Review of From Russia with Love (1963) by Dillinger P — 21 Aug 2015

In my opinion, one of the best Bond films to date and also one of his more refined outings, From Russia With Love is a truly underrated classic. Terence Young helms his second effort which see's Spectre hatch a plethora of double crosses, in order to catch and kill James Bond, after his run in with Dr No.

Russian defector Rosa Klebb sets in motion plot including a Russian agent who is wildly in love with James Bond, willing to give Bond access to a Russian code breaker. Believing the plot to be rightfully a double cross from the get go, Bond insists in taking the mission, for the sole purpose of getting his hands on the Russian intelligence, thus seeing James fly to Istanbul, where the plot takes more twists and turns than the waltzers.

Young outdoes himself straight from the word go with a painfully tense sequence introducting Robert Shaw as a brutal agent, in training to kill everyone's favorite 00 agent, from then on, he continues what he managed to achieve so well in Dr No and run with the ball, only here he elaborates more, he takes a lot more time introducing characters and plot development.

Although Dr No was a brilliant first off, From Russia With Love really feels like you are completely immersed in a spy thriller, the setting of Istanbul is particularly resonate, especially with the inclusion of the cold war.

The double, triple and quadruple crosses are all intelligent and wonderfully woven and we really get a more solid sense of MI6 overall, not forgetting the brief but wonderful inclusion of Q branch. Returning cast members such as Connery, Lee and Maxwell all make astounding returns to form, where as Shaw, Bianchi, Lenya and Armendariz all turn in brilliant performances, which would give any Bond film a run for its money.

Shaw however is the show steal, his physicality, menace and intelligent threat is always present throughout and Young knows this, foreshadowing the movement of plot with Shaw's inclusion is handled wonderfully, however it is once Bond finally comes face to face with his foe, things really get interesting and edge of your seat.

From Russia, really continues the thriller angle, always feeling like proper espionage mixed with some blistering whit. It does its best to try an up the set piece, here and there and what they achieve is quite rightly mediocre, but it gets the job done.

There are a few flaws, the paces dips slightly in the 2nd act, luckily not for long and there are around 3 false endings, which is not uncommon in any film, but here it really feels like instead of tying all the plots up in one outing, the have to address them all individually, maybe this is down to the fact that From Russia has so much going on.

Its a complex film compared to other Bond movies and it requires your attention. If you like you spy movies, stylish, thought provoking and mature, this is a must watch.