From Russia With Love

April 8, 2020 · Watch the trailer

Movie franchises trying to capitalize on success by getting the next film out as quickly as possible feels like a modern trend perpetuated by Marvel Studios and their endless supply of superhero content.

And yet, Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman cornered that market decades earlier with their EON Productions studio seizing on the box office acclaim for their debut James Bond film “Dr. No” in 1962 with three subsequent features over the next three years.

The immediate follow-up, 1963’s “From Russia With Love,” jump started the franchise thanks to the continuity of the production team and the return of both star Sean Connery in the lead role and Terence Young in the director’s chair.

With double the budget and many times the scale of its predecessor, “From Russia With Love” is a classic entry in the Bond canon for its influence on the series as a whole and expansion of the world of cinema’s favorite MI6 agent.

Based on the Ian Fleming novel, the second James Bond film follows the British secret agent to Turkey in pursuit of a Soviet decoding machine being offered up by a young Russian intelligence officer who has seemingly fallen for Bond from a single photograph. The machine is also being pursued by S.P.E.C.T.R.E., which has put Bond in their crosshairs following the events of “Dr. No.”

Connery feels as though he’s relaxed, more self-assured in the role of Bond with this second run as he’s unafraid to be more deliberate and combative with line delivery. This isn’t Connery at his best in the part, though the foundations laid in the first two films will soon pay off for his most engaging work.

“From Russia With Love” carries over the tradition of casting a pretty foreign face as Bond’s love interest with Miss Universe runner-up Daniela Bianchi, an Italian model who learned English for the film but ultimately had her lines dubbed over by British actress Barbara Jefford. Their combined work in the role of Soviet ingenue Tatiana works well enough; Bianchi has a flair for intense facial expressions and Jefford provides a convincing enough accent to mask audiences from the fact that she’s not Russian nor that it isn’t the actress seen on screen actually speaking.

It goes without saying that in a film with too much going on, “From Russia With Love” is overloaded with villains – and not simply the nameless ones Bond and his allies eliminate in short order over the course of the franchise.

Lotte Lenya relishes the role of ruthless Soviet counter-intelligence boss Rosa Klebb, infusing the iconic character with bitterness and controlled rage. The character on the script page is rather bland, but Lenya gives the part a distinct edge that helped make Klebb iconic in Bond lore and the primary influence on the Frau Farbissina character from the “Austin Powers” movies.

Robert Shaw is thinner, over a decade younger and nearly unrecognizable from his iconic “Jaws” role here as blunt force object and SPECTRE assassin Red Grant. While the character is intended to be the silent, but deadly type, Shaw is able to infuse Grant with an engaging amount of charm, revealing Grant to almost be Bond’s villainous mirror image.

The villain who works least well in “From Russia With Love” is the chess-playing mastermind Kronsteen, played serviceably enough by Vladek Sheybal, but lacking the screen time or character development required to make Kronsteen valuable or memorable.

The same cannot be said of Anthony Dawson’s extended cameo appearances as S.P.E.C.T.R.E. leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld, whose appearance helps to define the villainy of the franchise despite audiences only seeing a portion of his body. As Dawson played the role of Professor Dent in “Dr. No,” this might help explain his obscured appearance and the fact that his lines were dubbed over by an uncredited Eric Pohlmann.

The film’s signature action sequence, a thrilling close-quarters fight in a train, is expertly directed by Young and choreographed to highlight the cleverness of Bond against Grant’s straight-forward brutality. Each movement is deliberate and considered, well ahead of its time in terms of hand-to-hand combat in spy cinema.

This moment feels personal, intimate in Bond lore given how much of the action within the series is littered with large, bombastic scenes that depict Bond in the middle of a war battle in essence. Young’s directorial style is more adept in wide shots that give action a sense of scale, which works well in a dynamic sequence where Bond takes on pursuers in a helicopter.

That it comes so closely after the train sequence is no mistake either, highlighting the stark contrast between the two fighting styles and elevating Bond’s versatility as an agent.

The Bond franchise is notorious for the ways in which it objectifies and subverts its female characters and “From Russia With Love” ramps this up tenfold from its predecessor “Dr. No.” The raw sexuality is not as overt, but still problematic.

A catfight between two gypsy women plays a significant role during the middle of the film, debasing both women first by pitting them against each other for sexual dominance, then having both submit to Bond in an implied threesome.

Klebb’s position as a Soviet agent is used – as frequently is done in Western films – to imply villainy, but subtle references to her being a lesbian are also used as an implication that her homosexuality is a further cause to her evil ways.

The film saw the debut of its signature title card sequence featuring belly dancers from the stomach to thighs gyrating to an orchestral version of the title song as well as the iconic “James Bond Theme” penned by Monty Norman. The catchy, but largely forgettable “From Russia With Love” theme sung by Matt Munro scored the movie’s end credits, a rarity for the series.

Where “From Russia With Love” becomes problematic is in how much the world of Bond expands in the second film from its rather contained origins with “Dr. No.” Young introduces a cacophony of new villains for Bond to take on, beginning the further reveal of the S.P.E.C.T.R.E. organization, while also having audiences navigate through multiple countries and the geopolitical relationships between Turkey and the Soviet Union.

It’s clear engaging in the film that the screenplay was changed, often on the day of shooting, to help elevate certain characters like Red Grant and help mold James Bond into a larger connected franchise. On an individual film level, events are especially rocky, but in the greater context of the whole series, “From Russia With Love” sets precedents and creates the landscape for decades to come.

This is the second in a series of retrospective reviews of the James Bond film franchise as made by EON Productions in anticipation of the release of the 25th entry in the series, “No Time To Die,” which arrives in American theaters on November 25.