ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Sean Connery's second outing as 007 exhibits a bigger budget and slicker production values than Dr. No. Although the producers still hadn't realized how gadget crazy the fans of James Bond were, they did appreciate the importance of action and girls in the world of 007.

With those key ingredients in mind, From Russia With Love gives us Daniela Bianchi as a Russian defector who falls for Bond's charms, and Robert Shaw as a trained-to-kill-Bond assassin. The fight between Connery and Shaw on the Orient Express is perhaps the most exciting scene in the entire Bond series.

Although From Russia With Love lacks the trademark Big Battle Scene that capped off several of the later Bond films, it does have several unforgettable one-on-one fights -- such as Bond-versus-Shaw, Bond-versus-a-helicopter, and Bond-versus-Rosa-Klebb (the gnarly little SPECTRE agent played by Lotte Lenya).

The overall feel of From Russia With Love is typified by the appealing title theme, so different from the gutsy themes for Goldfinger and Thunderball.

Directed by Terence Young.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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I never seen the trailer for this movie. It's interesting to see what constituted a James Bond movie back in the early 1960s, as compared to the way they've evolved in the decades to come.

And of course, trailers themselves have changed enormously.

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___ From Russia With Love (1963) Official Trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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It took me a week to figure out who Mike Pence reminded me of. Finally I got it.

Robert Shaw!



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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As I mentioned in a post I made today for Dr. No, Goldfinger, and Diamonds Are Forever, I watched Angelina Jolie in Salt recently, and it was actually a good "female Bond" movie. So I went looking for things to say about some of my favorites Bond movies.

I found a few IMDB items for this Bond film I thought you guys would enjoy.
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Years earlier, Alfred Hitchcock was originally considered as director, with James Bond being played by Cary Grant and Grace Kelly lured out of retirement to play Tatiana Romanova. These ideas were scrapped after Vertigo (1958) failed at the box-office. The helicopter chase scene is an homage to Hitchcock's cropduster sequence in North by Northwest (1959).

(Note from me: This would have been a kinematic disaster. As fine as all these people are, they would not have been right for a Bond film!)

The rats in the film were originally coated with chocolate as they were lab rats and needed to look like sewer rats. However, they wouldn't run, and sat around licking themselves. Then, real rats were used, but they wouldn't run in the right direction until Sean Connery opened the door of the studio. Finally, the production went to Madrid, Spain to shoot the rat sequence.

(Note from me: This one doesn't make much sense, and frankly I don't know what to make of it.)

The brutal fight in the train compartment, between James Bond and Red Grant, lasts only a few minutes on-screen, but took three weeks to film. Most of it was performed by the actors themselves, rather than doubles.

(Note from me: I took a lovely young lady on a date to the Fox Theater in Atlanta to see this movie when it was released in the early 1970s. We sat in the balcony, and during this fight scene we clung to each so tightly we practically had to get married afterwards!)
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Jack Deth]

Still think this is the definitive James Bond as a Secret Agent film.

Long before Bond became an Action Hero with Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton and Daniel Craig.

Even though Bond would stand no chance in Hell of bringing down a helicopter with a .22 caliber AR-7 Survival Rifle.
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No Matter Where You Go.
There You Are.

[Bud Brewster]

[Krel]

[The Spike]

There's a saying in England: Where there's smoke, there's fire.

From Russia With Love is directed by Terence Young and adapted to screenplay by Richard Maibaum & Johanna Harwood from the Ian Fleming novel of the same name. It stars Sean Connery, Daniela Bianchi, Lotte Lenya, Robert Shaw & Pedro Armendáriz. Music is by John Barry and cinematography by Ted Moore.

James Bond's second cinematic outing has 007 sent on a mission to Istanbul to try and acquire a Russian cypher machine known as Lektor. It's a trap set up by SPECTRE, who formulate a plan to upset the world order whilst murdering Bond in revenge for his killing of their agent Dr. No.

Spy Hard! A certain JFK had announced From Russia With Love as being one of his favourite books, thus making the minds up of producers Broccoli & Saltzman to make Fleming's Cold War thriller the follow up to Dr. No. It's a favourite of many a Bond aficionado because it represents one of the few occasions where Bond was still down to earth as a person, a hard working agent forced to do detective work. The adaptation is very literate as well, with a high fidelity to the source material a major bonus to Fleming's fans. The story is tautly told, often with dark tints the deeper Bond gets into things, and a number of excellently constructed set pieces fill out the latter half of the picture. It's not hard to understand why Connery cites this as his favourite Bond film.

Though it is mostly free of the gadget excess that would become a trademark of the franchise, it's still very much a quintessential Bond movie. Exotic locations and exotic foes, eye poppingly gorgeous ladies (Bianchi smouldering like few others can), pre-credits sequence, the snazzy title credits (here on a dancing lady), title song crooned by a big name (Matt Munro), Barry's blending of the Bond theme into the score, Blofeld (a faceless Anthony Dawson) and an impressive cast list. One of the film's big strengths is the cast assembled, Connery (firmly moving into iconic realm) is aided considerably by the presence of Lenya, Shaw and Armendáriz, while the first appearance of Desmond Llewelyn as Boothroyd (latterly to be known as Q) is a telling point in the series.

With a $2 million budget in the coffers, the makers were able to really push the boat out technically, and so they were rewarded as the pic went on to gross nearly $79 million Worldwide. Crucially it became apparent that James Bond was popular outside of Britain, the template had been set, what would they do with the next Bond outing we all wondered? 8/10
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The quality of mercy is not strnen.

[Bud Brewster]

[quote="The Spike"]With a $2 million budget in the coffers, the makers were able to really push the boat out technically, and so they were rewarded as the pic went on to gross nearly $79 million Worldwide. Crucially it became apparent that James Bond was popular outside of Britain, the template had been set, what would they do with the next Bond outing we all wondered? 8/10[/quote
This movie was re-released in the early 1970s, and I took a date to see it at the Fox Theater in Atlanta. She and clung to each other as we watched the fight on the train. Good stuff!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)