The Bond blogs: 'From Russia With Love' (1963)

Introduction

A massive enterprise of books, comics, movies... even a one-off TV special. The Bond film franchise (consisting of of 23 "official", and 3 unofficial, entries) celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, and in commemoration there's been a big blu-ray box of all 22 theatrical films from MGM (the 23rd picture, Skyfall, is on its way to theaters in November). The big Bond craze has also inspired me to write retrospectives on all of the films.

I previously covered the franchise's inaugural outing, 'Dr. No', here. And now, lets look at the second (and some might say best) entry in the franchise, 'From Russia with Love'.

'From Russia With Love' (1963, dir: Terence Young)

Dr. No was a huge success for United Artists and EON Productions producers Cubby Brocoli and Harry Saltzman. The film made almost $60 million at the worldwide box office in 1962. In response to the fervor surrounding the flourishing franchise,  a sequel was almost immediately commissioned. But where would the producers go after Dr. No? Rights issues with Fleming's first novel, "Casino Royale", prevented EON from producing that film--a reason they started off with the chronologically-incorrect No from the get-go. 

Sales of Fleming's books skyrocketed around the release of the first film. The most popular seller had been "From Russia With Love", which was noted in a 1962 profile of President John F. Kennedy as one of his 10 favorite novels. So, in 1963, Brocoli and Saltzman decided if they couldn't do Bond in order, they'd just give audiences what they apparently wanted, and soon England's most famous MI6 agent, James Bond 007, was back on the big screen in a new movie, From Russia With Love.

Eager to recreate the success of the first film, the producers kept many of the elements from the initial installment intact, consciously trying not to divert from the proven formula of the previous film too drastically. Sean Connery reprised his role as the super-spy, writers Johanna Harwood and Richard Maibaum once again penned the script (after the original writer, Len Deighton, was fired for lack of progress), and Terence Young returned to the director's chair. The one thing radically different this time was that the sequel had a bigger budget: doubled from Dr. No's $1 million to $2 million.

To say From Russia With Love, based on a book of the same name by Ian Fleming, adapted by Harwood from a screenplay by Maibaum, is one of the best--if not the best--Bond films in the history of the franchise is probably understating it, at least in my opinion. Bond's second outing transcends the trappings of what would become the Bond forumla, and is less the best Bond movie ever made, and more the greatest Hitchcock picture (aside from Stanley Donen's Charade) The Master didn't actually make himself.

In style, tone and even story, From Russia With Love is clearly and constantly mimicking North By Northwest (which Young admitted was his blueprint for his early Bond films, this one specifically). It's far funnier than Dr. No, with great wordplay and several amusing jokes. The Bond girl is the exact image of an archetypal Hitchcock Blonde, a major portion of the plot is set aboard a train, and a certain sequence, a climax that is very Cary Grant-versus-a-crop-duster-esque, is straight of that film. Yet, mimicry and all, this Bond stands alone as a grand adventure, an engaging espionage thriller, and a superlative slice of 60s cinema.

It's a crackling spy film, focused less on the girls, gadgets, gags, and gimmicky bad guys that would take up more and more screen-time in the later entries, and more interested in actual spying. It's a slow-burn thriller and a tense action film in one. And, surprisingly, many of its elements--from the suggestive opening titles to a brutal confined fist-fight between Bond and one of his most formidable nemeses, and an intense helicopter chase climax--hold up even 49 years on.

Although not quite the phenomenon its sequel, Goldfinger, would be, From Russia With Love was very successful, taking in nearly $79 million in total ticket sales upon release. Creatively, it's a bigger triumph, notable as one of the only direct sequels in the franchise, and praised for the script's handling of a Cold War era conflict that was toned down for political reasons--read: the Cuban Missile Crisis--while still retaining a certain faithfulness to Fleming's original novel. (From Russia With Love is one of the better adaptations of its source material).

The film was the originator of several elements that would appear in almost every Bond film from then on, including an action packed pre-credit sequence, lyrical theme song (although this one, sung by Matt Monro and composed by Lionel Bart, appeared over the end credits; an instrumental version of Monro's "From Russia With Love", arranged by John Barry, briefly plays during the opening titles), and weaponized gadgets courtesy Q-branch, among many other things.

From Russia With Love is, in most ways (perhaps because it's so Hitchcockian, and at the same time because it is so... "Bond-ian"), my favorite entry in the franchise.

The Mission
007 is sent to Turkey to assist in the defection of Soviet conciliate clerk Tatiana Romanova, who promises to give MI6 the Lecktor decoder machine; the two spies find themselves pawns in S.P.E.C.T.R.E.'s master plan to kill Bond in revenge for his murdering of their agent, Dr. No.

The Birth of the Pre-credit Sequence 
Whereas Dr. No opened directly on the action, following a "gun barrel" and main title sequence, From Russia With Love changed it up, positioning Maurice Bender's barrel at the front, having it lead into a pre-credits action sequence. Legend says editor Peter Hunt put the sequence, a tense mini-movie teaser for the story to follow, before the titles just to try something new. Little did he know it would become a Bond staple. Director Young and EON liked the idea of a pre-credit sequence so much, every Bond film from then on would feature one.

In From Russia With Love, unlike so many of the adventures to follow, the pre-credit mini-movie ties directly into the larger film's main plot, introducing viewers to Donald "Red" Grant (Robert Shaw), quite possibly the greatest henchman of the franchise, and S.P.E.C.T.R.E.'s overall plan to kill Bond. The filmmakers have some fun here... by having Grant kill the iconic super-spy in the first 2-and-a-half minutes of the movie.

Well, Grant kills a double pretending be Bond, anyway. Can you imagine what audiences were thinking, before the mask on the dead man is taken off, the first time they saw this sequence?

 The Main Title

 

From Russia With Love is the first Bond film in the franchise to feature what I like to call the famed "Titty Titles"--the franchise's notorious opening title sequences filled with scantily clad, essentially nude, women suggestively moving to some signature main title music.

From Russia With Love is different than the 20 films to follow in that it's opening song isn't the title song by Matt Monro--as mentioned already, his full version of "From Russia With Love" comes at the end--but rather a medley by John Barry, featuring an instrumental version of the song, mixed with the composer's "Bond Is Back" and a re-orchestrated take on Monty Norman's iconic 007 theme.

This particular title sequence is also a rare early instance where Maurice Binder wasn't involved, aside from his "barrel" iris. For this film, he was replaced by Robert Brownjohn, whose suggestive projections onto the female form remain quite contemporary... or, at the very least, don't date terribly.

The Villains 
After getting a brief mention by operative Dr. Julius No in Dr. No, the SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion returns with a force (and more faces to the name) in the sequel. In From Russia With Love, S.P.E.C.T.R.E takes much fuller form with the introduction of the organisation's "Number 1"--the franchise's Big Bad and Bond's most enduring nemesis--Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

The grey suited, cat loving, baddie is quite the enigma in the film, and others to follow, only seen from below the neck and often stroking his fluffy feline. But the ground work for Bond's longest-lasting bad guy builds from here. Still, it's so early in the game, in the end credits Blofeld is listed with a literal question mark. He would be fleshed out in later entries, played by several different actors, and begin to take on more and more of the elements caricatured by Mike Meyer's Dr. Evil in his Austin Powers movies. In From Russia With Love, Blofeld was played by Anthony Dawson (the man who played the horrible, geologist, henchman in Dr. No), although Eric Pohlmann provided his voice.

But Blofeld is only the instigator of the revenge plot to bump-off Bond in From Russia With Love, and, as he does in many of the following films, plays little part in the actual carrying out of the proposed killing. For that dirty work, Number 1 has his number 3 and 5 and so on--an army of henchmen, including Morzeny (Walter Gotell) and master chess player Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal). Morzeny and Kronsteen are small time compared to the film's major villains, Rosa Klebb and her steel-stomached punching bag Red Grant.

Klebb and her favorite weapon

Klebb (Lotte Lenya) is S.P.E.C.T.R.E's number 3. A former Soviet colonel, she manipulates Romanova into thinking that she's covertly working for the motherland by tricking Bond into the proposed defection-with-the-Lecktor-decoder plot. Klebb has a slight masochistic edge, and has a very strange secret weapon--a switchblade in her shoe. (And yes, the character was the major inspiration for Frau Farbisina in the Meyer's Austin Powers series).

Robert Shaw as Red Grant

Red Grant, played by  Robert "Quint" Shaw, is one of my favorite foes in the Bond franchise. He's a formidable opponent, not just physically, but mentally as well. And showman Shaw's performance is excellent, remaining a mute maniac until almost an hour and half into the film when Grant meets Bond and Romanova aboard The Orient Express. On the train, he impersonates a British agent intending to help them flee Turkey and navigate the intricate web of S.P.E.C.T.R.E and soviet spies that have invaded the territory. There's a humorous edge to Shaw's Grant during these train scenes, specifically in the overly-proper British-isms he interjects into his speech (every "old man" and "chap" is noticeably forced in a subtly off-putting way). Better, there's menace too. And the eventual showdown between Bond and this baddie is... awesome.

The Allies 
Of course, M (Bernard Lee) and Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) return, as they do in nearly every installment. MI6 gains yet another familiar face--one that will appear for years in the franchise--in Desmond Llewelyn's iconic gadget god, Q. A little bit of trivia: From Russia With Love is the first and only time we actually learn Q's real name in the films: and only because he's listed as Major Geoffrey Boothroyd in the credits.

Desmond Llewelyn (right) as Major Boothroyd, head of Q-branch

Llewelyn would play quartermaster Q in all 17 Bond pictures from 1963 until his death in 1999 (appearing on screen for the last time that same year in The World Is Not Enough). The actor, a longtime fan of the James Bond comic strip, was cast in the role when his predecessor, Peter Burton, declined to return. Director Terence Young suggested the actor, having worked with him previously on The Were Not Divided, a war picture in which Llewelyn played a tank gunner. The rest, as they say, is history.

Pedro Armendariz as Kerim Bey

Ali Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendáriz) is Bond's buddy in the field for the majority of From Russia With Love. A British Intelligence liaison in the Turkish foreign office, Kerim Bey--and his many sons--know all their is to know about the Cold War-era espionage world entrenched in their country's underbelly, the city of Istanbul in particular. One of Bond's most resourceful and likable sidekicks, Bey spends his day messing with soviet spies, knows where all the gypsy girls hang out, and has a penchant for shooting Ruskies with sniper rifles as they attempt to escape.

An actor who had worked in the movie business for decades, and is among the earliest Mexican actors to make a name for themselves outside of that country, Armendáriz committed to From Russia With Love as a way to leave his family financially stable in his impending death. He was slowly and painfully dying during the film from several, agressive, forms of cancer as a result of his exposure to intense nuclear fallout during RKO's infamous "Radioactive Picture", The Conqueror (which was essentially filmed on a nuclear test site, and, as of the publication of a 1980 People Magazine article on the film, had more than 90 cast and crew members develop cancer from the ridiculously radioactive set).

The script was rewritten, and production rescheduled, around Armendáriz' declining health. Too weak to work near the end, in some shots of the famous gypsy camp sequence, Terence Young stepped in as the actors double. It's a testament to Armendáriz then that his disease rarely shows on screen, when he's actually on screen; Bey is a charismatic and alarmingly-abled ally to Bond.

Sadly, Pedro Armendáriz would put a gun in his mouth shortly after he finished the filming of his scenes.  The actor almost immediately checked into a Los Angeles area hospital, somehow snuck a pistol past security, and promptly committed suicide as a way escape the physical and mental fatigue brought on by his disease.

The Girls 

Ms. Trench (Eunice Gayson, left) is one of the only Bond girls to appear in more than one film.

Sylvia Trench (Eunice Gayson), who first appeared in Dr. No in the very first scene with "Bond. James Bond" himself, is one of the only Bond girls to appear in more than one film. Here, in From Russia With Love, she plays almost the exact same part--wooing, or having been wooed by, Bond. Given the picnic-y holiday we find them at in this early scene, it would seem Bond actually had a girlfriend of sorts. I think his tryst with Trench might be the longest relationship the character has ever had in the films (in that they've stayed together between two films)... and he gets married at one point in a later entry, fer cripes sakes!

Daniela Bianchi as Tatiana Romanova

Despite her breathy, Hitchcock-Blonde, demeanor Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) is one of the most interesting Bond girls ever committed to film. What makes her interesting is that she uses Bond, for sex and anything else she may need, just as much as he uses her. Daniela Bianachi, making her feature film debut here, dubbed by Barbara Jefford, plays her part well. Her Romanova is ditzy... like a fox.

The gypsy girls

Of lesser importance, but still sexing up the place in the Bond mythos are the two fighting gypsy girls, Zara (Martine Beswick) and Vida (played by former Miss Israel, Aliza Gur), at the center of a key action sequence in From Russia With Love.

The Gadgets 

The Bond movies slowly worked up to the weird gadgets. Before he was flying around with a jetpack on his back, and holding on to a helicopter in a suitcase, Connery's version of the character was pretty low tech. In Dr. No he had only one real gadget in his new gun, a Walther PPK. In From Russia With Love he gets a badass weaponized briefcase: it holds a compact rifle and several rounds, a knife concealed in the case, has two strips of gold coins to get Bond out of any bungled bank issue hidden in the lining, and... becomes a teargas bomb when needed. 

The Awesome 
What's awesome about From Russia With Love? Pretty much the whole movie. It's got two (three) great villains, an excellent Bond girl, the introduction of Q, another great performance from Connery, a plot that's incredibly complex yet somehow brought to screen in a focused and expertly-handled way (which minimizes confusion in the face of outright chaos, in more ways than one; as I said earlier, its script is masterful in skirting the touchy political problems of the day).

The film is terrifically directed by Terence Young, who learned, over the course of his three films, better than almost any other filmmaker to adapt Bond, what worked in the frame of the franchise and what didn't; and he did it faster than any other too. He stages several memorable sequences in the film, including one of the franchise's best fights:

Nearly 50 years on, the fight aboard the Orient Express, between Bond and Grant, still remains one of the most brutal and intensely satisfying showdowns between the spy and one of his foes.

Other sequences, like the two chases at the end of the film (chases not present in the novel) add some intense action to the third act and are impressive, from a filmmaking standpoint, and enjoyable for the pure entertainment value, too.

The helicopter chase was inspired by North by Northwest... obviously

The helicopter and boat chases in the climax are epically awesome for reasons seen on screen and not. While scouting locations for the sequences, Terence Young's helicopter crashed, and the director (along with a cameraman and art director Michael White) nearly drowned. Yet, Young was behind his camera that same day shooting material.

Sean Connery, who did his own stunts in many scenes, was nearly killed by the helicopter pilot who got a little too close to the actor for comfort in one fly-by. In the film, Bond's dive away from the copter is actually Connery leaping for his life.

Bond goes boom

The exploding barrels in the final moments of the boat chase rival the delirious destruction of the compound in The Road Warrior. In actuality, the pyrotechnic effect got so out of hand--and was so unexpectedly powerful--a crew member was nearly consumed by the blaze. It looks believably dangerous on screen, because it was.

The Not So Awesome
Honestly, there's not much wrong with From Russia With Love. In fact, I can't think of a single thing that's really, offensively, stupid--and not awesome--in this one. Which is rare for a Bond film. Even the best usually have a few moments of questionable quality. Like that dreaded Dragon in the otherwise very good Dr. No...