In Sean Connery’s briskly paced, witty and gritty second outing as MI6 agent James Bond, 007 is assigned to aide in the defection of Russian spy Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) in Istanbul, where he’ll face hard resistance from the international criminal organization SPECTRE.

Notable for being both the first Bond movie to feature an erotically charged opening credit sequence, as well as the first appearance of series nemesis Blofeld, producer Albert Broccoli believed it was with this film that “the Bond style and formula were perfected”.

John F. Kennedy tethered his image to that of James Bond’s, identifying with the particular brand of masculinity embodied by the character. He struck up a lengthy correspondence and friendship with writer Ian Fleming, even consulting with him on assassination methods attempted on Fidel Castro. It was as a result of the President’s affection for the book and his support that United Artists produced From Russia With Love, his last movie, screened at a private ‘casa-blanca’ screening.

The film will be preceded by an opening 15-minute fragment from Director Burt Topper's War is Hell – the movie that was playing at the time of Lee Harvey Oswald’s arrest in the cinema, as he hid from the authorities following the assassination of JFK.

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