Bond Revisited

From Russia With Love (1963)
Bond 2

James Bond, 007, (Sean Connery) is sent on a mission to Istanbul to try and acquire a Russian cypher machine known as Lektor from a defecting Russian agent. However, the Russians have no knowledge of this as it is a S.P.E.C.T.R.E. ploy to lure James Bond into a trap - a fitting tribute to their now- dead agent Dr. No. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: In this film, James Bond does not say "Bond, James Bond." This was chosen as the second 007 film after President John F. Kennedy listed the book among his top ten favorite novels of all time. According to the book "Death of a President" (1964) by William Raymond Manchester, this was the last motion picture John F. Kennedy ever saw, on 20 November 1963, in the White House.

"Q"/ Major Boothroyd played by Desmond Llewelyn appears for the first time. This character was played by Peter Burton in Dr. No (1962). When Burton was unable to return for this film, the role was recast with Llewelyn in the part. Llewelyn would reprise the role of "Q" in 16 subsequent Bond films (17 performances in all, he didn't appear in Live and Let Die (1973)), the most times a single actor has played the same role in major motion picture history.

Pedro Armendariz playing the role of Kerim Bey, was terminally ill during filming with the cancer he had likely contracted while filming the notorious 1956 film The Conqueror near the site of the US nuclear test site in the Utah desert. Armendariz had accepted the role in From Russia With Love partially as a means of providing financial security for his widow, and the film's schedule was altered in order to film the scenes in which he appeared while he was still physically able. Towards the end of the filming of those scenes, however, director Terence Young had to double for the actor in some of his long shots. One month after his scenes were completed, Armendariz, in emulation of his friend Ernest Hemingway, committed suicide.

The Characters:

• James Bond is played by Sean Connery for the second time.
• Ernst Stavro Blofeld, leader of SPECTRE, is listed in the credits as being played by ?, It will be few more movies before we see his face.
• Rosa Klebb, the evil Russian turn SPECTRE number 3 Agent is played by Lotte Lenya.
• Donald "Red" Grant, the SPECTRE assassin assigned to rid the world of James Bond is played by Robert Shaw.
• Tatiana Romanova, the not so evil Russian love interest is played by Daniela Bianchi.

Vehicles & Gadgets:

• Briefcase - Technically, James Bond's first gadget. The briefcase issued to 007 by Q-Branch contains a folding AR-7 sniper rifle with ammunition, a flat throwing knife, and fifty gold sovereigns in secret compartments accessible from outside the case. In addition, the briefcase has a trick safety mechanism that detonates a magnetically attached tear gas bomb if the briefcase is improperly opened.
• Pager - Although From Russia with Love was filmed in the 1960s, before this gadget's invention, Bond carried one, enabling MI6 to contact him at once; also, Bond's Bentley automobile had a radio-telephone.
• Bug detector - A small device that is designed to detect the presence of a phone tap device in a regular telephone when placed against such a device.
  Tape recorder disguised as a camera.
• The LEKTOR decoder - though never actually seen in use, could also count as a gadget (Fleming based it directly on the Enigma machine, a cryptology device used by the Germans during World War II) . [Source]

Pre-Title Sequence

From Russia With Love is the first Bond film to include a pre-title sequence, a scene that most of the time has nothing to do with the main plot that is shown after the gun-barrel opening and before the title sequence. In this one, Bond is shown walking around on the grounds of a mansion looking for something and eventually gets killed (strangled) by Grant in his introduction to the movie. It was then shown that it was a training exorcise at the SPECTRE training grounds.

Another Bond classic. Robert Shaw is great as the cold blooded assassin that doesn't really save anything and all of a sudden talks in a British accent when he is trying to convince Bond that he is another agent. Connery again, IS Bond, the suave debonair secret agent. There is also an example of the very very few times in the series that the movie breaks the fourth wall. The From Russia With Love theme song can be heard playing on a radio in the boat that passes Bond and Sylvia Trench before Bond gets the call to return to headquarters in the first scene after the title sequence.

Next Up: Bond 3 - Goldfinger