From Russia with Love (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| From Russia with Love | |
|---|---|
 From Russia with Love film poster |
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| James Bond | Sean Connery |
| Also starring | Pedro Armendariz Lotte Lenya Robert Shaw, Bernard Lee Daniela Bianchi |
| Directed by | Terence Young |
| Produced by | Harry Saltzman Albert R. Broccoli |
| Novel/Story by | Ian Fleming |
| Screenplay | Richard Maibaum Johanna Harwood (adaptation) |
| Cinematography by | {{{cinematography}}} |
| Music by | John Barry |
| Main theme | |
| Composer | Lionel Bart |
| Performer | Matt Monro |
| Distributed by | United Artists (1963-1981) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1982-present) |
| Released | October 10, 1963 (UK) April 8, 1964 (USA) |
| Running time | 110 min. |
| Budget | $2,000,000 |
| Worldwide gross | $78,900,000 |
| Admissions (world) | 95.3 million |
| Preceded by | Dr. No |
| Followed by | Goldfinger |
| IMDb profile | |
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 produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and directed by Terence Young. It is based on the eponymous 1957 novel by Ian Fleming. The world premiere was on October 10, 1963, at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London.
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.
Contents |
[edit] 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. The film introduced the now standard pre-credits sequence and the use of a popular singer to sing the theme.
[edit] Plot overview
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 the now SPECTRE 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 (Tanya) 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).
[edit] Film synopsis
In the pre-credits, the film opens in a late night time scene in a mansion garden where James Bond is alternately stalking and being stalked through an ornate garden by a tall, blond assassin. Bond is captured and stangled violently to death by the man named Red Grant. Suddenly, huge floodlights switch on and 'Bond' turns out to be a man wearing a Bond mask - it's all been a training exercise staged by SPECTRE.
The film then begins in Venice where a chess match is under way between the Czechoslovakian Kronsteen and the Canadian MacAdams. Kronsteen receives a message (on a napkin beneath his glass of water) telling him that "you are required at once." He effortlessly finishes off MacAdams in a couple of moves and leaves. He is next seen on a large, luxury yacht where Ernst Stavro Blofeld, SPECTRE's Number One, is amusing himself and Soviet assassin Rosa Klebb (Number Three) with an analogy using a tank full of exotic Siamese fighting fish.
It appears that Kronsteen as SPECTRE's Number Five has arranged the theft of the Soviet Lektor decoding device and asks for the services of a female member of the Russian cryptograph service in Turkey and "the help of the British secret service." Klebb has already chosen a female operative and has been able to keep the fact of her own defection to SPECTRE a secret. Kronsteen explains that the British see a trap as a challenge and that they will be easy to manipulate - and they are certain to use James Bond on the mission, allowing SPECTRE to take avenge for the death of their operative Dr No.
Klebb departs to SPECTRE Island, the organisation's secret training base, where she meets convicted murderer Donald Red Grant, "a homicidal paranoiac," who escaped from Dartmoor before joining SPECTRE. Grant is being specially groomed for the mission against Bond and is tested using a knuckle duster in the abdomen and passes.
Meanwhile in the countryside around London, Bond is enjoying the company of Sylvia Trench on a secluded part of the Thames when he receives a call from Moneypenny telling him that M is looking for him. He promises to report in soon, but decides to finish what he was doing with Sylvia first.
On meeting M , he tells Bond that Romanova has contacted Station T in Turkey, run by agent Karim Bey, asking to defect and bringing with her a Lektor device, which both MI5 and the CIA have been after for years. It also appears that Romanova is claiming to be in love with Bond. Bond realises that it's a trap although immediately becomes attracted by her photograph, but with the Lektor as bait M decides that Bond should take on the mission anyway.
Boothroyd from Q division enters and shows Bond a special black leather attaché case crammed to the gills with all manner of toys and gadgets, including 20 rounds of ammunition, a flat throwing knife, a .22 folding sniper's rifle, 50 gold sovereigns and a tear gas grenade concealed in a tin of talcum powder. This was Desmond Llewelyn's first appearance in James Bond.
After a brief flirtation with Moneypenny (during which M demands the return of a photograph of Romanova he had let Bond look at earlier, signing it, with love, from Russia), Bond flies to Istanbul where he is met by a driver sent by Karim Bey. However, even this early in his mission, Bond is being watched, both by an unkempt man in glasses and by Grant, both of who set off to follow Bond's car. The driver doesn't seem too concerned about their tails, telling Bond that the car behind them is full of Bulgarians working for the Russians and that this sort of cat-and-mouse is all part of the game.
The driver takes Bond to see Bey, and learns that the majority of his staff are his own sons and are completely trustworthy. He tells Bond that Romanova is making her own plans to meet and that they have nothing to do but wait. Bond checks in to his hotel where he checks his room and finds it full of hidden bugs. Pretending that the bed is too small, Bond asks to be moved but is told by the staff - who all seem to Russian agents - that only the bridal suit is available. He calls their bluff and takes it.
Outside the Russian consulate, Grant abandons his car and drives off in another. The Consulate guard checks the abandoned car and finds a dead Russian agent in the back seat. In the other car, Klebb tells Grant that the Russians will suspect the British and that the Cold War in Turkey is about to intensify and remain "cold no longer". Later Bey and his mistress are nearly killed when a limpet mine attached to the wall of his house suddenly explodes in his parlour.
Next day, Bey takes Bond down to his cellar where they board his small rowing boat on the underwater canal, a giant underground system in which he has control of under the city. Eventually they come to a chamber beneath the Russian consulate complete with a periscope spying in on the Russian main conference room. They spy on a meeting of the leading Russian agents in Turkey, and Bey recognises Bulgarian assassin Krilencu at the table. Bond also gets his first real glimpse of Romanova, notably her legs and replies "from where I stand things are shaping up very nicely". After surveying, Bond asks Bey for plans of the Russian Consulate and they head for a rural gypsy settlement in the Turkish country where Bey has contacts and where Bond can hide from the attentions of Krilencu.
Bond is appears to be in a kind of heaven at the gypsy camp- first of all, he is treated to a very close-up performance from a belly dancer and is then fascinated by a gypsy tradition in which two volatile young women in love with the same man must fight each other for the honour of marrying him. However the cat fight is violently interrupted by the arrival of Krilencu's aggressive henchmen, who set about laying waste to the settlement amid much gunfire and struggling with knives. Grant is lurking nearby and shoots any man who looks like he might be about to kill Bond. With Bond's help, the gypsies manage to fight off the Bulgars and Bond is hailed a hero but Karim Bey is wounded in the attack. In return he asks that the traditional battles between the women be stopped and they agree, but only if Bond decides the winner to which he cannot. That night, the women visit Bond in his quarters...
The next day, Bond leaves the camp with Bey, heading off follow up Krilencu. They track him to a room in a hotel behind a giant facade advertising the Bob Hope / Anita Ekberg movie Call Me Bwana. Bey, despite his wounded arm uses Bond's folding sniper's rifle to shoot Krilencu through the window of his room which is conveniently placed in Ekberg's mouth remarking that it pays many debts to have the privelage of killing him.
When he returns to his hotel suite, Bond prepares for a shower but is distracted by noises in his bedroom. He finds Romanova waiting attractively for him in bed. Never being one to pass up such an opportunity, Bond corrupts her and makes plans to take possession of the Lektor device. As Bond and Romanova make love, they are unaware that they are being watched and filmed creepily from behind a mirror by Grant and Klebb.
The next day, Romanova heads off for a pre-arranged rendezvous at a nearby Hagia Sophia mosque with Bond, tailed by the scruffy, bespectacled man who had followed Bond at Istanbul airport. Bond joins a tourist tour of the mosque to slip away to meet Romanova. Bond spots the main tailing her, but before he can do anything about it, he is, unseen by Bond, killed by Grant. When Bond finds the body, he also finds the plans for the Russian Consulate he has been seeking. Later, Bond and Bey study the plans and Bey warns him that the simplicity of events are highly suspicious and cautions Bond against becoming too involved with Romanova.
Bond arranges to meet Romanova on a ferry and gets her to tell him about the Lektor, taping their conversation for his branch back in London on a recorder hidden inside his camera. The tape is later analysed back in London by M, Q and other agents. M is embarrassed by Bond and Romanova's more intimate exchanges, but never more than when Bond starts to recount "an interesting experience" he and M enjoyed in Tokyo.
Bond is informed from London that Romanova's description of the device seems genuine and that he is to go ahead with the deal. He applies for a visa from the Russian Consulate, allowing his access to the building. At a pre-arranged moment, Bey sets off an explosive charge in the chamber beneath the building, releasing tear gas throughout the Consulate. In the resulting chaos, Bond is able to find Romanova and make off with the decoder. After an unpleasant run-in with a pack of rats in the cellar, Bond and Romanova join Bey and make their escape aboard the Orient Express, pursued by Soviet security man Benz who recognises Romanova. Grant is already on the train. Bey has arranged cover for Bond and Romanova as a married couple, Mr and Mrs David and Caroline Somerset which Romanova is very pleased about. Bey sets off to secure the help of the train guard, a man whose services he has used before, leaving Bond and Romanova to carry on romantically where they left off in Bond's hotel suite. Bey later spots Benz listening at the cabin door and warns Bond of the danger. Bey and Bond confront Benz in his cabin and restrain him before Bond returns to Romanova where he fails to resist the power of her slinky new dress.
Later, while heading for the restaurant car, Bond is stopped by the guard with bad news - he takes him to Benz's cabin where the Soviet agent and Bey have apparently killed each other in a violent battle. Bond bribes the Guard not to stop the train at the next stop, an out of the way place where two of Bey's men are waiting. Bond breaks the news of Bey's death to Romanova, accusing her of acting under orders and roughing her up. She insists that she knows nothing and that she really does genuinely love Bond.
The train continues on its journey across southern-central Europe, finally arriving at Beograd where Bond gets out to stretch his legs. There he meets with one of Bey's sons, explaining why he didn't stop at the pre-arranged rendezvous. He arranges with the man to send a message to M, arranging for an agent from Station Y to meet him at Zagreb.
In Zagreb, Grant intercepts the British agent and murders him the toilets before Bond can get to him. He then poses as the British agent, Nash, and makes contact with Bond, boarding the train with him as it sets off again. In his cabin, Bond tells 'Nash' about the Lektor and about how difficult it will be to get it across the border. 'Nash' invites Bond and Romanova to dinner in the restaurant car, but Bond is suspicious. He sends 'Nash' onahead with Romanova, then checks the tear gas booby trap in his attaché case.
During dinner, 'Nash' pretends to knock over Romanova's wine and, while refilling the glass, slips in a sedative drug. While she's unconscious in one part of the cabin, Grant knocks Bond out in the other half of the small cabin quarters. He relieves Bond of his gun then taunts Bond when he revives. Only now does Bond realise that SPECTRE is involved in his mission and that they have been playing the Russians and the British off against each other. Grant reveals that SPECTRE have been keeping him alive (which is why Grant saved him at the gypsy camp) until he could get the Lektor device for them. He also tells Bond that Romanova knows nothing of what is happening and that Rosa Klebb, whom Bond also knows as a SMERSH operative, has now defected to SPECTRE. He also tells Bond that his death will be staged as a crime of passion - they'll plant the film of Bond and Romanova making love on Romanova and a letter apparently from her threatening to release the film to the press will be planted on him. This way, it'll seem as though she was trying to blackmail Bond and he killed her before taking his own life.
However in one last attempt to save his life, Bond offers to buy his last cigarette for 50 gold sovereigns and dupes Grant into opening the booby trapped attaché case. A struggle breaks out during which Bond and Grant brutally assault each other in the narrow confines of the train compartment, an ongoing struggle that is one of the most physically confrontational in the Bond series even today. Grant tries to garrotte Bond with a wire hidden in his watch, but Bond is able to stab him with the concealed blade from the attaché case, then ends up strangling him. He takes the incriminating reel of film from Grant's pocket but doesn't destroy it - yet..
The train is now slowing down at Grant's pre-arranged escape point and Bond has to get a still very dopey Romanova off it as soon as possible. They manage to escape and Bond easily overpowers the contact waiting for the SPECTRE agent. With Romanova sleeping off the effects of the drug in the back, Bond drives off in the contacts flower truck through the Balkan countryside. As dawn breaks, they are spotted and buzzed by a SPECTRE helicopter which begin bombing the truck with grenades, forcing Bond to leave Romanova hiding beneath the vehicle as he tries to attract their attention away from her. He sets off across the fields as the helicopter continuously passes low overhead, almost hitting him. He takes refuge beneath some rocks and uses the folding sniper's rifle to shoot the passenger, who drops a primed grenade engulfing the whole helicopter which powerfully explodes. Bond drives on, eventually reaching a boat waiting at a remote dock and with Romanova set off on the boat heading for Venice.
Klebb and Kronsteen try to explain their failures to their leader Blofeld, but he remarks that his organization does not tolerate failure and has Kronsteen murdered by his henchman Morzeny who kicks him with a poison tipped blade hidden in his boot. After this Blofeld replies "12 seconds. Some day we'll have to develop a faster working venom".
Bond and Romanova make progress towards Venice when they are suddenly intercepted by Morzeny leading SPECTRE agents with a small fleet of power boats. Bond tries to outrun them, but they attack with rifle grenades. However it seems that SPECTRE wants to stop Bond, not kill him. But when their stray bullets puncture several barrels of fuel stored on his boat, Bond throws them overboard and pretends to surrender. But then he fires flares into the water which, now full of oil, explodes, engulfing the pursuing boats in flames, killing Morzeny and many SPECTRE agents.
Finally, Bond and Romanova arrive in Venice and check into a hotel. Disguised as a maid, SPECTRE'S Rosa Klebb has managed to get into his room and is trying to whisk the Lektor away from under his nose while he is making a phone call. Romanova recognises her but, still thinking that she's a SMERSH agent, doesn't give her away. Klebb holds Bond at gun point and gets a reluctant Romanova to help her make off with the Lektor.
But in a last second change of heart, she disarms Klebb who goes toe-to-toe (literally) with Bond, who pins her to a wall with chair as the SPECTRE assassin tries to kick him with her own poison tipped toe-blade. The day is saved when Romanova shoots her, her come-uppance for abusing and manipulating her throughout the entire film. With their mission accomplished, Bond and Romanova take time for a romantic gondola trip and Bond throws the film of him and Romanova making love that he retrieved from Grant into the canal as the credits roll and the "From Russia With Love" main track plays.
[edit] Cast & characters
- Sean Connery as James Bond
- Bernard Lee as M
- Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny
- Desmond Llewelyn as Q
- Daniela Bianchi as Tatiana Romanova
- Lotte Lenya as Rosa Klebb
- Robert Shaw as Donald 'Red' Grant
- Eunice Gayson as Sylvia Trench
- Pedro Armendariz as Kerim Bey
- Walter Gotell as Morzeny
- Vladek Sheybal as Kronsteen
- Aliza Gur as Vida
- Martine Beswick as Zora
- Nadja Regin as Kerim's Girl
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.
[edit] 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
[edit] Soundtrack
| From Russia with Love | ||
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| Soundtrack by John Barry | ||
| Released | 1963 | |
| Recorded | March 1963 | |
| Length | 34:20 | |
| Label | Capitol | |
| Producer(s) | Frank Collura (Reissue) | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| John Barry chronology | ||
| The Cool Mikado (1962) |
From Russia with Love (1963) |
Zulu (1963) |
| James Bond soundtrack chronology | ||
| Dr. No (1962) |
From Russia with Love (1963) |
Goldfinger (1964) |
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, David Arnold (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).
[edit] Track listing
- Opening Titles / James Bond Is Back / From Russia with Love - (instrumental) / James Bond Theme
- Tania Meets Klebb
- Meeting in St Sophia
- The Golden Horn
- Girl Trouble
- Bond Meets Tania
- 007
- Gypsy Camp
- Death of Grant
- From Russia with Love - Matt Monro
- Spectre Island
- Guitar Lament
- Man Overboard / Smersh in Action
- James Bond with Bongos
- Stalking
- Leila Dances
- Death of Kerim
- 007 Takes the Lektor
[edit] Reception
'From Russia With Love' premiered on 10th of October 1963. It recieved rave reviews, and became the first James Bond film that was a box office hit. It was soon heralded as 'the most successful film ever released in Britain in any year.' It currently has a 96% rating on www.rottentomatoes.com
[edit] Vehicles & gadgets
- Attache case — 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 pop-out flat throwing knife and fifty gold sovereigns for bribery/a hard currency reserve in secret compartments accessible from inside the case. In addition, the case has a trick safety mechanism that detonates a magnetically attached tear gas bomb if it is improperly opened. This standard-issue item is also carried by Nash in the film (and so appropriated by Grant), and is obliquely mentioned in Goldfinger and Licence to Kill.
- 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, a device some newspaper reporters had obtained in the 1950s. (Joe Martin of the New York Daily News was pictured using one in an archive photo published in one of the paper's 1990s anniversary retrospectives.)
- 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. (Subsequent Bond films to feature similar items include Live and Let Die and A View to a Kill.)
- Tape recorder disguised as a camera.
- The LEKTOR decoder, though never actually seen in use, could also count as a gadget (Fleming based it – SPEKTOR in his novel, but changed for obvious reasons – directly on the Enigma machine, a cryptology device used by the Germans during World War II).
- The helicopter used at the end to chase Bond is a Hiller H-23, which first flew in 1948.
- Bond drives a Fairey Huntress 23ft powerboat towards the end of the film, and the other boats in the chase were Fairey Huntsmans and all were supplied by Fairey Marine.
[edit] Locations
[edit] Film locations
London, England
Istanbul, Turkey
*Belgrade, Yugoslavia *now 
Serbia- *Zagreb, Yugoslavia *now
Croatia 
Venice, Italy- Aboard the Orient Express
- SPECTRE Island (Pinewood Studios, England)
[edit] Shooting locations
[edit] 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 in North by Northwest.
- Bond's Russia scenes with M and Q are played with none of the tenseness of their meetings in later 007 films, where the intelligence chief and equipment officer would show notable frustration with his flippancy. In fact, M is charmed by the idea of Bond using his fondness for women as a tool, specifically to get the LEKTOR decoder.
- 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.
- Although not credited, the actor who 'played' Ernst Stavro Blofeld, a.k.a. Number One of SPECTRE was Anthony Dawson, the same actor who had played Professor Dent in the previous Bond film, Dr. No, also directed by Terence Young. The actual actor of Blofeld was credited with a question mark.
- 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.
- In the opening credit sequence Martine Beswick, who played the gypsy girl Zora, is credited as Martin Beswick.
- The periscope used to spy on the Russian Embassy was a wooden dummy built by UK manufacturer Barr & Stroud.
- Italian actress Daniela Bianchi (Tatiana Romanova) possessed limited English language skills, thus her voice was dubbed by Barbara Jefford
- From Russia With Love is the first Bond film to end with the ubiquitous post-credits tagline "James Bond will be back in..."
- The scene in which Bond finds Tatiana in his hotel bed became the traditional screen test scene for prospective James Bond actors in later years. Among screen tests using this scene which have recently been released to DVD either in complete form or excerpted in DVD featurettes include those for James Brolin, Sean Bean, Pierce Brosnan and Sam Neill. In addition, the scene has also been used to test prospective James Bond leading ladies, such as Maryam D'Abo and Maud Adams (again according to the DVD featurettes).
- According to the book "Death of a President" (1964) by William Raymond Manchester, this was the last motion picture John F. Kennedy ever saw, on 20 November 1963, in the White House
[edit] External links
"Official" (EON Productions) films
Dr. No • From Russia with Love • Goldfinger • Thunderball • You Only Live Twice • On Her Majesty's Secret Service • Diamonds Are Forever • Live and Let Die • The Man with the Golden Gun • The Spy Who Loved Me • Moonraker • For Your Eyes Only • Octopussy • A View to a Kill • The Living Daylights • Licence to Kill • GoldenEye • Tomorrow Never Dies • The World Is Not Enough • Die Another Day • Casino Royale • Bond 22
"Unofficial" (licensed, non-EON) films
Casino Royale (1954 TV) • Casino Royale (1967 spoof) • Never Say Never Again
 Cinema of the United Kingdom |
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