From Russia with Love. Ian Fleming is the late late late show of literature.
Perused at the witching hour, the violent adventures and immoderate amours of James Bond, Agent 007 of the British Secret Service, seem as normal as OvaltineĀand rather more narcotic.
Shown on screen, they are apt to seem absurd. Doctor No, the first of Fleming's novels to be filmed, was shot as a straight thriller, but most spectators took it as a travesty and had a belly laugh. The reaction was not lost on Director Terence Young. From Russia, his second treatment of a Fleming fiction, is an intentional heehaw...