Into the Blu

From Russia with Love

Posted on 20. Oct, 2008 by Gino Sassani in 1.66:1, 1080p, AVC MPEG-4, Action, DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 (English), Dolby Digital 1.0 (Spanish), Dolby Digital 5.1 (French), Drama, MGM, Reviews

James Bond had finally arrived into the big time with the publication of From Russia With Love. It would become one of Fleming’s most popular books. It didn’t hurt that President John Kennedy gave a list of his 10 favorite books of all time, and this one was on it. It was a natural follow-up for EON to film. There was a surge in popularity of Cold War films and books at the time, and this one fit more than most of them did. Just having Russia in the title was good for a couple extra million at the box office. Fortunately the team of Sean Connery and Terrance Young were on board early for this film.

You would think that with the extraordinary success of Dr. No that doing the second Bond film would be much easier. You would be wrong. The production of From Russia With Love was plagued by problems. A car delivering some of the stars to the set crashed, nearly injuring Daniela Bianchi in the process. Connery did suffer an injury, albeit a minor one, on the set. There were quite a few stunt mishaps, and equipment problems constantly haunted the production. Pedro Armendariz, who played Bond’s partner Ali Karim Bey, was diagnosed with terminal cancer during the production. The crew had to scrap the intended schedule and film all of his parts while it was still possible. Days after he finished, he checked into a UCLA medical facility and killed himself with a gun. Ian Fleming himself would pass away during the production of the film. These events caused there to be constant rewrites, and Bianchi hadn’t even been cast before shooting began. One of the Bond traditions that would emerge because of the chaos was the now traditional split credits. A scene was inserted before the lavish title scene which is now the standard for Bond films. In spite of such a tumultuous production, From Russia With Love would become one of the best Bond films to date.

Sean Connery returns to the role he originated in Dr. No. He’s noticeably more comfortable, and so Bond is noticeably more comfortable. In this film we also get to see the inside workings of the SPECTRE organization that would be a thorn in Bond’s side for generations to come. The organization was hinted at in the previous film but is a major player here. This film also diverges quite significantly from Fleming’s original story. Fleming had this a Cold War thriller with the main bad guys being the Soviets. In the film, SPECTRE is the one pulling the strings in an attempt to ignite a hot war between the USSR and The West. Here a Soviet operative, Tatiana Romanova (Bianchi) is tricked into thinking she is working for her country. She is to bait James Bond (Connery) into coming to Istanbul using the promise of a Soviet decoding machine to lure him there. Bond knows he’s walking into a trap, but even the remote chance of getting the decoding machine is too much of a temptation to resist. The intent is to kill agents of both sides while making the other part look responsible. Getting Bond is just a bonus as revenge for his killing Dr. No. Of course, all of their attempts on Bond fail, and failure is quickly punished in SPECTRE, as you’ll see. The film’s climax occurs as Bond and Tatiana attempt to get the machine out of Istanbul on the Orient Express while a SPECTRE assassin’s mission is to stop them.

Again there’s a solid cast here. Robert Shaw shines as the hit man, Red Grant. He doesn’t really say that much, but he certainly shows us that he means business. It’s often an underrated role for Shaw. Bianchi fits well as the new “Bond Girl”. And while she may not have the looks of Andress, she holds her own pretty well. The standout role has to be for SPECTRE’s Number Three, Lotte Lenya, playing Rosa Klebb. She reminds me of one of those sadistic nuns I ran into in Catholic school years ago armed with a metal edged ruler and a scowl that can curdle milk. Eunice Gayson returns for the final time as Sylvia Trench. The most important addition to this cast, however, is the first appearance but the adorable Desmond Llewelyn as the inventive Q. Llewelyn would continue to appear in every official Bond film thereafter until his tragic death in an automobile accident in 1999. While it’s true that all of his appearances amount to less than an hour of film time, he soon became the heart of the Bond franchise and is still missed. His character would introduce us to all of the gadgets that Bond was going to use on the current mission. This would also be the first time that the end credits feature the familiar: “James Bond will return…” tag. Up until recent years it would even tell you what the name of the next Bond film would be, until they finally ran out of Fleming books to film.

Video

From Russia With Love is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1. You get a splendid 1080p image out of the AVC/MPEG-4 codec. Most of the film delivers a solid 30+ mbps bit rate. The time has finally come to see these films in a way that hasn’t been possible maybe even in the theaters during their original releases. This benefits from not only a wonderful HD transfer but the recent 4k restoration from the camera negatives. The result is something far better than I had expected to see. Again I was impressed with the film’s color, particularly flesh tones. Black levels were even more important here as this film was a decidedly darker film in both tone and actual lighting. There were far more cramped spaces on this one and more night scenes. If you want to see one of the best examples of black levels delivering solid shadow depth and definition, go to about an hour and nineteen minutes. Here you will see the engine of the train setting out in motion. You get black parts against a black background and in almost complete darkness. Yet, you can see the clear definition of each of the parts and the outline of the engine against the night sky. It’s one of the best black level examples of excellence I’ve seen yet. Colors are understandably a little dark, but they manage to come through pretty well every time. Again, grain and sharpness might be considered by some to be defects, but are an inherent part of the cinematic experience.

Audio

The DTSHD lossless 5.1 track is somewhat better than the image. I’m actually pretty happy that there wasn’t a footloose effort to overengage the surround mix. Most everything is up front, and that’s actually pretty fine by me. The quality of the sound is all there, however. From the opening moments of the familiar Bond theme to the dialog, you’re going to get everything you came here for. The dynamic range is considerably stronger than previous releases have provided. Not as much sub as I would have liked, but it pleases just enough. It’s an overall strong presentation, providing audio at 1.5 mbps.

There is an audio commentary featuring many cast and crew participants, but it is a hosted affair. None of the participants were at a screening. It was put together from various archive interviews and such. It’s informative, but sounds too much like a documentary lecture.

Special Features

Most of these features are imported from the last edition of the films.

The extras are grouped under menu headings that I will provide in italics:

Declassified – MI6 Vault:

Ian Fleming – The CBC Interview: This is a vintage piece filmed in black and white and in pretty rough shape. The program appears to be somewhat of an obituary for Fleming at first and then followed by the short interview segment. The interview is marred by a somewhat obnoxious bird that screeches into the mic several times, creating an awful high pitched distortion.

Ian Fleming And Raymond Chandler: I expect that this was a radio piece. It is audio only with some artistically styled photos providing a slideshow, of sorts, during the 5 minute conversation between the two writers. They ask each other questions mostly about their main characters and villains. It’s often a mutual admiration event, and the two appear to have been friends.

Ian Fleming On Desert Island Discs: This is another 5 minute audio only piece accompanied by a slideshow. It’s mostly stuff we’ve heard Fleming talk about before, most notably how Bond compares and contrasts with Fleming.

Animated Storyboard Sequence: If you’re into conceptual art or storyboards, you’ll like this short reproduction of the car chase using storyboards.

Mission Control: These are direct scene access bookmarks for particular subjects like Women, Villains… and so on.

Mission Dossier: These are the only HD extras

Inside From Russia With Love: This is a great 34 minute look at the production of the film. There really isn’t much behind the scenes footage, but plenty of production stills. It provides a pretty much blow by blow account of the various stages of production, including many of the misfortunes the cast and crew suffered.

Harry Saltzman – Showman: Saltzman is the man who managed to wrestle the film rights to James Bond from Ian Fleming. When Albert “Cubby” Broccoli offered to buy him out, he opted to be a partner, and the two of them produced the first 9 Bond films together. He was a rather flamboyant individual, as these accounts of colleagues and family members attest to. He finally sold his share of the Bond empire and apparently lived a rather troubled life thereafter.

Ministry Of Propaganda: This is a collection of trailers, TV spots, and radio ads for the film.

Image Database: A collection of still galleries.

Final Thoughts

Even with all of the troubles the production encountered, these first two films form a nearly complete definition for James Bond that would carry over for now 20 more films to come. The addition of Q Branch and Llewelyn’s own charm completes the Bond mythology. It was a very small role, particularly in this one, but it helped to define a franchise. I can’t tell you how happy I am to see these films finally in HD with such tenderly restored images. For me, it’s as if James Bond has been reborn, and now I’ve got 20 more films to see as if for the first time. Each film built us up for the next one, revealing just a little more of the world of James Bond. “It’s the old game, give a wolf a taste and keep him coming back.”