From Russia With Love

From Russia with Love (1963)

Runtime: 115 minutes

Directed by: Terence Young

Starring: Sean Connery, Daniela Bianchi, Pedro Armendariz, Lotte Lenya, Robert Shaw

From: Eon/United Artists

I already talked about the first ever Bond movie, Dr. No. Here is the second film, and it’s one that many say is the best of all the Bond’s, and even I will probably say it’s the best; I mean, Connery himself agrees with me, and that’s not a bad guy to agree with, I say.

In this movie, you get a better understanding of what SPECTRE is, as they’re the straw that stirs the drink that is the plot. You meet Blofeld for the first time… or rather, you only see his torso and him petting a cat and you hear his voice (as Dr No.’s wardrobe inspired the character of Dr. Evil, the main inspiration of course was Blofeld, whom you get to see in full profile for the first time in You Only Live Twice a few years later); SPECTRE has a plan for stealing a Lektor code interpreting device from the Russians for their usage, and they came up with an ingenious plan a la Siamese fighting fish; they play both sides against each other and as they’re weak from attacking each other in battle, SPECTRE-a terrorist organization, after all-will sweep in and rule the entire world.

Rosa Klebb (Lenya; she makes for quite a scary villain; in terms of Austin Powers inspiration, think of the character Frau; also, judging by one scene, she may very well be a lesbian!), a defector from the Soviet spy agency Smersh, is the lady who goes to Istanbul to put the plan into motion, but not before visiting SPECTRE’s own private island and recruiting Donald “Red” Grant (Shaw). Grant ends up manipulating things so that the plan succeeds, unknowing to either the Russians, the Brits, or the people in Turkey who are affiliated with the two sides, including Bond’s friend Kerim Bey (Armendariz; this was his last-ever film, as he was terminally ill with cancer when he filmed his scenes; he killed himself shortly thereafter rather than deal with the pain; it’s a sad story, but he did the role for the money for his family, which is a great thing. You can’t really tell he’s that ill during the movie either). Klebb convinces a young lady working for Smersh as a clerk (Bianchi, an attractive-looking blonde) to work with her on a “secret” mission, not knowing that Rosa doesn’t work for Smersh any longer. From there you watch the plot and see when Bond figures things out and how he gets out of such a jam.

This movie is great entertainment. It’s set in the UK for a bit, but it’s mainly in Venice and then Istanbul, Turkey (a unique and pretty cool city I wouldn’t mind visiting one of these days) before a journey on the Orient Express that leaves Turkey and goes through what is now Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia (although aside from filming in Istanbul, the rest of it was filmed in the United Kingdom), so the scenery was nice. The story is very entertaining and you’re interested in how it turns out. Desmond Llewelyn debuts as gadget-master Q and he hands Bond a special suitcase, which of course comes to use later on. There’s spy stuff, intrigue, romance, some black humor, and yes, action scenes, including a catfight between two Gypsy women! No kidding. The highlight, though, is a fight that Bond and Grant end up having in real close quarters. Even almost 50 years later it’s very effective. It’s a brutal affair of punches and kicks (among other things) and the actors mainly did it all on their own with no stunt-people.

So, if you’ve seen some of the Bond movies before but not this one, you must do anything possible to check this out. I’ll still be back Monday night with another movie review.