Film Credits

Screenplay by: Richard Maibaum

Directed by: Terence Young

Starring: Sean Connery, Daniela Bianchi, Lotte Lenya, Pedro Armendariz, Robert Shaw, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell

Review

We reviewed the original CAV "Criterion Collection" edition of James Bond's second filmic outing, From Russia With Love, in issue #22 (June '91), and we're back again to check out their new CLV repressing of the title. Our comparison of the discs is identical to our findings with Dr. No (reviewed earlier this issue).

Again, Voyager has used the same master for both the CAV and CLV transfers, and there is the same slight-but-distinct difference in picture quality when the two are compared. Color saturation and brightness on the CLV disc have been pushed up a small amount over the CAV, and while this does give rise to some additional grain and/or color noise, the effects of this are relatively minor and we highly recommend the disc to fans of the film. In fact, there were only two things which bothered us about the disc, and they were flaws present in the film print itself -- there's a bad splice on side one at 17m06s, and there's still that annoying jump cut at the end of the film (side two, 57m38s / 57m39s) in which several seconds of film heralding the usual "James Bond will return..." slogan is missing. From Russia With Love was filmed in the British 1.75:1 aspect ratio, and the letterboxed disc retains the approx. 1.61:1 aspect ratio present on the CAV edition. The CX-encoded digital Westrex mono soundtrack is identical as well, and in good condition. Finally, none of the CAV edition's supplementary materials/features have been included (neither the audio commentary nor the still-frame section; the disc did not have either a trailer or a music & effects track). The disc was pressed at Pioneer (and the disc caused my machine to make far too much noise during the opening minutes of sides one and two) and contains 29 listed chapter markers (28 for the film, one for color bars). As with Dr. No, From Russia With Love also contains a coupon to order any of the censored CAV audio commentaries on audio cassette for $10.00 each.

You may also wish to read our reviews of Voyager's CLV repressings of Dr. No and Goldfinger.