Trivia
During the helicopter sequence towards the end of the film, the inexperienced pilot flew too close to Sean Connery, almost killing him.
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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.
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Krilencu is supposed to be Bulgarian, but uses the Romanian or Moldovan spelling--the Bulgarian would be Krylenko. His hideout is behind a billboard advertising Call Me Bwana, also produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman.
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When then President John F. Kennedy listed Ian Fleming's book among his top ten favorite novels of all time, a list published in Life Magazine, March 17, 1961, the producers decided to make this the second James Bond movie. 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 a private screening in the White House, November 20, 1963.
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In this film, James Bond does not say "Bond, James Bond" despite the fact that he does say it in the book this film was based on.
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"Q"/ Major Boothroyd played by Desmond Llewelyn appears for the first time. This character was played by Peter Burton in Dr. No. 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. Q is referred to by his real name, "Major Boothroyd," only in Dr. No, this movie, and The Spy Who Loved Me.
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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. Some sources deny that he appears.
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The scene in which James Bond and Tatiana Romonava first meet in the hotel suite has since been used as an audition scene for potential Bond actors and Bond girls. This can be seen in the "making of" documentaries for other Bond films.
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The garden setting in the opening sequence was inspired by Last Year at Marienbad which had a lush garden setting with statues. It was actually the garden at Pinewood Studios and director Terence Young had the garden recreated in principal from the art house classic.
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The hulking blond assassin Red Grant provided a template for a number of blond European henchmen that would proliferate the James Bond series in later movies such as Hans in You Only Live Twice; Erich Kriegler in For Your Eyes Only; Venz in A View to a Kill; Necros in The Living Daylights; Peter Franks in Diamonds Are Forever and Stamper in Tomorrow Never Dies.
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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. Barry himself felt that Goldfinger was the first film in the series where he had complete creative control over the soundtrack.
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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 movie, thus instigating the now-traditional pre-credits sequence. The man who originally played James Bond's double looked so much like Sean Connery that director Terence Young had to re-shoot the scene with a man with a mustache.
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James Bond doesn't appear until 17 minutes and 15 seconds into the movie. Red Grant's voice is first heard 1h 20m in.
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Vehicles featured included The Orient Express Train; SPECTRE's two-seater Hiller UH-12C helicopter; a yellow C30 1961 Chevrolet flatbed delivery truck; a 1960 Ford Fordor Ranch Wagon; a Venetian water taxi gondola; a Fairey Huntress 23 speed boat being pursued by two Huntsman 28 and two Huntress speedboats. 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 IV ½ Liter Sports Tourer drophead coupé convertible with MTS radio car-telephone, a uncommon toy for 1963 and only new to Britain at the time of the film. Bond never has a Bentley car again in a Bond film except for Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again.
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Bond's trick attaché case is the first true Bond film gadget. Other "state of the art" gadgets of the time are the mobile car phone in Bond's Bentley, the miniature tape recorder in the camera, the AR7 survival rifle, the retractable garrote in Grant's watch, and the SPECTRE spring loaded shoe knives.
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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 failed at the box office. The helicopter chase scene is a homage to Hitchcock's cropduster sequence in North by Northwest.
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The brutal fight in the train compartment between James Bond and Red Grant lasts only a few minutes on screen and took three weeks to film. Most of it was performed by the actors themselves, rather than doubles.
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By the time the film opened in the US in April 1964, production was already underway on Goldfinger.
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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 organization SPECTRE, seeking revenge for the death of their operative, Doctor No in Dr. No.
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Although he had his reservations about the choice of Sean Connery for the part of James Bond, after seeing him in this film writer Ian Fleming was completely won over by the actor.
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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.
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The headquarters of criminal spy organization SPECTRE in this film is actually the main office administration building of Pinewood Studios.
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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.
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First Bond film to end with the declaration "James Bond will return in ...", in this case it was Goldfinger. A tradition that would continue until it was used for the last time at the end of Octopussy.
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Three Beauty Pageant Queens are actresses in this film: Daniela Bianchi, Martine Beswick, Aliza Gur. Bianchi (Italy) and Gur (Israel) were roommates at Miss Universe 1960, which Bianchi won.
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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.
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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.
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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". Fleming's own experience at an Interpol Conference in Istanbul, Turkey provided the setting. The film To Paris with Love provided the tile.
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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 organization "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.
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The James Bond ally character of Ali Kerim Bey was known as "Darko" Kerim Bey in the original Ian Fleming novel of the same name.
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Albert R. Broccoli once named this film along with The Spy Who Loved Me and Goldfinger as his three favorite James Bond movies, according to an interview with the Hollywood Reporter's Robert Osborne. Sean Connery considers this to be the best of the Bond films.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The periscope in the scene in which Bond and Kerim Bey spy on the Russian Embassy from the Basilica Cistern was actually a dummy wooden periscope double made by UK manufacturing company Barr and Stroud.
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Colonel Rosa Klebb is based on an actual Russian colonel that Ian Fleming once wrote about in the Sunday Times. Katina Paxinou was the producers' first choice for the role.
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The literal translations of some of this film'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) ; 007: From Russia With Love (Spain); Moscow Against 007 (Brazil); 007 Averted The Spy Plot (China); To 007, From Russia With Love (Italy); Agent 007 Is Hunted (Denmark) and From Moscow With Love (Poland)
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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 near the site of the US nuclear test site in the Utah desert. Armendáriz 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, such as the Gypsy camp battle sequence however, director Terence Young had to double for the actor in some of his long shots. One month after all his scenes were completed, Armendáriz, in emulation of his friend Ernest Hemingway, committed suicide in a hospital in Los Angeles as his cancer progressed into the advanced stages.
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In the books, Bond often drives his beloved Bentley. The car appears in this film for the only time in the regular series.
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Walter Gotell, who plays Morzeny, later played General Gogol in The Spy Who Loved Me and reprised the role of Gogol in 5 Bond films after that.
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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, and Martine Beswick (called Martin Beswick in the credits), one of the Gypsy girls, returned as Paula in Thunderball.
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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.
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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.
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The boat chase at the end of the movie, 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.
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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.
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Location manager William Hill 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.
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The picture on the wall of the lobby of the Russian embassy is that of Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
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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.
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Assistant director Kit Lambert later became a record producer and manager for the rock band The Who.
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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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A spin-off video-game was released a staggering forty-two years after the film was made. James Bond 007: From Russia with Love actually includes Sean Connery's likeness and he even provided the voice. It is Connery's last performance as James Bond to date and he voiced it twenty-two years after Never Say Never Again.
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Product placements, brand integrations and promotional tie-ins for this movie include Rolex Watches, James Bond wears a Rolex Submariner; Taittinger Blanc de Blanc Champagne; a billboard advertising another movie made by the Bond producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli called Call Me Bwana starring Anita Ekberg and Bob Hope; and Bentley motor vehicles, James Bond drives a Derby Bentley Mark 4 ½ Liter Sports Tourer convertible, the only time he drives a Bentley in the Eon Productions series.
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The Royal World Premiere of From Russia with Love was held on 10 October 1963 and attended by John Russell and The Duchess of Bedford. It was held at multiple venues in London which included the London Pavilion with the Odeon Theatre, Leicester Square being the main venue for the occasion. This was the final James Bond premiere attended by James Bond creator Ian Fleming before his death.
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The film's title song "From Russia With Love" sung by Matt Monro can be heard on the radio when James Bond and Sylvia Trench are sitting in a boat having a picnic. This song was the first ever James Bond title song to receive a Best Song Golden Globe nomination. A number of others would follow for Bond movies. A cover version of this song sung by Natacha Atlas can be heard on the David Arnold Bond song compilation album, "Shaken and Stirred: the David Arnold James Bond Project".
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According to the film's CD Soundtrack sleeve notes, this film's theme song debuted in the UK Charts on 14 November 1963 and went to No. #20. In the USA, the film's soundtrack album charted on the 2nd of May 1964 and went to No. #27. A number of tracks on the album do not appear in the film whilst the main titles track on the album is different to that in the film. The soundtrack has never had an extended release with the release of extra tracks like other Bond soundtracks apparently due to the masters being lost.
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At the beginning of the film, the floor beneath the chess tournament is laid out in a 10 by 8 pattern with 80 squares instead of the standard 64 making for a wider visual shot.
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The helmsman of the lead SPECTRE powerboat pursuing Bond is Peter Twiss OBE DSC who, in 1956, flew the Fairey Delta 2 aircraft to a new world air speed record of 1,132 mph. At the time of the shooting of the film he was working for Fairey Marine at Hamble, Hampshire, the manufacturer of the powerboats used. Mr. Twiss details his role in the film in his autobiography "Faster then the Sun". He describes a misunderstanding between Sean Connery and Terence Young regarding timing during the fuel explosion sequence which resulted in a re-shoot after 2 days delay.
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On the Istanbul ferry journey, the Maiden's tower can be seen in the distance behind Bond. This was Renard's lair in The World Is Not Enough.
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Much of the film was shot on location, with only a bare minimum of back projection used. Something quite unusual for a film of 1963.
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Red Grant has no dialog until he first meets Bond, first speaking in a rich, upper class English accent. After he's revealed his true identity to Bond, Grant's English accent changes into a lower-class Irish accent as he is explaining the SPECTRE background plot.
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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. 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 Italy's Miss Universe Daniela Bianchi got the part. Her voice was dubbed in the film by an uncredited Barbara Jefford in order to hide her thick Italian accent.
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Sean Connery said that this movie was his personal favorite out of the Bond films he did.
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The gadget Bond uses to check his hotel telephone for bugs is actually a device called an Elcometer. It is used to check the thickness (in thousandths of an inch) of surface coatings, usually paint, on ferrous surfaces. The needle moves sharply across the scale because, though the bodies of that type of telephone were plastic, their bases were painted steel.
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The actor playing the Bond double did not actually have a mustache. On set, the filmmakers became concerned that audience members not yet familiar with Sean Connery would be confused when Grant pulls off the Bond/Connery mask. The mustache was added to make it clear that the dead "Bond" was someone else.
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From Russia with Love marks the last appearance of the Sylvia Trench (Eunice Gayson) character, who also appeared in Dr. No. The original plan was for Sylvia to appear in each film as Bond's regular girlfriend, continually frustrated when Bond is called away for his next assignment. This idea was, obviously, scrapped.
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A sequence was filmed wherein the car of the Bulgar is trapped between two other cars while he is trying to follow Bond. The Bulgar approaches the window of one of the cars to find Kerim behind the wheel. Kerim smiles and tells him, "My friend, that is life." These scenes were cut from the finished film.
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Though he isn't shown actually taking it, it is implied that Bond keeps Grant's garrote watch, as the watch appears in On Her Majesty's Secret Service when Bond cleans out his desk, as well as in a deleted scene in A View to a Kill when the Paris police return Bond's property.
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From Russia with Love broke box-office records, launching Sean Connery as a major star, rather than Dr. No.
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The only word spoken by Kronsteen during the chess sequence is "check". Incidentally, the character himself is a Czech.
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Although it was not released until quite late in 1963, the film was the biggest box-office success of the year in Britain - no small achievement in the year of such hit films as "Tom Jones", "The Great Escape" and "The Birds", all of which were released in the summer. Not only that, but in the 82 days between its premiere in London and the end of 1963, it had become the most lucrative film of any kind ever to be released in British cinemas. One industry analyst described the phenomenon of its popularity as "akin to Beatlemania" - a remark which must have made United Artists very happy as they were about to make the first Beatles movie, "A Hard Day's Night".
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In the book of the same name Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) is described as sadist who is an expert at inducing extreme pain and enjoys the act of torturing.
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Cameo
Anthony Dawson:
In the first appearance of the Ernst Stavro Blofeld villain character in a James Bond movie. His part is uncredited in the credits, which are attributed to a question mark. Dawson had previously appeared in Dr. No as Professor Dent and again would return as Blofeld in Thunderball. 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.
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Dorothea Bennett:
The wife of director Terence Young as a Woman on Bridge in Venice who films James Bond and Tatiana Romanova.
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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 movies, the others being Dr. No and Goldfinger.
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Jacqueline 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.
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Nikki Van der Zyl:
As the voice (uncredited) of a Receptionist. She dubbed other actresses' voices as Honey Ryder in Dr. No and Domino Derval in Thunderball.
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Terence Young:
The director appears (uncredited) as an extra and as a body double (uncredited) for Pedro Armendáriz.
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Spoilers
Kronsteen's death, the boat chase, the opening sequence with the fake Bond being killed by Red Grant, and all scenes with Blofeld were not in the original novel. These were inventions of the film version, most of which due in part to the fact that the main enemy agency was changed to the fictitious SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) rather than SMERSH (Shmert Spionam=Death to Spies), which at one time was a real Soviet counterintelligence agency.
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The first line of the Ian Fleming James Bond novel "From Russia with Love" reads: "The naked man who lay splayed out on his face beside the swimming pool might have been dead."
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The last line of the novel reads: "He said, or thought he said, 'I've already got the loveliest...'. Bond pivoted slowly on his heel and crashed headlong to the wine-red floor." Bond dies a happy, protracted death after being lightly wounded by Rosa Klebb's shoe with a poisoned knife. Ian Fleming was frustrated with the lack of success the novels had had. But when this turned out to be a bestseller, Fleming continued the series instead, and later said From Russia With Love was the best of all the Bond novels.
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On-screen body count: 21. This does not include the real Captain Nash, who is presumably killed by Grant off-camera, and Morzeny, who is seen burning following the explosion of the fuel tanks in the Adriatic, but not clearly seen to be dead.
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