The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents
BLU-RAY EDITION
Sean Connery returns as Secret Service agent James Bond in the second of the series, once again saving the world from the terrorist threats of the SPECTRE organisation. Bond is sent to Istanbul to steal a Russian coding machine, but comes up against two fearsome opponents also interested in the device: East German spy Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya), who hides a deadly switchblade in her shoe; and Red Grant (Robert Shaw), an assassin posing as a fellow British agent.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Audio: English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono / English PCM 2.0 Mono / Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / German / Spanish Main title: 1080p
Supplementary material: 480p Laserdisc source
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE is under exclusive license from MGM Home Entertainment TM ® © 2019 by MGM Home Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. © 2019 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved. Cat. no. CC1266L. ISBN 1-55940-150-8. Warning: unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, or copying is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the USA. First printing 2019.
1963
An audio commentary with key members of the Bond creative team - director Terence Young, writer Richard Maibaum and editor Peter Hunt - narrated by Steven Jay Rubin n A “S.P.E.C.T.R.E. File” highlighted by location photos, publicity stills, rare book covers, articles and movie posters from Russia and other Bond films n The music and effects track - allows you the option of listening to the music and sound effects without the film’s dialogue n The original theatrical trailer
1963 118 MINUTES COLOR MONO 1.66:1 ASPECT RATIO
The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film. Visit us at Criterion.com
“From Russia With Love” (1963) Danjaq, LLC & United Artists Corporation. All rights reserved. “From Russia With Love” is a trademark of Danjaq, LLC licensed by EON Productions Limited.
Design and Layout - pineapples101@gmail.com
LD 131
The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents
BLU-RAY EDITION
Sean Connery returns as Secret Service agent James Bond in the second of the series, once again saving the world from the terrorist threats of the SPECTRE organisation. Bond is sent to Istanbul to steal a Russian coding machine, but comes up against two fearsome opponents also interested in the device: East German spy Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya), who hides a deadly switchblade in her shoe; and Red Grant (Robert Shaw), an assassin posing as a fellow British agent.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Audio: English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono / English PCM 2.0 Mono / Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / German / Spanish Main title: 1080p
Supplementary material: 480p Laserdisc source
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE is under exclusive license from MGM Home Entertainment TM ® © 2019 by MGM Home Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. © 2019 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved. Cat. no. CC1266L. ISBN 1-55940-150-8. Warning: unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, or copying is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the USA. First printing 2019.
1963
An audio commentary with key members of the Bond creative team - director Terence Young, writer Richard Maibaum and editor Peter Hunt - narrated by Steven Jay Rubin n A “S.P.E.C.T.R.E. File” highlighted by location photos, publicity stills, rare book covers, articles and movie posters from Russia and other Bond films n The music and effects track - allows you the option of listening to the music and sound effects without the film’s dialogue n The original theatrical trailer
1963 118 MINUTES COLOR MONO 1.66:1 ASPECT RATIO
The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film. Visit us at Criterion.com
“From Russia With Love” (1963) Danjaq, LLC & United Artists Corporation. All rights reserved. “From Russia With Love” is a trademark of Danjaq, LLC licensed by EON Productions Limited.
Design and Layout - pineapples101@gmail.com
LD 131
The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents
DVD EDITION 1963 118 MINUTES COLOR MONO 1.66:1 ASPECT RATIO
Sean Connery returns as Secret Service agent James Bond in the second of the series, once again saving the world from the terrorist threats of the SPECTRE organisation. Bond is sent to Istanbul to steal a Russian coding machine, but comes up against two fearsome opponents also interested in the device: East German spy Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya), who hides a deadly switchblade in her shoe; and Red Grant (Robert Shaw), an assassin posing as a fellow British agent.
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE is under exclusive license from MGM Home Entertainment TM ® © 2019 by MGM Home Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. © 2019 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved. Cat. no. CC1266L. ISBN 1-55940-150-8. Warning: unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, or copying is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the USA. First printing 2019.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Audio: English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono / English PCM 2.0 Mono / Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / German / Spanish Main title: 1080p
Supplementary material: 480p Laserdisc source
1963
An audio commentary with key members of the Bond creative team - director Terence Young, writer Richard Maibaum and editor Peter Hunt - narrated by Steven Jay Rubin n A “S.P.E.C.T.R.E. File” highlighted by location photos, publicity stills, rare book covers, articles and movie posters from Russia and other Bond films n The music and effects track - allows you the option of listening to the music and sound effects without the film’s dialogue n The original theatrical trailer
The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film. Visit us at Criterion.com
“From Russia With Love” (1963) Danjaq, LLC & United Artists Corporation. All rights reserved. “From Russia With Love” is a trademark of Danjaq, LLC licensed by EON Productions Limited.
Design and Layout - pineapples101@gmail.com
LD 131
Videodisc Production Credits Produced by David L. Miller, Bill Reed & Steven Jay Rubin Film-to-video transfer supervised by Maria Groumbos Narration written and spoken by Steven Jay Rubin Second soundtrack edited by Morgan Holly Supplement designer Julia Jones Interviews recorded by Mark Brems, Michael Schwartz & Jenifer Anisman Copy photography Mark Brems Special thanks to Albert Broccoli, Saul Cooper, Terence Young, Richard Maibaum, Peter Hunt, Ken Adam, Steve Picard, Bruce Eder On-line editor for supplement Howard Stein, Pacific Ocean Post, Santa Monica, CA Film-to-video operator Roger “Skip� Kimball , Howard A. Anderson Co.
T
anya: Oh, James, James, will you make love to me all the time in England? James Bond: Day and night! Sean Connery returns in From Russia with Love in the best of all of Ian Fleming’s stories. Filled with sex, violence and incredible suspense, it was this film that elevated the adventures of James Bond to a new entertainment high, virtually guaranteeing the huge success that was to follow. Working from a novel that was one of President John F. Kennedy’s favorites, director Terence Young and screenwriter Richard Maibaum introduce a blackmail and assassination plot so formidable that it could spell the end for James Bond. S.P.E.C.T.R.E.—The Special Executor for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion—returns to seek revenge for the death of its Dr. No operative in the Caribbean. Fiendish Ernst Stavro (Anthony Dawson, uncredited; voice: Eric Pohlmann) assigns the task of humiliating Bond to three of his best agents— Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal), the master planner who treats life like a chess game; Colonel Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya), a Russian defector who specializes in torture and murder; and, finally, the ruthless and seemingly unstoppable Red Grant (Robert Shaw), a platinum blondepated killer who strangles his helpless victims with a retractable wire in his wrist watch. Their bait: a Lektor decoding machine that can decipher top secret Russian signals and a voluptuous Soviet cypher clerk named Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi). Thus begins one of James Bond’s greatest adventures. Arriving in exotic Istanbul, spy capital of the Balkans, he immediately joins forces with British Intelligence’s local spymaster, the resourceful Ali Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendariz) who has been approached by the defecting Romanova. Little do Bond and Kerim know that she is an innocent dupe in the ingenious S.P.E.C.T.R.E. plot that will eventually trap Bond on the Orient Express. Bond’s only trump card—a gadget-rigged briefcase supplied to him by Q Branch. From the fiery gypsy camp where two hot-blooded females fight to the death over a common lover, to the rat-infested sewers where Kerim spies on the Russian Embassy, to the moody interior of St. Sofia mosque, Bond is kept alive by S.P.E.C.T.R.E. until he meets Romanova and successfully steals the Lektor. In the bridal suite of 007’s hotel, their passionate lovemaking is even filmed by an enemy film crew—another knot in the rapidly tightening S.P.E.C.T.R.E. noose around James Bond’s neck. Escaping from Istanbul with his prizes, 007 boards the Orient Express where a final showdown with Grant becomes one of the most suspenseful sequences ever filmed in the Bond series. Combine that with a cat-and-mouse battle with an enemy helicopter and a high-speed motorboat chase and From Russia with Love proves itself as one of the greatest spy adventures ever filmed. Released with little fanfare in early 1964, From Russia with Love was nonetheless a major hit in the United States, even more so when, after the success of Goldfinger, it was later re-released on a double bill with Dr. No. Connery was confident in the role
that would soon guarantee him international stardom. Sadly, Pedro Armendariz was dying of cancer during the filmmaking and would soon return to the United States where he committed suicide. Daniela Bianchi, so beautiful in the film, would appear in only a few more films, including Operation Kid Brother (starring Neil Connery), before retiring to private life. Lotte Lenya, wife of Threeenny Opera’s Kurt Weill, shines as the frightening Rosa Klebb, an abrupt departure from her career as a top European musical star. Eunice Gayson makes her last appearance as fetching Sylvia Trench, while those Bondian stalwarts, Bernard Lee (M), Desmond Llewelyn (Q) and Lois Maxwell (Miss Moneypenny) appear together for the first time. By Steven Jay Rubin April 21, 1992
Videodisc Production Credits Produced by David L. Miller, Bill Reed & Steven Jay Rubin Film-to-video transfer supervised by Maria Groumbos Narration written and spoken by Steven Jay Rubin Second soundtrack edited by Morgan Holly Supplement designer Julia Jones Interviews recorded by Mark Brems, Michael Schwartz & Jenifer Anisman Copy photography Mark Brems Special thanks to Albert Broccoli, Saul Cooper, Terence Young, Richard Maibaum, Peter Hunt, Ken Adam, Steve Picard, Bruce Eder On-line editor for supplement Howard Stein, Pacific Ocean Post, Santa Monica, CA Film-to-video operator Roger “Skip� Kimball , Howard A. Anderson Co.
T
anya: Oh, James, James, will you make love to me all the time in England? James Bond: Day and night! Sean Connery returns in From Russia with Love in the best of all of Ian Fleming’s stories. Filled with sex, violence and incredible suspense, it was this film that elevated the adventures of James Bond to a new entertainment high, virtually guaranteeing the huge success that was to follow. Working from a novel that was one of President John F. Kennedy’s favorites, director Terence Young and screenwriter Richard Maibaum introduce a blackmail and assassination plot so formidable that it could spell the end for James Bond. S.P.E.C.T.R.E.—The Special Executor for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion—returns to seek revenge for the death of its Dr. No operative in the Caribbean. Fiendish Ernst Stavro (Anthony Dawson, uncredited; voice: Eric Pohlmann) assigns the task of humiliating Bond to three of his best agents— Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal), the master planner who treats life like a chess game; Colonel Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya), a Russian defector who specializes in torture and murder; and, finally, the ruthless and seemingly unstoppable Red Grant (Robert Shaw), a platinum blondepated killer who strangles his helpless victims with a retractable wire in his wrist watch. Their bait: a Lektor decoding machine that can decipher top secret Russian signals and a voluptuous Soviet cypher clerk named Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi). Thus begins one of James Bond’s greatest adventures. Arriving in exotic Istanbul, spy capital of the Balkans, he immediately joins forces with British Intelligence’s local spymaster, the resourceful Ali Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendariz) who has been approached by the defecting Romanova. Little do Bond and Kerim know that she is an innocent dupe in the ingenious S.P.E.C.T.R.E. plot that will eventually trap Bond on the Orient Express. Bond’s only trump card—a gadget-rigged briefcase supplied to him by Q Branch. From the fiery gypsy camp where two hot-blooded females fight to the death over a common lover, to the rat-infested sewers where Kerim spies on the Russian Embassy, to the moody interior of St. Sofia mosque, Bond is kept alive by S.P.E.C.T.R.E. until he meets Romanova and successfully steals the Lektor. In the bridal suite of 007’s hotel, their passionate lovemaking is even filmed by an enemy film crew—another knot in the rapidly tightening S.P.E.C.T.R.E. noose around James Bond’s neck. Escaping from Istanbul with his prizes, 007 boards the Orient Express where a final showdown with Grant becomes one of the most suspenseful sequences ever filmed in the Bond series. Combine that with a cat-and-mouse battle with an enemy helicopter and a high-speed motorboat chase and From Russia with Love proves itself as one of the greatest spy adventures ever filmed.
Released with little fanfare in early 1964, From Russia with Love was nonetheless a major hit in the United States, even more so when, after the success of Goldfinger, it was later re-released on a double bill with Dr. No. Connery was confident in the role that would soon guarantee him international stardom. Sadly, Pedro Armendariz was dying of cancer during the filmmaking and would soon return to the United States where he committed suicide. Daniela Bianchi, so beautiful in the film, would appear in only a few more films, including Operation Kid Brother (starring Neil Connery), before retiring to private life. Lotte Lenya, wife of Threeenny Opera’s Kurt Weill, shines as the frightening Rosa Klebb, an abrupt departure from her career as a top European musical star. Eunice Gayson makes her last appearance as fetching Sylvia Trench, while those Bondian stalwarts, Bernard Lee (M), Desmond Llewelyn (Q) and Lois Maxwell (Miss Moneypenny) appear together for the first time. By Steven Jay Rubin April 21, 1992
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Criterion Collection - Laserdisc Preservation From Russia with Love: Special Edition #131 (1963) [CC1266L] https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/03315/CC1266L/From-Russia-with-Love:-SpecialEdition Blu Ray - Region A/B/C DVD - Region All Audio: English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono / English PCM 2.0 Mono / Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / German / Spanish Main title: 1080p Supplementary material: 480p Laserdisc source
Artwork Criterion Blu Ray Case - Inlay 273mm x 160mm Standard Blu Ray Case - Inlay 269mm x 148mm Standard DVD Case - Inlay 272mm x 182mm Criterion 4 Page Booklet - Exterior Fold down middle 240mm x 160mm Criterion 4 Page Booklet - Interior Fold down middle 240mm x 160mm Standard 4 Page Booklet - Exterior Fold down middle 235mm x 145mm Standard 4 Page Booklet - Interior Fold down middle 235mm x 145mm Blu Ray Disc Art 115mm x 115mm