Bond Revisited: From Russia with Love (1963)

When I was a kid I thought this one was super romantic, and I suppose it had to do a lot with Matt Monroe crooning "From Russia with Love" over James and Tatiania kissing in a boat in Venice. It's pretty picturesque, besides his hand slowly letting go of the film of them 'shagging'.

Also the whole bedroom scene -

Tatiana: I think my mouth is too big. 
James: I think it's a very lovely mouth. It's just the right size - for me anyway!

Number of jokes I didn't catch as a child. Many, also the illusions of romance have faded ever so slightly, yeah. Over to the plot. Spectre our international baddie group are in full focus this time orchestrating Tatiana Romanova played by Daniela Bianchi and James meeting.

She's been told by 'Number Three' who's still pretending to be a part of the Russian Intelligence Service that she's got to pretty much seduce Mr Bond, besides do as he says at all times, and get him a Russian decoding machine known as a 'lector'. Bond's boss M tells him she's contacted one of their correspondents in Istanbul with the intent to defect and give him the lector - -  after falling in love with his photograph. They all see it as a trap, which is too fantastical to be true, though James himself gazes at the candid photo of her (which looks highly posed) clearly attracted to her.

He goes down to Istanbul to meet her. All the while Spectre has sent one of their top henchmen Donald Grant played by Robert Shaw (known also for starring in the Steven Spielberg classic Jaws) to cause trouble, besides kill Bond in retaliation for Dr No's death. They're basically trying to make the cold war between Britain and Russia - not so cold anymore. He's rather an imposing nordic looking henchman, built quite large and is a proper opponent to Bond. The scene in the train is one of the best fight scenes in the series as a whole, filled with proper tension.

Other notable characters is the correspondent in Istanbul Kerim Bey played by Pedro Amendáriz. A thing I never knew is that he was very ill during shooting, which caused the director Terence Young to make him see a doctor immediately. It turned out that he had incurable cancer, and so they quickly scheduled the shoot to film all of his parts as soon as possible, until he was finally too sick and went to the hospital in LA. Even more startling is hearing that he shot himself before the illness could take fully hold of him. He's one of my favourite characters in the earlier Bond films, and I always found it a pity that he was killed off in the film, but no one would ever do him justice if he were to show up as another actor.

The whole thing is pretty great, though the last stretch of the film - with the helicopter chase - then the boat chase - gets stretched out a bit in my taste. The film could do with being a tad bit shorter, as I feel like Tatiana who takes a nap in a bunch of flowers. But it's got a more solid plot than the last one, much more intricate and less mad man with a lair type of thing.

Highlights 

- James' hand at the end dropping the film in the water.
- Spectre filming the two having sex, which is like, "what u gonna do with that film, guys?"
- Tatiana parading around in the clothes James got for her.
- "Once when I was in Tokyo with M. We had an interesting experience" Cue M sending Miss Moneypenny out of the office, and then she turns on the intercom to hear the rest of the recording anyway. You go girl.
- The instrumental version of the theme song, besides the 'James Bond action theme'.
- Number Three.
- The fight in the train with Grant.
- James wanting the fight between the two women to end.
- The suitcase with all the gadgets.

Downsides

- "Spectre Island" Honestly, devoting an entire island to make henchmen. Hilarious. It looks like Q-branch in the latter films.
- James smacking his girlfriends hand at the beginning of the film. The sound effect is too much guys. Besides slapping Tatiania when he wants to hear the truth.
- The helicopter chasing Bond and then the boat chase coming right after each other.
- The two chicks fighting over a guy, and then James deciding between them for the guy. Like, one of them is literally sewing buttons onto his shirt. Come on.
- Grant saying 'Old Man' so many times, dude, it's not convincing.
- Number Three getting held up by a chair. You'd think she had better combat training.