BONDATHON 2014/15: From Russia With Love (1963) - December 17, 2014
That's more like it mister Wayne... or, we're getting there. Terence Young once again rides the pulpy waves, improving on the formula along the way. It looks like we're (almost) tutto completo when it comes to Bond lore: Ernst Stavro Blofeld arrived along with SPECTRE as a full on threat to Bond's luxurious way of living (Love the cat! More cat please.), legendary Q arrived on the scene (although he is now Desmond Llewelyn and still referenced as Major Boothroyd), gadgets proved to be quite useful - as always - and if I'm correct with my count Bond managed to shag three girls before Daniela Bianchi... now that's just smart editing isn't it, beats cut to-> fireplace. Let's just say I approve of the gipsy double-whammy. What I didn't like here, compared to Dr. No's Honey Ryder, is how Tatiana apparently had a stockholm syndrome; James kept her on a pretty tight leash and she was still 'insta-love' with him, no complaints whatsoever. Goldfinger should be interesting in that regard tonight... What else is there, aside from able and rigorously trained henchman 'Red' (It's him! It's Robert Shaw!)... interesting sense of place and, ahem, geography. I like how director puts you in Istanbul's market, gipsy's yard, on a train to Yugoslavia, and manages to stay there for some time, let's you soak in the hightened set-atmosphere. Sure it's slow but always builds into something, there's a payoff. And it's either the threat of death or the thrill of the curves aka opposite sex that attracts the view, be it a violent fist fight or a belly dancer's hipnotic moves. Geography, as already mentioned, made me chuckle more than a couple of times... they went, by train, from Istanbul to Zagreb, Istria (Hey, that's not my coast!), Trieste and Venice? And, apparently, even though translations in Zagreb were pretty spot on, people of then Yugoslavia, now Croatia are florist gipsies who speak broken Russian? Hilarious and proves that James lives in a slightly shifted, different dimension (same thing happened in Casino Royale's 'Montenegro' my ass).
007 RANKING (SO FAR):
1) From Russia With Love
2) Dr. No
Last edited by m4st4 on December 18th, 2014, 3:34 am, edited 1 time in total.