This article needs additional citations for verification .(February 2008) |
Rosa Klebb | |
---|---|
James Bond character | |
First appearance | From Russia, with Love (1957) |
Created by | Ian Fleming |
Portrayed by | Lotte Lenya |
In-universe information | |
Gender | Female |
Affiliation | |
Nationality | Russian |
Classification | Villain |
Colonel Rosa Klebb is a fictional character, the main antagonist in the James Bond 1957 novel and 1963 film From Russia with Love, in which she is played by Lotte Lenya. She was a Soviet counter-intelligence operative until being discharged and joining SPECTRE.
Her name is a pun on the popular Soviet phrase for women's rights, khleb i rozy (Cyrillic: хлеб и розы), which in turn was a direct Russian translation of the internationally used labour union slogan "bread and roses". [1]
Colonel Klebb is a high-ranking member of the feared Russian counter-intelligence agency SMERSH, where she serves as the supervisor of Department II (operations and executions). It is strongly implied in the novel that she is a lesbian; Ian Fleming believed the description of Klebb's sexual orientation allowed the reader to understand how she fits into the plot. She has a reputation for overseeing the interrogations of enemy agents in which, after torturing the target, she speaks to them in a warm and motherly tone to extract information. She started her career as an OGPU agent placed inside POUM during the Spanish Civil War. Her chief was Andreu Nin i Perez, whose mistress she supposedly was. It was later rumoured that it was she who killed him. She is 5 ft 4 inches (163 cm) tall and described as unattractive. She is in her late 40s.
Klebb is assigned by SMERSH leader General Grubozaboyschikov to spearhead an operation to get revenge on James Bond for his involvement in the deaths of three SMERSH operatives, Le Chiffre, Mr. Big and Hugo Drax. Teaming with Tov Kronsteen and Red Grant, Klebb sets a trap for Bond, enlisting a cipher clerk, Tatiana Romanova, to pretend to defect, claiming to fall in love with Bond. Once Bond takes the bait, Grant intends to kill him. This plan backfires, however, when Bond foils Grant's attempt to kill him, and with information given to him by the now deceased Grant, Bond heads to Paris to confront Klebb.
Bond tracks Klebb to the hotel in Paris where she was to rendezvous with Grant at the conclusion of his mission. He finds her there dressed as a wealthy widow. After failing to kill him with a gun hidden in a telephone, she successfully poisons him by means of a fugu toxin-laced blade hidden in her shoe; she is then captured by Bond's friend René Mathis, of the Deuxième Bureau. The novel ends when Bond collapses to the floor; Fleming had intended to end the series at that point with Bond's death. In the next novel, Dr. No , M reveals that Bond survived as a result of Mathis' timely intervention. He mentions that Klebb is dead, without providing any details.
In the film, Klebb is depicted as the former SMERSH head who has defected to become a member of SPECTRE (Blofeld refers to her as "No. 3"). She uses Tev Kronsteen's (Vladek Sheybal) plans to obtain the Lektor, a decoding device that is of high value to MI6, and kill James Bond (Sean Connery). She manipulates Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) into helping Bond steal the Lektor, and then sends Red Grant (Robert Shaw) to kill Bond and recover it. After Bond kills Grant and escapes to Venice with the Lektor, Blofeld confronts both Klebb and Kronsteen over who is responsible for the failure of the mission; the latter is executed, whilst Klebb is given one last chance to get Bond and the Lektor. Posing as a hotel maid, she attempts to take the Lektor; when she is caught, she points a .25 Beretta 418 pistol at Bond. Tatiana then distracts her, causing her to drop the Beretta, and Bond and Klebb fight. As in the novel, Klebb attempts to kick Bond with the poison-tipped shoe, but Bond blocks the attack with a chair. Tatiana then shoots Klebb with her own Beretta, killing her.
For the screen, Klebb's sexuality was made less obvious; [2] a few hints remain throughout the film, such as her reaction to when SPECTRE henchman Morzeny (Walter Gotell) touches her arm at the SPECTRE Island training facility, and when she appraises Romanova's figure during their first meeting and touches her leg.
Along with Irma Bunt, Rosa Klebb was an inspiration for the character of Frau Farbissina from the Austin Powers series.
Rosa Klebb's shoe blade has been featured in other films. It is used by Jade Fox in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , Ichi in Ichi the Killer , James West in Wild Wild West , the Joker in The Dark Knight , Oleg Vasilyevich Orlov in Salt , and Gary "Eggsy" Unwin in Kingsman: The Secret Service . It was also referenced in the Family Guy episode "Mr. and Mrs. Stewie" and parodied in the Peter Sellers film The Pink Panther Strikes Again .
A pair of Rosa Klebb's shoes can also be seen in Q's underground headquarters in the 2002 Bond film Die Another Day , along with other historic gadgets from Bond films, marking the 40th anniversary of the series. It is also included in the video for Madonna's "Die Another Day", the title track of the film, in which two versions of Madonna fight and kill each other, and the "Good Madonna" uses her shoe blade to disarm the "Bad Madonna".
In the 2010 reimagining of the video game GoldenEye 007 , the weapon that was named "Klobb" in the original game (originally named after designer Ken Lobb) has had its name changed to "Klebb". Klebb herself is also a playable character in the game's multiplayer component.
Klebb was also included in a list of the top ten Bond villains by The Times in 2008. [1] [ failed verification ] Lisa Funnell described her as one of "the most dangerous female villains of the decade". [3]
Elisabeth Ladenson wrote that she is one of "two memorable lesbians" from Fleming's Bond novels (the other being Pussy Galore). Ladenson notes that Klebb's character, a butch and unattractive design, can be seen as a "dig at Iron Curtain femininity, the sort of joke that endured until recently in digs at Eastern European female athletes". She also notes that her portrayal in the novel is more feminine than in the film. Lastly, using Melanie Klein's object relations theory, Ladenson suggests that Klebb's can be seen as the "bad mother" type of associative character. [4]
Lauren Spungen criticized the portrayal of homosexuality in the characters of Klebb and Galore, arguing that the "battle between heterosexuality and homosexuality" is a metaphor for the battle of "good and evil". Her unwanted advances towards Bond's love interest, Tatiana Romanova and other characterization make Klebb "foreign and not relatable, allowing further dehumanization". [5]
From Russia, with Love is the fifth novel by the English author Ian Fleming to feature his fictional British Secret Service agent James Bond. Fleming wrote the story in early 1956 at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica; at the time he thought it might be his final Bond book. The novel was first published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape on 8 April 1957.
SPECTRE is a fictional organisation featured in the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, as well as films and video games based in the same universe. Led by criminal mastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld, SPECTRE first formally appeared in the novel Thunderball (1961) and in the film Dr. No (1962). The international organisation is not aligned with any nation or political ideology, enabling the later Bond books and Bond films to be regarded as somewhat apolitical. The presence of former Gestapo members in the organization can be considered as a sign of Fleming's warnings about Nazi fugitives after the Second World War, as first detailed in the novel Moonraker (1954). In the novels, SPECTRE begins as a small group of criminals, but in the films it is depicted as a vast international organisation with its own SPECTRE Island training base capable of replacing the Soviet SMERSH.
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A Bond girl is a character who is a love interest, female companion or (occasionally) an adversary of James Bond in a novel, film, or video game. Bond girls occasionally have names that are double entendres or sexual puns, such as Plenty O'Toole, Holly Goodhead, or Xenia Onatopp. The female leads in the films, such as Ursula Andress, Honor Blackman, or Eva Green, can also be referred to as "Bond girls". The term Bond girl may also be considered as an anachronism, with some female cast members in the films preferring the designation Bond woman.
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Pussy Galore is a fictional character in the 1959 Ian Fleming James Bond novel Goldfinger and the 1964 film of the same name. In the film, she is played by Honor Blackman. The character returns in the 2015 Bond continuation novel Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz, set in the 1950s, two weeks after the events of Goldfinger.
Le Chiffre is a fictional character and the main antagonist of Ian Fleming's 1953 novel, Casino Royale. On screen Le Chiffre has been portrayed by Peter Lorre in the 1954 television adaptation of the novel for CBS's Climax! anthology television series, by Orson Welles in the 1967 spoof of the novel and Bond film series, and by Mads Mikkelsen in the 2006 film version of Fleming's novel where he is one of two main antagonists, the other being Mr. White.
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From Russia with Love is a 1963 spy film and the second in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, as well as Sean Connery's second role as MI6 agent 007 James Bond.
Teresa "Tracy" Bond is a fictional character and the main Bond girl in the 1963 James Bond novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service, where she becomes the first Bond girl to marry 007. In the novel’s 1969 film adaptation, Tracy is played by the actress Diana Rigg.
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In espionage terminology, honeypot and honey trap are terms for an operational practice involving the use of a covert agent, to create a sexual or romantic relationship to compromise a target. The operator may be a government spy service or organized crime syndicate and the target, or victim, can unwittingly provide intelligence or perform other services for the operator. These situations are a very common trope in spy fiction and media portrayals of female espionage. Variations include same-sex relationships and complications may involve the covert agent falling in love with the target.
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