I may be in the minority, but I'm not a fan of From Russia with Love. It has plenty of the Bond tropes and staples that people come to love, but I feel like everything done in the film is simply outshadowed by Dr. No, despite its larger budget.
I just couldn't find myself to be invested. Less interesting story with less interesting characters, a less interesting villain (though in fairness the film preludes his appearance in a fourthcoming movie), and although this film introduces our first henchmen in the coincidental Daniel Craig lookalike Red Grant (played by Robert Shaw best known for Quint in Jaws), he unfortunately has no presence until the train scene, in which the film is basically wrapping up, which is unfortunate, because the train segment is definitely the best part of the movie. Shaw's acting is top class as expected, but by the time his character is revealed to Bond, he dies in the very same scene. Quite anticlimactic for a man trained exclusively to kill 007.
Though not an issue for me personally, I should also note that the film has a questionable portrayal of the Romani people, though I'm not one to comment any further on this, since I have no real knowledge on the matter. Ali Kerim Bay is a decent Bond sidekick, all things considered, despite the fact that his actor is Mexican, not Turkish.
I appreciate that FRwL is many people's (including Connery's) favourite, but for me, I would opt for the former film or Goldfinger.
I just couldn't find myself to be invested. Less interesting story with less interesting characters, a less interesting villain (though in fairness the film preludes his appearance in a fourthcoming movie), and although this film introduces our first henchmen in the coincidental Daniel Craig lookalike Red Grant (played by Robert Shaw best known for Quint in Jaws), he unfortunately has no presence until the train scene, in which the film is basically wrapping up, which is unfortunate, because the train segment is definitely the best part of the movie. Shaw's acting is top class as expected, but by the time his character is revealed to Bond, he dies in the very same scene. Quite anticlimactic for a man trained exclusively to kill 007.
Though not an issue for me personally, I should also note that the film has a questionable portrayal of the Romani people, though I'm not one to comment any further on this, since I have no real knowledge on the matter. Ali Kerim Bay is a decent Bond sidekick, all things considered, despite the fact that his actor is Mexican, not Turkish.
I appreciate that FRwL is many people's (including Connery's) favourite, but for me, I would opt for the former film or Goldfinger.