Daily Dialogue — October 17, 2010

Donald “Red” Grant: We were keeping you alive until you could get us the Lektor.
James Bond: So, you had me deliver it on a silver plate? That’s brilliant. Go on, I’m fascinated.
Donald “Red” Grant: Now that we’ve got it, you and the girl are expendable… from here onto Trieste.
James Bond: The girl? Isn’t she working for SPECTRE too?
Donald “Red” Grant: No. She thinks she’s doing it all for Mother Russia. She takes her orders from Colonel Klebb. And so do I.
James Bond: Rosa Klebb? But Colonel Rosa Klebb is a Russian, head of operations for SMERSH.
Donald “Red” Grant: Correction: was. Klebb works for SPECTRE now. The girl doesn’t know that.
James Bond: But why kill her?
Donald “Red” Grant: Orders. That’s only half of it, old man.
[Grant pulls out a roll of 8mm film and an envelope from his suit pocket]
Donald “Red” Grant: Here’s a roll of film. She’ll have this in her handbag. And on you they’ll find this letter. It’s from her, threatening to give the film to the press unless you marry her for helping you steal the Lektor.
James Bond: [confused] What film?
Donald “Red” Grant: [sneers] Taken in the bridal suite at your hotel. Something else the girl didn’t know about… or you.

 — Donald “Red” Grant (Robert Shaw), James Bond (Sean Connery), From Russia With Love (1963), screenplay by Richard Maibaum, adaptation by Johanna Harwood, based on the novel by Ian Fleming

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is exposition, suggested by The Unknown Lyricist. From Russia With Love suggested by Martin_B.

Trivia: The hulking blond assassin Red Grant provided a template for a number of blond European henchmen that would proliferate the James Bond series in later movies such as Hans in You Only Live Twice (1967); Erich Kriegler in For Your Eyes Only (1981); Venz in A View to a Kill (1985); Necros in The Living Daylights (1987); Peter Franks in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Stamper in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997).