From Russia With Love: Film – Trivia- During the helicopter sequence towards the end of the film, the inexperienced pilot flew too close to Sean Connery, almost killing him.
- The helicopter (carrying director Terence Young during filming) crashed over water, trapping the director below the surface for a considerable time in an air bubble inside the copter’s canopy. He was rescued and then immediately went back behind the camera with his arm in a sling.
- Krilenko tries to escape through a secret window in a billboard advertising Call Me Bwana (1963), also produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman.
- The budget was $2,000,000 (double that of Dr. No (1962)).
- This was chosen as the second James Bond film after President John F. Kennedy listed the book among his top ten favorite novels of all time. This list was published in Time Magazine.
- According to the book “Death of a President” (1964) by William Raymond Manchester, this was the last motion picture John F. Kennedy ever saw, on 20 November 1963, in the White House.
- “Q”/ Major Boothroyd played by Desmond Llewelyn appears for the first time. This character was played by Peter Burton in Dr. No (1962). When Burton was unable to return for this film, the role was recast with Llewelyn in the part. Llewelyn would reprise the role of “Q” in 16 subsequent Bond films (17 performances in all, but he didn’t appear in Live and Let Die (1973). It was the most times a single actor has played the same role in major motion picture history.
- First Bond film to feature a story sequence before the credits.
- Martine Beswick’s first appearance in a Bond film. She would return for Thunderball (1965). For this film, however, she is incorrectly billed in the opening credits as Martin Beswick.
- This is the first James Bond film to feature John Barry as the primary soundtrack composer. The score allegedly still contains riffs from Monty Norman’s work on Dr. No (1962). Barry himself felt that Goldfinger (1964) was the first film in the series where he had complete creative control over the soundtrack.
- The opening scene where James Bond is stalked and killed by Red Grant was originally written to appear later in the film. However, editor Peter R. Hunt figured it would work better as a teaser at the start of the film, thus instigating the now-traditional pre-credits sequence.
- The receptionist at the Istanbul Hotel at which James Bond stays has the same voice as Honey Rider in Dr. No (1962). This is because Nikki Van der Zyl dubbed both Ursula Andress in that film and the receptionist. She also dubbed Claudine Auger as Domino in Thunderball (1965).
- Vehicles featured included a Hiller UH-12E, a yellow Chevrolet delivery vehicle, a 1960 Ford Fairlane Station Wagon, a Venetian watertaxi gondola, a two-man SPECTRE helicopter, a Huntsman 28 and Fairey Huntress 23 speed boat . In Istanbul, Bond is pursued by a black Citroën Traction Avant and chauffeured by a black Rolls Royce Silver Wraith Phantom V. Bond owns a Bentley automobile as was the case in the original Ian Fleming novels. Here it is a green-black Derby Bentley Mark 4 ½ Liter Sports Tourer convertible with radio gadget car-phone, a uncommon toy for 1963. Bond never has a Bentley car again in a Bond film except for Casino Royale (1967) and Never Say Never Again (1983).
- Cameo: [Dorothea Bennett] [The wife of director Terence Young as a Woman on Bridge in Venice who films James Bond and Tatiana Romanova.]
- SPECTRE stood for SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion.
- The cat-stroking SPECTRE chief Blofeld was played in the film by Anthony Dawson and his voice was dubbed by Eric Pohlmann. This same arrangement would be repeated for Thunderball (1965) two years later.
- Years earlier, Alfred Hitchcock was originally considered as director, with James Bond being played by Cary Grant and Grace Kelly lured out of retirement to play Tatiana Romanova. These ideas were scrapped after Vertigo (1958) failed at the box office. The helicopter chase scene is a homage to Hitchcock’s cropduster sequence in North by Northwest (1959).
- The brutal fight in the train compartment between James Bond and Red Grant lasts about six minutes on screen and took two days to film.
- By the time the film opened in the US in April 1964, production was already underway on “Goldfinger” (1964).
- Virna Lisi was another actress considered for the part of Tatiana Romanova.
- Actresses considered for the role of Tatiana Romanova included Pia Lindström, Sally Douglas, Magda Konopka, Margaret Lee, Lucia Modugno, Sylva Koscina, Virna Lisi and Tania Mallet, the latter ended up getting the role of Tilly Masterston in Goldfinger (1964). Reportedly, the producers first choice had originally been Elga Andersen but she was allegedly deemed too difficult by the studio United Artists. As such, 1960 Miss Universe Daniela Bianchi got the part. Her voice was dubbed in the film by an uncredited Barbara Jefford.
- With the advent of the Cold War, producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman didn’t want James Bond’s main enemy to be Russian, so for the film version his nemesis is the criminal organisation SPECTRE, seeking revenge for the death of their operative, Doctor No in Dr. No (1962).
- Although he had his reservations about the choice of Sean Connery for the part of James Bond, after seeing him in From Russia with Love (1963) writer Ian Fleming was completely won over by the actor.
- The film’s title song “From Russia With Love” can be heard on the radio when James Bond and Sylvia Trench are sitting in a boat having a picnic.
- Cameo: [Bob Simmons] [The series regular stuntman is the actor appearing in the gun barrel sequence at the beginning of the film. The same footage was used for the first three James Bond films, the others being Dr. No (1962) and Goldfinger (1964).]
- Cameo: [Anthony Dawson] In the first appearance of the Ernst Stavro Blofeld villain character in a James Bond film. Dawson had previously appeared in Dr. No (1962) as Professor Dent and again would return as Blofeld in Thunderball (1965). He is the only actor to have ever played Blofeld more than once. The voice of Blofeld in this film was dubbed by an uncredited Eric Pohlmann.
- Some rumored reports maintain that James Bond creator Ian Fleming makes small appearance in this film standing next to the Orient Express train. He is allegedly wearing grey trousers and a white jumper and stands on the platform to the right side of the train.
- First appearance of the second classic signature James Bond theme – the “007 Theme”, composed by John Barry.
- The name of the director of photography Ted Moore can be seen on the body of Julie Mendez during the opening titles sequence. This was intended as a practical joke by cinematographer Frank Tidy and main titles designer Robert Brownjohn.
- The headquarters of criminal spy organisation SPECTRE in this film is actually the main office administration building of Pinewood Studios.
- The license plate number of the black Citroen car that follows James Bond when he leaves the Istanbul Airport was H31854.
- The love scene between Sean Connery and Daniela Bianchi caused censorship problems in Britain. In the scene, a sweating SPECTRE cameraman films James Bond and Tatiana Romanova in bed from a cabinet de voyeur. The British Board of Film Censors mandated to producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman that the voyeurism in the scene was too explicit and to keep the footage of the cameraman as minimal as possible or face risking having the whole sequence censored.
- First Bond film to end with the declaration “James Bond will return in …”, in this case it was Goldfinger (1964). A tradition that would continue until it was used for the last time at the end of Octopussy (1983).
- The MI6 Attaché Case contained the following features and gadgets: The black leather case conceals a deadly dagger hidden behind the case’s lock which is released when a spring-loaded button near the catch is pressed; twenty rounds of .25 calibre ammunition for the folding AR7 sniper rifle are stored in two tubes camouflaged as metal rivets and released by twisting the ends of the fake rivets; the case’s spine has a secret compartment which contains two leather straps of 25 gold sovereigns apiece which are behind the poppers in the lid; a nitroglycerin tear-gas talcum powder tin cannister is exploded when the booby-trapped case is opened incorrectly by turning the catch vertically instead of horizontally. James Bond would later utilize another exploding spy case in Octopussy (1983).
- The film’s MacGuffin, the Lektor Decoding Device had the following features and technical specifications: The cypher machine looked like a typewriter and contained, 16 code and 24 symbol keys, totaling 40 in all. It weighed 10 kg, had a brown case with a blue colored handle and had an in-built compensator. The mechanism included perforated discs made of copper and was both self-calibrating and manual. A card inserted in a slot would produce a message ejected in a paper roll from the other side of the machine. It held the coding secrets to all the major top secret diplomatic traffic in the espionage world.
- Three of the actresses who appeared in the film were Beauty Pageant Queens. The were Daniela Bianchi, Martine Beswick and Aliza Gur.
- The chess tournament set appearing at the beginning of the film cost $150,000. The ceiling top of the chess set was actually a matte painting.
- Over 3,500 onlookers flocked to the Sirkeci Railway Station in Istanbul to watch the filming. Overcrowding caused delays in shooting due to such an unexpected turnout. As such, director Terence Young had stuntman Peter Perkins go and create a distraction by hanging upside from a balcony nearby so filming could proceed.
- In 1950, a US naval attaché was assassinated and thrown from the Orient Express train by a Communist agent. This story inspired Ian Fleming’s novel “From Russia With Love”.
- The film’s storyline deals with the Lektor Decoding Machine, the name of which was called the Spektor Decoding Machine in the original Ian Fleming novel. Its name was changed because of its similarity with the name of the fictitious criminal spy organisation “Spectre”. He based this device on his knowledge of the Enigma Decoding Machine from World War II. Fleming was involved with the Ultra Network who cracked the Enigma Code in 1939. The Ultra Network’s activities were not released until 1975 in a book called “A Man Called Intrepid”. Fleming’s friend Sir William Stevenson wrote the book which was published at the time when the closed period on wartime secrets expired and the records were finally declassified. The book was subsequently filmed as a television film in 1979 (See: “A Man Called Intrepid” (1979) (mini)).
- The bedroom scene between James Bond and Tatiana Romanova in this film is used by EON Productions as a screen test for potential actors considered to play both James Bond or a Bond girl.
- Albert R. Broccoli once named this film along with The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Goldfinger (1964) as his three favorite James Bond films, according to an interview with the Hollywood Reporter’s Robert Osborne on 12 April 1982.
- The rats in the film were originally coated with chocolate as they were lab rats and needed to look like sewer rats. However, they wouldn’t run and sat around licking themselves. Then, real rats were used but they wouldn’t run in the right direction until Sean Connery opened the door of the studio. Finally, the production went to Madrid, Spain to shoot the rat sequence.
- Regular James Bond production designer Ken Adam could not work on the film as he was unavailable due to going to work on Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).
- The production was beset with production problems which posed serious problems for the assemblage of the film. Many filmed scenes didn’t match with a re-written script and the film was over-scheduled and had gone over-budget. Editor Peter R. Hunt used innovative editing techniques and tricks which saved the picture.
- The helicopter chase sequence is said to have been inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959).
- Final James Bond film viewed by Ian Fleming.
- Colonel Rosa Klebb is based on an actual Russian colonel that Ian Fleming once wrote about in the Sunday Times.
- The literal translations of some of From Russia with Love (1963)’s foreign language titles include “Love and Kisses From Russia” (Belgium); “Moscow Versus 007″(Portugal); “The Return Of Agent 007” (Latin America); “Love Greetings From Moscow” (Germany); “007 In Istanbul” (Finland); “Hearty Kisses From Russia” (France); “Agent 007 Sees Red” (Sweden) and “To 007, From Russia With Love” (Italy).
- First James Bond film to receive a Best Song Golden Globe nomination. A number of others would follow for Bond films.
- Bond’s trick attaché case is the first true Bond film gadget. It is also one of the only gadgets to actually appear in Ian Fleming’s novels.
- This is one of three James Bond films where Q is referred to by his real name, “Major Boothroyd”. The others are Dr. No (1962) and The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).
- Pedro Armendáriz playing the role of Kerim Bey, was terminally ill during filming with the cancer he had likely contracted while filming the notorious film The Conqueror (1956) near the site of the US nuclear test site in the Utah desert. Armendariz had accepted the role in ‘From Russia With Love’ partially as a means of providing financial security for his widow, and the film’s schedule was altered in order to film the scenes in which he appeared while he was still physically able. Towards the end of the filming of those scenes, however, director Terence Young had to double for the actor in some of his long shots. One month after his scenes were completed, Armendariz, in emulation of his friend Ernest Hemingway, committed suicide.
- In this film, James Bond does not say “Bond, James Bond.”
- This is the second and final appearance in the James Bond films of Sylvia Trench. The original plan was for Sylvia to be a recurring character like Miss Moneypenny, but the idea was dropped after this film. Here and in Dr. No (1962), she was played by Eunice Gayson.
- One of the only Bond films to make direct reference to a previous James Bond film. Dr. No is mentioned by name, and Sylvia Trench establishes that the film takes place six months after Dr. No (1962).
- In the books, Bond often drives his beloved Bentley. The car appears in this film for the only time in the regular series.
- Walter Gotell, who plays Morzeny, would later become a regular in the Bond films as General Gogol.
- Two actresses with bit parts would reappear in later films: Nadja Regin, who plays Kerim’s girl, would play the dancer at the start of Goldfinger (1964), and Martine Beswick, one of the Gypsy girls, returned as Paula in Thunderball (1965).
- The film’s USA release was delayed due to the political climate after the JFK assassination.
- The moves in the chess game played by Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal) are from the game played by Boris Spassky and David Bronstein at the USSR Championship in Leningrad in 1960.
- Cameo: [Jaqi Saltzman] [Wife of producer Harry Saltzman is leaning out the window of the Orient Express, next to the window containing Robert Shaw, as it leaves the station. The film was actually shot on the real Orient Express.]
- Vladek Sheybal (Kronsteen the chess master) was a well-studied Polish actor hesitant to accept a role in a Bond film because he thought it might not be a good career move, but his friend Sean Connery persuaded him to sign on and it has helped his career enormously.
- The boat chase at the end of the film, although supposed to be taking place in the Greek archipelago, was actually filmed in the West of Scotland. The pier James Bond takes off from is at Lunga House and the scene where the flaming barrels are thrown off the boat in Loch Craignish Ardfern, Argyll.
- The collapsing rifle given to Bond isn’t a gimmick, but was an Armalite AR-7 survival rifle which was a production item which actually does disassemble and fit into its stock. However it fires the .22 long rifle cartridge, not .25 caliber as was stated in the film. As of 2005, it is still in production, although not by Armalite. It is one of very few firearms that will float when dropped into water.
- Location manager ‘Bill Hill (I)’ was forced to play the role of the real Captain Nash when the actor hired for the role couldn’t make it at the last minute.
- The picture on the wall of the lobby of the Russian embassy is that of Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
- The man who originally played James Bond’s double in the unmasking scene looked so much like Sean Connery that director Terence Young had to re-shoot the scene with a man with a mustache.
- The mosque where James Bond meets Tatiana is called the Hagia Sophia. It was originally a church that was converted to a Mosque in 1453. It is frequently featured in art history texts as an example of domed Basilica.
- Robert Shaw and Sean Connery did most of the fight on the train themselves.
- Sean Connery considers this to be the best of the Bond films.
- Daniela Bianchi represented Italy in the 1960 Miss Universe pageant where her roommate was Miss Israel, Aliza Gur. Gur plays one of the battling gypsy women.
- Assistant director Kit Lambert later became a record producer and manager for the rock band The Who.
- The producers originally had Katina Paxinou in mind for the part of Rosa Klebb.
- Sean Connery was outfitted for the film with eight specially tailored Saville Row suits, each one costing in the region of $2000.
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- Entry created: December 27, 2006; 23:58; Last modified: August 15, 2009; 1:02
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