From Russia With Love


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Details At A Glance

General
Extras
Category Bond Theatrical Trailer(s) Yes, 3 - From Russia With Love Theatrical Trailer, Dr. No/From Russia With Love, From Russia With Love/Thunderball
Rating Other Trailer(s) Yes, 3 x From Russia With Love/Thunderball (TV trailers)
Year Released 1963 Commentary Tracks Yes, 1 - Terence Young (Director) et al
Running Time 110:24 minutes Other Extras Menu Audio & Animation 
Featurette - Inside From Russia With Love
Featurette - Harry Saltzman: Showman
Radio Ads (3) 
The From Russia With Love Gallery (Production Notes, Gallery, Posters)
8-Page Collector's Booklet
RSDL/Flipper RSDL (32:37)
Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region 2,4 Director Terence Young 
Studio
Distributor

Fox Home Entertainment
 Starring Sean Connery 
Pedro Armendariz
Lotte Lenya
Robert Shaw
Bernard Lee
Desmond Llewelyn
RPI $34.95 Music John Barry 

 
Video
Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None MPEG None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1 Dolby Digital Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
16x9 Enhancement
Soundtrack Languages English (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, 192Kb/s) 
English Audio Commentary (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, 192Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio 1.66:1 (Europe) 
1.85:1 (USA)
Miscellaneous
Macrovision Yes Smoking Yes
Subtitles English 
English For The Hearing Impaired		 Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

Plot Synopsis

    I said I wasn't much of a Bond fan in my review of Dr. No. Times have changed, and I am now within the safety of numbers and can confirm myself as being a convert as promised. What has done this to me? Well, Dr. No gave me a taste of the real Bond. From Russia With Love, which I shall refer to as FRWL, quite simply has grabbed me so to speak. Is it the wit, charm and sophistication of Sean Connery's character, agent 007 - the man's man to whom all men aspire? Well, I am not one for martinis, but I can appreciate this fellow's charm over the weaker species. Did I say weaker? Well, maybe not, but you know what I mean. His worldly travels to exotic locations are also inspiring. Perhaps, though, the cat-stroking evil villain whom we never see but only hear, and who calmly terminates members of his evil organization whilst saying "we do not tolerate failure" did me over.

    This second Bond film carries off nicely from where the last one ended, with the evil organization S.P.E.C.T.R.E. trying to get revenge for the loss of one of their greatest assets, the fabulously eccentric Dr. No. This time, James Bond must face professional S.P.E.C.T.R.E. thug Donald Grant who is intent on ridding the world of the pesky super spy. Probably known mostly for his much later character "Quint" in Jaws, here he is most villainous, and during a scene where he is without his shirt and trying to look all buff, performs one of the most impressive stomach-sucking-in feats ever witnessed in motion picture history. Marvellous stuff, and all part of the slightly tongue-in-cheek nature that is a Bond film.

    Of note is the first appearance of Desmond Llewelyn as the trusty "Q", this time supplying a briefcase fair brimming with lethal devices. Things are surely coming into place as the Bond franchise takes form. Highly recommended.

Transfer Quality

Video

    This transfer is a most enjoyable one, although it does suffer from its age somewhat. Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and enhanced for 16x9 displays, I was pleased with this transfer and can forgive its minor shortcomings.

    As with Dr. No, I was most impressed with the level of detail present in the image. For the most, the transfer was sharp and revealing, although there were the odd times when it softened dramatically. The early scenes during the chess match are a good example, with a matte ceiling being the culprit. Other instances of detail reduction occur during many effects shots, but by and large they were infrequent and only highlighted the clarity of the rest of the picture. Edge enhancement was used minimally, and the image was quite film-like. There was a touch of grain present, though usually well-controlled. Shadow detail was quite good, again with the caveat of film techniques of the time such as simulated night time looking a bit ordinary.

    The colours were somewhat variable, but were generally well-saturated. Flesh tones were a give-away to the age of this film, being quite variable in intensity - sometimes being a bit pale, and at other times being a bit strong. Again, this is nothing surprising, and overall I was very pleased with the colour palette. Chroma noise was non-existent.

    I did not spot any instances of MPEG compression artefacts beyond a touch of posterization on the odd wall, and this is another example of a movie you just tend to accept as being film and forget about it being on DVD. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the film artefacts which were present for quite a lot of the movie, sometimes being quite striking. The beginning and end of the film exhibited the greatest amount of stress, no doubt due to the handling required every time a new transfer is struck. Throughout the movie, the odd white fleck showed itself here and there, and at times came close to being distracting. I would hazard that a restoration treatment would not go astray before the negative deteriorates too much.

    The disc is RSDL formatted, with the layer change occurring between chapters 11 and 12, at 32:37 minutes. A lot of care has clearly been taken in the placement of this, since it occurs early on and during a natural fade, and is not at all disruptive to the flow of the movie.
 

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain
Film-to-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is one film soundtrack on this disc along with the commentary track, and both are presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono at 192 Kilobits per second.

    Dialogue was generally understandable, although given that it was all looped it did have its moments. In particular, those scenes involving Rosa Klebb played by Lotte Lenya were fairly dreadful in that they sounded completely unnatural and not at all integrated into the mix, as well as being poorly synced. Unfortunately this is fairly typical of the time, and it is a shame since it brings the quality of the entire soundtrack down with it. Not only that, but many actors had their voices dubbed by someone else as was again typical of the early Bond films. Still, you can understand what they are saying, and given that it is a mono mix we really can't be too upset by it.

    The mono mix is quite good really, dialogue notwithstanding, being nicely balanced although typically dynamically compressed sounding. Frequency use is better than I would have expected, and on the whole it is quite acceptable.

    The subwoofer never really got a start in this movie.
 

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use  
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

    As with Dr. No, there is a well packaged, rather substantial collection of extras for the Bond enthusiast to delight over. I must say that with each new DVD I watch, I am becoming more of a fan. Material like this, when presented in such a polished manner cannot help but increase the enjoyment you derive from the movie itself.

Menu (16x9 enhanced)

    As with the previous instalment, FRWL's menus are thoroughly themed with very good animation and audio accompaniment. Straight away, the scene is set with a big red star and an awaiting "activate" button before you enter the main menu. From then on it is familiar territory, with segues between each menu selection, Bond music and a crack load of things to select. Very well done indeed, and I believe that this will be standard fare for all Bond releases in Australia since they will all be special editions!

Featurette - Inside From Russia With Love (33:44)

    Presented in 1.33:1 and non-16x9 enhanced, this is a rather good documentary on the second Bond movie. After the success of Dr. No , the producers had more money and more time to put on a more lavish affair. This kind of documentary is quite surprising for the Americans, since it actually is crammed with useful information rather than waffle and is a joy to watch. A rather sad note is that actor Pedro Armendariz was suffering from cancer during production, and to honour his wishes that this would be his last film all of his scenes were shot back-to-back as soon as possible. He committed suicide shortly thereafter.

Featurette - Harry Saltzman: Showman (17:55)

    Presented in 1.33:1 and not 16x9 enhanced. After Dr. No's look at the man behind the camera, Terence Young, we now get to know a bit about one of the producers, Mr Harry Saltzman in a fairly revealing and candid look at his life. Again, quite well done and most interesting.

Trailers

    All trailers are in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono.
Theatrical Trailers
  1. Trailer #1 (3:35) - 1.78:1 and 16x9 enhanced. Trailers were really different in those days. In fact, you could almost say you have seen the movie from this trailer alone.
  2. Dr. No / From Russia With Love (1:58) - 1.33:1, non-16x9. This is in quite poor condition.
  3. From Russia With Love/Thunderball (1:49) - 1.33:1, non-16x9. This is in extremely poor condition, with the image barely visible through the film artefacts.
TV Trailers
  1. From Russia With Love/Thunderball (0:58) - 1.33:1 non 16x9
  2. From Russia With Love/Thunderball (0:28) - a quick snippet....
  3. From Russia With Love/Thunderball (0:10) - ahhm ... just the end bit this time, and seemingly too short to be of any practical use.

Radio Ads

    Three radio advertisements for the movie, with almost identical running times to the TV trailers. Again, they just don't do this kind of thing anymore, so their inclusion is that much more worthwhile for both posterity and a general glimpse into the ways of the past.

The From Russia With Love Gallery

    No less than 129 still black and white production photographs along with 22 colour shots of various promotional posters used world-wide, all bundled into themed headings. The photos are of generally excellent quality, being sharp and clear, and all are 16x9 enhanced.

Audio Commentary

    As with Dr. No, this commentary track was produced by the Ian Flemming Foundation and is narrated by John Corp, who fairly monotonically introduces each speaker before they talk, and who himself provides a wealth of interesting information. Prerecorded interviews with director Terence Young and much of the cast are spliced together into what is really another very good commentary track and one which I enjoyed listening to.

Collector's Booklet (8 page)

R4 vs R1

    The original and currently unavailable Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;     The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;     Not much of a contest, is it? Whilst THX certification might look impressive on paper and on the packaging, it is widely understood by most rational people to be worthless in real terms and just an expensive branding. Coupled with cruddy old NTSC and a distinct lack of real extras, along with the fact that it is currently unavailable, region 4 is once again a winner.

Summary

    Another wonderfully enjoyable Bond film, arguably better than the first in most areas and a must have for fans of the gentleman spy himself.

    The video transfer is quite good, let down by film artefacts more than anything else, although still certainly very good.

    The soundtrack is wanting in fidelity and is monaural. Still, it does the job.

    Another fine job from MGM in the extras and packaging department.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Paul Cordingley ( read my bio)
18th July, 2000.

Review Equipment
   
DVD Panasonic A360 (S-Video output)
Display Rear-Projection Pioneer SD-T43W1 125cm Widescreen 16x9
Audio Decoder d t s 5.1 & Dolby Digital 5.1 (DVD Player internal decoder)
Amplification Sony STRDE-525 5x100 watts Dolby Pro-Logic / 5.1 Ready Receiver; 4 x Optimus 10-band Graphic EQ
Speakers Centre: Sony SS-CN35 100 watt; Main & Surrounds: Pioneer CS-R390-K 150-watt floorstanders; Subwoofer: Optimus 100-watt passive