From Russia with Love (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the Ian Fleming novel, see From Russia with Love.

From Russia with Love
From Russia with Love film poster
James Bond	Sean Connery
Directed by	Terence Young
Produced by	Harry Saltzman Albert R. Broccoli
Written by	Ian Fleming
Screenplay	Richard Maibaum Johanna Harwood (adaptation)
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	$2,500,000
Worldwide gross	$78,900,000
Admissions (world)	95.3 million
Preceded by	Dr. No
Followed by	Goldfinger
IMDb profile

A 2002 Penguin Books paperback edition

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 released in 1963, produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and directed by Terence Young. It is based on the eponymous 1957 novel by Ian Fleming.

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.

1 Background
2 Plot summary
3 Cast & characters
4 Crew
5 Soundtrack
- 5.1 Track listing
6 Vehicles & gadgets
7 Locations
- 7.1 Film locations
- 7.2 Shooting locations
8 Trivia
9 External links

[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. From Russia With Love is significant in that - with the exception of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Dr. No and 2006's Casino Royale - it showed Bond without significant amounts of hi-tech gadgetry which became a hallmark of the later films. (The attaché case he is given by Q in From Russia With Love is innovative but very believable.) The film introduced the now standard pre-credits sequence and the use of a popular singer to sing the theme.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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 SMERSH 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 (Tania) 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] Cast & characters

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

Professional reviews
From Russia with Love

Soundtrack by John Barry
Released	1963
Recorded	March 1963
Length	34:20
Label	Capitol
Producer(s)	Frank Collura (Reissue)
All Music Guide link
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] Vehicles & gadgets

Main articles: List of James Bond vehicles and List of James Bond gadgets

Briefcase — 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 flat throwing knife, and fifty gold sovereigns in secret compartments accessible from inside the case. In addition, the briefcase has a trick safety mechanism that detonates a magnetically attached tear gas bomb if the briefcase is improperly opened.
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.
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.
Tape recorder disguised as a camera.
The LEKTOR decoder, though never actually seen in use, could also count as a gadget (Fleming based it directly on the Enigma machine, a cryptology device used by the Germans during World War II).
The helicopter used the end to chase Bond is a Hiller H-23, which first flew in 1948.

[edit] Locations

[edit] Film locations

[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.
In recent years, the scene in which Bond first encounters Tatiana in his hotel room often has been used to screen-test actors for the James Bond and leading lady roles.
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..."