Home Page - Main Frame

General Info - From Russia With Love (1963)

Gadgets? What gadgets? To some, From Russia With Love was the second and last spy thriller. To others, with the addition of Desmond Llewellyn to the cast, this was the start of something big. Not only that, but for the first time we are granted a look, albeit marginal, at Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the villain who would occupy all bar one of Sean Connery's Eon films from hereon. The main problem, it seemed, was how to top Dr. No after its surprising run-away success. The answer? Hard work and lots and lots of luck!

The Plot

Word gets through to Bond that a Soviet agent wishes to defect as she has fallen in love with the British agent. She says that she will steal a Lektor (a decoding device) to be allowed to defect and MI6 grasps the opportunity quickly, even though they realise it could be a trap. The "defector", Tatiana Romanova, doesn't know that her superior, Rosa Klebb (supposedly a Soviet colonel), is actually working for SPECTRE, who also wants the Lektor to sell back to the Soviets to raise funds. All this would leave MI6 humiliated and, hopefully, have Bond killed, while he gets the Lektor, to avenge the elimination of Dr. No. 007 meets Tatiana in Istanbul, with the help of Kerim Bey, an intelligence gatherer there. They steal the Lektor then board the Orient Express to head home. Donald Grant, a well-trained SPECTRE assassin, has all these movements tracked and discretely follows them aboard the train. Grant murders Kerim but is bested by Bond who strangles him in the tough fight in Bond's compartment. Bond and Tatiana escape to Venice but are tracked down again by SPECTRE. The couple destroy the crime organisation's fleet of motorboats and make it to Venice - where they come across their last obstacle... Rosa Klebb. She makes on last attempt to get hold of the decoder but Tatiana shoots her boss in the nick of time.

Budget: $2.2m - Gross: $78.9m - Fastrac007 Rating: 73%