CAN I BORROW A MATCH?

Contributed by: The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

The opening phrase in the British Secret Service recognition code used in From Russia with Love. The proper sequence is (a) “Can I borrow a match?,” (b) “I use a lighter,” (c) “Better still,” and (d) “Until they go wrong.”

Bond first hears the opening phrase from one of Kerim Bey‘s sons in the Istanbul airport. He hears it again in the Belgrade, Yugoslavia, train station when he informs another one of Kerim Bey’s sons that his father has been murdered. Grant uses it to trick and murder British agent Captain Nash (BILL HILL) in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, and Bond and Grant use the recognition code one last time in the same station. Grant knows the code because SPECTRE “sweated” it out of a British agent in Tokyo before he died.

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