List of James Bond henchmen in From Russia with Love

This is a list of henchmen from the 1957 novel, 1963 film, and 2005 video game From Russia with Love, from the List of James Bond henchmen.

Donald "Red" Grant

“Red” Grant
Character from the James Bond franchise
Affiliation	SMERSH (novel) SPECTRE (film) Octopus (video game)
Portrayed by	Robert Shaw

Donald Grant aka “Red” Grant is a fictional character in the novel and the film. In both, Grant is a henchman for Rosa Klebb. Donald Grant is played by actor Robert Shaw in the film. The very tall, muscular and blond archetype created by Grant would become a clear characteristic of villains in the later Bond films, including Vargas, Hans, Peter Franks, Erich Kriegler, Necros, and Stamper. Grant's signature weapon is a garotte wire concealed in his wristwatch. Red Grant is the device used to show Bond's ability to read people, in the novel Bond is wary of Grant, disguised as Cpt. Nash, as he ties his tie with a Windsor knot, in the film his suspicions arise as the waiter asks Grant if he would like white Chianti with his grilled sole, when Grant replies "No...the red kind.", Bond gives a startled look as it is customary to eat fish with white wine.

Novel

In the novel, Red Grant is SMERSH's Chief Executioner. He was born Donovan Grant in Northern Ireland, to an Irish mother and is the illegitimate son of "The Mighty O'Donovan", a German strongman who is involved with an international circus group. Shortly after birth, his mother died and he was consequently raised by his aunt.

Red Grant becomes a killer at an early age, his homicidal urges coinciding with the full moon; his SMERSH file categorizes him as a manic-depressive psychopath and an asexual. In the intro of the novel his wristwatch is described to show the phases of the moon. After World War II, he is called up for National Service and is posted to Berlin as a soldier with the British Army of the Rhine. He defects to the Soviets after being disgraced for cheating in a boxing match. Grant enjoys killing people, and the Russians train him to become their Chief Executioner where the Russians call him "Krassno Grantitsky" code name "Granit" with some American paperbacks calling him "Krassno Granitsky".^[1]

He poses as an MI6 agent to lull James Bond into a false sense of security. Bond then trusts him to take watch one night on the Orient Express and gives Grant his gun for protection. Later on in the journey, Grant demonstrates his weapon by shooting it at Bond. He then arrogantly tells Bond about SMERSH's plans and how the SPEKTOR decoder is booby trapped to kill all of MI6's cipher specialists. Grant then attempts to shoot Bond with the gun hidden in the spine of a copy of War and Peace but Bond has put a cigarette case over his heart. Bond (who is playing dead) then stabs him in the leg and shoots him 5 times with Grant's weapon.

Red Grant's father is referenced in Charlie Higson's Young Bond book SilverFin, while Bond is in attendance at a circus.

Film

Donald Grant, aka Red Grant, is a British national who works for SPECTRE and is assigned the task of assassinating James Bond to avenge the death of Doctor Julius No from the previous Bond film. The pre-title sequence in From Russia with Love shows Bond and Grant searching for one another. In the end, Grant kills Bond, before a mask is removed from "Bond's" face to reveal that the whole thing was a training mission for Grant.

Somewhat similar to the novel, Grant apparently was born and raised in Ireland. Grant escaped from Dartmoor prison in 1960 (where he was presumably incarcerated for life for a murder conviction) and was recruited by SPECTRE in Tangier two years later, while on the run from the law. He has been intensively trained by the organization and, when not on a mission, he is resident on SPECTRE Island. He is physically formidable, as Rosa Klebb learns when she unexpectedly punches him in the abdomen with brass knuckles and he barely reacts to the blow.

Although it is Grant's mission to kill Bond, the early part of the film shows him shadowing Bond upon his arrival in Istanbul and taking on the role of Bond's protector to ensure Bond delivers (unknowingly) the Lektor encoding device into SPECTRE's hands. Grant uses his role as "guardian angel" to Bond when he perches himself as a sniper during the Gypsy camp battle sequence to shoot one Bulgar assassin who tries to kill Bond. Later, Grant kills another enemy Bulgar agent at the St. Sophia Mosque in Istanbul who tries to intervene in Bond's rendezvous with Tatiana.

Later in the movie, Grant shadows Bond on the Orient Express train and murders Kerim Bey and Soviet security agent Benz to hinder Bond's plans for escape. Later, Grant impersonates a British agent, Captain Nash; whom he had taken out at the train's stop in Zagreb — to gain Bond's trust. At dinner on board the train, Grant drugs Soviet cipher clerk Tatiana Romanova by spiking her wine with chloral hydrate.

Soon, Grant reveals his true identity, escape route and his plans for SPECTRE to Bond after disarming him. Grant also shows 007 an 8mm film recording of Bond and Romanova making love in his Istanbul hotel, as well as a forged letter that SPECTRE intends for Bond to have on him when he is ultimately found dead by the authorities. This letter would supposedly be from Tatiana, threatening to turn the film over to the news press unless he marries her.

Trying to stall for time, Bond asks for one last cigarette, but Grant refuses. Knowing that the assassin has taken his wallet, Bond offers to pay for the cigarette with 50 gold sovereigns hidden in his attaché case. Grant allows Bond to retrieve them. Knowing how the attaché case works, Bond opens it the correct way (by turning the latches inward before opening), and retrieves the gold sovereigns. With a clear hint of greed, Grant asks if there are more gold sovereigns hidden in the other case (the one that Grant took from the British captain). As Grant puts on his black gloves, Bond tricks Grant into opening the other attaché case the incorrect way, which activates a tear gas cartridge, momentarily stunning him, and giving Bond a chance to lunge at his captor. After a long and brutal fistfight between the two adversaries in the train compartment, Grant attempts to strangle Bond with the garrote wire concealed inside his 'strangler's wristwatch'. Bond takes advantage of his Q-branch attaché case again by producing a hidden, flat-bladed throwing knife and stabs Grant in his left arm, and then strangles Grant with his own garrote. 007 subsequently retrieves his wallet and money from Grant's coat saying, "You won't be needing this... 'old man.'"

Trivia

• Grant shares his name (although not his nickname) with Donald Grant, a vacuum-cleaner salesman and member of the British Union of Fascists from Easter Ross. At the outbreak of war in 1939, this Donald Grant was in Germany and was employed by the Nazis to broadcast to Scotland as Radio Caledonia with the aim of increasing disaffection.

• Grant is only referred to as "Krassno Granitsky" in the film's American trailer.

• Grant is spoofed as the character Paddy O'Brien in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.

• Grant removes the cigarette case from Bond's pocket prior to the train fight in order to keep fans who were familiar with the book in suspense as to how Bond was going to win (following a similar technique from Dr. No, in which the villain deprives Bond of a table knife that was used for self defense in the book).

• Grant has no dialogue in the movie until he meets with Bond aboard the Orient Express train by impersonating Captain Nash, a British agent he just murdered. Grant politely talks to Bond in a rich, upper-class English accent throughout his charade. Later, after Grant disarms Bond and reveals his true alliance with SMERSH/SPECTRE, Grant's English accent suddenly changes to a lower-class Irish accent.

Video game

In the video game based on the novel and film, Donald "Red" Grant is the chief enforcer for the terrorist organization codenamed OCTOPUS. He has a female assistant named Eva Adara, portrayed by Maria Menounos. Grant does most of OCTOPUS' dirty work, but his primary mission is to acquire the Lektor decoding device and kill Bond. He catches up with Bond on the Orient Express, and survives the confrontation at the train station unbeknownst to Bond. During the final assault on OCTOPUS headquarters, he uses a spider-like machine with 4 miniguns that can also throw multiple grenades to attack Bond, Claiming to be Bond's "Guardian Angel" .This time he is killed, where Bond shoots him with a Wright Magnum and says finally, "That was for Kerim." Grant is also playable in the multiplayer deathmatch mode.

Grant is a playable multiplayer character in the 2010 video game GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo Wii.

Henchmen based on Red Grant

Red Grant Models
Name	Affiliation	Height	Actor	Film	Status of Character as of 2010
Hans	SPECTRE	6'8"	Ronald Rich	You Only Live Twice	Deceased - eaten by piranhas
Peter Franks	SPECTRE (unwittingly)	6'2"	Joe Robinson	Diamonds are Forever	Deceased - sprayed with a foam fire extinguisher and thrown off an apartment balcony by Bond who assumes his identity.
Erich Kriegler	KGB/Aris Kristatos	6'0" - 6'4" estimated (otherwise unknown)	John Wyman	For Your Eyes Only	Deceased - pushed out of a window and falls several hundred feet to death
Venz	KGB	6'5"	Dolph Lundgren	A View to a Kill	Alive
Necros	Formerly KGB/mercenary	6'4"	Andreas Wisniewski	The Living Daylights	Deceased - Falls out of cargo plane shipping narcotics
Stamper	Carver Media Group	6'6"	Götz Otto	Tomorrow Never Dies	Deceased - blown to bits on Carver's ship

Kronsteen

Kronsteen
Character from the James Bond franchise
Affiliation	SMERSH (novel) SPECTRE (film) Octopus (video game)
Portrayed by	Vladek Sheybal

Tov Kronsteen (Кронстейна) is a fictional character from the novel and the film. He was portrayed in the film by Vladek Sheybal.

In the novel Kronsteen was the head of the planning department for SMERSH. He was a Chess grandmaster and the champion of Moscow for two years running. During the championship game for his third year Kronsteen was called away by SMERSH to come up with a plan to kill and discredit James Bond. He actually survives in the novel and never encounters James Bond.

In the film, Kronsteen was a Czechoslovakian chess champion, a genius who worked for SPECTRE and was tasked with inventing a plan to kill and disgrace James Bond as revenge for the murder of Dr. Julius No in the film Dr. No. Kronsteen is first seen when he is playing chess in Venice; he wins shortly after he is given a message under his glass of water. Kronsteen leaves after the match and reports to Rosa Klebb and Ernst Stavro Blofeld. He explains his plan to his superiors. But at the end of the movie, it turns out that Bond survived his plot against him. Kronsteen points to Klebb for the reason of the plot's flaw. Kronsteen seems immune to Blofeld's anger. Klebb tries desperately to defend herself and when Blofeld says that her argument is true Kronsteen tries to defend himself saying that it is also partly Morzeny's fault. Thus Blofeld calls in Morzeny and then pulls out a poison-coated blade in his shoe and says that Morzeny is spared. Thus it at first seems as though Klebb is going to be killed but Blofeld noticing and disliking Kronsteen's smugness instead stabs him in the leg and kills him. Kronsteen is the very first henchman to be killed by his boss. During the film, Blofeld refers to him at certain points as Number 5.

Notably Kronsteen is the first case in the series where a henchman can also be called the villain as he acts as one of the leading masterminds of the plot (the other 2 being Blofeld and Klebb).

He is also a multiplayer character for the video game, From Russia with Love.

Krilencu

Krilencu
Character from the James Bond franchise
Affiliation	SMERSH (novel and film) KGB (video game)
Portrayed by	Fred Haggerty

Krilencu is a fictional character from the novel and the film. In the film he was portrayed by Fred Haggerty. In both, Krilencu is a Bulgarian killer working for SMERSH to eliminate Western agents in Turkey. (Although the spelling of his name looks more Romanian than the Slavic 'Krylenko'.) He also acts as one of Benz's chief henchman.

In the film, Krilencu is first seen when James Bond and Kerim Bey spy on a meeting between him, Vlad, Benz and General McAdams. He is then seen leading the Bulgarian assassins to attack the Gypsy Camp, where he first kills a Gypsy guard by throwing a knife into his stomach. As he leads the battle, he shoots Kerim Bey in the arm and manages to escape. Bond and Kerim find his hideout. When Bey's sons, dressed as police, ring Krilencu's doorbell, he slips out a secret entrance, through a hatch on the mouth of a giant Anita Ekberg billboard. As he is climbing down, Bey shoots him in the back, causing him to fall off of his rope to his death. Despite his affiliation to SMERSH in the film, however, later in the film Grant revealed to Bond that the use of SMERSH in Istanbul is fake, and the real villain is SPECTRE, who assigned Rosa Klebb, a former SMERSH colonel and now secretly part of the SPECTRE high command, to lead Soviets and Bulgarians in Istanbul who doesn't know that SMERSH doesn't exist in Istanbul. So Krilencu could be either working for SPECTRE or working for Klebb without knowing that SMERSH is not in use in Istanbul.

Krilencu is also a multiplayer character in the From Russia with Love video game.

Morzeny

Morzeny
Character from the James Bond franchise
Affiliation	SPECTRE Octopus (video game)
Portrayed by	Walter Gotell

Morzeny was created for the film; he does not appear in the novel. Morzeny ran Blofeld's training grounds on SPECTRE Island, which is where Klebb first inspected, then recruited Grant. Later in the film he is among those that Kronsteen tries to blame for SPECTRE's loss although Blofeld spares him. He and other SPECTRE henchmen then pursue Bond on boats. After a deadly boat chase, Bond blows up some fuel tanks he drops into the water, engulfing all of the boats in flames. Although Morzeny frantically orders his agents to get the boats out, he isn't so lucky and is seen covered in flames jumping into the water.

Morzeny is also a multiplayer character in the From Russia with Love video game.

Morzeny is played by Walter Gotell, who would later play General Gogol, head of the KGB in six James Bond films.

References

1. ^ p.187 Griswold, John Ian Fleming's James Bond: Annotations and Chronologies for Ian Fleming's Bond Stories 2006 Author House