This is the second Bond movie in the whole saga. Here we see a lot more gadgets & gizmos than in the first movie, Dr No – not just for Bond but for the enemy (Spectre) too. We’re also introduced to three women in Bond’s life within the first 25 minutes: the guy he’s busy making out with when called in to work (Sylvia Trench, played adequately by Eunice Gayson – the first girl we met in Dr No); plus Miss Moneypenny (a secretarial agent at MI6 HQ, played fine by Lois Maxwell); plus Tatiana Romanova (‘Tanya’ – the woman who Bond’s mission involves befriending – played quite well by Daniela Bianchi).
Ironically though, the most beautiful women in this movie were probably Martine Beswick (British-Jamaican actress) and Aliza Gur (Israeli actress) who played Zora & Vida respectively – a couple of gypsy girls who cat-fight for the right to marry their chief’s son. Why weren’t they promoted to primary bond girls? I can only assume it’s because they didn’t do all the necessary ‘favours’ for the relevant directors, producers & decision-makers. Either that or someone important had no taste, or wanted to make some kind of fashion statement by prioritising a certain look.
Bond’s demeanour in this movie is a little less suave, a little more rough around the edges, compared to his demeanour in Dr No, but not massively so. The vibe of the movie is a bit rougher in the middle too, but not in a terrible way. It’s probably a bit more detailed in its core script this time round, and the music is a bit more varied and suspenseful.
This particular movie is responsible for one of the most iconic & memorable scenes in all of James Bond history, where James is held at gunpoint on a train by his main adversary (Red Grant – an enemy agent from Spectre, played quite well by Robert Shaw). James gives him some gold sovereigns from one suitcase, then his next suitcase explodes tear gas in the enemy’s face.
Lotte Lenya plays Red Grant’s boss, Rosa Klebb very well.
You may notice the scenery looks vaguely familiar in the helicopter and boat scenes at the end of this movie, because they were both filmed in Scotland – the vegetation and rock formations here are typical of British mountainous terrain. These final action scenes were pretty well made too – plus of course the train scenes – they’re not extremely buzzing by modern standards but were still impressively smooth and captivating considering this movie was made in the 60s.
I rate this movie OK since some of it is pretty good but some of it is a bit boring as you would expect from any movie this old. It’s more action packed than Dr No, but is a bit messy in the first hour. The second hour is particularly strong, from when Bond steals the Russian device, right the way through the train scenes and the boat scenes to the hotel scene at the very end.
Interestingly, the closing credits of this movie are used to promote Sean Connery’s subsequent Bond movie, Goldfinger, which was released just 1 year later. The filming for Goldfinger began just 3 months after From Russia With Love was released, and they must have had high hopes for it. Goldfinger today is rated the best Bond movie of all time according to mainstream film review sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, with From Russia With Love then Dr No being second and third according to both of these metrics. But what do they know, since they both rate Daniel Craig’s Casino Royale and Skyfall as the 4th and 5th best Bond movies of all time – what a load of rubbish – Daniel Craig is not at all convincing in the role of James Bond – no way is he better than Roger Moore or Timothy Dalton – these drama freaks need to stop reviewing these action hero movies because they just don’t understand the genre. The casting of Daniel Craig absolutely ruined the last 20 years of the James Bond movie saga. Pierce Brosnan before him was cringe but tolerable; while Connery, Moore and Dalton were all excellent at being James Bond and are the real reason it became the monster brand that we know & love today.
