But hey, at least Bond smokes in this one.īut let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.

When he’s not stumbling over lines or looking oddly conspicuous in his ill-fitted, very un-Bondian tan (I assume it’s tan) tuxedo jacket, Barry Nelson’s Jimmy Bond is arrogantly strutting his stuff in the casino, or explaining the game of baccarat to the obviously perplexed British Intelligence agent Clarence Leiter. Barry Nelson, who a few decades later would play hotel manager Stuart Ullman in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, was cast as the first actor to bring Ian Fleming’s iconic creation to life. In his place is “Card Sense” Jimmy Bond, an American spy working for Combined Intelligence. Nationalities within the story were switched around leaving no room for the suave British agent with a license to kill. This led to the gutting and bastardization of the character and the world he lived in. Airing on October 21, 1954, Casino Royale was primarily targeted toward American audiences, as that was where it was broadcast. Casino Royale became a 50-minute live “episode” of Climax! Mystery Theater. In 1954, roughly one year after James Bond’s debut in Ian Fleming’s introductory novel Casino Royale, CBS paid the author $1,000 to acquire the right to adapt the book into a teleplay. Nowas the first full-length entry in the officially sanctioned film series, the first to feature Sean Connery, the first to be filmed in color, the first to be released in cinemas, and the first to introduce the overall style of everything that followed, but it was not the first time James Bond appeared onscreen.

One has to be careful when their James Bond knowledge is tested with the question, “What was the first Bond film ever made?” Sure, Dr. The phony props and wooden dialogue and piss poor budget of a live television studio are nauseating in 1954… Story Locations: Royale-les-Eaux (France)īudget: $25,000 (2015 inflation: $219,471)īest Line: “You won’t have to, he’ll die anyway…if you play your cards right.” The Allies: Michael Pate as Clarence Leiter Supporting Villains: Gene Roth as Basil, Kurt Katch as Zoltan The Girl: Linda Christian as Valerie Mathis Screenplay by: Charles Bennett and Anthony Ellis, based on the novel by Ian Fleming

Climax casino royale 1954