"You won't be needing this. Old Man !" - James Bond to Red Grant From Russia with Love (1963) is such a brilliant Film.

Just watched my 40-year-old copy of a video rental a friend at work supplied me with back then. Slightly fuzzy and in fullscreen, of course. The end credits JUMP as "James Bond will return in..." was removed while the end song plays uninterrupted. I only ever saw this in widescreen ONCE-- at the Wooodcrest Cinema in 1980, on a double-bill with GOLDFINGER. That was the night RUSSIA became my favorite Connery Bond film. This really is a FANTASTIC movie, one of the best of its kind EVER, EVER MADE. I was remembering... if memory serves... I actually did read the book not too long before seeing the film for the first time. And what really brought back this memory... was thinking about reading the sequence on The Orient Express. When "Nash" showed up in the book... I had NO IDEA it was GRANT!!! Something I finally noticed this time... in the book, Bond tricks Grant by asking if he can have a cigarette. In the movie, they deliberately screwed with fans of the book when Grant says, "NO CHANCE." So instead, Bond offers to pay for it with the gold sovereigns. That part I remembered. What I hadn't quite noticed before was... earlier, Bond checks Nash's suitcase to confirm it's legit and Nash is who he says he is. During the tense later scene, Bond opens HIS OWN case. Grant then asks, "Any more in the other case?" Bond says probably, they're standard issue, and is about to open it, when Grant stops him. Then... GRANT opens it... FWOOSH!!!! So it was Nash's case that helped do Grant in. I know they has no way of confirming this... but when Number One confronts Klebb & Kronsteen, Kronsteen says, "It was HER choice." HE WAS RIGHT!!! Grant IS the one who SCREWED UP big-time, by deciding, "How I do it is MY business." He could have shot Bond DEAD while he was face-down on the floor. NO, instead, he had to make a grandstand play. Kronsteen did NOT screw up-- KLEBB did. Oh well, they BOTH wound up dead anyway. I think Morzeny escaped death by fire and went back to the Russians. We next saw him in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. Heh. There's NO reason it can't be the same guy! OH yeah-- that "continuity" glitch that inspired them to cut out the car crash scene? I once again confirmed the other glitch they didn't fix. When Bond, Tania & Kerim arrive at the train station, Benz is there and gets on the train after them. But before he does, guess who's standing RIGHT NEXT to him??? KRILENCO. I'm certain of it. And Kerim SHOT Krilenco dead several scenes earlier. I guess nobody noticed. Heh.

I always felt this was the strongest overall movie of the Connery era. Even if Thunderball is the one where Connery himself seems most at ease with being James Bond.

Simply Bond's best. And yet only a sophomore effort. Absolute perfection if there is any such thing. It is my top in the series since a long time.

Your clarification of Barbara Jefford dubbing Romanova was an education for me. I believed for years that Nikki Van Der Zyl looped all the girls in the 60's. I was wrong (although Van Der Zyl dubbed the hotel receptionist in this film). In point of fact, much of this "opinion" piece is very educational. I watched a version of FRWL on ABC television (US) some years ago that was a variation that I haven't seen since. It had subtitles for the Russian dialogue and a scene with Klebb and Romanova that had Rosa being creepy and coming on to Tanya until Tanya burst from the room terrified running away at top speed, leaving Klebb amused. It's all of about twenty seconds that showed Klebb as a lecherous deviant to compound her villainy, a cliched trope that was popular until 30 years ago. Ah, stereotypes. The observation you made about not all of the gadget's features being used is a subversion of the Chekhov's Gun trope. Good call. I'm surprised that in your comments about the soundtrack, you didn't remark that the helicopter showdown near the end reused a musical interlude from Dr. No (the destruction of Dr. No's base and the evacuation), one of the few times that happened in the series. Oh, and very good call on the Gypsy Camp Fight music being too long and the music volume levels going too high in the hotel scene. I really loved the piece, 007, that Barry created to have something distinct from Monty Norman's James Bond Theme. When I got this soundtrack as a boy, I really enjoyed it. Did *not* understand which scene "The Golden Horn" was written for, but that was before I learned that some films had several released versions depending on the location, or that films got edited to death sometimes. Fleming was at the train station but I am pretty sure you won't spot him in the crowd. Good stuff, Stephen.

Connery's favorite Bond film and next to Goldfinger mine as well Old Man

From Russia with Love is certainly my favorite film of the series. Grant was not a SMERSH agent in the movie, he was strictly SPECTER. He didn't really have Communist ideals in the book. He was just a sociopath who enjoyed killing people and SMERSH used that to their advantage. This isn't gone into in nearly as much detail in the book, but is suggested when Klebb reads his record where he is described as a paranoid schizophrenic, which is in the book. Given that he is working for SPECTER in the movie, I don't think he would have Communist ideals anyway.

Yeh, one of the best ever bond films...

With "Dr No" breaking box office records (most likely it was doing so when production began with the second movie) being the first ever 007 movie - written in 1958 and second movie, 1957. I'd say this is the most influential and best ever 007 movie (along with Connery's all time favourite he was in) it has everything: excellent work!.

Brilliant Film From Russia With Love ❤

I think so too. I enjoyed watching it again at KZfaq especially during the lockdown because of the Covid Pandemic

The issue that a lot of sequels have is that they are just warmed over versions of the previous movie. They are basically recreating the previous story with some things changed to try to make the sequel look different. With From Russia with Love, this wasn't done. The didn't make another Dr. No that was slightly different to capitalize on the fact that Dr. No was a success, they made a completely different story. This is why sequels are generally inferior to the originals. I also don't consider movies that are part of a planned trilogy as sequels either, they are continuations of a story that wasn't finished in the first installment.

Possibly the strongest Bond film ever made, the entire train sequence is absolutely perfect in every way, Red Grant is terrifying, and Kerim Bey rocks

Agree with almost everything in your review except the Kronsteen part (the chess player). He is important to set the trap theme of the movie. He devises a trap for Bond using the girl and the Lecter which he thinks cannot fail because he has calculated every possible move and countermove. But Bond escapes with his own trap of 50 gold sovereigns for just one last cigarette. Also Kronsteen's death shows the ruthlessness of SPECTRE. Fail and you die. This is even move evident in later movies, especially Thunderball. 1

Close as you can get to the perfect Bond movie. Best ally, best or close to best henchman, great villains in shadow organization unknown to all the principal good guys until the end. Also, good villain plan reflecting two of the goals included in the acronym of the of the organization's name, that is revenge against Bond and MI6 for whacking Dr. No and extortion of the Soviets for their own decoding machine. Best individual fight to the death, functional, believable gadgetry which actually impacts the plot (good for Bond that Q's assertion the briefcase would be standard issue was accomplished so that the Nash's briefcase would blow up in Grant's face). It's sexy without being smutty and dryly humorous without being slapstick or in poor taste. Add in a big combat scene at the gypsy camp, the helicopter attack, and the boat chase and big bang explosions, all well done, and you've got a near perfect Bond film. My favorite.

I think I may have read the novel before seeing the movie, and so the first time around, I found the film a bit confusing! I came in in the 70s watching these on ABC. It was only when I got to see a double-bill of FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE and GOLDFINGER on a big screen that RUSSIA became my favorite Connery Bond film (while GF began to suffer in my eyes ever since). I've only ever seen it in widescreen once, that time back in 1980. I'm sure I'll be getting it on Blu-Ray... one of these days. The only Connery film I like more than this is WRONG IS RIGHT (1982). The rumor has always been that it was yanked from theatres after one week on orders of the Federal Government. The author was an ex-CIA agent who apparenlty knew his stuff too well (heh). It not only predicted the 2nd invasion of Iraq 20 years later, but, 20 years after that, predicted the Biden administration (with Rosalind Cash more-or-less playing Kamala Harris-- and Leslie Nielsen doing Donald Trump). HOW is that even possible? But it's there in the film.

Something I noticed over repeat viewings is that most of the scenes in this film smoothly fade from one to the other. EXCEPT when Bond meets Tanya on the boat. It's a sudden JUMP-cut there. That's because there was a scene with 4 cars en route cut, because during a preview, some kid in the audience noticed someone killed in an earlier scene was in the scene they wound up cutting. This is what happens when you film a story out of sequence. But this annoys me, as how do we know it wasn't supposed to be 2 brothers? And at the train station, I saw another actor who'd been killed earlier, but they left that in. I believe "The Golden Horn" was probably played during the missing car scene. Bond & Kerim are being followed, but for once, want to ditch their tail. So they stop in a narrow alley, causing the tailing car to crash into them. A 3rd car crashes in behind, pinning the Bulgars. A 4th car drives up, Bond & Kerim get into it. But before driving off, Kerim drops cigar ash on the trapped driver and says, "That, my friend, is life!" Thanks to another fan, I was able to determine the in-film running order of the soundtrack and put together a more authentic CD. And I noticed something else interesting. There was a piece of music written for the train fight! But they left it out of the film-- and apparently, the fight became MORE intense without any music. But the piece is on the album, as HALF of one longer track (I forget which one just now).

Hey my friend! I hope you have been able to fix all the problems with KZfaq so we can enjoy your content in peace 😅

Another fine sequel is Aliens, sequel to Alien.

I'm confused about you saying Bond doesn't use all the gadgets in the Q-issued attaché case. Of course, the gas canister is utilized in initiating the fight with Grant, but Bond also produces the gold sovereigns in an attempt to bribe Grant and uses the hidden dagger to stab Grant in the arm during the fight. Later it is the portable sniper rifle, presumably with the ammunition secreted in the brief case which Bond uses to down the helicopter in pursuit of him. I think that was all the gadgets Bond was briefed on. Am I missing something?