Bond girls come in different shapes and sizes but 007 pulled a blinder when
he stops a girl-fight over who gets to marry a certain man - and ends up
bedding them both.
This film marks the first appearance for Desmond Llewelyn as Q,
although here he's referred to as "The equipment officer from Q-branch",
so not quite as snappy then.
Once again, the film was shot an intended for cinematic presentation at 1.66:1
in Europe, while being matted to 1.85:1 for the USA. Here we have an
anamorphic 16:9 version which just appears to crop a little of the top and
bottom that would normally have been seen in European cinemas - but that's
fine since I would have zoomed in the picture to fill my widescreen TV.
The print is fairly clean and does look a little dated, but then it is almost
40 years old. The average bitrate is a fine 6.3Mb/s, often peaking at 8Mb/s.
The sound is in the original mono as you'd expect. In the days of Dolby Digital
5.1 multi-channel surround sound, any action moments may sound a bit muted
compared to that featured in more recent films while the score is lifted to
shriek through the speakers, but again you know what to expect and the Bond
main Bond theme always packs a punch.
Extras :
Chapters :
The usual 32 chapters for an MGM, which is an excellent amount. If only some other DVD
companies could take a lesson from this one.
Languages & Subtitles :
English is the only language on the disc - in Dolby Digital Mono - and there are subtitles
for English (and hard of hearing).
And there's more... :
MGM seem to be pulling out all the stops for their Bond collection and starting with the
first Bond film made we have a great amount for you to sink your teeth into.
Featurette (27 mins): on co-producer on the first nine Bond films and one-time
army intelligence officer Harry Saltzman, narrated by Marie Clairu
and featuring plenty of positive comments, filmed recently too, from his son and daughter, plus
many people including director Peter Hunt, producer Michael G.
Wilson, production designers Peter Murton and Ken Adam,
Former President of United Artists David Picker,
actors Topol and Roger Moore,
actresses Honor Blackman and Ursula Andress,
composer John Barry,
Harry's assistant Sue St. John, screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz,
the late Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli and his wife Dana Broccoli.
Trailer (2 mins) combining From Russia with Love and Dr. No
Trailer (2 mins) combining From Russia with Love and Thunderball
TV spot (1 mins) combining From Russia with Love and Thunderball
TV spot (20 seconds) combining From Russia with Love and Thunderball
TV spot (10 seconds) combining From Russia with Love and Thunderball
Featurette (35 mins): "Inside From Russia With Love", narrated by
Patrick MacNee, discussing how certain political aspects were
removed from the original novel, how that same novel was divulged to
become one of President John F. Kennedy's favourite ten books - in 1961 -
and an analysis of the action sequences. It also features more recent
interviews with the cast and crew, including some of the above in the previous
featurette and Sean Connery, which give you as much information as you
need to know, such as detailing how editor Peter Hunt helped put the
film together when time and the budget were extremely tight and how innovation
was called for, not to mention the fact that it's the first
film to feature the late Desmond Llewellyn as gadget-man Q.
Anamorphic Theatrical Trailer: From Russia With Love,
running for 3 mins 33 secs.
3 Radio adverts: with the audio sourced from the cassette master.
Stills Gallery: Scores of photos from several different points
in the film
Audio Commentary: which features director Terence Young
and various members of the cast and crew.
Some of the content, particularly the TV spots, aren't exactly first-rate
in terms of picture quality and sound, but it adds to the nostalgic quality
and all the interviews are clear and easy to hear.
Menu :
Another cool animated and scored main menu with a chess theme, the game that
opens the film. The initial screen offers you the choice to start the film,
select a scene, choose a language or watch the extras.
A second Bond film and another one I haven't seen before, save for some
parts of it. The only problem with this film is that there's too many slow
bits in it and today's action fans will find it rather underwhelming at times.
However, the picture and sound are just as you expect and there's stacks of
supplemental material, proving that MGM are shaping up Bond's outings on DVD
to be extra-packed.
FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL
The following is a list of all the Bond films now available in production order
with their dates of release, followed by the unofficial movies:
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
