Review of From Russia with Love (1963) by Edgar C — 05 Jun 2013

In Sean Connery's second outing as Bond, James Bond, SPECTRE, the terrorist group that Dr. No was a member of in the previous film, wants to avenge Dr. No's death by eliminating Bond. They plan to allow Bond to intercept a Russian decoding device with a little luring from Tania Romanova (Daniela Bianchi), a Russian who wants to defect but unaware she is working for SPECTRE. After Bond falls for the trap, SPECTRE assassin Red Grant (Robert Shaw) will kill him and they can get the device. Bond must avoid the trap and defeat the villains if he intends to survive.

Bernard Lee returns as M, Lotte Lenya plays Rosa Klebb, another one of SPECTRE's members, and Desmond Llewelyn appears as Q for the first time.

In this film, the Bond formula starts to kick in. Q appears for the first time, John Barry begins his time as composer for the franchise, and Bond starts to receive the cool gadgets, but it's not until Goldfinger when the gadgets become a running gag in the franchise.

Many critics and Bond fans view this as the best Bond film of all-time, but I disagree. The pacing in this film is slow in some parts, and there are some subplots that really distract the film from its true potential. For instance, Bond meets Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendiriz), a hotel owner who survives several assassination attempts from a terrorist in that area, which is Istanbul. Bond literally stops what he's doing and finds this terrorist for him.

But for the most part, this Bond outing is actually entertaining when it goes somewhere. Sean Connery starts getting the hang of his role, even admitting that this was his favorite Bond film to make, and Robert Shaw played a great villain. The girl was attractive enough, even if Honey in Dr. No was a better woman. The action scenes are pretty impressive, especially the train brawl between Bond and Grant, plus the boat chase finale.

While it is far from being a perfect Bond film, From Russia With Love remains an entertaining Bond flick with cool action sequences and the Bond formula starting to kick in.