FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963 - BOND FLICK # 2 / ACTION / THRILLER / ESPIONAGE) ****1/2 out of *****
(Introducing Bond, James Bond - Her Royal Majesty's Poonhound)
CAST: Sean Connery, Daniela Bianchi, Lotte Lenya, Robert Shaw, Bernard Lee, Desmond Llewellyn, Lois Maxwell, Pedro Armendariz, Eunice Grayson.
DIRECTOR: Terence Young
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and some frisky Bond-Russkie antics straight ahead...
IT'S LIKE THIS: I have a friend who has a serious boner for Russian chicks. His dream is to meet a tall Russian babe with high cheekbones and long legs and pouty full lips and smoldering dark eyes and long flowing shiny chestnut brown hair who will cook borscht and serve caviar for him. If he were a Bond Movie fan, he would know that he should just save his fucking time and settle for your average normal boring American chick. Because if the Bond movies are anything to go by, Russian chicks are a bunch of intense, unpredictable, mysterious, cunning, seductive, devious little whore-bitches who are forever hiding something up their sleeves and keeping their cards close to their chests. Then again, a lot of dumbass guys actually like that.
Whatever. Anyhow, our second Bond adventure finds our boy James (Sean Connery) returning from his first mission in DR. NO to discover that his boss M (Bernard Lee) has got another job lined up for him - and it’s a head-scratcher. It seems that Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi), some Russian cryptography clerk in the Russkie consulate in Istanbul, would like to defect to the West, and is willing to bring some Top Secret Russian spy technology with her. One condition, though: James Bond himself has to be the one to escort her to safety. M and Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) are puzzled that she would ask for Bond by name since they have never met. Bond, however, isn't. Let's just say that when you are Cock of the Block like he is, your reputation precedes you. And so does your, uh, cock.
Before you know it, Bond is meeting Tatiana in Istanbul and, sure enough, she is a major hottie. She reveals to him that she has stolen a Russian spy device called the Lekter Decoder, which is some sort of code-cracking weapon that the US and UK really want to get their hands on. Soon, Bond and Tatiana (or Tati) are posing a man and wife, and board the Orient Express that will travel all the way from Istanbul, Turkey to Venice, Italy. Gee, how will they pass all that train-chugging time, me wonders? Easy: with a lot of loin-slapping time, baby!!!. In other words, they will fuck each other six ways from Saturday. Works for me. Big time. Very big time.
Unfortunately, I must remind you about what we discussed earlier about Russian Chicks being a bunch of intense, unpredictable, mysterious, cunning, seductive, devious little whore-bitches who are forever hiding something up their sleeves and keeping their cards close to their chests. Sure enough, we soon find out that Tatiana is a double agent working for Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya), a former KGB crone who has betrayed Russia and is now working for SPECTRE, which is kind of like the UN or NATO - except they're against world peace and more for world destruction. It seems that Rosa has enlisted Tatiana to steal the Lekter Decoder from the Russian government and give it to her bosses at SPECTRE. And she has also sent her pretty-boy goon Red Grant (Robert Shaw) to tail Bond and Tatiana on the Orient Express - and kill them both at the right time before running off with the Lekter device. Not good, folks. Not good.
But before we go any further, let's talk a little about Rosa Klebb. Technically, she is a Bond girl, because she is a major female character with an important role in a Bond movie. However, I would seriously doubt if Bond would ever fuck her even with someone else's dick tied to a ten-foot pole. Let's just say our girl Rosa is a bit on the plain side. The whole time I was watching FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, I would cringe whenever she would walk onscreen. I mean the girl has potential, but damn - did her mother forget to tell her about the importance of moisturizer and hairstylists? Is Russia really that backwards? I seriously wanted to jump into the movie and be all like: "Girl, what the actual fuck is up with that hair? You're not hopeless, sweetie, but you really have to learn how to use what Mother Nature gave you. Let's tame that frizzy bush and get some tawny highlights in there and slather some Clinique on that skin - and for the love of Nair, who the hell told you that mustaches on women are sexy?"
Whatever. So... how long before Bond discovers that Tatiana has set him up? And what happens when Tatiana finds herself falling for Bond? Will she side with him? Or will Red Grant kill her for betraying Mother Russia? And what about Rosa Klebb? Will she get away with stealing the Lekter Decoder? Will she be promoted within the SPECTRE ranks? And the most important question of all: does she just really need a shopping spree at the GAP and a thorough makeover at the nearest Gene Juarez salon to turn into a good girl? I’ll help her!
Seriously - those shoes need to go...
BUT, SERIOUSLY: After the success of DR. NO in 1962, the second Bond adventure went into production almost immediately. When FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE was released a year or so later, the then-nascent Bond franchise gained even more momentum. This film took the elements introduced by DR. NO - and broadened the scale. Bond's mission is more complex, as is his relationships with the other major characters. The plot is also more serpentine than its predecessor's. What FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE shares with DR. NO is a suspenseful Hitchcockian flavor that would fade somewhat after Sean Connery's departure as Bond in the early-70's.
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE is also a more serious affair than DR. NO. While the latter didn't have the flippancy that GOLDFINGER and later Bond films would be known for, it still didn't have the same gravity and grit that this second adventure has. In fact, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE has more of a classic Espionage Thriller feel than most of the entries in the Bond franchise. After ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE in 1969, we wouldn't see this "old-school" feel again until THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS (which also features a fake-defection-plot) in 1987.
We also meet our heroine much sooner than in DR. NO. Tatiana shows up almost immediately after the opening credits sequence, and her introductory scene with Rosa Klebb establishes her personality with efficient strokes - as it does Klebb's. One of DR. NO's few flaws was how late it introduced Honey Ryder into the action. We didn't meet her until pretty much the third act of the film, and even though the character is more than fine, Honey ends up getting a bit letdown as far a showcase is concerned. By contrast, Tatiana is involved in the thick of things virtually from the word "go," which makes her a stronger heroine than Honey - who ironically is often listed as the Best Bond Girl simply because she was the first. That is a bit short-sighted. Daniela Bianchi also gives a nicely layered performance that feels human and real. She may not be the most kick-ass Bond Girl, but she is one of the most interesting.
Then there are Rosa Klebb and Red Grant, who are two of the top villains in the franchise. Had we had the time to expand our recent TOP 5 Bond Villains/Henchman list to a TOP 10, these two would've made the cut. Lotte Lenya is atypically unglamorous and plain and I have to wonder if this was done to heighten her menace and not make her your typical beautiful female baddie. In any case, it works. There's just something sinister about a woman who appears to be a nondescript cleaning lady - but is actually a deadly Soviet turncoat. Similarly, Robert Shaw makes up for Lenya's lack of glamour by delivering one of the most attractive, menacing, and striking henchmen in the franchise. His fight setpiece with Bond on the Orient Express in now considered a classic sequence and is often the standard by which other close-contact fight scenes in the Bond franchise are modeled after.
To sum up, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE is classic Bond, better than DR. NO and most of the other films that would follow. It benefits greatly from a serious plotline, more mature Bond, complex Bond Girl, formidable henchwoman, and fearsome henchman. Few are better than this one.
