From Russia with Love/YMMV

• And You Thought It Would Fail: Robert Shaw originally turned down the role of Donald "Red" Grant, calling the script "rubbish". His then-wife Mary Ure convinced him to take the part.
• Big Lipped Alligator Moment: The really long Cat Fight between two skimpily-dressed gypsy women has nothing to do with the overall plot and is pretty Narmy in its attempts to be titillating.
  • It's also toned down from the book, where both women end up completely naked.
• Ensemble Darkhorse:
  • Blofeld's Right-Hand-Cat, the most widely-imitated and parodied aspect of the film.
  • Red Grant is very popular as a Bond villain, and inspired many blonde, quiet and muscular henchmen in later Bond films, the most notable being Necros in The Living Daylights.
    • This also was why many fans reacted negatively to Daniel Craig's casting as Bond in Casino Royale, as he looked more like Grant and his expies than Bond himself (at least until they finally saw the film).
  • As far as Bond's one-shot allies go, Kerim Bey is one of the most memorable and charismatic.
• Ho Yay: Kerim for Bond. Hell, he treats screwing his mistress like a chore, but he's the most animated and enthusiastic guy in the world when he's sharing a scene with James.

Kerim Bey: "James, life in Istanbul will never be the same without you."

• Memetic Mutation: "From/To [X] with Love".
• Moral Event Horizon: For most of the film, Red Grant appears to simply be a professional doing his work... then he and Bond finally meet and we see how much of a twisted bastard he really is.

"My orders are to kill you and deliver the Lektor. How I do it's my business. It'll be slow and painful. The first shot won't kill you. Nor the second. Nor even the third. Not until you crawl over here and kiss my foot!"

• Narm: Bond checks into his hotel room and casually walks around checking for bugs... with the Bond theme playing in the background the whole time. It's like the canon version of Mike and the bots blurting out "BA-DA-BA-DAAAAAAAAAAA!" during the boring bits of Agent for H.A.R.M..
  • Narm Charm: On the other hand, though, having epic music for that mundane scene arguably makes it better. It also kind of helps that Bond kills someone (Bond One-Liner and all) and the music kicks in right on the scene before that.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Donald "Red" Grant is this in a nutshell. There's rarely been a more evil, stone-cold, implacable psychopath in the entire Bond series. Every time he shows up, you can bet that someone is going to die.
    • A special mention has to go to his murder of the Bulgarian agent at the Hagia Sophia. Grant doesn't need gadgets or weapons; he can kill a person with just a couple of blows.
  • SPECTRE henchmen using humans as practice targets.
  • The scene where Blofeld (off-screen) describes how Siamese Fighting Fish pick off their tired opponents, and how he compares them to how SPECTRE operates.
  • Kronsteen's death. Even though he dies in 12 seconds, it seems like an eternity.
• Signature Scene:
  • Bond finding Tanya in his bed. This scene is used to screen test potential James Bond candidates and Bond girls.
  • The brutal fight on the Orient Express between Bond and Red Grant.
  • Bond being chased down by a SPECTRE helicopter (not unlike Cary Grant in North by Northwest) and shooting it out of the sky with a portable sniper rifle.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • When Blofeld gives his "Siamese Fighting Fish" speech, where he explains that the third fish is letting the other two fight so that it can finish off the survivor, it is easy to see that the real reason why the third fish isn't attacking is because the fish tank is divided by a glass wall.
  • Pedro Armendáriz dabs his arm with a red sponge to simulate being shot during the gypsy camp fight.
• Tear Jerker: The death of Kerim Bey, killed by Red Grant inside his cabin aboard the Orient Express while Bond isn't there to help.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Pedro Armendáriz was dying of cancer during filming and, in various scenes, he simply couldn't walk. The running Kerim, Bond and Tatiana do through the Istanbul market had to be done with a body double for him. Shortly after finishing all of his scenes, Pedro committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest.
• Values Dissonance: Bond slapping Tatiana after Kerim's murder. Granted, Bond is understandably upset over his friend's death and he knows Tatiana has been lying to him, but it seems quite brutish to modern viewers.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: While the story is very good, keeping the SPECTRE plot a mystery until Bond finds out would've made for a cool twist.