In the books, Bond often drives his beloved Bentley. The car appears in this film for the only time in the regular series.
In the novel, Bond is actually killed by Klebb with her shoe knife. It was intended to be the last novel because Ian Fleming was frustrated with the lack of success the novels had had. But when it turned out to be an unexpected bestseller, Fleming continued instead. He considered From Russia With Love to be the best one of all the Bond novels.
In this film, James Bond does not say "Bond, James Bond" despite the fact that he does say it in the book this film was based on.
James Bond doesn't appear until 17 minutes and 15 seconds into the movie. Red Grant's voice is first heard 1h 20m in.
Krilencu is supposed to be Bulgarian, but uses the Romanian or Moldovan spelling--the Bulgarian would be Krylenko. His hideout is behind a billboard advertising Call Me Bwana, also produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman.
Kronsteen's death, the boat chase, the opening sequence with the fake Bond being killed by Red Grant, and all scenes with Blofeld were not in the original novel. These were inventions of the film version, most of which due in part to the fact that the main enemy agency was changed to the fictitious SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) rather than SMERSH (Shmert Spionam=Death to Spies), which at one time was a real Soviet counterintelligence agency.
Location manager William Hill was forced to play the role of the real Captain Nash when the actor hired for the role couldn't make it at the last minute.
Much of the film was shot on location, with only a bare minimum of back projection used. Something quite unusual for a film of 1963.
On the Istanbul ferry journey, the Maiden's tower can be seen in the distance behind Bond. This was Renard's lair in The World Is Not Enough.
On-screen body count: 21. This does not include the real Captain Nash, who is presumably killed by Grant off-camera, and Morzeny, who is seen burning following the explosion of the fuel tanks in the Adriatic, but not clearly seen to be dead.
Over 3,500 onlookers flocked to the Sirkeci Railway Station in Istanbul to watch the filming. Overcrowding caused delays in shooting due to such an unexpected turnout. As such, director Terence Young had stuntman Peter Perkins go and create a distraction by hanging upside from a balcony nearby so filming could proceed.
Product placements, brand integrations and promotional tie-ins for this movie include Rolex Watches, James Bond wears a Rolex Submariner; Taittinger Blanc de Blanc Champagne; a billboard advertising another movie made by the Bond producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli called Call Me Bwana starring Anita Ekberg and Bob Hope; and Bentley motor vehicles, James Bond drives a Derby Bentley Mark 4 ½ Liter Sports Tourer convertible, the only time he drives a Bentley in the Eon Productions series.
Red Grant has no dialog until he first meets Bond, first speaking in a rich, upper class English accent. After he's revealed his true identity to Bond, Grant's English accent changes into a lower-class Irish accent as he is explaining the SPECTRE background plot.
Regular James Bond production designer Ken Adam could not work on the film as he was unavailable due to going to work on Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
Some rumored reports maintain that James Bond creator Ian Fleming makes small appearance in this film standing next to the Orient Express train. He is allegedly wearing grey trousers and a white jumper and stands on the platform to the right side of the train. Some sources deny that he appears.
The boat chase at the end of the movie, although supposed to be taking place in the Greek archipelago, was actually filmed in the West of Scotland. The pier James Bond takes off from is at Lunga House and the scene where the flaming barrels are thrown off the boat in Loch Craignish Ardfern, Argyll.
The brutal fight in the train compartment between James Bond and Red Grant lasts only a few minutes on screen and took three weeks to film. Most of it was performed by the actors themselves, rather than doubles.
The budget was $2,000,000 (double that of Dr. No).
The chess tournament set appearing at the beginning of the film cost $150,000. The ceiling top of the chess set was actually a matte painting.
The collapsing rifle given to Bond isn't a gimmick, but was an Armalite AR-7 survival rifle which was a production item which actually does disassemble and fit into its stock. However it fires the .22 long rifle cartridge, not .25 caliber as was stated in the film. As of 2005, it is still in production, although not by Armalite. It is one of very few firearms that will float when dropped into water.