20 Things You Didn't Know About From Russia With Love (1963)
4. "One Of Their Aircraft Is Missing."
Terence Young added the scene of the SPECTRE helicopter pursuing James Bond across the Yugoslavian countryside as an homage to the crop duster chase sequence in Sir Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959).
Ironically, Hitchcock had considered filming Ian Fleming’s From Russia, with Love with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly (if he could lure her back into acting), until his then most recent film, Vertigo (1958) proved to be less successful than he had hoped. He then turned his attention back to his most successful plot, the innocent man on the run, which formed the crux of North by Northwest.
Young did not use many stuntmen for the sequence, so Sean Connery performed most of it himself. It was a dangerous scene to film and Connery was almost killed by the low-flying helicopter.
Even though a miniature helicopter was used for some shots, several members of the special effects team were nearly arrested trying to obtain a full-sized helicopter from an airbase near the filming location in Argyll, Scotland.
Despite these difficulties, it is an entertaining and effective action sequence.