From Russia with Love is a 1963 spy film directed by Terence Young and the second in the James Bond series. It was produced by Eon Productions, starring Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond.

The picture was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and written by Richard Maibaum and Johanna Harwood, based on Ian Fleming's 1957 novel From Russia, with Love. In the film, Bond is sent to assist in the defection of Soviet consulate clerk Tatiana Romanova in Istanbul, where SPECTRE plans to avenge Bond's killing of Dr. No.

Following the success of Dr. No, United Artists approved a sequel and doubled the budget available for the producers. In addition to filming on location in Turkey, the action scenes were shot at Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire, and in Scotland. Production ran over budget and behind schedule, but was hurriedly finished by its release date.

From Russia with Love was a critical and commercial success. It grossed $78 million worldwide, far more than its $2 million budget and more than its predecessor Dr. No, thereby becoming a blockbuster in 1960s cinema. In 2004, Total Film magazine named it the ninth-greatest British film of all time; it was the only Bond film to appear on the list. It was also the first film in the series to win a BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography.

From Russia with Love was followed by Goldfinger in 1964.

Plot International criminal organisation SPECTRE seeks revenge against MI6 agent James Bond for the death of their agent Dr. No in Jamaica. SPECTRE's chief planner, Czechoslovak chess grandmaster Kronsteen, devises a plan to lure Bond into a trap, using as bait the prospects of procuring a Lektor cryptography device from the Soviet Union's consulate in Istanbul. SPECTRE operative Rosa Klebb, a former head of SMERSH (Soviet counter-intelligence), is assigned to oversee the mission and chooses trained killer Donald Grant to assassinate Bond at the right moment. To set the trap, Klebb recruits a cipher clerk at the consulate, Tatiana Romanova, to unwittingly assist in the plan, tricking her into believing Klebb is still working for SMERSH.

In London, Bond is called to a meeting with M and informed that Tatiana has requested his help to defect to the West, in exchange for providing British intelligence with a Lektor. Exactly as Kronsteen predicted, M suspects a trap but decides to honour the request. Before departing, Bond is equipped with a special briefcase from Q Branch, containing several defensive gadgets and an ArmaLite AR-7 sniper rifle, to help on his assignment. Upon arriving in Istanbul, Bond works alongside the head of MI6's branch in the city, Ali Kerim Bey, while he awaits word from Tatiana. Grant is shadowing Bond to protect him until he steals the Lektor. During this time, Kerim Bey is attacked by Soviet agent Krilencu. After an attack on the men while they hide out at a Roma settlement, Kerim Bey assassinates Krilencu with Bond's help before he can flee the city.

Eventually, Tatiana meets Bond at his hotel suite, where she agrees to provide plans to the consulate to help him steal the Lektor. The pair spend the night together, unaware that Klebb and Grant are filming them. Upon receiving the consulate's floor plans and a description of the Lektor from Romanova, the latter of which MI6 confirms, Bond and Kerim Bey make and execute a plan to steal it, before all three make haste to escape the city aboard the Orient Express. Aboard, Kerim Bey and Bond subdue Commissar Benz, a Soviet security officer. While Bond returns to Tatiana to wait for their rendezvous with one of Kerim Bey's sons, Kerim Bey and Benz are killed. Angered, Bond questions Romanova's true motives.

When the train arrives in Belgrade, Bond informs one of Kerim Bey's sons of his death and receives instructions to rendezvous with a British agent named Nash at Zagreb. However, Grant overhears the conversation, kills Nash and assumes his identity. He drugs Tatiana at dinner and overpowers Bond. He reveals that he had killed Bey and Benz, and that Tatiana was a pawn in SPECTRE's plan. Grant's orders are to kill her and Bond, staging it as a murder-suicide by leaving behind faked blackmail evidence, including the footage of them spending the night together, which will scandalise the British intelligence community. Bond tricks Grant into setting off a booby trap in Nash's attaché case before the two engage in a fight that ends with Bond killing Grant by stabbing him then garrotting him with his own garrotte. Taking the Lektor and the film of their night together, Bond and Romanova leave the train in Istria, Yugoslavia, and use Grant's escape plan. They evade helicopter and boat attacks by SPECTRE agents before reaching safety.

Learning of Grant's death and Bond's survival, SPECTRE's enigmatic chairman, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, has Kronsteen executed for his plan's disastrous failure. As the organisation promised to sell back the Lektor to the Russians, Klebb is ordered to recover it and kill Bond. While Bond and Tatiana are resting in a Venice hotel, Klebb comes to their room disguised as a maid. When Klebb prepares to shoot Bond, Tatiana knocks her gun to the floor. Klebb struggles with Bond as she tries to stab him with a venom-tipped blade in her shoe but Tatiana shoots her dead. With his mission accomplished, Bond spends some time on a romantic gondola ride with Tatiana and drops the blackmail film into the canal.

Cast

Sean Connery as James Bond, MI6 agent 007 Pedro Armendáriz as Ali Kerim Bey, head of MI6 Station T in Istanbul Lotte Lenya as Rosa Klebb (SPECTRE No. 3), a former SMERSH colonel and now a SPECTRE operative Robert Shaw as Donald Grant, a SPECTRE assassin Bernard Lee as M, chief of British Intelligence Daniela Bianchi as Tatiana Romanova, a Soviet Consulate clerk and Bond's love interest, based on Christine GranvilleFILMFAX Magazine. October 2003 – January 2004. Bianchi's dialogue was dubbed by an uncredited Barbara Jefford. Eunice Gayson as Sylvia Trench, Bond's semi-regular girlfriend Walter Gotell as Morzeny, a SPECTRE trainer Francis de Wolff as Vavra, chief of a Gypsy tribe George Pastell as a train conductor on the Orient Express Nadja Regin as Kerim Bey's girl Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny, M's secretary Aliza Gur and Martine Beswick as Gypsy girls Vida (in green) and Zora (in red) Vladek Sheybal as Kronsteen (SPECTRE No. 5), a chess grandmaster and SPECTRE planner

Credited anonymously as "?" in the film, Anthony Dawson portrayed Ernst Stavro Blofeld (SPECTRE No. 1), the head of SPECTRE. Dawson had previously played Professor Dent in Dr. No, and his dialogue was dubbed by an uncredited Eric Pohlmann. Fred Haggerty played Krilencu, a Bulgarian assassin. Desmond Llewelyn portrays Major Boothroyd, head of MI6 Q Branch and the equipment officer, making his first of many appearances that continued until 1999.

Additional cast members include Neville Jason as Kerim Bey's chauffeur, Peter Bayliss as Soviet agent Benz, Nusret Ataer as Kerim Bey's son Mehmet, and Peter Madden as Canadian chessmaster McAdams. The belly dancer upon whom the opening title credits are projected, and who prominently appears in the gypsy camp scenes, was Leila Guiraut, credited under the mononym Leila. Uncredited performances include Michael Culver and Elizabeth Counsell as a couple in a punt, and the film's production manager William Hill as Captain Nash.

Production Following the financial success of Dr. No, United Artists approved a second James Bond film. The studio doubled the budget offered to Eon Productions with $2 million, and also granted a bonus to Sean Connery, who would receive $100,000 along with his $54,000 salary. As President John F. Kennedy had named Fleming's novel From Russia, with Love among his ten favourite books of all time in Life magazine, producers Broccoli and Saltzman chose this as the follow-up to Bond's cinematic debut in Dr. No. The comma in the title of Fleming's novel was dropped for the film title. On 20 November 1963, From Russia with Love was the last film President Kennedy saw at the White House before his assassination. Most of the crew from the first film returned, with major exceptions being production designer Ken Adam, who went to work on Dr. Strangelove and was replaced by Dr. Nos uncredited art director Syd Cain. Title designer Maurice Binder was replaced by Robert Brownjohn. Stunt coordinator Bob Simmons was unavailable and was replaced by Peter Perkins though Simmons performed stunts in the film. John Barry replaced Monty Norman as composer of the soundtrack.

The film introduced several conventions which would become essential elements of the series: a pre-title sequence, the Blofeld character (referred to in the film only as "Number 1", though Blofeld is mentioned in the end credits, with the actor labeled as "?"), a secret-weapon gadget for Bond, a helicopter sequence (repeated in every subsequent Bond film except The Man with the Golden Gun), a postscript action scene after the main climax, a theme song with lyrics, and the line "James Bond will return/be back" in the credits.

Writing Ian Fleming's novel was a Cold War thriller but the producers replaced the Soviet undercover agency SMERSH with the crime syndicate SPECTRE so as to avoid controversial political overtones. The SPECTRE training grounds were inspired by the film Spartacus. The original screenwriter was Len Deighton, who accompanied Harry Saltzman, Syd Cain, and Terence Young to Istanbul, but he was replaced because of a lack of progress. Thus, two of Dr. Nos writers, Johanna Harwood and Richard Maibaum, returned for the second film in the series. Some sources state Harwood was credited for the "adaptation" mostly for her suggestions, which were carried over into Maibaum's script. Harwood stated in an interview for Cinema Retro that she had been a screenwriter of several of Saltzman's projects, and her screenplay for From Russia with Love had followed Fleming's novel closely, but she left the series due to what she called Young's constant rewriting of her screenplay with ideas that were not in the original Fleming work.Johanna Harwood Interview Movie Classics # 4 Solo Publishing 2012 Maibaum kept on making rewrites as filming progressed. Red Grant was added to the Istanbul scenes just prior to the film crew's trip to Turkey; this brought more focus to the SPECTRE plot, as Grant started saving Bond's life there (a late change during shooting involved Grant killing the bespectacled spy at Hagia Sophia instead of Bond, who ends up just finding the man dead). For the last quarter of the movie, Maibaum added two chase scenes, with a helicopter and speedboats, and changed the location of Bond and Klebb's battle from Paris to Venice. Uncredited rewrites were contributed by Berkely Mather.

Casting Although uncredited, the actor who played Number 1 was Anthony Dawson, who had played Professor Dent in the previous Bond film, Dr. No, and appeared in several of Young's films. In the end credits, Blofeld is credited with a question mark. Blofeld's lines were redubbed by character actor Eric Pohlmann in the final cut. Peter Burton was unavailable to return as Major Boothroyd, so Desmond Llewelyn, a Welsh actor who was a fan of the Bond comic strip published in the Daily Express, accepted the part. However, screen credit for Llewelyn was omitted at the opening of the film and is reserved for the exit credits, where he is credited simply as "Boothroyd". Llewelyn's character is not referred to by this name in dialogue, but M does introduce him as being from Q Branch. Llewelyn remained as the character, better known as Q, in all but one of the series' films until his death in 1999.