On to the sophomoric entry of the JB film franchise.
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, which finds Bond recovering a Soviet cryptography device while simultaneously avoiding the deadly revenge of a SPECTRE assassin and the naive treachery of a Russian double agent.
Dr. No handles the opening of the franchise well, but From Russia With Love really puts it into high gear. This movie rarely misses a beat and was the real rocket boost behind putting the Bond franchise into the popular consciousness of the early 1960s. It's a great plot, more complex than Dr. No while still keeping the focus and pacing tight.
A few thoughts
- The opening credits - stylistically bold to warp text sinuously around the shade-shrouded bodies of belly dancers, but I honestly wasn't sure if I was aroused or having a seizure at times.
- A really great choice to give the first twenty minutes of screentime to the villains. After Dr. No's mostly Bond-centric first act, we get to see more of the baddies from page 1 in this outing and it rounds out the dynamic picture of the factions in the Bond universe nicely.
- I'm retroactively understanding more and more Austin Powers references. This will probably continue, won't it?
- Bond can have his sexy at-home girlfriend (who I understand won't last long as a character through the franchise) - but am I the only one who thinks that Mrs. Moneypenny is potentially the best Bond girl so far? She's the work wife that we all need. What a fine, fine, competent woman.
- They ramp up the music in this one. Of course we get early strains of the titular theme song (not heard in full with vocals til the very final scene) but also liberal use of the primary "Bond" theme (the action-y one you're thinking of right now) - almost heavily overused at times but, let's face it, that music never gets old.
- Sean Connery still looks 45. And he's only 33 here! But what a hunk of earthen manliness, with such suave...creepily so, at times. How to figure out how to get my wife to say aloud that she thinks her mouth is too large, so I can reply as Bond does here, "well - I think it's just the right size for me" before swooping in for some nookie.
- Speaking of nookie - I need to keep a count of how many times it's heavily implied Bond gets action (ahem) in these movies. Hold on while I scrub back quickly through Dr. No. Okay, I think a case is made for 3 rolls in the hay (with 3 different girls). And now checking back through FRWL. Yep, I think you can say 4 in this one, with 4 different girls (twice with one, and that gypsy camp escapade was a threesome-in-waiting if I've ever seen one). Although the first from this one was his at-home girlfriend from the first. So - in two movies, 7 bonks with 6 different...bonkees. Keeping track of this could be the hardest part of this month, but now it is my quest.
- The only real unnecessary section in this movie is the whole gypsy camp sequence. In my ongoing quest to cut 12% out of all entertainment media in order to tighten the pacing, I'd excise this entire scene. I don't think you miss anything other than belly dancing and creepy leers.
A really terrific second entry. Bond - as a character - firms up more and more in the viewer's eye, and the increasing screen time of SPECTRE (and the newly planted mystery of "Who is Number One??") really sows the seeds for whatever comes next. Let's keep that production budget increasing and see where it takes us!
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