Continuing the James Bond DVD collection review (hehehe). After Dr. No became a worldwide hit, you'd think the Broccoli-Saltzman group would just rest on those laurels? Hell, no. They were smart. They smelled "Franchise, Baby!" Was franchise even a marketing buzzword then?

From Russia With Love (1963) - Terence Young
The Plot
Bond nemesis SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion - scary. to memorize) comes out of the shadows, and tries to escalate the Cold War, by baiting Bond to steal a top-secret Russian decoding machine
Grade: B+

Locales
Venice, Istanbul, Belgrade, Zagreb.
Grade: B-

The Man
Sean Connery. Growing more comfortable in the Bond skin.
Grade: A

The Villain(s)
Donald Grant (Robert Shaw) - suave debonair blonde assassin for SPECTRE. He actually spends more time tracking Bond, than tangling with him. Shaw will go on to make movie history as Quint in Jaws.

Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) - disgraced SMERSH (former Russian KGB) operations head, now #3 for SPECTRE (imagine an old spinster dyke who's into S&M). The first Bond villainess, and the first-ever creepy Bond villain.

Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal) - smug chess master, #5 for SPECTRE. Planned the whole shenanigan until it blows up in his face (not literally though). A (poisoned) kick to the shin does him in.

and of course, the mysterious #1 (he-who-shall-not-yet-be-named, but no, its not Dr Evil) of SPECTRE, who's being shown only as a pussy-stroker (yes, double-entendres are a Bond tradition, or is it just me? *lol*).
Grade: A-

The Girl(s)
Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) - the first dumb blonde of Bond movies? Coerced by Klebb to bait Bond into stealing the decoder. Makes up for it by shooting Klebb herself. The Italian Bianchi was a 1960 Ms Universe runner-up. Hmmmm.

Sylvia Trench (Eunice Gayson) - yes, she actually makes it to the second film. What else, as a meantime-girl *lol*.

Turkish belly dancer and catfighting gypsy girls.
Grade: B-

Gadgets
Desmond Llewelyn makes his debut appearance (as Major Boothroyd, soon to be fondly referred to as The Genius Known As Q). Gadget du jour is a suitcase with a hidden knife, hidden gold coins (for bribing morons), a single-shot rifle, and it also comes with a trick lock with exploding talcum powder. Or something like that.
Grade: B

Bond Moments
During the climactic powerboat chase, bad guys inadvertently shoot holes into Bond's cargo of fuel drums, which he then offloads and thus spills the fuel all around the chasing boats. Bond then fires his flare gun and kaboom! Shouldn't he have been blown up first?

Grant, despite being a methodical and disciplined assassin, gets greedy when Bond mentions gold coins, and thus takes a powder (courtesy of the trick suitcase).

In what would be a silly running gag in the next Bond films, his superiors would become privy to Bond's sex life - on audio or otherwise. If he didn't save the world every few years, I bet MI6 would have kicked him out for conduct unbecoming nyahahaha.

After Bond saves the gypsy chieftain's life, he is granted a favor, and the favor he asks is to stop the catfight between the 2 gypsy girls (who are doing it because its apparently their tradition, both having fallen for the chieftain's son). Wish granted. How do you say menage-a-trois in Turkish? (Goaaaaaal!)
Grade: A-

One Liners
(spying inside the Russian consulate using a submarine periscope from an underground tunnel - and then Tatiana appears though her head is unseen)
Bond: from this angle, i'd say things are shaping up ...

What? No "Bond ... James Bond."? Pity.
Grade: C

Overall
Bond's rogues gallery is being hammered into shape, though Bond is really threatened only during the mano-a-mano with Grant.
Grade: B


"Not that gun, idiot."