**YOU ARE ENTERING SPOILERTOWN**
HL’s Hot Take: Builds on the franchise nicely with more action, more gadgets, a sexy plot and a badass villain lurking. Definitely one of the best in the cannon.
Plot: Send a sexy spy to seduce Bond, get him to steal the Lektor decoding device, then take it from him. Classic Honeypot! SPECTRE plans to sell it back to the Russians at a profit and off Bond as revenge for taking out Dr. No.
Foiled by: Bond gets Grant, his would-be assassin, monologuing on the train and uses the trick attaché case to stun him and then kill him. 007, with Russian femme fatale in tow, just has to hijack a truck, blow up a helicopter, steal a powerboat and blow a bunch of shit up to evade a squadron of henchmen.
Intriguing Setting(s): Istanbul | Orient Express | Venice
Bond: Sean Connery
Villain(s):
- No. 1 – Ernst Stavro Blofeld (played by Anthony Dawson, but you never see his face)
- No. 3 – Rosa Klebb
- No. 5 – Tov Kronsteen
- Donald “Red” Grant – SPECTRE trained assassin
Bond Girl(s):
- Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) – easily one of the most beautiful Bond Girls of all time. She doesn’t beat around the bush, waiting nakedly for Bond in his hotel room unaware that SPECTRE is making a blackmail sex tape!
- Only 21, she was the youngest actress to play a Bond Girl
- 1960 Miss Universe runner-up
Head Librarian Rank: 5/24
Critical Rank: 3/24
TRIVIA SECTION!
Odds & Ends:
- “SPECTRE does not tolerate failure” prompts No. 1 to push a button that summons a henchman to kill No 5 with a poisoned spike in his shoe
- The moves in the chess game at the beginning are from an actual game at the USSR Championship in Leningrad in 1960 between Boris Spassky & David Bronstein.
- Last film JFK saw at the White House before his trip to Dallas
- Klebb is the main inspiration for Frau Farbissina in the Austin Powers franchise
- Alfred Hitchcock was considered to direct in 1958 with Cary Grant as Bond and Grace Kelly as Tatiana. But that fell through when Vertigo bombed at the box office (?!).
- The scene where Bond finds Romanova in his bed has been used ever since as the base screen test for Bond/Bond Girl chemistry (pictured below).
6 Degrees Cameos: Red Grant (Robert Shaw), the Bond-stalking hitman, plays Doyle Lonegan in The Sting. Great connector to Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
Gadgets: The trick attaché case begins the gadget parade!
Cars: 1935 Bentley 3.5 Litre drophead coupe Park Ward
Awards: Golden Globe nomination for Best Song – “From Russia With Love” by John Barry & Lionel Bart
Release Order: 2/25 (1963)
