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| In the pre-title sequence we see some of the training that SPECTRE operatives go through on SPECTRE Island. Unfortunately this only serves to highlight what second-raters they are. The one small flaw in their reasoning is that, just because an agent can sneak up behind a man in a latex Sean Connery mask and garotte him, doesn't mean they are going to be able to take out the great man himself. The other training looks quite good though, as they point out, SPECTRE use live targets. Their evil plan this itme is to steal a Russian Lektor decoding device, and turn the British and Russians against each other in the process. They choose Bond to have the beautiful Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Biancha) defect to, in revenge for him killing Dr. No. 007 foils the plot with minimal effort, of course, and walks off with both the Lektor and the girl. Sylvia Trench (Eunice Gayson), who Bond pulled in the casino in Dr. No, makes another appearance, they are having a romantic picnic together when Bond is summoned into work. In Istanbul he gets to spend the night with two lovely gypsy girls. Peter Burton could not return as Major Boothroyd (Q), so the part was re-cast and Desmond Llewlyn took over. He issues Bond with a relatively unsophisticated briefcase, and there is none of the repartee of later movies. The other tradition started here is the one of having the Russians converse with each other in Russian-accented English. I cannot believe Bond is not immediately suspicious of Donovan Grant (Robert Shaw)'s way over-the-top upper-class Britishness when he's masquearding as an MI6 agent; but, no, he doesn't bat an eyelid until Grant orders red wine with fish. From Russia With Love sees Bond involved in the Cold War much more than most films, it is not until towards the end that he realises that SPECTRE, and not the Soviets, are behind the trap. The characters spend a great deal of time aboard the Orient Express. This claustraphobic atmosphere is much more like more straight Cold War spy thrillers than a Bond movie. It's an interesting look at the direction the films might have taken had the formula not been set so comprehensively in the next entry, Goldfinger. |
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| FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE Director: Terence Young Producers: Albert R. Brocolli & Harry Saltzman Screenplay: Richard Maibaum & Johanna Harwood 1963 |