From Russia, With Love

An assassin pulls a length of wire from his watch and silently approaches James Bond from behind. Looping the wire around Bond's neck, the assassin pulls it tight and holds it there until Bond gasps his last breath.

From Russia With Love is the first James Bond film to feature the now obligatory pre-title sequence, and although the murdered man is immediately revealed to be wearing a mask of 007, the short sequence is atmospheric and full of suspense. Since James Bond does not appear until much later in the plot, this device must have been designed to introduce Sean Connery into the story much sooner than he would have otherwise done.

Differing only slightly (but vitally) from the Fleming story, From Russia With Love is probably the only Bond film not to have at its finale a huge exploding set. Instead of a 007-by-numbers world domination theme, the film concerns a plot by SPECTRE (SMERSH in the book) to assassinate Bond in compromising circumstances and at the same time obtain a Russian cipher machine in order to sell it back to the Russians.

From Russia With Love is the first film to feature the much loved Desmond Llewellyn (introduced by M as 'The Equipment Officer' from 'Q-Branch' and billed as Boothroyd in the credits) and follows the same structure as the book, with the beginning of the film devoted to planning the assassination, and although this makes the first half a little slow at times, the local colour provided by the locations and characters fleshes out the story to ultimately make it much more believable than most of the films. This highlights one of the weaknesses of the film series from the 1970s onwards, when Fleming's worldly sophistication was replaced almost entirely by a thin veneer of glamour and scenes like the gypsy camp, which is effectively used to provide local colour while driving the plot forward, have been replaced by the anonymity of the five star hotel and the needless action scene. With few gadgets, Bond has to rely upon his wits and during a gun flight at the gypsy camp he stands amid the confusion not knowing what to do, far from the decisive agent we see in most of the films. By the time the story has progressed to the Orient Express the film is full of suspense and while locked in a sleeping compartment with SPECTRE assassin 'Red' Grant, Bond is force to fight to the death in a terrifyingly claustrophobic sequence accompanied by the rhythmic knock of the rails in the background.

At times some of the acting from supporting characters is a little weak, and whenever Kerim, the head of the Istanbul MI6 station, fires a gun he snatches at the trigger so that the whole weapon wobbles impossibly, but overall the cast play the roles well and unlike some of the series the film is coherent due to its reliance on Ian Fleming's plot. With none of the over the top gadgets, plots and pyrotechnics that have become so closely associated with James Bond, From Russia With Love remains one of the best of the series.

Cast

Sean Connery	James Bond
Daniela Bianchi	Tatiana Romanov
Pedro Armendáriz	Kerim Bey
Lotte Lenya	Rosa Klebb
Robert Shaw	Donald 'Red' Grant
Vladek Sheybal	Kronsteen
Anthony Dawson	Ernst Blofeld
Bernard Lee	M
Eunice Gayson	Sylvia Trench
Lois Maxwell	Miss Moneypenny
Desmond Llewelyn	Major Boothroyd (Q)
Director	Terence Young
Screenplay	Richard Maibaum

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