11 Things You Learn Rewatching From Russia With Love

8. It's Heavily Influenced By North By Northwest

Alfred Hitchcock's classic suspense thriller North by Northwest was released in 1959, just three years before Bond's first movie hit screens, and so it's not terribly surprising that director Terence Young attempted to spice this early Bond romp with a sprinkle of Hitchcockian flavour. If you're going to shamelessly "borrow" from another filmmaker, you may as well steal from the best, right?

There are two scenes that especially recall Hitchcock's thriller: the lengthy set-piece on the Orient Express (but more on that later), and far more blatantly, the third-act sequence in which Bond battles a helicopter. As Bond desperately flees from the vehicle, it's hard not to recall the iconic crop-duster attack from North by Northwest.

This is especially interesting as Hitchcock was in fact an early contender to direct From Russia with Love long before Dr. No was even filmed - with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly set to play Bond and Tatiana Romanova respectively - but after Vertigo bombed at the box office, those plans were nixed.

Fans will surely argue on where the line between playful homage and straight-up cribbing lies, but the similarities are undeniably intentional.