Review:

The plot finds Connery's suave superspy on the trail of a top secret Russian decoding device, a quest that takes him to Istanbul and into the arms of glamorous defector Tatiana Romanova (played by Italian actress Daniela Bianchi). What Bond doesn't realise is that it's all a scheme cooked up by SPECTRE operatives Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) and 'Red' Grant (Robert Shaw) to disgrace the Secret Service and assassinate its most valuable agent.

Read the full review on BBC Movies.

Goldfinger is widely regarded as the best of the Bond films but From Russia with Love runs it a close second. Critics are generally dismissive of the Bond series but I've always believed that this film stands apart from the rest. In a way it transcends the spy genre as a thriller in its own right and a work that Alfred Hitchcock would have been proud of (there are strong parallels with 'North by Northwest'). What makes the film such a pleasure to watch is the combination of a fabulously intricate plot, wonderful characters and set pieces that are as thrilling today as they were at the time of the film's release. In particular the encounter between Bond and SPECTRE assassin Red Grant on the Orient Express is loaded with tension and has 007 at his most vulnerable in perhaps the entire series. The beauty of this scene as with many others in From Russia with Love is the subtlety of the performances and script which hold the audience's attention as much as any gadgetry or special effects which were to characterise the films to come. Film makers today could learn much from this approach and it was encouraging to see the most recent Bond film, Casino Royale, return to this territory. The film's box office performance suggests that there is still huge appetite for the high class spy thriller, and recent tensions between Russia and the West mean that From Russia with Love is as relevant today as it was in 1963.

Andrew Parsonage