Watch From Russia with Love (1963), Story, Stars, Reviews & All You Want To Know About A Great Movie
From Russia with Love (1963)
James Bond willingly falls into an assassination plot involving a naive Russian beauty in order to retrieve a Soviet encryption device that was stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
From Russia with Love is a 1963 British spy film and the second in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, as well as Sean Connery’s second role as MI6 agent James Bond.
It was directed by Terence Young, produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and written by Richard Maibaum and Johanna Harwood, based on Ian Fleming’s 1957 novel of the same name. In the film, Bond is sent to assist in the defection of Soviet consulate clerk Tatiana Romanova in Turkey, where SPECTRE plans to avenge Bond’s killing of Dr. No. The film followed Dr. No (1962) and was followed by Goldfinger (1964).
Following the success of Dr. No, United Artists greenlit a sequel and doubled the budget available for the producers. In addition to filming on location in Turkey, the action scenes were shot at Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire, and in Scotland. Production ran over budget and schedule, and was rushed to finish by its scheduled October 1963 release date.
From Russia with Love was a critical and commercial success. It took in more than $78 million in worldwide box-office receipts, far more than its $2 million budget and more than its predecessor Dr. No, thereby becoming a blockbuster in 1960s cinema.
The film is considered one of the best entries in the series, both by critics and general audience.[3][failed verification] In 2004, Total Film magazine named it the ninth-greatest British film of all time, making it the only James Bond film to appear on the list.[4] It was also the first film in the series to win a BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography.
From Russia with Love (1963)Â Trailer
From Russia with Love (1963)Â Reviews
“From Russia with Love” has one of the most complex plots in the series, but despite its abundance of twists and turns, it is surprisingly easy to follow, unlike some in the later entries (case in point: the confusing opium, diamond and weapons trades between the Soviets and Afghan rebels in “The Living Daylights”).The story takes a while to be set up; it’s almost twenty minutes into the movie before our (real) hero finally makes his appearance. There are plenty of witticisms uttered throughout but the picture is dead serious about its subject, and a sense of menace is present from its very first frame.It is populated with imposing, larger than life characters that never feel overblown. The film works especially well because of how significant the stakes become, thanks to the deep contrast between the fondness Bond (Connery) has for Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendariz) and his palpable distaste for enemies Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) and Donald Grant (Robert Shaw).
“From Russia with Love” broke new ground for the series in several ways. It was the first Bond to include a pre-title sequence, creating the very effective tradition of starting every entry on its feet. It was the first to provide truly fascinating gadgets like the “nasty little Christmas present” of a lethal briefcase and a rather primitive car phone that must have blown away audiences at the time.There is still a bit of rawness in Bond’s relationship with the rest of the recurring cast, such as with the newly appointed Desmond Llewellyn as Q, but Connery really comes into his own here.
The film has one of the most iconic scenes in the series in Rosa Klebb’s testing of Grant’s endurance by smashing her steel knuckles into his waist. She’s an otherwise unremarkable looking lady who’s made to look like the most sinister of creatures with such details as her bottle-bottom glasses, a venom-spiked shoe, and one hell of an attitude.
The movie successfully creates one of the rare instances in the series where Bond is put in a situation with no apparent, possible escape and even though its resolution is based on the always reliable “fallacy of the talking killer,” director Terence Young gives it the intriguing facet of having our hero outsmarting Grant by resorting to his greed.
He features what is surely the best fight scene in the series (and one of cinema’s all-time greats) and it’s all the more remarkable coming from the days when movie clashes were mere stylized exercises. Here for the first time you had two adversaries with an intense mutual hatred and a clear intent of causing damage with every vicious blow.
“From Russia with Love” is among the top Bonds, but I don’t see it as the very best. Except for a truly dangerous helicopter chase (obviously inspired by Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest”) the rest of the action sequences aren’t nearly as good as those in later entries.
The gypsy cat fight is more laughable than anything else and I’ve never been terribly fond of the usual Bond battle sequences like the one taking place at their camp, with opposite teams facing one another in the fashion of the old Universal Studios stunt shows. After a while one tends to forget who’s fighting who and for what purpose, especially since the players here aren’t given the customary opposite-colored uniforms to distinguish one group from the other (Bond appears confused as well, attacking members of both sides).
I’m also not crazy about the chase scene at the lake where Bond discharges four barrels of petrol that won’t detonate when struck directly by machine-gun fire while on 007’s craft, but still, inexplicably, produce over a dozen separate explosions in the water. The success of this scheme depended entirely on the villains being incredibly naïve in stopping at just at the right place and time. This was clearly a hazardous scene to shoot as we get to see a couple of incompetent stuntmen paying dearly for getting too close to the fire, but the end result is nothing terribly special.
Despite its occasional shortcomings, “From Russia with Love” is still a terrific Bond entry. There’s true chemistry between Connery’s 007 and Armendariz’s Kerim Bey, and it is all the more remarkable when considering that the Mexican actor was in great pain and living his final days while the shooting took place. His character’s eventual fate is among the few in the Bonds to have a real emotional impact.
Robert Shaw’s villainous screen presence wasn’t fully matched until Bardem’s Silva made his appearance in “Skyfall” years later. Even though some see Bardem’s bleached, blonde hair as directly inspired by Max Zorin in “A View to a Kill” (and by Julian Assange), I suspect Grant is the real inspiration behind it.
For such a small and frail looking lady, Lotte Lenya conveys an extraordinary personality that brings to mind Judi Dench’s performances in the later pictures. Unlike other 007s that relied on their action scenes and stunts for success, it is the mainly the human element that made this a great Bond film.
Even though mild by today’s standards, “From Russia with Love” was fairly controversial when it first opened. As kids, this was the one Bond movie we couldn’t see until adulthood. It’s curious that we have to go all the way back to the second entry in the series to find the closest thing to a nude scene.
The film makes no excuses about portraying its title character as the true sexist that he is; we get to see him volunteering to select the more “gifted” of two gypsy women or playfully spanking his leading lady (and even slapping her to extract information).
I’m not a big believer in the recent axiom that every Bond girl necessarily has to be his equal; some of the best female characters in the series have been played by the most beautiful women from their time, whose lines were often dubbed in post production (think Ursula Andress, Shirley Eaton and Claudine Auger).
Daniela Bianchi provides Tatiana Romanova with enough appeal and vulnerability to make the audience fully sympathize with her, especially when Klebb comes on to her in a sequence that’s eerily similar to that in “Skyfall” where Javier Bardem is introduced on-screen while harassing Craig’s 007.
I can easily picture today’s viewers blasting Bianchi for playing somewhat of a decorative item, but I’ll take Tatiana over most of the recent Bond girls.”From Russia with Love” is an extremely taut entry and it has perhaps the best story among all Bonds, but “Goldfinger” is definitely the better all around feature. Ironically, the latter’s influence eventually brought more harm than good.
The magnificent depiction of megalomaniac Auric Goldfinger inspired the 007 producers to abandon the mold of the sinister Blofeld and to go instead with grandiose portrayals of the character that made him lose most of his edge.
They ranged from the campy (Donald Pleasence), to the bland (Telly Savalas) and the plain absurd (Charles Gray) in what was surely the lamest period in the series. Instead of showing him as they do in “FRWL,” finding perverse fascination in things like the duel of his Siamese fighting fish and uttering perverse lines like “let his death be a particularly unpleasant, humiliating one!”,
Blofeld eventually went the way of volcanoes for lairs (“You Only Live Twice”) and dressing in drag for inexplicable reasons (“Diamonds Are Forever”), the kind of material that inspired the creation of Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers spoofs that doesn’t really have anything with the characters we first got to see here.
- Gerardo Valero  –  Roger Ebert
- Gerardo Valero is lives in Mexico City with his wife Monica. Since 2011 he’s been writing a daily blog about film clichés and flubs (in Spanish) on Mexico’s Cine-Premiere Magazine. His contributions to “Ebert’s Little Movie Glossary” were included in the last twelve editions of “Roger Ebert’s Movie Yearbook.”
From Russia with Love (1963)Â Credits
From Russia with Love (1963)Â Plot
Seeking revenge against MI6 agent James Bond for the death of their agent Dr. No in Jamaica,[Notes 1] international criminal organisation SPECTRE begins training agents to kill him, before assigning the task to Irish assassin Donald “Red” Grant. To lure Bond into a trap, SPECTRE’s chief planner, Czechoslovak chess grandmaster Kronsteen, devises a plan to have Bond attempt to procure a Lektor cryptography device from the Soviets from the Soviet consulate in Istanbul.
SPECTRE operative Rosa Klebb, a former SMERSH (Soviet counter-intelligence) colonel, is assigned to oversee the mission and to ensure Grant can carry out Bond’s assassination at the right moment. To set the trap, Klebb recruits a cipher clerk at the consulate, Tatiana Romanova, to unwittingly assist in the plan, tricking Romanova into believing Klebb is still working for SMERSH.
In London, Bond is called to a meeting with M and informed that Romanova has requested Bond’s help to defect to the West, in exchange for providing British intelligence a Lektor. Exactly as Kronsteen predicted, M suspects a trap but decides to honour Romanova’s request. Before departing, Bond is given a special attaché case by Q, containing several defensive gadgets and an ArmaLite AR-7 sniper rifle, to help on his assignment.
Upon arriving in Istanbul, Bond works alongside the head of MI6’s branch in the city, Ali Kerim Bey, while he awaits word from Romanova. During this time, Kerim is attacked by Soviet agent Krilencu, who causes problems for the men, unaware that Grant is shadowing Bond to protect him until he steals the Lektor. After an attack on the men while they hide out at a gypsy settlement, Kerim assassinates Krilencu with Bond’s help before he can flee the city.
Eventually, Romanova meets Bond at his hotel suite, where she agrees to provide plans to the consulate for him to help him steal the Lektor. The pair spend the night together, unaware SPECTRE is filming them as part of Kronsteen’s plan. Upon receiving the consulate’s floor plans from Romanova, Bond and Kerim make a plan to steal the Lektor, before all three make haste to escape the city aboard the Orient Express.
Once aboard, Kerim discovers a Soviet security officer tailed them, forcing Bond to help him subdue the officer. While Kerim remains with the officer to prevent him escaping, Bond returns to Romanova to wait for their rendezvous with one of Kerim’s men. However, Grant kills Kerim and the officer, forcing Bond to remain on the train and question Romanova’s motive.
When the train arrives in Belgrade, Bond passes on news of Kerim’s death to one of his sons waiting for them and receives instructions to travel to Zagreb and rendezvous with a British agent named Nash. However, the man he meets is actually Grant, who has already killed Nash and assumed his identity. After drugging Romanova at dinner, Grant overpowers Bond.
He quickly reveals that Romanova was a pawn in SPECTRE’s plan and that Grant intends to kill both and stage it as a murder-suicide, leaving behind faked blackmail evidence that will scandalise the British intelligence community. Bond tricks Grant into setting off a booby trap in his attaché case before killing him. Taking the Lektor and the film of their night together, Bond and Romanova leave the train in Istria, Yugoslavia and use Grant’s escape plan. They evade helicopter and boat attacks by SPECTRE agents before reaching safety.
Learning of Grant’s death and Bond’s survival, SPECTRE’s enigmatic chairman (Number 1) has Kronsteen executed for his plan’s disastrous failure. As the organisation promised to sell back the Lektor to the Russians, Klebb is ordered to recover it and kill Bond. Klebb reaches the pair, while they are resting in a hotel in Venice, and sneaks into their room disguised as a maid.
Klebb orders Romanova to leave the room while holding Bond at gunpoint. Romanova then re-enters, tackling Klebb and knocking the pistol to the ground. Klebb and Bond struggle, and Romanova picks up the pistol and kills Klebb. With their mission accomplished, Bond and Romanova spend some time on a romantic boat ride and Bond throws the film into the canal.
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