Review of From Russia with Love (1963) by David G — 08 Dec 2011

One of the classiest Bond adventures and my personal favourite of the Connery era. Excellent story which though subtle by Bond standards has a certain magic about it, a classic East vs. West cold war spy thriller that's been spiced up with Turks, Bulgarians, Gypsies and of course mysterious criminal organization SPECTRE pulling the strings behind the scenes.

Excellent cast too playing a great collection of characters - I particularly like Turkish Intelligence don Kerim, played by Pedro Armendariz and Robert Shaw's memorable SPECTRE agent Red Grant with whom Bond has one of his most famous fight sequences - a brutal hand-to-hand fight to the death inside a cramped train cabin - one of only a handful of action scenes in the film, the story taking priority over the pyrotechnics.