Following the financial success of
Dr. No, United Artists approved a second James Bond film. The studio doubled the budget offered to
Eon Productions with $2 million, and also granted a bonus to Sean Connery, who would receive $100,000 along with his $54,000 salary. As
President John F. Kennedy had named Fleming's novel
From Russia, with Love among his ten favourite books of all time in
Life magazine, Most of the crew from the first film returned, with major exceptions being production designer
Ken Adam, who went to work on
Dr. Strangelove and was replaced by
Dr. Nos uncredited art director
Syd Cain. Title designer
Maurice Binder was replaced by
Robert Brownjohn. Stunt coordinator
Bob Simmons was unavailable and was replaced by Peter Perkins
John Barry replaced
Monty Norman as composer of the soundtrack. The film introduced several conventions which would become essential elements of the series: a
pre-title sequence, the Blofeld character (referred to in the film only as "Number 1", though Blofeld is mentioned in the end credits, with the actor labeled as "?"), a secret-weapon gadget for Bond, a helicopter sequence (repeated in every subsequent Bond film except
The Man with the Golden Gun), a postscript action scene after the main climax, a theme song with lyrics, and the line "James Bond will return/be back" in the credits.
Writing Ian Fleming's novel was a
Cold War thriller but the producers replaced the Soviet undercover agency
SMERSH with the crime syndicate SPECTRE so as to avoid controversial political overtones. but he was replaced because of a lack of progress. Thus, two of
Dr. Nos writers,
Johanna Harwood and
Richard Maibaum, returned for the second film in the series. Maibaum kept on making rewrites as filming progressed. Red Grant was added to the Istanbul scenes just prior to the film crew's trip to Turkey; this brought more focus to the SPECTRE plot, as Grant started saving Bond's life there (a late change during shooting involved Grant killing the bespectacled spy at
Hagia Sophia instead of Bond, who ends up just finding the man dead). Uncredited rewrites were contributed by
Berkely Mather.
Casting Although uncredited, the actor who played Number 1 was Anthony Dawson, who had played Professor Dent in the previous Bond film,
Dr. No, and appeared in several of Young's films. In the end credits, Blofeld is credited with a
question mark. Blofeld's lines were redubbed by Viennese actor Eric Pohlmann in the final cut. Several actresses were considered for the role of Tatiana, including Italians
Sylva Koscina and
Virna Lisi, Danish actress
Annette Vadim, Polish actress
Magda Konopka, Swedish actress
Pia Lindström, and English-born
Tania Mallet. Elga Gimba Andersson was nearly cast in the role but was ultimately not chosen. The scene in which Bond finds Tatiana in his hotel bed was used for Bianchi's
screen test, with Dawson standing in, this time, as Bond. In her initial scene with Klebb, Tatiana refers to training for the ballet, making a reference to the actress's background. Greek actress
Katina Paxinou was considered for the role of Rosa Klebb, but was unavailable. Terence Young cast Austrian singer Lotte Lenya after hearing one of her musical recordings. Young wanted Kronsteen's portrayer to be "an actor with a remarkable face", so the minor character would be well remembered by audiences. This led to the casting of Vladek Sheybal, whom Young also considered convincing as an intellectual. Sheybal was initially hesitant to take the role but was convinced by Connery's girlfriend
Diane Cilento. Beswick was mis-credited as 'Martin Beswick' in the film's opening titles, but this error was fixed for the 2001 DVD release. Mexican actor Pedro Armendáriz was recommended to Young by director
John Ford to play Kerim Bey. After experiencing increasing discomfort on location in Istanbul, Armendáriz was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. Filming in Istanbul was terminated, the production moved to Britain, and Armendáriz's scenes were brought forward so that he could complete his scenes without delay. Though visibly in pain, he continued working as long as possible. When he could no longer work, he returned home and killed himself.
Filming Filming began on April 1, 1963, at
Pinewood Studios. However, to qualify for the British film funding of the time, at least 70 per cent of the film had to have been filmed in Great Britain or the Commonwealth. The Gypsy camp was also to be filmed in an actual camp in
Topkapi, but was actually shot in a replica of it in Pinewood. Principal photography wrapped on 23 August. Ian Fleming spent a week in the Istanbul shoot, supervising production and touring the city with the producers. Production Designer Syd Cain built up the "chess pawn" motif in his $150,000 set for the brief sequence. After the unexpected loss of Armendáriz, production proceeded, experiencing complications from uncredited rewrites by
Berkely Mather during filming. Editor
Peter Hunt set about editing the film while key elements were still to be filmed, helping to restructure the opening scenes. Hunt and Young came up with the idea of moving the Red Grant training sequence to the beginning of the film (prior to the main title), a signature feature that has been an enduring hallmark of every Bond film since. The briefing with Blofeld was rewritten, and back projection was used to refilm Lotte Lenya's lines. The helicopter chase was filmed with a
radio controlled miniature helicopter. and the explosion, shot in Pinewood, got out of control, burning
Walter Gotell's eyelids Photographer
David Hurn was commissioned by the producers of the James Bond films to shoot a series of stills with
Sean Connery and the actresses of the film. When the
prop Walther PPK pistol did not arrive, Hurn volunteered the use of his own Walther LP-53
air pistol. Though the photographs of the "James Bond is Back" posters of the US release airbrushed out the long barrel of the pistol,
film poster artist Renato Fratini used the long-barrelled pistol for his drawings of Connery on the British posters. For the opening credits, Maurice Binder had disagreements with the producers and did not want to return. Designer Robert Brownjohn stepped into his place, and projected the credits on female dancers, inspired by
constructivist artist
László Moholy-Nagy projecting light onto clouds in the 1920s. Brownjohn's work started the tradition of scantily clad women in the Bond films' title sequences.
Music From Russia with Love is the first Bond film in the series with John Barry as the primary soundtrack composer. The theme song was composed by
Lionel Bart of
Oliver! fame and sung by
Matt Monro, although the title credit music is a lively instrumental version of the tune beginning with Barry's brief "James Bond Is Back" then segueing into
Monty Norman's "
James Bond Theme". Monro's vocal version is later played during the film (as source music on a radio) and properly over the film's end titles.
Frank Sinatra was considered for singing the theme song, but Sinatra turned the song down. Recalling his visit to Istanbul, John Barry said, "It was like no place I'd ever been in my life. [The Trip] was supposedly to seep up the music, so Noel Rogers and I used to go 'round to these nightclubs and listen to all this stuff. We had the strangest week, and really came away with nothing, except a lot of ridiculous stories. We went back, talked to Lionel, and then he wrote 'From Russia with Love.''' In this film, Barry introduced the percussive theme "
007"—action music that came to be considered the "secondary James Bond theme". He composed it to have a lighter, enthusiastic and more adventurous theme to relax the audience. The completed film features a holdover from the Monty Norman-supervised
Dr. No music, as the post-rocket-launch music from
Dr. No is played in
From Russia with Love during the helicopter and speedboat attacks. ==Release and reception==