From Russia, With Love

There's a couple of changes with From Russia, With Love as opposed to the movie that immediately preceded it. The gunbarrel that opened the previous movie opens this one, but the James Bond Theme is played over the top of it, and this leads us into a pre-title sequence, before we get the title sequence. Once again we have a musical theme played over the title sequence (which is a little disappointing - Robert Brownjohn replaces Maurice Binder and this time the title sequence is just the credits projected onto a belly dancer). Curiously in the last film, the Bond theme led into a a piece of music that would later get lyrics (Three Blind Mice), but this time the musical theme leads into the Bond theme. It's From Russia, With Love and will later in the film be performed by Matt Munro both as a song someone is listening to, and to close the movie.

The pretitle sequence appears to see Bond being hunted by a tall blonde man who then kills him, but lo! it's not Bond, rather a man with a convicing Bond mask. It's worth noting that Sean Connery plays this scene very well, not moving his face at all until he is attacked, which makes the revelation of the mask a little more convincing.

In the novel, Bond doesn't make an appearance til about a third of the way into the story, and that is alluded to in the movie as Bond, aside from the faux appearance in the pretitle sequence, doesn't show up for absolute ages. Once again director Terrence Young has assembled a brilliant cast and my favourites include Vladek Sheybal as SPECTRE No 5 Kronsteen - who plays an egomaniacal chess player who creates SPECTRE's mad schemes - and Pedro Armendariz as Kerim Bey - Bond's associate in Istanbul who just brings to life the character of the Head of Station T. That's not to diminish villains Lotte Lenya as Klebb (and rather impressively the lesbianism of Klebb in the novel is still hinted at in the movie as she flinches when Morzeny touches her, and is just a little too friendly with Tanya Romanova) or Robert Shaw as Donald Grant (essentially the thug of the movie who, in a scene directly from the novel, gets massaged by a beautiful woman before being punched in the stomach without flinching by Klebb).

Following in Ursula Andress' footsteps is the beautiful Daniela Bianchi as new Bond girl Tatiana Romanova. Like Andress she is dubbed, and her voice doesn't exactly suit Bianchi. Her voice is sultry and sexy, but Bianchi is very cute (note the moment when she bites Bond's tie as she shows off her nightdress) and it doesn't quite work as well as you'd think it would.

In some excellent continuity with the previous movie, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell and Eunice Gayson return as "M", Moneypenny and Sylvia, and Sylvia gets to grouch about how the last time she saw Bond he went to Jamaica. Curiously, Major Boothroyd has been replaced by the lisping Desmond Llewellyn who gives Bond a briefcase which has various weapons tucked into it, as well as a tonne of money. Sean Connery is really getting into the role of Bond as his own confidence boosts the confidence of Bond himself, so now Bond is just a little sarcastic when Boothroyd shows him how to open the briefcase. Indeed you can see the confidence Connery has - note the way he speaks on the telephone now, with one leg up on the nearest bed or chair he can find.

The one major change to this movie as opposed to the last one is the larger dollop of humour the movie has gained. Bond is now quipping quite freely, excusing himself before he punches someone in the face, and making three witty one-liners after someone has died. Conversely, Bond also takes the opportunity to slap Tanya across the face while interrogating her, which gives him a much tougher edge to what he had before.

Young's direction is fabulous, and the arrival into Istanbul mirrors Bond's arrival in Jamaica in Dr No - note that Bond exits with someone watching him and is then followed as he leaves the airport, after being greeted by someone who has a car ready for him. There are a number of extravagant scenes in the film - when Bond leaves the train at the end he escapes on foot, by truck and by boat (after shooting down a helicopter). It's an impressively long action scene, but runs smoothly. Indeed, Young seems to spend more time on the action this time round - although it was largely redundant in the original novel as well, Young is happy to have the entire Gypsy scene in the movie, along with Kerim Bey's act of revenge. And, of course, the piece de resistance is Bond and Grant's fight in the train towards the end. Assisted by Peter Hunt's snappy editing, the fight is vicious and nasty and after the brutality of it all, Bond adjusts his tie.

If Dr No was a raw diamond, then From Russia, With Love is that diamond now smoothed out and faceted. Not sure if that is such a good thing, but it certainly doesn't detract from the movie.

"A+"