Film Review - From Russia with Love (1963)

From Russia with Love is the 2nd James Bond film and again stars Sean Connery as Agent 007 with a Licence to Kill, the story here sees Bond going after the Lektor decoder, a prize highly valued by British Intelligence in their fight against the Russians, but Bond will soon find himself a piece in a very deadly chess game with an old enemy.

From Russia with Love is easily one of the best Bond films and for me, the highlight of Connery's tenure in the role, he seems more assured of himself in the role and his confidence shows in every scene he's in, he smiles a bit more than he did in Dr. No, he comes across as tougher and he handles the action and the humour quite well and as a result, we want to follow him and cheer him on during his mission.

But he's not the only one with more confidence in their roles, director Terence Young seems more assured in the director's chair, always finding the right note in each scene and how it all comes together to fill the overall whole of the film itself, John Barry produces one of his best scores for the series with a nice undertone of dark tension throughout the whole score, Peter Hunt's editing seems more assured with his action editing being more tight and his editing of quieter scenes and the overall film having a tense feel to them as well.

But what makes this movie really shine is the villain played by Robert Shaw, don't get me wrong Lotte Lenya is perfectly fine in her role as Rosa Klebb but Shaw steals the show and stands as one of the very best villains of the entire series, Shaw's Red Grant is every bit the equal of Bond in terms of both brains and brawn and the confrontation between the two is simply spectacular and one of the very best fight scenes in the entire series.

So all in all, From Russia with Love stands tall as a real highlight of the James Bond film series and is certainly one that should not be missed, 4 out of 5.