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Basically they wanted to avoid any controversy involved in making the Russian government the villains. Probably because the movies would also be released in Russia. The only interview I can remember this being mentioned is in "The Making of From Russia With Love" on the dvd/bluray special features.
Except the films weren't released in Russia.
I can't remember precisely off the top of my head but the first Bond film shown there was something like TMTGG and that was only in the Kremlin to the politburo. And given that Bond is the very definition of western decadence I doubt they were in any hurry to let their population be distracted from their Ladas and borsch by Aston Martins, Rolexes and Bollinger - the irony of course being that these days the Russians are probably the biggest customers of these companies (well except perhaps for the last few days).
The first film to be shown to the general public was presumably GE - although maybe they held that back due to Bond massacring a load of Russian soldiers in the archives?
Actually I remember when I used to teach English in St Petersburg one day I had a shocking hangover and couldn't be arsed so I just slapped GE in the DVD player and said they could watch a film but they had to write a review afterwards. When it got to the archive scene one lad stormed out. When I went after him he said he refused to watch a western film where Russian's were slaughtered! And this was in 2003 so the kid was born in about 1988 and could have no knowledge of the Cold War but he'd been brought up to distrust the west.
Anyway the introduction of SPECTRE in FRWL has always irked me as it makes the plot needlessly more complicated and doesn't really serve any narrative purpose.
I guess in the aftermath of the Cuban missile crisis they took the view not to annoy the Russians, although they made the same decision in DN to replace the Russians with SPECTRE yet that film was released a week before the Cuban missile crisis indicating that even without escalation in Cold War hostilities relations were still very fragile and no one wanted to risk antagonising them.
Given the furore over this film just out about Kim Jong Un I guess there's some sense to it because, bear in mind that the Russians couldve wiped us all off the face of the earth, and unlike North Korea are not, to paraphrase General Medrano, some flyspeck sandwiched between China and South Korea.
I remember the fear of the Russians even in the 80s so at the very height of the Cold War maybe they really did think a film about a spy fighting the fearsome SMERSH would not go down well.
I'd be interested as to who took the decision though. Was it Cubby and Harry on there own? Did the studio bring pressure to bear? Or one day did a guy from MI6/the CIA show up at their offices and say 'we'd really rather you didn't have the Russians as the baddies in this'?
I'd also be interested to find out (no idea how this could be achieved though) what effect the Cuban missile crisis had on DN's box office. Given DN was released on Oct 5th and the 13 days ran from 14th - 28th you could literally watch the news then go to the cinema and see a heightened, fantastical version of the same story play out to a peaceful resolution.
Did this up to the second topicality pack more people in to watch DN or did people say 'we could all die literally any minute so do I want to go and watch a film about reminding me of what's going on in the real world? Bugger that - let's go and watch Carry On Cruising instead.'
Thankyou for that informative and eloquent response @TheWizardOfIce. Come to think of it I remember hearing in the TMWTGG documentary that it was the first film to be released in the Kremlin.
Than I guess they simply turned Smesh into Spectre to avoid controversy and upsetting the temperamental Russian populace. As you mentioned Sony is going thru something similar right now. As a life-long New Yorker threats of "another 9-11" over a silly movie is beyond crossing the line.
It looks like MGM has taken "Inside From Russia With Love" off of youtube. That was the only source I can think of. It's the only link I could find on wikipedia. All it says is "Ian Fleming's novel was a Cold War thriller; however, the producers named the crime syndicate SPECTRE instead of the Soviet undercover agency SMERSH so as to avoid controversial political overtones.[4]"
All that link leads to is the IMDB page for FRWL.
I disagree. Making SPECTRE the villain is pure genius in my opinion! It adds even more fuel to the plot, and makes the 'Cold war' in Istanbul much more interesting.
I preferred it aswell. Giving Bond one continuous threat throughout the sixties was a smart move and Spectre had already been established in Dr.No so it made sense within the context of the plot.
Well, so do drug smuggling, blackmail, and giving advice to the robbers of the Glasgow-London postal train. Those little things allow for SPECTRE to fill their treasure chest in order t carry out the bigger plans we see in the movies from TB on.
An English teacher from Russia (with love)?
Whoah.
Apart from anything (and this is a flaw with both book and film) what value does the Spektor/Lektor actually have?
Once the Russians realise it is gone they would just discontinue the machine. OK its a minor coup that they would force Russia to replace all their machines but this idea that MI6 could read all the Soviet traffic is complete bollocks unless the machine is nicked on the sly which it is not. And why would the Russians pay SPECTRE to get the machine back? The moment it has been stolen it is compromised and hence useless.
Probably more with lust in those days old chap. ;)
The machine itself is compromised, but not the old messages that can still be decyphered using it. All the old communications that MI6 couldn't read until they got the Lektor/Spektor can be read now, and with them, the Intelligence Service will get a lot of things the Russians would have liked to keep secret. It's not only the decoding machines that they would need to change, but all of their networks, and agents, which have now been exposed thanks to those old messages. All long term operations blown to hell thanks to the theft of the Lektor. Think about it.
Exactly. The Lektor may be a MacGuffen, it is a device of vital importance. You can't replace it easily and it gives vital information about the enemy.
Funnily enough Sean Connery also switched to a P-5 for NSNA. Were PPK's out of style that year or something?
From what I've read the Walther P-5 was a new handgun put out by Walther and wanted to advertise and show it off to potential buyers. A shame Connery didn't get to use it in NSNA.
Ah that makes sense. I guess Moore calling it a PPK was a goof no one picked up on. The scripted line was probably correct as I assume the script had Bond using a PPK but as you said for probable business reasons they decided to use the P-5.
Connery did get to use it in NSNA. He never uses the classic PPK.
Connery didn't get to shoot it though. He had it but never used it. He did use a Mauser HSc in a training scene though which looks alot like a PPK.
Ken Adam didn't worked in FRWL:
And that design is the one that is more similar to an spectre than an octopus...
It's quite iconic for us to not knowing...
Mixing a skull and a squid actually. Brilliant.
Beretta 950 Jetfire. Complements of IMFDB.
It's a stainless steel Beretta 950 Jetfire.
imfdb.org/wiki/Licence_To_Kill
Well, like Bond's first weapon (in the books), it's a .25 ACP. Small caliber, then. And according to Wikipedia, it can hold 8 rounds (9 if you chamber one first).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beretta_950
I wouldn't count on it to save my life, but as a deterrent, and for close work, it could do the trick.