From Russia With Love (Extras)

• Cert: N/A
• Cat.no: N/A
• Running time: 74 minutes
• Pressing: 2000
• Sound: Stereo
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: None

From Russia with Loveis the second James Bond feature film again starring Sean Conneryas the non-conformist hero who always got the girl and again directed byTerence Young.

This review is a slight departure from the norm because it features theDVD extras only which have been kindly supplied by MGM’s PR company on a videotape.

The extras to appear on the forthcoming DVD, released June 26th 2000, areas follows :

• 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 Audio spots: with the audio sourced from the cassette master.No visuals during this piece.

Some of the content, particularly the TV spots, aren’t exactly first-ratein terms of picture quality and sound, but all the interviews are clear andeasy to hear. No doubt the quality as it will appear on the DVD will be evenbetter.

However, I’m judging the content here and if every DVD that was releasedcontained well over an hour of extras, I’d be a very happy man. I will certainlylook forward to see how the overall DVD turns out.

The following is a list of all the Bond films planned for DVD over the nextyear :

• 22nd May 2000 “Dr. No“
• 22nd May 2000 “The World is Not Enough“
• 26th June 2000 “From Russia with Love“
• 24th July 2000 “Goldfinger“
• 28th August 2000 “Thunderball“
• 25th September 2000 “You only live twice“
• 25th September 2000 “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service“
• 30th October 2000 “Diamonds are forever“
• 30th October 2000 “Live and Let Die“
• 27th November 2000 “The Man with the Golden Gun“
• 27th November 2000 “The Spy who loved Me“
• 26th December 2000 “Moonraker“
• 26th December 2000 “For Your Eyes Only“
• 29th January 2001 “Octopussy“
• 29th January 2001 “A View to a kill“
• 26th February 2001 “The Living Daylights“
• 26th February 2001 “Licence to Kill“
• 26th March 2001 “Goldeneye“
• 26th March 2001 “Tomorrow Never Dies“

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.