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007 MAGAZINE

Issue #33 (1988)

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From Russia With Love logo

GRAHAM RYE takes a look at the original Tatiana Romanova screen tests
First published in 007 MAGAZINE Issue #33

Daily Express feature on the search for the new James Bond girl

On Thursday February 28, 1963, the Daily Express heralded that 007 wanted a new girl for his latest movie. Amazing how newspaper features on James Bond have changed so little in 35 years!

A voluptuous blonde cypher clerk from the Russian Consulate General in Istanbul has a secret rendezvous in the dingy cobbled outskirts of the city. Arriving at the meeting place with the mysterious invitation still clutched in her hand, she is startled when the door is opened by a short masculine-looking woman with red hair, dressed in Russian military uniform. Tatiana (Daniela Bianchi) with Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) in the scene as it appears in the final cut of From Russia With Love. The blonde is Tatiana Romanova, Corporal of State Security. The redhead is Colonel Rosa Klebb, apparently the head of operations for Smersh. Colonel Klebb conducts an interview with the girl, gauging her suitability for the role of bait in the trap to kill British secret agent James Bond 007, and snatch the top secret Russian decoding machine – the Lektor. Making it quite clear that she will not leave the room alive if she fails to accept the mission to seduce agent 007, Klebb dispatches Tatiana Romanova on ‘a simple delightful duty. A labour of love.’

So the scene is set for the intricate game of cat and mouse that makes From Russia With Love the most intelligently plotted and scripted Bond movie of the entire series.

Daniela Bianchi as she appears in the final cut of From Russia With Love. Runner-up in the 1960 Miss Universe contest, and a former Rome fashion model, Daniela Bianchi brought exactly the right qualities to her performance as Tatiana Romanova, who Fleming described in his novel as ‘a young Greta Garbo.’ Although her physical performance in From Russia With Love is one of the best of any of the girls to appear in the series, it was felt that her Italian accent was unsuitable for the part, and her entire role was dubbed by British actress Barbara Jefford. Top British model Tania Mallet was tested for the role of Tatiana, but ironically, she was turned down because her upper-class British accent was deemed unsuitable. However, she would later get a second chance when she was cast as Tilly Masterson in Goldfinger (1964). Bond producers ‘Cubby’ Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, together with director Terence Young, interviewed over 200 girls before they finally chose Bianchi for the role.

ABOVE: February 5, 1963 - An unknown actress is tested in the Klebb/Tatiana interview scene, while Anthony Dawson struts his stuff as Colonel Klebb.

A small selection of mostly unknown actresses and models were screen-tested at Pinewood Studios during February 1963 (Bianchi among them), and the film clip reproduced left is the only known surviving example of those tests. French actress Hélène Chanel is tested in the bridal suite sequence – note the blue sheets. Director Terence Young used Anthony Dawson to stand in for Lotte Lenya as Rosa Klebb in the screen-test of the Klebb/Tatiana interview scene. British actor Anthony Dawson was a great friend of Young’s and appeared in many of the director’s films, including They Were Not Divided (1951). Terence Young cast Dawson as Professor Dent in Dr. No and also used him as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in From Russia With Love and Thunderball (although Blofeld’s voice in both movies was supplied by Austrian-born English-based actor Eric Pohlmann [1913-1979]).

Daniela Bianchi in From Russia With Love (1963) Barbara Jefford supplied the voice for Tatiana Romanova Daniela Bianchi with Lotte Lenya as Colonel Rosa Klebb
Daniela Bianchi in From Russia With Love (1963) Daniela Bianchi in From Russia With Love (1963) An unidentified actress tests in the bridal suite sequence

ABOVE: (1) Daniela Bianchi as she appears in From Russia With Love (1963) British actress Barbara Jefford (inset) [photographed in 1989] provided the sexy husky voice for Tania. (2) The interview scene as seen in From Russia With Love with Colonel Klebb played by Lotte Lenya. (3) French actress Hélène Chanel is tested in the bridal suite sequence - in blue sheets!
BELOW: Director Terence Young adjusts Daniela Bianchi's hair during her screen test in February 1963.

Director Terence Young adjusts Daniela Bianchi's hair during her screen test in February 1963.

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