From Russia With Love (1963)

Plot Outline: James Bond is sent to Turkey to obtain a Soviet encryption device, which the British Secret Service are eager to get their hands on. But in reality it is a trap set up by SPECTRE in an attempt to kill Bond as revenge for the death of Dr No.

The Review: From Russia With Love is was Ian Fleming meant the Bond films to be: spy films, not action/comedy flicks as some of the later ones turned out to be purely based on. This film is deliberately set at a lot slower pace than the others, which will deter a few people from enjoying it fully. I must admit I prefer the "louder" Bond films where 007 attempted to stop maniacs from blowing up the world and assaults massive underground bases with armies of henchmen to blow up. But this makes a welcome change from that type of Bond film. Connery isn't my favourite Bond but he slips into the role of Bond well in his second outing. It is the bad guys who steal the show though. Lotte Lenya as Rosa Klebb makes a mean female villain complete with dagger-tipped shoe. But it's Robert Shaw as the Soviet Assassin, Grant, who is the real star. His cold, calculated killer is the perfect match for 007 and their fight scene inside the train has to go down as one of the best in film history. For it's time it's extremely brutal and it looks like both men are really giving each other a pounding. Also in this film we are introduced to Q and the first of the gadgets - the briefcase with added surprises and the wrist watch strangle wire. But they don't dominate the film like the gadgets would in later films.

Final Verdict: For a Bond film, this is just a little too slow for my liking. But with a great bad guy, an intricate and "true" spy/espionage plot and some good action scenes, From Russia With Love is one of the better earlier 007 outings.

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