For reasons that seem absolutely mystifying to me now, I used to think little of 1963’s From Russia With Love, the second James Bond film. I always liked its predecessor, 1962's Dr. No, and I absolutely adored the follow-up, 1964's Goldfinger.

For reasons I no longer recall, I just couldn't get into Russia. I vaguely rerain an impression that it was dull and slow moving, but now that I've seen it multiple additional times, I think I must have watched it on Opposite Day, for the truth of the matter now becomes different from my old perception.

In fact, I now feel that Russia clearly delivers one of the best Bond films. It surpasses Dr. No and definitely rivals Goldfinger and 1965's Thunderball.

Man, what was I thinking when I disliked this movie? I guess I'm not infallible after all!

To get revenge for the death of their agent Dr. No, the criminal organization SPECTRE attempts to trap British secret agent James Bond (Sean Connery). This sets up innocent Russian consulate clerk Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) to claim she will turn over a powerful Soviet “Lektor” decoding machine but only to Bond.

This sends Bond to Turkey, where he partners with fellow MI6 operative Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendáriz). As Bond wanders into the trap, he needs to fend off multiple threats to acquire the Lektor, get the girl and escape alive.

Whatever I once thought of it, I now find Russia to offer a thoroughly entertaining and exciting experience. Actually, I must admit that the movie lacks a great deal of action for its first 85 minutes or so.

We get a couple of minor bang-bang pieces during that span. For the most part, though, the first two acts of Russia relate mainly to the spy game intrigue.

Perhaps that's why the film put me off during earlier viewings. I still can't figure out why I'd be bored by the events that occupy the movie's initial two-thirds or so, however, since I currently think the material unfolds at a crisp and brisk pace.

Yes, the movement feels unusual, since most Bond flicks toss in a lot more action right up front. Nonetheless, the progress seems intelligent and logical, and the tension it creates works nicely.

Of course, it's not as though there's zero action prior to the end of the movie, but the unusual aspect stems from the fact that Bond doesn't play that large a role in the scuffles until the last third of the film. I suppose I found this frustrating during earlier viewings of Russia, but now I think it makes perfect sense.

When Bond finally does become an "action hero", I find the results well worth the wait. The final half-hour or so of the movie provides almost non-stop thrills and spills, with some of the best action ever presented in a Bond movie.

The picture lacks the goofiness that taints some of the later entries in the series and simply delivers raw drama. The fight between Bond and Red Grant (Robert Shaw) remains one of the best ever seen, and all of the climactic sections work tremendously well.

Add to that one of the prettiest Bond girls in Bianchi. Although Ursula Andress and Honor Blackman - the female stars of the films that bookend Russia - received much more attention over the years, Bianchi unquestionably becomes the loveliest of the bunch.

Actually, without the stunning double-bill of Claudine Auger and Luciana Paluzzi in Thunderball, Bianchi would be the best Bond girl of the 1960s and arguably ever. Unfortunately, the Tatiana character isn't terribly strong, so she's left to her looks and little else.

Despite the relatively weak Bond heroine, the villains are some of the best ever. Credit the strength of Shaw's performance as Grant that though he spends little time on screen, his presence is felt throughout the film.

Lotte Lenya also adds one of the most unusual and powerful Bond baddies as Rosa Klebb, the very obvious inspiration for Frau Farbissina in the Austin Powers films. Lenya packs a lotta punch into her small frame and comes across as foreboding and nasty.

We get a terrific "sidekick" in Kerim Bey. He fills the usual "helper" role played by Felix Leiter in many Bond flicks but he does so with much more flair and pizzazz.

Armendariz makes Bey a more exciting and compelling presence than he probably should, and this happens for two reasons. First, the character has a fairly small role and is limited in his actions.

More significantly, however, Armendariz was dying as he filmed Russia. The actor became seriously ill during the shoot and would be dead before its release.

How such a sick man conveyed so much life and vitality is a mystery. Nonetheless, Armendariz capped his career with an excellent performance in what would become his signature role.

Although I suppose this wasn't too difficult to do since it was only the second Bond film, it should be noted that Russia features a couple of new components that would become staples of the series. It presents the first pre-title sequence as we see the apparent death of Bond.

It also offers the first appearance of Desmond Llewelyn as "Q". Actually, he's unnamed in the film and is only called the "equipment officer" from "Q" Branch, though the credits refer to him as "Major Boothroyd".

A different actor played Boothroyd in Dr. No, but Llewelyn would ride out the role until his death in 1999. He'd always be called "Q" for the remainder of the films.

I hate to admit that I was wrong, but I clearly was way off base when I used to think that From Russia With Love made for a boring Bond film. In reality, it's one of the best the series has to offer as it packs in an excellent plot and some well-executed action. I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with Russia.

From Russia With Love appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.66:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. This turned into a solid Dolby Vision presentation.

Only a smidgen of softness occasionally marred the presentation, as wider and process shots showed some delineation that could appear a bit iffy. Nonetheless, the vast majority of the flick demonstrated positive definition.

I noticed no issues connected to shimmering or jagged edges, and edge haloes failed to manifest. Grain seemed appropriate and I noticed no print flaws.

The film came with a natural palette that fared nicely. Although it lacked the tropical punch of Dr. No’s colors, the hues here felt vivid and full, with a boost from HDR.

Blacks looked deep and dense, while shadows showed nice definition. Inevitably, some “day for night” photography appeared too dim, but that was an inescapable drawback of the format.

HDR gave added zing to whites and contrast. I liked this transfer quite a lot.

Taken from the original monaural audio – which also appeared on the disc – the Dolby Atmos soundtrack opened up the spectrum in a reasonable manner. Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, music showed decent spread across the front, and some environmental elements also cropped up from the sides.

Some of these proved useful and the effects showed pretty good delineation and placement. Localization could be a little mushy at times, but the elements usually popped up in logical and accurate spots.

The back speakers contributed general reinforcement of the forward elements most of the time. Still, they kicked to life to a moderate degree in the movie’s more action-oriented segments.

Audio quality was pretty positive. Speech could be a little thin but the lines usually remained reasonably natural, and they always seemed perfectly intelligible.

Music fell into the same range. Outside of the theme, the score and songs occasionally appeared a bit trebly, but they offered generally good clarity and dynamics.

Effects sounded fairly lively and bold, and low-end presented nice oomph when necessary. The track showed its age and wasn’t among the best Bond remixes, but it remained fairly good.

As noted, the 4K also came with the movie’s original DTS-HD MA monaural audio. In terms of quality, it seemed a bit less robust than the Atmos track, but I didn’t regard that as a true negative.

This means I thought the Atmos version got a little “goosing” to make it sound a little more modern. Not that the remix went crazy in this regard, but with some re-recorded effects, it could come across as a bit reworked.

While obviously less ambitious and with somewhat less dynamic range, the mono track failed to provide the same raw punch as the Atmos version. That said, I preferred it, as I thought the 1963 audio simply offered a better match for the visuals.

How did this 4K compare to the Blu-ray edition? The Atmos mix felt a bit more active than the prior 5.1 track, but the limitations of the source restricted improvements.

Visuals showed a step up, as the Dolby Vision UHD brought superior delineation, colors and blacks. As occurred with Dr. No - and will become the case for all the other Connery Bond UHDs – this meant softness inherent to the film also appeared more obvious. Nonetheless, the UHD offered the better presentation of the film.

Most of the BD’s extras repeat here, and we launch with an audio commentary. Hosted by John Cork of the Ian Fleming Foundation, this track uses the same format common to most of the other Bond commentaries.

Instead of the scene-specific method used in many other tracks, most of the Bonds take a series of interviews with various film participants and edit them together into a coherent whole that discusses a number of topics related to the movie.

The commentary features director Terence Young, actors Walter Gotell, Aliza Gur, Martine Beswick, and Lois Maxwell, editor Peter Hunt, composer John Barry, dubbing editor Norman Wanstall, special effects supervisor John Stears, production designer Syd Cain, and producer's wife Dana Broccoli.

As usual, the track provides a nice overall look at the film. It covers the development of the pre-credit sequence and the opening titles, music, cast and crew notes, sets and production design, shooting in Istanbul, adapting the novel and challenges related to the series’ second effort, story and characters, editing, stunts, fight and effects.

As with other Bond commentaries, this one offers a good overview. It emphasizes anecdotal elements and throws out many of nice stories. We learn a lot about the production in this warm and informative discussion.

The Declassified: MI6 Vault presents four elements, and Ian Fleming: The CBC Interview runs seven minutes, 43 seconds. This aired after his death in 1964 and features the author at his Jamaican estate.

Fleming discusses racy aspects of his work, the roots of his material, why his stories appeal to mass audiences, and how aspects of the Bond character reflect their creator’s preferences. The interviewer asks some pretty dopey questions and these mar the discussion. Still, it’s nice to hear a little from Fleming.

During the five-minute, 12-second Ian Fleming and Raymond Chandler, we find a chat between the two legendary authors. They discuss aspects of their work with each other as they fill us in on their methods and challenges they face.

Although we don’t find a lot of scintillating material, the remarks are usually interesting. This turns into a fun historical piece that took place right after Fleming finished writing Goldfinger.

We get more from the author in Ian Fleming on Desert Island Discs. This five-minute and 11-second clip offers another radio interview.

Fleming chats about his early career, the development of the Bond books, aspects of writing them and their adaptation as films. Of the three archival Fleming interviews, this is probably the most informative and concise.

Finally, an Animated Storyboard Sequence: The Boat Chase goes for one minute, 28 seconds. This shows the panels drawn to set up that exciting segment of the movie.

This piece displays the boards as a running video and includes some film footage as well. I'm not a huge fan of storyboards, but these make for an interesting addition, especially since they're in color and are higher quality than most boards we usually see.

Exotic Locations runs three minutes, 14 seconds. Maud Adams chats over some scenes and tells us about where they were shot. Despite its brevity, it offers some useful material.

Heading to Mission Dossier, we begin with Inside From Russia With Love, a 33-minute, 45-second documentary hosted by Patrick Macnee. We hear from Hunt, Gur, Beswick, Bianchi, Cain, Dana Broccoli, Stears, Wanstall, Gotell, Barry, Dr. No production designer Ken Adam, stuntman Richard Graydon, actors Sean Connery and Desmond Llewelyn, and optical effects artist Cliff Culley.

"Inside Russia" covers the making of the film in an interesting and efficient manner, especially as it discusses the variety of challenges that affected the production. Some of these were already mentioned in the audio commentary - such as actor Pedro Armendariz' illness - but others are exclusive to the documentary.

For example, more details of the fight choreography are explained, and we also learn of mishaps on the set. Most compelling to me were the discussions of how editor Peter Hunt dealt with some problems caused by the fact the film ran over-budget and they couldn't afford to reshoot some material. It's another solid Bond documentary that added to my enjoyment of the movie.

Next comes Harry Saltzman: Showman. This piece about the co-producer of the first nine Bond films runs for 26 minutes, 43 seconds and provides a nice biography of Saltzman.

We hear from a variety of Bond participants, including his children, the first three actors to play the role (Connery, George Lazenby, and Roger Moore) plus Hunt, Dana Broccoli, Stears, Adam, Barry, writers Tom Mankiewicz and Simon Raven, production designer Peter Murton, former UA executive David Picker, Cubby Broccoli, Cubby’s stepson Michael G. Wilson, Eon Productions former VP marketing Charles “Jerry” Juroe, production buyer Ron Quelch, assistant Sue St. John, continuity supervisor Elaine Schreyeck, biographer Donald Zec, and actors Honor Blackman, Gloria Hendry, Chaim Topol and Ursula Andress.

Various photos and even some home movies complement these interviews. The portrait painted of Saltzman feels somewhat sentimental but apparently becomes fairly honest - frankly, he sounds like he was kind of obnoxious - and it gives us a solid look at the man.

A slew of advertising materials appear in the Ministry of Propaganda. We get three trailers. These include the original theatrical clip plus one for a double-bill of Dr. No and Russia and another for a double-bill of Russia and Thunderball.

Three TV spots and three radio ads can be found as well; all six of these cover the aforementioned Russia/ double-feature.

Note that the 4K drops a collection of stills as well as some segments that just offer compilations of scenes from various Bond flicks. I don’t miss the latter but the absence of the galleries disappoints.

I remain perplexed over my one-time negative impressions of From Russia With Love, as I now recognize what an excellent piece of work it is. It may not be the best Bond ever, but it's certainly in the running. The 4K UHD features good picture and sound along with a fine complement of supplements. This becomes a nice disc for a terrific movie that belongs in all Bond collections.

Note that as of June 2025, this release of From Russia With Love can be purchased solely as part of a “Sean Connery Six-Film Collection”. This provides all of Connery’s official Bond flicks in 4K versions, so in addition to Russia, we find Dr. No, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever.