uses cues from this soundtrack in his own for Tomorrow Never Dies). In this film, Barry introduced the percussive theme "007" – action music that came to be considered the 'secondary James Bond Theme' and is used in various of the Bond films of Sean Connery, and also Roger Moore's Moonraker. The arrangement appears twice on this soundtrack album; the second version, entitled "007 Takes the Lektor", is the one used during the gunfight at the gypsy camp and also during Bond's theft of the Lektor decoding machine.)

The completed film features a holdover from the Monty Norman-supervised Dr. No music – the post-rocket-launch music from No (after Bond disrupts No's attempts to jam the takeoff) appears in Russia at the conclusion of the helicopter attack, and also at the attempt of SPECTRE to intercept Bond's speedboat. This cue, incidentally lifted by Arnold for Tomorrow Never Dies, is naturally absent from the Russia soundtrack album.

As Barry himself notes, 1964's Goldfinger would be the first Bond film in which he had total creative control over the soundtrack, including the music of the theme song. (Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley would contribute the theme's lyrics).

Music album cover

Track listing

1. Opening Titles / James Bond Is Back / From Russia with Love - (instrumental) / James Bond Theme

2. Tania Meets Klebb

3. Meeting in St Sophia

4. The Golden Horn

5. Girl Trouble

6. Bond Meets Tania

7. 007

8. Gypsy Camp

9. Death of Grant

10. From Russia with Love - Matt Monro

11. Spectre Island

12. Guitar Lament

13. Man Overboard / Smersh in Action

14. James Bond with Bongos

15. Stalking

16. Leila Dances

17. Death of Kerim

18. 007 Takes the Lektor

Vehicles & gadgets

• Briefcase — Technically, James Bond's first gadget. The briefcase issued to 007 by Q-Branch contains a folding AR-7 sniper rifle with twenty rounds of ammunition, a flat throwing knife, and fifty gold sovereigns in secret compartments accessible from inside the case. In addition, the briefcase has a trick safety mechanism that detonates a magnetically attached tear gas bomb if the briefcase is improperly opened.

• Pager — Although From Russia with Love was filmed in the 1960s, before this gadget's invention, Bond carried one, enabling MI6 to contact him at once; also, Bond's Bentley automobile had a radio-telephone.

• Bug detector — A small device that is designed to detect the presence of a phone tap device in a normal telephone when placed against such a device.

• Tape recorder disguised as a camera.

• The LEKTOR decoder, though never actually seen in use, could also count as a gadget (Fleming based it directly on the Enigma machine, a cryptology device used by the Germans during World War II).

• The helicopter used the end to chase Bond is a Hiller H-23, which first flew in 1948.

Locations

Film locations

• London, England

• Istanbul, Turkey

• Belgrade, Yugoslavia

• Zagreb, Yugoslavia

• Venice, Italy

• Aboard the Orient Express

• SPECTRE Island (location unknown, probably either in the English Channel, the Greek Islands or the Black Sea)

Shooting locations

• Pinewood Studios

• Switzerland

• Argyll, Scotland

• Istanbul, Turkey

Trivia

• Alfred Hitchcock was originally considered as director for the film version in 1958, with Bond to be played by Cary Grant and a possible return to the screen for Grace Kelly as Tatiana Romanova, but the deals fell through when Vertigo performed badly at the box office. The helicopter scene in From Russia with Love mimics the cropduster scene from the film Hitchcock did instead, North by Northwest.

• In recent years, the scene in which Bond first encounters Tatiana in his hotel room often has been used to screen-test actors for the James Bond and leading lady roles.

• Reportedly, author and James Bond creator Ian Fleming makes a cameo in the Istanbul train scene (following Bond's stealing the LEKTOR decoder), standing outside on the right of the train, wearing grey trousers and a white sweater; some sources deny Fleming's appearance.

• Pedro Armendáriz, who played Kerim Bey had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and reportedly did this role to provide financially for his family before his impending death. Armendáriz's scenes were given top priority and he limps visibly in most of them. On the evening of June 18, 1963, while at the UCLA medical center, a gun was smuggled into his hospital room and the 51-year-old Armendáriz took his own life. Twenty-five years later, his son, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., also an actor, was hired for a small role in the 1989 James Bond film Licence to Kill as the President of the fictional Republic of Isthmus.

• Lotte Lenya's character, Colonel Rosa Klebb, often is cited as prototype of the Frau Farbissina character in the Austin Powers spy spoof series. Klebb would be the first of several Bond villains with ambiguous sexuality. Although in the novel this was made more explicit, Klebb's lesbian tendencies in the film are more hinted at by having her place her hand on Romanova's knee and moments later stroking her hair during a scene with her briefing Tatiana. Lotte Lenya was the widow of Kurt Weill. In the film "Undercover Blues" starring Dennis Quaid and Kathleen Turner, in the mock-torture scene, Dennis Quaid refers to Kathleen Turner (who was pretending to be a Russian doctor specializing in pain) as "Dr Lottelenya"(of the "Rosa Klebb Institute"), a clear tribute to Lotte Lenya's portrayal of Rosa Klebb.

• The Bulgarian assassin Krilencu tries to escape from his apartment through a secret window in a billboard advertising Call Me Bwana with the face of Anita Ekberg, the only non-James Bond film produced by EON Productions. Ironically, Rik Van Nutter who would play Felix Leiter in Thunderball was married to Ekberg.

• The "007" theme (the song played during the gunfight at the gypsy camp and also during Bond's theft of the LEKTOR) was used as part of the Eyewitness News format on Philadelphia television station KYW-TV.

• A version of the haunting "Stalking" track -- from the pre-credit sequence of From Russia with Love involving Connery and Shaw -- appears in The Spy Who Loved Me, when Bond (Roger Moore) and Anya Amasova (Agent XXX, played by Barbara Bach) confront Richard Kiel's Jaws character at a historic site in Egypt. Ironically, Spy was scored not by Barry but Marvin Hamlisch, one of only four times Barry did not helm the Bond music arrangements in the first 16 United Artists installments.

• Assistant director Kit Lambert, later became a record producer and manager for the rock band The Who.

• During one take of the helicopter scene, the helicopter flew too close to Connery and he would have been injured or killed had he not dived out of the way.

LINKS

• From Russia with Love (1963) at the Internet Movie Database

• MGM's site on the film

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