Rating: ***
Director: Terence Young
Cast: Sean Connery, Daniela Bianchi, Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya,
Pedro Armendáriz, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Desmond Llewelyn
"The Cold War in Istanbul will not remain cold very much longer."
Sean Connery's second outing as James Bond is much better than the lightweight "Dr. No" (1962). A beautiful Russian cipher clerk (impossibly pretty Daniela Bianchi) defects and wishes to trade a valuable cryptographic device with the British Secret Service in exchange for political asylum. Naturally, Agent 007 is assigned to meet her, "inspect the goods", and escort her back to England. Little does she know, however, that she is being played by some nasty SPECTRE double agents in the KGB. Lots of cool action and beautiful babes in this exciting film, and the location footage is simply breathtaking. While the pacing can be a bit sluggish, the characters, intrigue, and constant tension keep you engaged throughout. Pedro Armendáriz is delightful as a Turkish spy and Daniela Bianchi gets my vote for prettiest Bond girl in the series. She's absolutely stunning and gives a heartbreaking performance, but I'm left to wonder what happens to Tania at the end. As a loyal Russian and an unwitting pawn of SPECTRE, is she forced to actually defect to the West, or does she try to get back into Mother Russia's good graces? I suspect she would be shot if she tried to get her old job back, which leaves her in a bad position.
The laserdisc, DVD, and Blu-ray versions of the film all contain the infamous gondola jump cut, which removes Grant's comment of "what a performance!" on the Orient Express along with Bond's comment of "what a performance!" while in Venice with Tania. Both refer to the erotic film of Bond and Tania in the hotel room. Sources claim that the uncut version of the film doesn't exist, which is a lie because that's the version I originally saw on television in the 1980's.