Shaken, Not Stirred takes a (brief) look at the James Bond canon from Eon Productions. Twice a month, Chris and Jon share their impressions of each film, both on its own terms and in terms of the cultural landscape as well as the genre it helped to create, not to mention its intersection in the Cinema Dual hosts’ lives.
FROM THE (LETTER)BOX(D): THE WORLD’S MASTERS OF MURDER PULL OUT ALL THE STOPS TO DESTROY AGENT 007! Agent 007 is back in the second installment of the James Bond series, this time battling a secret crime organization known as SPECTRE. Russians Rosa Klebb and Kronsteen are out to snatch a decoding device known as the Lektor, using the ravishing Tatiana to lure Bond into helping them. Bond willingly travels to meet Tatiana in Istanbul, where he must rely on his wits to escape with his life in a series of deadly encounters with the enemy.
WHAT CHRIS THOUGHT: What a difference a year makes. Much as I enjoy the introduction of the character in Dr. No, the world and character we recognize as James Bond really comes into beautiful focus with From Russia With Love. From the absolute banger of a cold open — in which Bond is murdered, only to find it’s an elaborate training exercise, with the deceased wearing an M:I-style mask — to the final moments where Bond waves goodbye to a stag-film shot of him and the latest (and vastly improved) Bond Girl™, Tatiana Romanova, the mythology and cornerstones of the franchise really start to come into focus.
We get a great glimpse into the world of SPECTRE, beginning to understand the expansive reach of the secret organization; we also get more of how MI6 operates, with Desmond Llewelyn making his grand entrance as Q-Branch, and the introduction of the best gadget ever in my humble opinion: the briefcase of many cool secrets. When I was a kid we had a backgammon set that was in a leather briefcase. I can’t tell you how many times I carried that thing as a kid, water pistols and imaginary tear gas canisters included, pretending I was out saving the world from the grand scheming forces of evil.
WHAT JON THOUGHT: Since we have a full year of Bond ahead of us, it is way too early to start making proclamations about the best movies in the franchise. So instead, I’ll just make the more modest and reasonable assertion that From Russia With Love is a massive improvement on Dr. No. Sean Connery is much more charming this time around, and the seemingly running gag of Bond’s coworkers tolerating his bullshit to varying levels of mixed success is very enjoyable. I was excited to see Desmond Llewelyn make his debut appearance here, but like Moneypenny in the last movie, he doesn’t get much to do here, so we have to play the long game.
For other major improvements, Bond’s counterpart Daniela Bianchi as Tatiana Romanova is fantastic. She’s much more central to the movie’s plot than her predecessor, and by making her an agent in her own right, there’s a reason for her to be there. I feel like for the majority of her adventure with Bond, she keeps up with him quite well. The honeypot plot justifies the film’s romantic entanglements. As cliched as the “enemies turned lovers” angle can be at times, it works here.
My favorite thing about From Russia With Love though, is how it manages to expand the world of James Bond without feeling completely out of touch with reality. This movie sees Bond crisscrossing multiple European countries, which beats the last movie’s mostly-shot-on-soundstages-with-some-exterior-shots-of-Jamaica approach. You don’t see his face, but this movie marks the first on screen appearance of Blofeld, the head of Spectre. The movie also gives a small glimpse into Spectre’s inner workings, through the rivalries between Klebb (No. 3) and Kronsteen (No. 5). There’s even a small bit of continuity from the last film, as Spectre wants revenge on Bond for killing Dr No. Bond’s gadgets are more elaborate this time around, though are still confined to a single briefcase. As soon as Q told Bond about the trick to not blowing yourself up with the briefcase, I immediately looked forward to someone doing just that.
ANYTHING ELSE, CHRIS? Out of so many things to talk about, I think we have to start with Terence Young. His direction over the course of his early tenure with the series sets the tone and overall vibe like no other director in the franchise has (excepting maybe Martin Campbell), setting up some incredible set pieces and exquisite takes, like the climax with the chopper chase and the gnarly and tactile train fight with Grant. He also, as Jon mentions, really leans into the globe-trotting, moving the action through Istanbul and Venice with real cinematic weight. I also love how M acknowledges Bond’s looks and charm as an asset, and has zero qualms about his using said charm to seduce Romanova and steal the Lektor device, the MacGuffin at the heart of the film.
Two qualms keep me from an unreserved 5-star rating on Letterboxd: as Jon alludes to below, the Romani camp attack and the sequence with the women just feels cheap, even for the intentional cruel sadism that lies buried in the blackened heart of Connery’s depiction of 007. Did I chuckle/groan when the next day both women are dutiful and nice to Bond as he leaves them, sexually sated? Of course I did. And even though Grant gives a perfectly plausible explanation for why he kept saving Bond’s life throughout the film (I kind of love how Bond is largely ignorant of what’s happening to him, getting by on his looks and luck), I think had he actually just shot Bond during any of the times he had the chance to do so, SPECTRE’s plans would have succeeded.
ANYTHING ELSE, JON? IIf it’s premature to start using adjectives like “best” in this series, then it’s also premature to start using adjectives like “worst”. I want to get a much better feel for the franchise’s various qualities good and bad before formulating those kinds of theses. That being said, not even Pedro Armendáriz as Ali Kerim Bey, whom I really like in this movie, can save the Romani camp section of the movie. While hiding out at the camp, two women are discovered to both desire the same man, and as such, tradition demands that they fight each other about it. This is interrupted by an ambush of Soviet agents, but on a successful dispatch of their enemies, both women are given to James Bond, so that he can settle the matter of what happens to the women. One implied threesome later, they’re gone from the film. It clangs awfully against an otherwise really good movie.
THE FINAL WORD(S): For Jon, From Russia With Love really brings the world of James Bond to life without descending into self parody. Chris agrees, and puts extra emphasis on the beautiful job Young does fleshing out the world of everyone’s favorite secret agent.
NEXT TIME: EVERYTHING HE TOUCHES TURNS INTO EXCITEMENT! WE RETURN WITH GOLDFINGER!
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