A rare sequel that not only matched the original, it improved on it, building in confidence and creating a marvellously entertaining spy film. It remains one of sexiest Bonds of them all - indeed, the plot is actually built around Bond's attractiveness to women. And it's a clever plot too - SPECTRE plan to get the Russians and British fighting each other in a way that will enable them to get their hands on a decoding machine; Russian Daniela Bianchi will be duped into thinking she's acting for mother Russia, and pretend to be a woman obsessed with Bond. (Actually, typing it out, the plot is rather silly, but its all clearly laid out and I completely bought it).
Even though Bianchi thinks she's doing it for her country, she certainly throws her body and soul into her work - her first meeting with Bond takes place with her in a bed wearing nothing but lace around her neck and she has sex with him! She and Bond go for it in the sack pretty constantly, whether its hotel beds, trains or condolas - they even star in a sex tape (I could never pick the moment where she really switches sides). Adding to the atmosphere of sensuality are two gypsy woman who fight each other to the death in sexy outfits (then afterwards its implied Bond bangs both), Pedro Armendariz's woman happy Istanbul station chief, Robert Shaw getting massaged by a woman in a bra at SPECTRE training and Lotte Lenya's lecherous looks at Bianchi.
Connery is in brilliant form in this one - I read somewhere it took him three movies to really get it, but he was excellent in the first and is completely at home here, grinning, punching and being the ultimate male fantasy figure a la John Hamm in Mad Men.
However he is backed by a spectacular supporting cast - I'm struggling to think of a better one in a Bond film. On the allied side we get to meet Desmond Llewellyn as Q bringing in the first of what would be many many gadgets (an exploding briefcase... in Dr No he just got a gun), Bernard Lee's M getting some fun background (Bond referring to a time with the two of them and some girls in Tokyo), Eunice Grayson repeating her role from Dr No, Lois Maxwell having fun, and most of all Pedro Armendariz as Kerim Bey - perhaps the best "Bond friend" in the whole series. Armendariz/Bey is warm, smart, funny, clever - with a mistress, high handed attitude to women, massive family, a sense of honour which demands he kill a foreign agent who tried to kill him even though he's injured. Its easy to see why he and Bond take to each other and his death comes as a massive shock.
There's also an astonishing array of villains: Robert Shaw's Red Grant - ruthless, cunning, brilliant enough to take out Kerim Bey, a great shot, physical... yet also touchingly human in his obvious resentment/jealousy of Bond (which brings him down - making him monologue and brag when he should just kill 007); Lotte Lenya's vicious Rosa Klebb, angry and terrifying - when she goes at Bond with her pointy shoe at the end you're almost as scared for him as when he fights Grant; Blofeld making his first appearance with a cat and fish tank; Vladek Sheybal's clever Kronsteen (this character does feel under-used); Walter Gotell's henchman.
Other highlights include some (as usual) impressive sets - an underground cavern, a gypsy settlement; a new instrumental theme '007' that would be re-used throughout the series; stunning views of Istanbul which is a great exotic setting for a Bond film; the Orient Express. There's some decent action - the fight on the train, the attack on the gypsies - but the film is better known as a work of suspense, because we see much of the action from SPECTRE's point of view and thus know more than Bond.
Lowlights - these are only minor quibbles but I wasn't a massive fan of the final shootouts after Grant's death involving SPECTRE agents in black outfits in helicopters and boats (I believed them having agents everywhere; I struggled to accept mini armies of them operating in Yugoslavia). Occasionally it all felt a bit patchy and made up as it went along. But a terrific Bond film.
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