The film's storyline deals with the Lektor Decoding Machine, the name of which was called the Spektor Decoding Machine in the original Ian Fleming novel. Its name was changed because of its similarity with the name of the fictitious criminal spy organization "Spectre". He based this device on his knowledge of the Enigma Decoding Machine from World War II. Fleming was involved with the Ultra Network who cracked the Enigma Code in 1939. The Ultra Network's activities were not released until 1975 in a book called A Man Called Intrepid. Fleming's friend Sir William Stevenson wrote the book which was published at the time when the closed period on wartime secrets expired and the records were finally declassified.
The film's title song "From Russia With Love" sung by Matt Monro can be heard on the radio when James Bond and Sylvia Trench are sitting in a boat having a picnic. This song was the first ever James Bond title song to receive a Best Song Golden Globe nomination. A number of others would follow for Bond movies. A cover version of this song sung by Natacha Atlas can be heard on the David Arnold Bond song compilation album, "Shaken and Stirred: the David Arnold James Bond Project".
The first line of the Ian Fleming James Bond novel "From Russia with Love" reads: "The naked man who lay splayed out on his face beside the swimming pool might have been dead." The last line reads: "He said, or thought he said, 'I've already got the loveliest...'. Bond pivoted slowly on his heel and crashed headlong to the wine-red floor."
The gadget Bond uses to check his hotel telephone for bugs is actually a device called an Elcometer. It is used to check the thickness (in thousandths of an inch) of surface coatings, usually paint, on ferrous surfaces. The needle moves sharply across the scale because, though the bodies of that type of telephone were plastic, their bases were painted steel.
The garden setting in the opening sequence was inspired by L'année dernière à Marienbad which had a lush garden setting with statues. It was actually the garden at Pinewood Studios and director Terence Young had the garden recreated in principal from the art house classic.
The headquarters of criminal spy organization SPECTRE in this film is actually the main office administration building of Pinewood Studios.
The helicopter (carrying director Terence Young during filming) crashed over water, trapping the director below the surface for a considerable time in an air bubble inside the copter's canopy. He was rescued and then immediately went back behind the camera with his arm in a sling.
The helmsman of the lead SPECTRE powerboat pursuing Bond is Peter Twiss OBE DSC who, in 1956, flew the Fairey Delta 2 aircraft to a new world air speed record of 1,132 mph. At the time of the shooting of the film he was working for Fairey Marine at Hamble, Hampshire, the manufacturer of the powerboats used. Mr. Twiss details his role in the film in his autobiography "Faster then the Sun". He describes a misunderstanding between Sean Connery and Terence Young regarding timing during the fuel explosion sequence which resulted in a re-shoot after 2 days delay.
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; Erich Kriegler in For Your Eyes Only; Venz in A View to a Kill; Necros in The Living Daylights; Peter Franks in Diamonds Are Forever and Stamper in Tomorrow Never Dies.
The James Bond ally character of Ali Kerim Bey was known as "Darko" Kerim Bey in the original Ian Fleming novel of the same name.
The literal translations of some of this film's foreign language titles include Love and Kisses From Russia (Belgium); Moscow Versus 007 (Portugal); The Return Of Agent 007 (Latin America); Love Greetings From Moscow (Germany); 007 In Istanbul (Finland); Hearty Kisses From Russia (France); Agent 007 Sees Red (Sweden) ; 007: From Russia With Love (Spain); Moscow Against 007 (Brazil); 007 Averted The Spy Plot (China); To 007, From Russia With Love (Italy); Agent 007 Is Hunted (Denmark) and From Moscow With Love (Poland)
The love scene between Sean Connery and Daniela Bianchi caused censorship problems in Britain. In the scene, a sweating SPECTRE cameraman films James Bond and Tatiana Romanova in bed from a cabinet de voyeur. The British Board of Film Censors mandated to producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman that the voyeurism in the scene was too explicit and to keep the footage of the cameraman as minimal as possible or face risking having the whole sequence censored.
The mosque where James Bond meets Tatiana is called the Hagia Sophia. It was originally a church that was converted to a Mosque in 1453. It is frequently featured in art history texts as an example of domed Basilica.
The moves in the chess game played by Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal) are from the game played by Boris Spassky and David Bronstein at the USSR Championship in Leningrad in 1960.
The name of the director of photography Ted Moore can be seen on the body of Julie Mendez during the opening titles sequence. This was intended as a practical joke by cinematographer Frank Tidy and main titles designer Robert Brownjohn.
The opening scene where James Bond is stalked and killed by Red Grant was originally written to appear later in the film. However, editor Peter R. Hunt figured it would work better as a teaser at the start of the movie, thus instigating the now-traditional pre-credits sequence. The man who originally played James Bond's double looked so much like Sean Connery that director Terence Young had to re-shoot the scene with a man with a mustache.
The periscope in the scene in which Bond and Kerim Bey spy on the Russian Embassy from the Basilica Cistern was actually a dummy wooden periscope double made by UK manufacturing company Barr and Stroud.
The picture on the wall of the lobby of the Russian embassy is that of Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
The production was beset with production problems which posed serious problems for the assemblage of the film. Many filmed scenes didn't match with a re-written script and the film was over-scheduled and had gone over-budget. Editor Peter R. Hunt used innovative editing techniques and tricks which saved the picture.
The rats in the film were originally coated with chocolate as they were lab rats and needed to look like sewer rats. However, they wouldn't run and sat around licking themselves. Then, real rats were used but they wouldn't run in the right direction until Sean Connery opened the door of the studio. Finally, the production went to Madrid, Spain to shoot the rat sequence.