The first Bond film I saw was From Russia With
Love. It was the second film made and it starred Sean Connery. The story centres on a plot by SMERSH the
Soviet counter-intelligence agency, to assassinate Bond in such a way as to
discredit both him and British Intelligence. As bait for the plot, the Russians
use a beautiful cipher clerk and the Spektor, a Soviet decoding machine. Much
of the action takes place in Istanbul
The film was released in 1963 and I was fifteen. I saw it with my best
friend and his girlfriend, and a girl who wanted to be my girlfriend. But, as I
remember it, I wasn’t very keen. It had been snowing and it was cold. I
remember wearing my new coat. And I remember the intoxicating smell of the
cavernous, art deco Odeon cinema. The film was exciting, moody and, with its
seduction scene, quite sexy to a fifteen year old. Innovative too – with its
MI5 gadgets. It had all the ingredients for future Bond films.
I loved the books too. From Russia With Love is probably still my
favourite. It was the fifth in the series, published in 1957. I can’t remember
if it was the first I read – nor if I read it before I saw the film or after. I
do remember reading (or re-reading) the whole series when I should have been
studying for my exams. Ian Fleming was a very good writer, with pace and an eye
for detail. And modern thriller writers
would do well to study his technique.
Writing this has made me hanker to read the book and see the film again.
And of course the reason I wrote this piece is that I’ve just seen Skyfall, one
of the best Bond films I think, with its nod to its past. You probably had to
be over fifty if, when, at the end of the film as the familiar Bond theme music
was finally used, you found yourself wiping away a small tear from the corner
of your eye.
. . . aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOOoL.
