For many, From Russia With Love is the quintessential Bond film. As the second in the series, it had the advantage of needing far less set up and improved on some of the weaker aspects of the first film. At the same time, it turns up the intensity on some of the more iconic aspects of the franchise.
There are plenty of reasons to love this film. Chief among those reasons might be Robert Shaw as the blonde assassin known only as Grant. He’s menacing and frightening. You know how frightening he is? He strangles James Bond to death in the very first scene and we buy it completely. This whole film revolves as much around the villains as it does Bond, and it makes us feel like he’s more vulnerable than he’s ever been.
Bond is up against brilliant minds, strong wills, and cunning killers and they never fail at an opportunity to show us. Even the chess match after the opening credits with Kronsteen. This is clearly a match between grandmasters and Kronsteen, the planner for SPECTRE, is taking his time. But when he receives a coded message, he quickly wins the game in two moves so he can leave immediately. Bond is brilliant, but is he intelligent enough to avoid falling into a trap by so brilliant a strategist?
And, though she’s the subject of parody and ridicule, Rosa Klebb is positively frightening with her knife shoes.
More than anything, I love how “spy” this movie feels. From the secret recognition codes with the cigarettes to the back and forth between himself and his opponents, this entire film feels like a chess game on steroids. And a chess game is a good analogy, since this Bond film has one of the most understated climaxes and endings of any of Connery’s films. From Goldfinger on they escalate into increasingly absurd battles and this one was much more about the personal danger Bond himself was in, not what was at stake.
Overall, this is one of the more solid Bond films and well before Connery’s films got to be clownshoes (cough, Diamonds Are Forever, cough). It put Bond in personal danger better than almost any of the other Connery films. I’m giving this film 3 1/2 martinis out of 4, for exciting action set pieces, a smooth Sean Connery, and a positively frightening Robert Shaw.