From Russia With Love (1963)

Excellent! One of the very best offerings in the James Bond canon. It’s a bit more elegant and sophisticated than its predecessor DR. NO and with two terrific villains. In this one, SPECTRE plays the British and the Russians against each other by luring Bond (Sean Connery) into a trap using an encryption device and a beauty (Daniela Bianchi, not much of an actress but what a looker) as bait. The film hadn’t as yet resorted to fancy gadgets that would show up in the next entry and the film contains several setpieces including a great fight between Connery and Robert Shaw in a train compartment as well as a homage to Hitchcock’s NORTH BY NORTHWEST. Shaw makes a terrific vicious killer and the great Lotte Lenya (THREE PENNY OPERA) matches him as a cold blooded villainess. This is also the first film featuring a score by John Barry though the title song is by Lionel Bart. With Pedro Armendariz, Martine Beswick, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Eunice Gayson and Vladek Sheybal.