From Russia With Love on DVD

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Dom Robinson reviews


Special EditionDistributed by

MGM

    Cover

  • Cert:
  • Cat.no: 16175 DVD
  • Running time: 105 minutes
  • Year: 1963
  • Pressing: 2000
  • Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
  • Chapters: 32 plus extras
  • Sound: Dolby Digital 1.0 (Mono)
  • Languages: English
  • Subtitles: English (and hard of hearing)
  • Widescreen: 1.77:1
  • 16:9-enhanced: Yes
  • Macrovision: No
  • Disc Format: DVD 9
  • Price: £19.99
  • Extras : Scene index, Booklet, Documentaries: “Inside From Russia WithLove” & “Harry Saltzman: Showman”, Stills Gallery, Original TV & Radio Ads,Original Theatrical Trailers, Animated Main Menu, Audio Commentary

    Director:

      Terence Young

    (Cold Sweat, Dr. No, From Russia With Love, The Jigsaw Man, Thunderball)

Producers:

    Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman

Screenplay:

    Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood and Berkely Mather

Music:

    Monty Norman

Cast:

    James Bond: Sean Connery (The Anderson Tapes, The Avengers, Diamonds Are Forever, Dr. No, Dragonheart, Entrapment, First Knight, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Highlander 1 & 2, The Hunt For Red October,Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, Just Cause, The Longest Day, The Man with the Deadly Lens, Marnie, Murder on the Orient Express, The Name of the Rose, The Presidio, Ransom, Rising Sun, The Rock, The Russia House, Thunderball,Time Bandits, The Untouchables, You Only Live Twice)
    Tatiana Romanova: Daniela Bianchi (From Russia with Love)
    Kerim Bey: Pedro Armendáriz (3 Godfathers, From Russia with Love, Survival Run, Tulsa)
    Rosa Klebb: Lotte Lenya (From Russia with Love)
    Donald “Red” Grant: Robert Shaw (Battle of the Bulge, Custer of the West, The Dambusters, The Deep, Force 10 From Navarone, From Russia with Love, Jaws, A Man For All Seasons, The Royal Hunt of the Sun, The Sting,The Taking of Pelham 123)
    M: Bernard Lee (The Battle of the River Plate, The Blue Lamp, Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Live and Let Die, The Man Upstairs, Moonraker, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, Thunderball,Whistle Down the Wind, You Only Live Twice)

From Russia With Loveis what James Bond (Sean Connery) writes on the postcard of TatianaRomanova (Daniela Bianchi) which he leaves in the hands of MissMoneypenny as he sets off, once again, to find the bad guys.

S.P.E.C.T.R.E. are none too happy since the defeat of Dr. No and Bond’stask is to break in and find a Lektor decoding machine, a device socomplex it makes Alan Turing‘s Enigma machine look like an abacus.First he must meet up with Kerim Bay (Pedro Armendáriz), head ofStation T, Turkey and bring back Tatiana – who wants to defect – and theLektor back to England.

The chief baddies are Lotte Lenya as Rosa Klebb, the inspiration forAustin Powers‘Frau Farbissina and Donald “Red” Grant (Robert Shaw, some twelve yearsbefore he did battle with a rubber shark)

Bond girls come in different shapes and sizes but 007 pulled a blinder whenhe stops a girl-fight over who gets to marry a certain man – and ends upbedding them both.

This film marks the first appearance for Desmond Llewelyn as Q,although here he’s referred to as “The equipment officer from Q-branch”,so not quite as snappy then.

Once again, the film was shot an intended for cinematic presentation at 1.66:1in Europe, while being matted to 1.85:1 for the USA. Here we have ananamorphic 16:9 version which just appears to crop a little of the top andbottom that would normally have been seen in European cinemas – but that’sfine since I would have zoomed in the picture to fill my widescreen TV.

The print is fairly clean and does look a little dated, but then it is almost40 years old. The average bitrate is a fine 6.3Mb/s, often peaking at 8Mb/s.

The sound is in the original mono as you’d expect. In the days of Dolby Digital5.1 multi-channel surround sound, any action moments may sound a bit mutedcompared to that featured in more recent films while the score is lifted toshriek through the speakers, but again you know what to expect and the Bondmain Bond theme always packs a punch.

Extras : Chapters :The usual 32 chapters for an MGM, which is an excellent amount. If only some other DVDcompanies could take a lesson from this one. Languages & Subtitles :English is the only language on the disc – in Dolby Digital Mono – and there are subtitlesfor English (and hard of hearing). And there’s more… :MGM seem to be pulling out all the stops for their Bond collection and starting with thefirst Bond film made we have a great amount for you to sink your teeth into.

  • Featurette (27 mins): on co-producer on the first nine Bond films and one-timearmy intelligence officer Harry Saltzman, narrated by Marie Clairuand featuring plenty of positive comments, filmed recently too, from his son and daughter, plusmany people including director Peter Hunt, producer Michael G.Wilson, production designers Peter Murton and Ken Adam,Former President of United Artists David Picker,actors Topol and Roger Moore,actresses Honor Blackman and Ursula Andress,composer John Barry,Harry’s assistant Sue St. John, screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz,the late Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and his wife Dana Broccoli.

  • Trailer (2 mins) combining From Russia with Love and Dr. No

  • Trailer (2 mins) combining From Russia with Love and Thunderball

  • TV spot (1 mins) combining From Russia with Love and Thunderball

  • TV spot (20 seconds) combining From Russia with Love and Thunderball

  • TV spot (10 seconds) combining From Russia with Love and Thunderball

  • Featurette (35 mins): “Inside From Russia With Love”, narrated byPatrick MacNee, discussing how certain political aspects wereremoved from the original novel, how that same novel was divulged tobecome one of President John F. Kennedy’s favourite ten books – in 1961 -and an analysis of the action sequences. It also features more recentinterviews with the cast and crew, including some of the above in the previousfeaturette and Sean Connery, which give you as much information as youneed to know, such as detailing how editor Peter Hunt helped put thefilm together when time and the budget were extremely tight and how innovationwas called for, not to mention the fact that it’s the firstfilm to feature the late Desmond Llewellyn as gadget-man Q.

  • Anamorphic Theatrical Trailer: From Russia With Love,running for 3 mins 33 secs.

  • 3 Radio adverts: with the audio sourced from the cassette master.

  • Stills Gallery: Scores of photos from several different pointsin the film

  • Audio Commentary: which features director Terence Youngand various members of the cast and crew.

Some of the content, particularly the TV spots, aren’t exactly first-ratein terms of picture quality and sound, but it adds to the nostalgic qualityand all the interviews are clear and easy to hear. Menu :Another cool animated and scored main menu with a chess theme, the game thatopens the film. The initial screen offers you the choice to start the film,select a scene, choose a language or watch the extras.

A second Bond film and another one I haven’t seen before, save for someparts of it. The only problem with this film is that there’s too many slowbits in it and today’s action fans will find it rather underwhelming at times.

However, the picture and sound are just as you expect and there’s stacks ofsupplemental material, proving that MGM are shaping up Bond’s outings on DVDto be extra-packed.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALL
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.

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