Where to watch From Russia with Love (1963)
From Russia with Love is available to stream in CA on Crave and The Criterion Channel. It can also be rented or bought from AppleTV and Amazon.
A British agent travels to Istanbul to obtain a Russian decoding device, unaware that a secret crime organization has designed the mission as a trap. With a wary defector, deadly pursuers, and escalating threats along the Orient Express, he must rely on his instincts to survive.
Cast: Daniela Bianchi, Sean Connery, Pedro Armendáriz, Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Eunice Gayson, Walter Gotell, Francis de Wolff, George Pastell, Nadja Regin
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Trivia & production notes
- The filmmakers replaced the Soviet agency SMERSH from Ian Fleming's novel with the fictional crime syndicate SPECTRE to avoid political controversy during the Cold War.
- Original screenwriter Len Deighton was replaced early in development due to lack of progress, prompting two writers from Dr. No to return for the sequel.
- The character Red Grant was added to the Istanbul scenes just before the crew traveled there, and a last-minute rewrite changed his role so he kills another spy at Hagia Sophia rather than Bond.
- Desmond Llewelyn's debut as Q came about because Peter Burton was unavailable to reprise the role from Dr. No, and Llewelyn remained in the part for all but one Bond film until his death in 1999.
- Daniela Bianchi, a 1960 Miss Universe runner-up, was cast as Tatiana allegedly at Sean Connery's request, but her dialogue was entirely redubbed by British actress Barbara Jefford.
- The hotel bed scene with Tatiana became so memorable that it was adopted as the standard screen test scene for all future James Bond and Bond Girl candidates.
- Pedro Armendáriz was diagnosed with terminal cancer during filming in Istanbul, forcing production to relocate to Britain so he could finish his scenes before his health deteriorated further; he later took his own life.
- The opening chess match recreates a 1960 victory by Boris Spassky over David Bronstein, with Production Designer Syd Cain building an elaborate $150,000 set for the brief sequence.
- The 20-minute fight between Grant and Bond took three weeks to film and was choreographed by director Terence Young, a former Cambridge boxer, with most stunts performed by the actors themselves.
- Editor Peter Hunt created the now-iconic pre-credits action sequence by moving the Red Grant training scene to the opening, establishing a format that became the standard for every Bond film that followed.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article From Russia with Love (film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.
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