3rd episode of the 1st season of Climax!
"
Casino Royale
"
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Barry Nelson as James Bond
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Episode
no.
| Season 1
Episode 3
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Directed by
| William H. Brown, Jr.
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Written by
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Based on
| Casino Royale
by
Ian Fleming
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Presented by
| William Lundigan
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Produced by
| Bretaigne Windust
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Featured music
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Original air date
| October 21, 1954
(
1954-10-21
)
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Running time
| 50 minutes
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"
Casino Royale
" is a live 1954 television adaptation of the 1953
novel of the same name
by
Ian Fleming
. An episode of the American dramatic anthology series
Climax!
, the show was the first screen adaptation of a
James Bond
novel, and stars
Barry Nelson
,
Peter Lorre
, and
Linda Christian
. Though this marks the first onscreen appearance of the secret agent, Nelson's Bond is played as an American spy working for the "Combined Intelligence Agency".
Most of the largely forgotten show was uncovered by film historian Jim Schoenberger in 1981, with the ending (including credits) found later. Both copies are black and white
kinescopes
, but the original
live broadcast
was in colour. The rights to the program were acquired by
MGM
at the same time as the rights for the 1967
film version
, clearing the legal pathway and enabling it to make the 2006 film
of the same name
.
Plot
[
edit
]
"Combined Intelligence" agent
James Bond
comes under fire from an assassin. He dodges the bullets and enters Casino Royale. There he meets his British contact,
Clarence Leiter
, who remembers "Card Sense Jimmy Bond" from when he played the
Maharajah
at
Deauville
. While Bond explains the rules of
baccarat
, Leiter explains Bond's mission: to defeat
Le Chiffre
at baccarat and force his Soviet spymasters to "retire" him. Bond then encounters a former lover,
Valerie Mathis
, who is Le Chiffre's current girlfriend; he also meets Le Chiffre himself.
Bond beats Le Chiffre at baccarat, but when he returns to his hotel room, is confronted by Le Chiffre and his bodyguards, along with Mathis, who Le Chiffre has discovered is an agent of the
Deuxieme Bureau
, France's external military intelligence agency at the time.
Le Chiffre tortures Bond in order to find out where Bond has hidden the check for his winnings, but Bond does not reveal where it is. After a fight between Bond and Le Chiffre's guards, Bond shoots and wounds Le Chiffre, saving Valerie in the process. Exhausted, Bond sits in a chair opposite Le Chiffre to talk. Mathis gets in between them, and Le Chiffre grabs her from behind, threatening her with a concealed razor blade. As Le Chiffre moves towards the door with Mathis as a shield, she struggles, breaking free slightly, and Bond is able to shoot Le Chiffre.
Cast
[
edit
]
Production
[
edit
]
In 1954, CBS paid the author
Ian Fleming
$1,000 ($11,346 in 2023 dollars
[1]
) to adapt his first novel,
Casino Royale
, into a one-hour television adventure as part of their dramatic anthology series
Climax!
, which ran between October 1954 and June 1958.
It was adapted for the screen by
Antony Ellis
and
Charles Bennett
; Bennett was best known for his collaborations with
Alfred Hitchcock
, including
The 39 Steps
and
Sabotage
.
[5]
Due to the restriction of a one-hour play, the adapted version lost many of the details found in the book, although it retained its violence, particularly in Act III.
[5]
The hour-long
Casino Royale
episode aired on October 21, 1954,
as a live production and starred Barry Nelson as secret agent
James Bond
, with
Peter Lorre
in the role of
Le Chiffre
,
and was hosted by
William Lundigan
.
[8]
The Bond character from
Casino Royale
was re-cast as an American agent, described as working for "Combined Intelligence" and supported by the British agent Clarence Leiter; "thus was the Anglo-American relationship depicted in the book reversed for American consumption".
[9]
Clarence Leiter was an agent for Station S, while being a combination of Felix Leiter and Rene Mathis. The name "Mathis", and his association with the Deuxieme Bureau, was given to the leading lady, who is named Valerie Mathis, instead of Vesper Lynd.
Reports that toward the end of the broadcast "the coast-to-coast audience saw Peter Lorre, the actor playing Le Chiffre, get up off the floor after his death and begin to walk to his dressing room",
do not appear to be accurate.
[12]
Legacy
[
edit
]
In 1958, four years after the production of
Casino Royale
,
CBS
invited Fleming to write 32 episodes over a two-year period for a television show based on the Bond character.
Fleming agreed and began to write outlines for this series. When nothing ever came of this, however, Fleming adapted three of the outlines into short stories and released the 1960 anthology
For Your Eyes Only
along with an additional two new short stories.
This was the first screen adaptation of a Bond novel and was made before the formation of
Eon Productions
. When
MGM
eventually obtained the rights to
the 1967 film version of
Casino Royale
, it also received the rights to this television episode.
[14]
The
Casino Royale
episode was lost for decades after its 1954 broadcast until a black and white
kinescope
of the
live broadcast
was located by film historian Jim Schoenberger in 1981.
The episode aired on
TBS
as part of a Bond film marathon. The original 1954 broadcast had been in color, and the VHS release and TBS presentation did not include the last two minutes, which were at that point still lost. Eventually, the missing footage (minus the last seconds of the end credits) was found and included on a Spy Guise & Cara Entertainment VHS release. MGM subsequently included the incomplete version on its first DVD release of the 1967 film
Casino Royale
.
David Cornelius of Efilmcritic.com remarked that "the first act freely gives in to spy pulp cliche" and noted that he believed Nelson was miscast and "trips over his lines and lacks the elegance needed for the role." He described Lorre as "the real main attraction here, the veteran villain working at full weasel mode; a grotesque weasel whose very presence makes you uncomfortable."
[5]
Peter Debruge of
Variety
also praised Lorre, considering him the source of "whatever charm this slipshod antecedent to the Bond oeuvre has to offer", and complaining that "the whole thing seems to have been done on the cheap". Debruge still noted that while the special had very few elements in common with the Eon series, Nelson's portrayal of "Bond suggests a realistically human vulnerability that wouldn't resurface until Eon finally remade
Casino Royale
more than half a century later."
[17]
See also
[
edit
]
United States portal
Television portal
References
[
edit
]
- ^
1634?1699:
McCusker, J. J.
(1997).
How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda
(PDF)
.
American Antiquarian Society
.
1700?1799:
McCusker, J. J.
(1992).
How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States
(PDF)
.
American Antiquarian Society
.
1800?present:
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
"Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800?"
. Retrieved
February 29,
2024
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Now Pay Attention, 007: Introduction and Casino Royale '54"
. Efilmcritic.com. Archived from
the original
on April 3, 2012
. Retrieved
September 30,
2011
.
- ^
Andreychuk 2010
, p. 38.
- ^
Black, Jeremy (Winter 2002?2003). "Oh, James".
National Interest
(70): 106.
ISSN
0884-9382
.
- ^
Mikkelson, David
(April 13, 2014).
"Dead Character Walks Off Stage"
.
Snopes Media Group Inc.
Retrieved
August 17,
2021
.
- ^
Poliakoff, Keith (2000).
"License to Copyright - The Ongoing Dispute Over the Ownership of James Bond"
(PDF)
.
Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal
.
18
.
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
: 387?436. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on March 31, 2012
. Retrieved
September 3,
2011
.
- ^
Debruge, Peter (May 11, 2012).
"Revisiting 'Casino Royale'
"
.
Variety
. Retrieved
May 20,
2012
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Andreychuk, Ed (2010).
Louis L'Amour on Film and Television
. McFarland.
ISBN
978-0-7864-3336-0
.
- Balio, Tino (1987).
United Artists: the company that changed the film industry
. Univ of Wisconsin Press.
ISBN
978-0-299-11440-4
.
- Barnes, Alan; Hearn, Marcus (2001).
Kiss Kiss Bang! Bang!: the Unofficial James Bond Film Companion
.
Batsford Books
.
ISBN
978-0-7134-8182-2
.
- Benson, Raymond (1988).
The James Bond Bedside Companion
. London:
Boxtree Ltd
.
ISBN
978-0-88365-705-8
.
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The Politics of James Bond: from Fleming's Novel to the Big Screen
.
University of Nebraska Press
.
ISBN
978-0-8032-6240-9
.
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Spy television
(2 ed.).
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.
ISBN
978-0-275-98163-1
.
- Chapman, James (1999).
Licence To Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films
. London/New York City: I.B. Tauris.
ISBN
978-1-84511-515-9
.
- Cork, John; Scivally, Bruce (2006).
James Bond: The Legacy 007
.
Harry N. Abrams
.
ISBN
978-0-8109-8252-9
.
- Lindner, Christoph (2009).
The James Bond Phenomenon: a Critical Reader
(2 ed.).
Manchester University Press
.
ISBN
978-0-7190-8095-1
.
- Lycett, Andrew
(1996).
Ian Fleming
. London: Phoenix.
ISBN
978-1-85799-783-5
.
- Macintyre, Ben (2008).
For Yours Eyes Only
. London:
Bloomsbury Publishing
.
ISBN
978-0-7475-9527-4
.
- Pearson, John (1967).
The Life of Ian Fleming: Creator of James Bond
. London:
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.
- Pfeiffer, Lee; Worrall, Dave (1998).
The Essential Bond
. London:
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.
ISBN
978-0-7522-2477-0
.
- Rubin, Steven Jay (2002).
The James Bond films: a behind the scenes history
. Westport, Conn: Arlington House.
ISBN
978-0-87000-523-7
.
External links
[
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]
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