From Russia with Love, is the second James Bond film in the official EON Productions series, and the second to star Sean Connery as the suave and sophisticated British Secret Service agent James Bond. The film was released in 1963, produced by Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and directed by Terence Young. It is based on the 1957 novel by Ian Fleming.

It is considered the best of the James Bond film series by many fans and critics. Though the film’s low-key tone contrasts with the outlandishness of Goldfinger and Thunderball, From Russia with Love is often considered the ideal Bond film that each film strives to aim for. In 2004, Total Film named it the ninth-greatest British film of all time.

Plot summary: Tov Kronsteen, a chess grandmaster, and SPECTRE’s expert planner, has devised a plot to steal a Lektor cryptographic device from the Soviets and sell it back to them while punishing British Secret Service MI6 for killing their agent Dr No. Ex-SMERSH operative Rosa Klebb is put in charge of the mission by the megalomaniac Number 1. She has already chosen a pawn: Tatiana Romanova, a cypher clerk at the Soviet consulate in Istanbul. Klebb departs to SPECTRE Island, the organisation’s secret training base, where she assigns Red Grant to be the assassin.

In London, M tells Bond that Romanova has contacted their “Station ‘T'” in Turkey, offering to defect with a Lektor, which MI6 and the CIA have been after for years. She has said that she will only defect to Bond, whose photo she has found in a Soviet intelligence file. In fact, she is following orders from Klebb, who pretends she is still working for SMERSH and that this is a SMERSH deception.

Bond flies to Istanbul to meet station head Ali Kerim Bey. He is followed from the airport by an unkempt man in glasses and by Grant. The next day, after Kerim Bey’s office is bombed, Bond and Bey spy on the Soviet consulate using a periscope from an underground tunnel beneath the consulate. Seeing rival agent Krilencu, Kerim Bey takes Bond to a rural gypsy settlement, where Kerim Bey plans to lie low while deciding how to deal with Krilencu. While two jealous gypsy girls fight over a lover, the camp is attacked by Krilencu’s men. Although he is wounded in the attack, Kerim Bey kills Krilencu the next night with Bond’s sniper rifle. When Bond returns to his hotel suite, he finds Romanova in bed waiting for him, unaware that they are being filmed by Grant and Klebb.

The next day, Romanova heads off for a rendezvous at Hagia Sophia. Bond follows her and stalks the bespectacled man who had followed him at the airport. The man attempts to intercept Romanova’s floorplan of the Soviet consulate, but he is killed by Grant. When Bond finds the body, he takes the plan. Kerim Bey and Bond set up a plan to steal the Lektor and smuggle it back to Britain. On the appointed day, Bond enters the consulate lobby. Kerim Bey then sets off an explosion under the building, which releases tear gas. In the chaos, Bond finds Romanova and escapes with the Lektor on the Orient Express. Kerim Bey and a Soviet security officer named Benz, who spots Romanova, also board the train, but Grant later kills both of them, making it appear as if they killed each other.

Tatiana Romanova with James Bond.

The train crosses southern-central Europe to Belgrade. There Bond arranges for agent Nash from “Station ‘Y'” to meet him at Zagreb. When the train stops, Grant finds and kills Nash. Grant boards the train once again, meeting Bond as Nash. He drugs Romanova at dinner, then overcomes Bond. Grant taunts him, boasting SPECTRE has been pitting the Soviets and the British against each other. He also claims that Romanova thinks that “she’s doing it all for mother Russia” when she is really working for SPECTRE. Bond tricks Grant into opening Bond’s attaché case, which releases tear gas. In the ensuing struggle, which is considered one of the most epic and realistic fight sequences in the history of cinema, Bond eventually manages to stab Grant with the knife hidden in the attaché case, and strangles Grant with his own garrote. At dawn, Bond and Romanova leave the train, hijack Grant’s getaway truck, destroy an enemy helicopter, and drive to a dock, eventually boarding a powerboat.

Number 1 is very unhappy, and summons Kronsteen and Klebb. He reminds them that SPECTRE does not tolerate failure; they blame each other. Number 1 promptly brings in Morzeny to then excecute Kronsteen with a poisoned spike in the toe of his shoe. Number 1 tells a frightened Klebb that she has one last chance. Klebb sends Morzeny after Bond with a squadron of SPECTRE’s boats. When stray bullets puncture several barrels of fuel stored on his boat, Bond throws them overboard. Pretending to surrender, he fires a signal flare into the fuel, engulfing all the enemy boats in flames.

Bond and Romanova reach Venice and check into a hotel. Rosa Klebb, disguised as a maid, attempts to steal the Lektor. In the climax, Klebb gets the drop on Bond, and holds him at gunpoint but the gun is knocked away by Romanova. Klebb releases her poisoned toe-spike, but Bond pins her to the wall with a dining chair. Romanova grabs the gun and shoots Klebb. Riding in a gondola, Bond throws the film of him and Romanova into the water, and they sail away.

See also:

• From Russia With Love: Film - Cast
• From Russia With Love: Film - Crew
• From Russia With Love: Film - Goofups
• From Russia With Love: Film - Locations
• From Russia With Love: Film - Soundtrack
• From Russia With Love: Film - Trivia