Review of From Russia with Love (1963) by Janika Maria B — 30 Mar 2013

"From Russia with Love" is the sequel that improves upon its predecessor in terms of action, scope, spectacle, and thrilling storytelling. The plot concerns Bond as he is sent in to Istambul to bring in a Russian defector named Tatiana Romanova who has supposedly fallen in love with Bond.

Knowing that its obviously a trap he goes anyways because the bait is a Lector decoding machine. From there the plot takes many twists and turns from Lonton to Istambul to a Gypsy camp to the Orient Express to the final showdown in Venice.

Sean Conney once again proves that he's James Bond and this time his role is more defined than in "Dr. No". Daniela Bianchi as Tatiana is just beautiful and gorgeous (also like Ursula Andress was also dubbed because she couldn't speak English.

She was voiced by Barbara Jefford ) and has a much more involved role as a double agent. Lotte Lenya as Rosa Klebb is just fantastic because in real life she was a sweet woman but when she acted her role was cold, ruthless and sadistic making her one of the best Bond villains.

Mexican actor Pedro Armendáriz plays as Bond's ally in Turkey Kerim Bey which was his last role before sadly committing suicide after filming when he discovered that he had inoperable fatal cancer.

( His role was memorable.) Robert Shaw plays as Red Grant, an assassin who has an ominous presence thruout the film without talking up until the Orient Express. Desmond Llewelyn joins the cast as the gadget master Q who would be series regular up until "The World is not Enough" in 1999.

"From Russia with Love" also marks the first appearance of the sinister leader of SPECTRE (played by an uncredited Anthony Dawson and voiced by Eric Pohlmann who would both reprise the role in "Thunderball") who's face is never seen but his hands are shown holding and stroking a white cat.

Terence Young returns as director and his directing is much more focused and solid than in "Dr. No" (even though I said that "Dr. No" was well directed, I find this one to be more focused) with exotic locations and well choreographed and iconic action sequences.

"From Russia With Love" has everything a good Bond movie needs: Great well choreographed action, great acting, great storytelling, exotic locations and of course beautiful women. This is one of the best Bond movies of the Sean Connery era and my personal favorite of the Sean Connery Era Bonds.