Director:
Terence Young
Year: 1963
Rating: 8.0
I have been reading the Bond books in order and just finished From Russia
with Love published in 1957. It was Ian Fleming's fifth Bond book with Casino
Royale (1953), Live and Let Die (1954), Moonraker (1955) and Diamonds are
Forever (1956) coming before it. They are generally good reads with Live
and Let Die being the exception. Reading Live and Let Die now makes your
skin crawl with the blatant and ugly racism that seeps through the book.
It reminds you that Fleming was to his core an upper class (Eton and Sandhurst)
British colonialist who strongly believed in the imperial England and the
white man's superiority. Bond was partly a reaction to Great Britain losing
its stature after WW2. At least they still had Bond saving the world as they
were losing all their colonial possessions. What I found interesting about
the novel is how closely the movie stuck to it with a few exceptions that
actually improve on the book. That was true of Casino Royale when made into
a film many years later but not so much with Live and Let Die and Moonraker
that were both made during the Roger Moore years when Bond and the films
became caricatures. The film of Diamonds are Forever stayed somewhat faithful
though it has been so many years since I saw it I can't be sure.
From Russia was the second film after Dr. No. That film had had difficulty in finding funding until United Artists stepped up after everyone else had turned it down. It was much more successful than any one expected. Reading the very critical reviews are amusing now. "Too British", "a blithering bounder", "a big hairy marshmallow". It made good profits though and turned Sean Connery and Ursula Andress into stars. This film and Goldfinger are my two favorite Bond films. By a long ways. I can't even watch the Moore films - nothing against him since I love him as The Saint but the films have not aged well while the Connery films are almost timeless. They keep it simple without all the over the top nonsense. Jaws, the southern sheriff, Grace Jones. Ugh. Fun at the time but the stuff of mockery now. In this one I almost laughed when Q gives Bond the briefcase full of goodies which consist of a knife, gold sovereigns, a gun and tear gas. Really? That's all you got?
Everything about this film works - the casting is brilliant, the score is wonderful and it is a good story. Shaw should have gotten his own series after this - his killer coolness is charismatic, Daniela Bianchi is stunning in her black bow tie and Lotte Lenya as Colonel Klebb is right out of the book. A wizened older lady full of spite and malice. In the book there is a scene when she invites Tatiana into her room and tries to seduce her in a negligee that sends Tatiana running out of the room in horror. Lenya is only known to most people for her role in this film but decades before she had been a well-regarded actress in Germany and was married to the great composer Kurt Weill. They both had to leave Germany when Hitler rose to power. In Bobby Darin's version of Mack the Knife her name is mentioned. Her husband's song.
There are other differences from the book. The main one being that in the book it is entirely a Russian/Smersh operation while in the film it is SPECTOR pretending to be Smersh. In fact, the first third of the book all takes place in Russia as they put together their plan and the background of their English killer. In the film it is Anita Ekberg's mouth in which Krilencu tries to escape while in the book it is Marilyn Monroe. Her death the year before changed that. Another big change was the long segment in the film after they got off the train and had to take out a helicopter and boats to get to Venice. In the book after killing Grant, Bond goes alone to Venice to capture Klebb. I always thought it was a bit silly that he and Tatiana are sitting pretty in a five star hotel in Venice with a new wardrobe still with the codebreaker in their possession.
And finally in the book, it ends with Klebb sticking him with her shoe blade that is poisoned. Like a freeze fame the book ends there. I guess it picks up in Dr. No. The poison is suppose to kill in 12 seconds so I can't wait to see how he survives. In the film there are a couple references to Dr. No while in the book there are references to Diamonds and his romance with Tiffany Case that has ended. It is a very masculine film all around with one of the women being a sadistic lesbian and other not much more than a soft pillow. A Man's Adventure novel with the testosterone flowing freely. The book is good, the movie is better,
Year: 1963
Rating: 8.0
From Russia was the second film after Dr. No. That film had had difficulty in finding funding until United Artists stepped up after everyone else had turned it down. It was much more successful than any one expected. Reading the very critical reviews are amusing now. "Too British", "a blithering bounder", "a big hairy marshmallow". It made good profits though and turned Sean Connery and Ursula Andress into stars. This film and Goldfinger are my two favorite Bond films. By a long ways. I can't even watch the Moore films - nothing against him since I love him as The Saint but the films have not aged well while the Connery films are almost timeless. They keep it simple without all the over the top nonsense. Jaws, the southern sheriff, Grace Jones. Ugh. Fun at the time but the stuff of mockery now. In this one I almost laughed when Q gives Bond the briefcase full of goodies which consist of a knife, gold sovereigns, a gun and tear gas. Really? That's all you got?
Everything about this film works - the casting is brilliant, the score is wonderful and it is a good story. Shaw should have gotten his own series after this - his killer coolness is charismatic, Daniela Bianchi is stunning in her black bow tie and Lotte Lenya as Colonel Klebb is right out of the book. A wizened older lady full of spite and malice. In the book there is a scene when she invites Tatiana into her room and tries to seduce her in a negligee that sends Tatiana running out of the room in horror. Lenya is only known to most people for her role in this film but decades before she had been a well-regarded actress in Germany and was married to the great composer Kurt Weill. They both had to leave Germany when Hitler rose to power. In Bobby Darin's version of Mack the Knife her name is mentioned. Her husband's song.
There are other differences from the book. The main one being that in the book it is entirely a Russian/Smersh operation while in the film it is SPECTOR pretending to be Smersh. In fact, the first third of the book all takes place in Russia as they put together their plan and the background of their English killer. In the film it is Anita Ekberg's mouth in which Krilencu tries to escape while in the book it is Marilyn Monroe. Her death the year before changed that. Another big change was the long segment in the film after they got off the train and had to take out a helicopter and boats to get to Venice. In the book after killing Grant, Bond goes alone to Venice to capture Klebb. I always thought it was a bit silly that he and Tatiana are sitting pretty in a five star hotel in Venice with a new wardrobe still with the codebreaker in their possession.
And finally in the book, it ends with Klebb sticking him with her shoe blade that is poisoned. Like a freeze fame the book ends there. I guess it picks up in Dr. No. The poison is suppose to kill in 12 seconds so I can't wait to see how he survives. In the film there are a couple references to Dr. No while in the book there are references to Diamonds and his romance with Tiffany Case that has ended. It is a very masculine film all around with one of the women being a sadistic lesbian and other not much more than a soft pillow. A Man's Adventure novel with the testosterone flowing freely. The book is good, the movie is better,