From Russia With Love was the second James Bond film to be released. Produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and directed by Terence Young, the film is based on the 1957 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. From Russia With Love was chosen as the follow up to Dr. No, largely because President Kennedy had named the novel among his top ten favorites in Life Magazine. Though Flemings novel is a Cold war Thriller, producers decided to name the crime syndicate SPECTRE instead of the soviet undercover agency SMERSH to avoid any controversial political overtones.
Sean Connery returned to play Bond and has always insisted that From Russia With Love was his favorite film in the Bond series. The film marks the debut of Desmond Llewelyn as Major Boothroyd, known as Q, a character he would play in all but two Bond films until his death in 1999. However, screen credit for Llewelyn was omitted at the opening of the film and is reserved for the exit credits. Q was portrayed in Dr. No by by actor Peter Burton, and addressed by M initially as “Armourer,” and as Major Boothroyd by Bond.
As From Russia With Love begins, the audience is led to believe that James Bond has been killed. However, this is simply a training exercise and Bond (Connery) has become the top target of SPECTRE after he defeated Dr. No in the first film. Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) is given the primary job of bringing Bond down and a complicated plan is formulated where Russian spy Tatianna Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) is to have Bond travel to Turkey and secure a Lektor translation device that would be a tremendous coup for British Intelligence. She is supposed to pretend to fall in love with Bond, thus allowing SPECTRE agent Red Grant (Robert Shaw) to kill him and get the Lektor device for SPECTRE.
Bond flies to Istanbul and meets British operative Ali Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendariz), who informs the British spy that his trip was for not. However, the two form an alliance of sorts, after an attempt on Bey’s life fails. Bond and Bey travel through an underground waterway to use a periscope that allows them to see into the Russian consulate’s office. The two then travel to a gypsy settlement. The gypsies are attacked and Bey is wounded. Bey, finally realizing his life is truly in danger, helps Bond track down and kill the man responsible for the attack.
When Bond returns to his hotel suite, he finds Romanova in bed waiting for him. Bond and Romanova make love, unaware that they are being filmed by Klebb. Shortly thereafter, Bond and and Tatianna obtain the Lektor and flee to safety aboard the Orient Express with Bey. A couple more murder happen on the train and Red Grant pretends to be a fellow British agent in an attempt to gather the Lektor and have Bond and the British Secret Service pay for destroying the SPECTRE operation in Jamaica that was led by Dr. No. I will say no more, so as not to spoil the outcome but suffice to say, Bond has a few more tricks up his sleeve before the credits role.
Both then novel and the film are considered to be among the best in the James Bond series. Connery really came into his own here as the suave British spy and the gadgets that have become a mainstay of Bond films came out to play in From Russia With Love: a watch with a garrote wire, shoes with poison-tipped retractable blades and a suitcase features a hidden knife and tear gas. Bond once again showed that he was a guy who was going to his mind over his muscle to get himself out of tough spots. With From Russia With Love, producers began to figure out where they wanted to take the James Bond character. It was after the introduction of Q into the story that the series took a turn towards the more stunt and gadget driven adventures we still see today.
From Russia With Love was the Bond film that really cemented the franchise. Several “firsts” were introduced that would become an integral part of the series: the standard pre-title sequence, the Blofeld character, a secret weapon gadget for Bond, a helicopter sequence (repeated in every subsequent Bond film except The Man With The Golden Gun, a postscript action scene after the main climax, a theme song with lyrics, and the line “James Bond will return/be back” in the credits.
As with the other recent Bond Blu-ray releases, From Russia With Love looks fantastic. MGM has given the movie the full AVC Mpeg-4 treatment, while preserving the film’s original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.66:1. For a movie that is almost forty-five years old, From Russia With Love looks remarkably clean and pristine. MGM utilized the Lowry process to restore the film and the results speak for themselves.
I will say however, I didn´t feel that From Russia With Love was as visually impressive as Dr. No and some of the finer details didn´t pop from the screen. Colors are bright and nicely saturated, but this film actually looks older due to grain and other elements of aging that didn´t seem quite as prevalent with the first movie. This is still a great transfer, it just seems as though time wasn’t as kind to the original film on this one.
As with the other Blu-ray releases, MGM obviously took great care to make From Russia With Love sound as good as it looked. Presented in 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio, the movie sounds amazing while simultaneously showing the limits of early sixties sound recording techniques. A lot of the dialogue has a tinny sound to it, while the soundtrack is powerful and jumps right out at you.
The sound mix on this Blu-ray edition does a good job of making the most out of the limited source material. Dialogue is clear, while still maintaining the tinny nature of the original film. Basically, MGM has taken limited source material and been able to give the soundtrack a modern update, without losing the feel of the original film.
The bonus features begin with the MI6 Commentary. As was the case with Dr. No, Ian Fleming Foundation member John Cork serves as lead commentator and host as numerous members of the cast and crew are interviewed and these segments are pieced together to create a full length commentary. Director Terence Young is the first up to talk about the film. Cork does a very good job of introducing the interview segments and providing his own knowledge to the commentary track.
The remaining special features are arranged in similar fashion to those from Dr. No. The “Declassified: MI6 Vault” contains four items. Ian Fleming: The CBC Interview (7:42) is a short vintage interview with author Ian Fleming. Ian Fleming and Raymond Chandler (5:11) is another brief vignette where the two men are engaging in a short conversation and images of the two are flashed on-screen during the chat as they talk about writing, Las Vegas and other things. The Animated Storyboard Sequence (1:28) shows the storyboards from Bond and Tatianna´s aquatic escape, set to the James Bond theme. The Credits for the special features are also included under this menu heading.
“007 Mission Control” is the second main menu heading under “Special Features.” This is outlined the same as it was for Dr. No and features sections for “007,” “Women,” “Allies,” “Villains,” “Mission Combat Manual,” “Q Branch” and “Exotic Locations.” These are typically jumps to scenes in the film that have to do with characters, events or plot lines from the film. Maude Adams returns for the Exotic Locations (3:15) and briefly talks about locations used for the film. This is the only non-scene jump under this menu heading.
“Mission Dossier” begins with the making-of Inside From Russia With Love (33:46), which is now displayed in 1080i resolution. This is a fairly long look at the film and the excitement around the second James Bond film. Harry Saltzman: Showman (26:42) looks at one half of the producing team that brought the James Bond films to life. Saltzman was involved in the first nine Bond pictures.
The “Ministry of Propaganda” and the “Image Database” are the final two menu selections available. The “Theatrical Archive” contains the Original Theatrical Trailer – SPECTRE (3:46), Bond: Back to Back (2:01) and The Biggest Bond Sale Ever (1:54) trailers that were used to promote the film. The third trailer is a little odd in its wording, but advertises Thunderball and From Russia With Love. “TV Broadcasts” contains three more advertising bits: Sean Connery is Bond (:11), Bond All Over (:22) and More Thrills Per Minute (1:01). Old marketing is always fun to watch. “Radio Communication” contains three radio ads: Fantastic Bond Sale (:51), Famous Named Villains (:26) and Sean Connery Is… (:10). The marketing of this film combined with Thunderball was all about the Bond sale; a rather unusual campaign. The Image Database contains images from the film´s production and release.
