From Russia with Love: The girl on the train
“The Cold War in Istanbul will not remain cold very much longer.”
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To me, the Sean Connery iteration of James Bond (the best one — feel free to fight me after school near the railroad tracks) has always been nearly synonymous with the dawn of the Kennedy administration. John F. Kennedy took office in 1961, Dr. No, the first Bond film, premiered in Britain in ’62, the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Those were high times in the Cold War. Both Bond and Kennedy were glamorous anti-Communists, battling the Soviets in grey Savile Row suits and skinny ties in what might be called the Pan Am age.
Kennedy famously was a fan of Ian Fleming’s novel “From Russia with Love,” leading to it becoming a best-seller in the United States. The book detailed a plot by a Soviet spy agency to assassinate Bond by baiting him with a decoding machine and a beautiful Russian clerk. From Russia with Love became the second Bond adaptation and was released in the United Kingdom in October 1963. Kennedy saw a cut of the film the following month at the White House. The next day, he left for Dallas.
Given Bond’s enduring image as the ultimate gentleman Cold War spy, it comes as somewhat of a surprise when you consider that very few, if any, Bond films directly featured the Soviets as a nemesis. Even From Russia with Love.
Stopping in her tracks…
In fact, it was Fleming himself who suggested that the enemy organization in the film be altered from the Russian counterintelligence department SMERSH to the global criminal network SPECTRE in a belief that the Cold War was cooling, and it would be better if Bond fought a stateless foe.
In doing so, the franchise surrendered any connection to world of John le Carre and gritty geopolitics. It locked itself into a template: A secretive villain intent on world domination attempting to manipulate global tensions for his benefit. Goldfinger followed, injecting PEDs into that dynamic and becoming a smash hit.
Bond films would never go back. There were attempts at various points to tie the story into the real-world conflict in films such as You Only Live Twice and The Spy Who Loved Me (which have the almost exact same plot) and For Your Eyes Only and The Living Daylights.1 But the franchise would never again explore East-West tensions in the way From Russia with Love does. It remains the Bond film most tethered to reality, even more so than of the Daniel Craig releases, and is my personal favorite.
The movie chooses Turkey as its primary location, as much a fulcrum between both sides as Germany. Bond wades into a world where they both have their proxies, with Connery still carrying a whiff of British colonialism. The Russians use Bulgarians and other Eastern Europeans while the West employs the Turks. From Russia with Love is the rare Bond film that features true spycraft, which each side keeping tabs on the other through all manners of subterfuge including an underground tunnel and a periscope. Bond is indoctrinated into this world through Kerim Bey (an elegant Pedro Armendariz), who advises him to go back to London as soon as possible and leave to the messy business to the locals.
Addressing Fleming’s original point about Cold War tensions cooling, Bey describes a world where both sides go through the motions with little tension, a certain kind of “peace.” Only the intervention of SPECTRE disrupts the delicate balance though attacks on each camp, each to blamed on the other. “The Cold War in Istanbul will not remain cold very much longer,” says former KGB operative Rosa Klebb, now a SPECTRE lieutenant.
The bad blood breaks out into the open at an expertly staged set piece at a Romani camp in which the camera fluidly tracks Connery as he glides through the mayhem. This is where it must be acknowledged that modern audiences likely would find much of set up for the scene unpalatable, particularly the fight between two women over a man later brokered by Bond in his inimitable style of conflict resolution. But the action sequence itself is rarely been bested in the franchise (and indeed perhaps only surpassed by the fight on the Orient Express between Bond and “Red” Grant). 2
Once the motivations of all the parties become clear, the film becomes propulsive in a way that few others (Bond and otherwise) can match. We met Tatiana, the bait, in a frank, sexually charged sequence that might surprise new viewers. Tatiana is no docile Russian maiden, but a fitting, carnal companion for Bond. Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya), she of the razored footwear, remains still one of the most fearsome presences in the franchise’s history. And of course, there’s Robert Shaw’s Grant, tightly coiled and deadly, whose fake British prep demeanor is a nice dig at the boarding school types in both the US and the UK that ran the intelligence agencies then. 3
Have I ever told you about the USS Indianapolis?
The film also includes a memorable piece of pop art regarding Swedish film star Anita Ekberg’s mouth that should not be spoiled for those who haven’t seen it.
From Russia with Love also features the debut of one of the most critical pieces of the franchise, composer John Barry, whose melodies have elevated even the most pedestrian moments. The pieces all fell into place in this one.
Suffice it to say, I’m a fan. Like many, I grew up with Bond. Watched the early Roger Moore films on repeat on ABC, thrilled at The Spy Who Loved Me in a movie theater, rolled my eyes a bit at Moonraker and went back and devoured the Connery Bonds. I’ve seen every film in the franchise multiple times, even Octopussy. Each version of Bond has his own merits – and each iteration eventually becomes exhausted and must be refreshed.
Okay, because we have to do this by virtue of international law, here are my top 10 Bond films:
From Russia with Love (1963)
Casino Royale (2006)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
GoldenEye (1995)
You Only Live Twice (1967, a guilty pleasure, with the best theme song of all)
Goldfinger (1964)
Skyfall (2012)
The Living Daylights (1987)
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
Dr. No (1962)
That all of the versions of Bond to date are featured on this list speaks to the franchise’s vitality and capacity for reinvention. I look forward to what’s next.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT: Most of the Bond films are streaming at the moment on Amazon Prime, but frequently move from service to service.
HEY ISN’T THAT: As noted above, Pedro Armendariz, who plays the courtly Kerim Bey, was a Mexican actor, not Turkish. He was a favorite of director John Ford, who used him in three films, including Fort Apache (1948). Ill with cancer, Armendariz died before From Russia with Love was released. Walter Gotell, who plays a SPECTRE henchmen here, would go on to appear in six more Bond films as Soviet General Gogol.
DUST CLOUDS: Unsurprisingly, Bond films were banned in the Soviet Union during its duration, although they could found in bootleg recordings. The first Bond film to be exhibited in Russia was Goldeneye in 1996.
ARMAGEDDON INDEX: 3/10 The stakes are low compared to other Bond films. SPECTRE just wants to kill Bond and steal the Lektor decoder. Is that asking so much?
LAST ENTRY: Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)
NEXT ENTRY: The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Klaatu barada nikto!
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I’m a defender of Timothy Dalton’s Bond, and it’s worth noting The Living Daylights probably comes closest to From Russia with Love in terms of setting and tone as it was an attempt to return to a more down-to-earth Bond. It also was the last film scored by John Barry.
I’ll concede the “parkour” sequence in Casino Royale is pretty damned terrific, but so often the modern films go for spectacle over realism.
Shaw’s iconic portrayal of Grant was instrumental in Steven Spielberg casting him as Quint in Jaws.