11 Things You Learn Rewatching From Russia With Love
3. The Orient Express Sequence Is A Franchise Classic
From Russia with Love's main set-piece is the lengthy, Hitchcockian sequence set on the Orient Express, where Bond, Tatiana and Kerim are doggedly pursued by Red.
The brilliant decision to have Red pose as Station Y agent Nash results in one of the most agonisingly suspenseful early Bond sequences as they sit down to dinner and all the audience can do is wait for the situation to blow up.
Terence Young smartly takes his time, wringing every drop of tension from the scenario before delivering a fantastically rough final fight between Bond and Red, which is all the more visceral because Young smartly opts to strip away the musical score and let the scene play out in silence.
It's a sequence iconic enough that it was somewhat lazily "homaged" in the last Bond movie, Spectre, but it couldn't even begin to hold a candle to the classic original.