From Russia with Love 4K 1963 Ultra HD 2160p

James Bond's second mission is to rescue and extract from Istanbul a Russian agent, a beautiful woman who knows the secret of the top-secret Lektor encryption device, as well as the device itself. An unknown agent of Spectre, Ernest Stavro Blofeld, interferes with the smooth operation. His mission is not only to exacerbate relations between Great Britain and the Soviet Union and return Lektor to Russia for a large reward, but also to avenge the death of Dr. No by luring Bond into a cunning trap.

User Review

Although the book Doctor No chronologically follows From Russia with Love, it was not difficult to switch the order of the novels. President Kennedy's love for this book also played a role. As expected, changes were made to the text where it made sense, because to adapt Fleming's work verbatim would mean sacrificing dynamism. No, Harry Saltzman, Albert Broccoli, and Terence Young were not prepared to make such sacrifices, so they opened the film with a duel between the killer and Agent 007, or at least created the illusion of this nighttime confrontation in a realm of rustling sounds and darkness.

The villains have the first word, and we learn the details of their insidious plan and see SPECTRE from the inside. We are introduced to Colonel Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya, who willingly took on the “unglamorous” role), chess player Kronstein, and the invisible Ernst Stavro Blofeld himself, number 1 (Anthony Dawson, who returned from Dr. No, sat in the chair with the cat, but the character was re-voiced). Much remained true to the book, such as the “knuckle check,” but the key replacement of “SMERSH” with ‘SPECTRE’ allowed the sharp edges of the East-West confrontation to be removed, the training camp to be shown, and a new name to be invented for the encryption device, which was called “Lektor.”

Of course, Sean Connery remained in his repertoire—Bond again alternates between work and personal pleasures, cruelty and tenderness. But it is much more important to talk about the head of the Turkish department, Agent T, Kerim Bey, played by Pedro Armendáriz, as the actor was very ill—From Russia with Love was the last significant film in his long career. Agent T turned out exactly as he was in the book — a kind, sociable, but stern professional with a wealth of experience in secret affairs. Without him, the film, even with Sean Connery's charisma, would not have been a success.

In the middle of the film, the pace of events slows down as usual. A simple party in a gypsy camp, where firecrackers scared the horses, and personal revenge on the Bulgarian Krilenko conveyed the colour of the setting – a colour that was present in the early films, which were closer to the texts... Speaking of texts, the Orient Express, important cargo, murders, and an atmosphere of uncertainty... Personally, I believe that Fleming read Agatha Christie and may have used some fragments from her detective stories. He could also have drawn on his personal experience, as he had traveled to Turkey more than once and was even on the set of From Russia with Love.

A little more about beauty... Daniela Bianchi was not an actress but a model who represented Italy in the Miss Universe pageant, but she beat her competitors and got the role of Tatiana Romanova. True, she also had to be dubbed, which, incidentally, did not affect the quality of the “Russian.” Daniela did not end up becoming the epitome of a “Bond girl,” but she did start the fashion for black ribbons... And all the actors who were considered for the role of Bond were made to rehearse the scene of Bond and Tatiana's first meeting. If you don't believe me, ask Daniel Craig.

The final part of the film is pleasing in several ways. There is a fight with the magnificent Robert Shaw (an actor with brilliant facial expressions, who was only given a line in the 80th minute, but quickly won the audience's trust) in a place where there is no room for a fight. The effort put into creating this scene was worth it, I can safely say. And the subsequent descent from the train, the escape from helicopters and boats, the very beautiful ending in Venice — none of this was in the book, so these scenes are welcome additions to an already chic film. Without a doubt, From Russia with Love has become a classic—after more than forty years, any complaints about it sound silly. It is much better to note what this film brought to the table: clever gadgets, memorable international enemies, and, of course, the girls in the opening credits...

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (77.5 Mb/s)
Resolution: 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Info Audio

#English: Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos 7.1
#English: Dolby Digital Plus with Dolby Atmos 5.1
#French: Dolby Digital 5.1
#German: Dolby Digital 5.1
#Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1
#Spanish (Latino): Dolby Digital 5.1
#Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
#Polish: Dolby Digital 5.1
#Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1
#Thai: Dolby Digital 5.1

Info Subtitles

English SDH, Arabic, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Spanish (Latin America), Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian.