'From Russia' still something to love

Robert Shaw and Sean Connery in From Russia with Love

One of my college professors reflected one day that From Russia with Love was the best of the James Bond films. This was early in the franchise and Goldfinger had only recently been released, so the pool of Bond movies to pick from was small. His only argument that I can remember was that each of the secret weapons packed into Bond's briefcase was put to good use.

Having just finished Ian Fleming's novel From Russia with Love, I can supply another reason why the movie with that title ranks with the best, not just up to Goldfinger but up till now: It follows the book.  Most James Bond movies use the titles and maybe a few characters from Fleming's novels, and not much else. Their plots are often outlandish, anything to justify lots of explosions, fights and special effects. I watched the film again while in the middle of the novel, and I was amazed how closely what's on the screen corresponds with what's on the page. And what's on the page is pretty darned good.

Sure there are places where the film strays from the novel, but usually for good reason. Bond doesn't make his entrance in the book until page 95 in my edition, more than one-third of the way into the story. That wouldn't do in a James Bond movie. The first part of the novel is taken up with the Russian plot to kill Bond and with Red Grant, the Brit turned Soviet assassin who is sent to do the deed. All this is dealt with quickly and changed somewhat in the movie. After all, people were going to buy tickets to see Sean Connery, not Robert Shaw.

In the book, a character is shot as he steps out of Marilyn Monroe's mouth in a giant billboard. In the movie he steps out of Anita Ekberg's mouth, Monroe having died the year before the movie was released. And in the book Bond doesn't have a briefcase full of weaponry. In fact there is a wonderful line near the end that reads, "If only his Service went in for those explosive toys!" It is as if Fleming had anticipated the film's gadgetry.

Perhaps the most striking difference between the two is the ending. Oh, yes, in both we have the confrontation  between Bond and Col. Klebb, that little woman with the switch-blade shoe. The result of that clash is quite different, however. Fleming leaves us with a cliffhanger that in 1957, when the book was published, must have made readers anxious for the next book in the series.