Category: James Bond

James Bond is Back: “From Russia with Love” (1963)

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James Bond AKA 007 (Sean Connery) is on the search for a Russian decoding machine- Lektor. Bond needs to find this machine before the evil S.P.E.C.T.R.E. organization discovers it. While being romantically linked w/ a young Russian K.G.B. agent, Tatiana Romanova (21 y.o. Daniela Bianchi), Bond works his way around Istanbul, while S.P.E.C.T.R.E. agents tries to kill him, incl. blonde/beefy Donald “Red” Grant (Robert Shaw) and redheaded/petite ex-K.G.B. agent Col. Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya). I learned that Klebb is one of the few female villains in the Bond franchise.

JFK listed Ian Fleming’s book as among his top 10 fave novels; this list was published in Life Magazine on March 17, 1961. Possibly as a result, the producers decided to make this the 2nd Bond movie. This was the last movie JFK ever saw (in a private screening in the White House) on November 20, 1963. This movie broke box-office records, and was responsible for launching Connery as a major star. Producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman didn’t want the main enemy to be Russian; they decided on the fictitious criminal organization (S.P.E.C.T.R.E.) was seeking revenge for the death of their operative (Dr. No). The S.P.E.C.T.R.E. training school was inspired by the gladiator school from Spartacus (1960).

Bond: [in atypical self-effacement] Suppose when she meets me in the flesh I-I don’t come up to expectations?

M: Just see that you do.

Three beauty pageant queens are actresses in this movie: Bianchi (who is confident/natural onscreen), Martine Beswick, and Aliza Gur. Bianchi (Italy) and Gur (Israel) were roommates at Miss Universe 1960, in which Bianchi was 1st runner-up. Gur and Beswick (a former Miss Jamaica) play the the gypsy (Romany) women who fight over the same man. Beswick (who had a British father and Japanese/Portuguese mother) would return as Bond’s assistant (Paula) in Thunderball. M (Bernard Lee) and Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) are back, of course. This is the last appearance of Sylvia Trench (Eunice Gayson); she was intended to be Bond’s girlfriend, but producers decided otherwise. We meet a new version of Major Boothroyd AKA Q (Desmond Llewelyn); he’d go on to appear in several films in the series. We also meet Bond’s spy/friend in Istanbul, Ali Karim Bey (Pedro Armendariz- a veteran Mexican-American actor); he has many sons (who work for him), a big/fun personality, and can fight/shoot (when needed).

Special permission was granted to film in St Sophia’s Mosque which had never granted permission before. Over 3,500 people went to the Sirkeci Railway Station in Istanbul to see the filming, which caused delays. Director Terence Young had stuntman Peter Perkins create a distraction by hanging upside down from a balcony nearby- LOL! Several years earlier, Alfred Hitchcock had been considered to direct; the helicopter chase scene is an homage to his cropduster sequence in North by Northwest (1959). As one of the hosts on the Now Playing podcast commented: “It was like the trashy version of North by Northwest.” LOL! Product placements, brand, and promos included: Rolex, Taittinger Blanc de Blanc champagne, a billboard advertising another movie made by producers Saltzman and Broccoli (Call Me Bwana) starring Anita Ekberg and Bob Hope, and Bentley.

Bond: Red wine with fish. Well, that should have told me something.

Grant: You may know the right wines, but you’re the one on your knees. How does it feel old man?

The villains make this movie much more interesting than Dr. No; they get time to have some character development and seem like they could be a threat to Bond. The man in charge of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. (Blofeld) is shown stroking a white cat, but his face is hidden. I wasn’t that interested in the gypsy camp section (until the baddies burst in); in one case, Grant ended up saving Bond’s life. Did the Anglophiles notice this faux pas on the train? Grant (who some referred to as “a shadow Bond”) addressed Bond as “old man” when pretending to be Capt. Nash. He was also calling Bond as “sir”, so odd to use “old man” (when he’s not a friend or of same rank). The big fight between Bond and Nash inside the train compartment was tense and exciting; I think it holds up well even today! After reading the script, Shaw called it “rubbish” (trash), but his wife convinced him to reconsider. At that time, he was working in the London theater, and also had a young family to support. If you’ve never seen a Bond film, give this one a try!

[1] I loved From Russia With Love. If I had one minor problem with the film, it would be that I did find the film slow in places. But I cannot deny it is a tightly plotted and well acted James Bond thriller with superb action to boot. The film looks amazing, with wonderful cinematography and stunning locations, and the action is constantly fast paced and the stunts jaw dropping. The music score from John Barry is one of the more memorable scores in any Bond movie, with its brilliant main theme my favourite.

[2] Shaw is terrifying in his role and the fact he did it without much use of a voice that was one of the best in the English language, testifies to his ability as an actor. His confrontation with Connery on the Orient Express is one of the great fight scenes ever done on film.

[3] One thing I liked a lot was the inclusion of more comedy than in the previous adventure, which Bond’s one-liners being consistently amusing and lots of little odd touches (like Bond realising that Shaw is an impostor when he orders red wine with fish, of all things).

-Excerpts from IMDB reviews

The 1st Bond Movie: “Dr. No” (1962)

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There’s no question that this first entry in the still running series is a pure classic as it pretty much set-up every superhero/secret agent movie that would follow. Director Francois Truffaut gave an interview in 1979 stating that he believed this film helped ruin cinema as he felt movies were meant to tell a story so that people would believe it. I don’t agree with Truffaut but I can see how some might be put off by this film since it, in many ways, does play out like a guy’s fantasy. Bond is certainly the character any guy would want to be as he’s smooth talking, tough, gets all the ladies and in the end he always wins. With that said, I’m sure Truffaut shouldn’t have taken the film too seriously as the goal was probably just to deliver an entertaining movie. 

-Excerpt from IMDB review

This is the 1st Bond movie; it is based on the writings of Ian Fleming (who was himself a former British spy). Perhaps some of your parents recall seeing it (or some of the following films in the franchise) in theaters in their youth. I think I saw all of the films (starring Pierce Brosnan) in theaters w/ my family. My parents saw From Russia with Love several times when it aired on TV; this was likely in the mid-1970s in England. My dad commented that he liked Roger Moore’s version of Bond. I don’t know too much re: Bond films; many consider them to be “fantasy wish fulfillment,” while others feel they are “problematic.”

James Bond AKA 007 (Sean Connery)- Britain’s top agent- is on a mission to solve the mysterious murder of a fellow agent. The task sends him to Jamaica, where he joins forces w/ Quarrel (John Kitzmiller) and a C.I.A. Agent, Felix Leiter (Jack Lord). While dodging a tarantula, “dragon,” and “three blind mice” assassins, Bond meets beautiful Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress) and goes face to face w/ the evil Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman).

Connery won the role of Bond after producer Albert R. Broccoli attended a screening of Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959)- no joke! He was particularly impressed w/ the fist fight Connery has with a village bully; Broccoli later had his wife Dana see the movie and confirm his sex appeal. Fleming didn’t originally like the casting of Connery. Bond was English, but Connery was Scottish (his accent pops out often); Bond was from an upper-class background, but Connery was working-class; Bond was refined/educated, and Connery was rugged. Fleming served in British Naval Intelligence during World War II; he was acquainted w/ David Niven, then a Major with the British Commandos. Niven was Fleming’s first choice to play Bond. Director Terence Young called Connery “a diamond in the rough;” he spent time to polish him up, such as introducing him into British high society and getting him a new wardrobe.

The opening credits to Dr. No are wacky: flashing lights, dancing people, then three blind men walking around. Then we have the (now iconic) opening created by Maurice Binder almost at the last minute. It is the sequence where an assassin tracks Bond (played by Connery’s stuntman Bob Simmons), but he turns and shoots the assassin, all seen through the assassin’s gun barrel. The James Bond theme originated from a song Good Sign, Bad Sign composed by Monty Norman for a musical that was never produced. John Barry arranged and orchestrated Norman’s theme to produce the theme as it is known worldwide. The introduction of Bond is an homage to a technique from William Dieterle’s Juarez (1939): a series of close-ups of the character w/o revealing the face, cross-cutting w/ the other characters in the scene and the gambling table, then the face is revealed as Bond states his name. The filmmakers didn’t know that the way that Bond introduces himself would become iconic; he was jokingly speaking the way Sylvia did!

[James Bond’s first scene, winning a game of chemin-de-fer]

Bond: I admire your courage, Miss…?

Sylvia: Trench. Sylvia Trench. I admire your luck, Mr…?

Bond: Bond. James Bond.

Do clothes make the man? Well, many feel that all men look better in suits or tuxedos (which are worn rarely in today’s society). Connery’s suits were made by Saville Row (as Bond says in the movie); the tailor Anthony Sinclair stated that a truly great bespoke suit would be able to stand up to a good deal of abuse (such as grabbing by the lapels) and still look great afterwards. This is one of only 3 times when we see Bond’s apt. Though the film was low budget (est. at $1M), Ken Adam’s created sets which impressed Stanley Kubrick. The young director hired Adams to be production designer on Dr. Strangelove (1964).

[Professor Dent tries to kill Bond, but his gun is out of bullets]

Bond: That’s a Smith & Wesson and you’ve had your six.

[Bond shoots Dent twice]

As a movie critic noted, Bond (unlike most screen heroes before him) is a sexual being. Well, maybe this is a BIT too much for some viewers? Seriously, I don’t know if his (casual) attitude on relationships reflected what was happening in the early 1960s. We meet the first “Bond girls,” who’d become a staple of the series; of course, these female characters have evolved over the decades. Sylvia Trench (Eunice Gayson) is the woman who Bond meets while gambling. Lois Maxwell (Miss Moneypenny) was actually Canadian; she plays the loyal/classy secretary to M, Moneypenny isn’t a prude, as she obviously enjoys flirting w/ Bond. However, the woman who made the biggest impression was Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress- who was Swiss-born and new to movies). Her salary for the film was only $6,000 Both Gayson and Andress had their voices dubbed; Andress had a thick accent when she spoke English. Andress’ bikini top was made from an underwire bra sold from a Saks in NYC. Costume designer Tessa Welborn ordered 3 of theses bras, covered them in cotton, and refined the design. The belt for the bikini was made from a white webbing Army belt, w/ brass fittings and a scabbard.

It’s a mystery. All I did was wear this bikini, not even a small one, and whoosh! Overnight, I made it.

-Andress