Casino Royale 1954
Leiter: Are you the fellow who was shot?
Bond: No, I’m the fellow who was missed.
This Casino Royale is the first screen performance of James Bond and the first adaptation of the Ian Fleming novel of the same name. In this live television broadcast from from 1954 we are introduced to James Bond before he liked his martini shaken not stirred. But in 1954, 8 years before Dr. No hit the screens, 007 was introduced for the first time on Television broadcast. The movie was called Casino Royale, based on the first novel by Ian Fleming.
Release Date: October 21, 1954
Directed by: William H. Brown, Jr.
Produced by: Bretaigne Windhurst
Screenplay by: Charles Bennett and Anthony Ellis, based on the novel by Ian Fleming
Music by: Jerry Goldsmith (wait…REALLY?)
James Bond: Barry Nelson
The Girl: Linda Christian as Valerie Mathis
The Villain: Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre
Supporting Villains: Gene Roth as Basil, Kurt Katch as Zoltan
The Allies: Michael Pate as Clarence Leiter
Filming Locations: Hollywood, CA
Story Locations: Royale-les-Eaux (France)
Running Time: 48 minutes
Rating: Not Rated (US), U (UK)
Budget: $25,000 (2015 inflation: $219,471)
Box Office: NA
Rotten Tomatoes Score: NA
Best Line: “You won’t have to [kill Le Chiffre], he’ll die anyway…if you play your cards right.”
The first on-screen appearance of James Bond came with the 'Casino Royale' television play on CBS's Climax! In 1954, with Bond. – Casino Royale (1954) Valerie Mathis. Born Blanca Rosa Welter, her father was an executive with an important oil company and the future Linda Christian followed him from country to country: South Africa, Romania, Germany, France, Switzerland, England, Palestine.
Fan Made Trailer
The phony props and wooden dialogue and piss poor budget of a live television studio are nauseating in 1954…
Origin and Background
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. 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.
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. Casino Royale became a 50-minute live “episode” of Climax! Mystery Theater. Airing on October 21, 1954, Casino Royale was primarily targeted toward American audiences, as that was where it was broadcast. This led to the gutting and bastardization of the character and the world he lived in. Nationalities within the story were switched around; leaving no room for the suave British agent with a license to kill. In his place is “Card Sense” Jimmy Bond, an American spy working for Combined Intelligence. 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. 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. But hey, at least Bond smokes in this one.
Is this your card?
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Getting back to the history of this little known piece of James Bond lore, the television episode went largely unnoticed for years, even after the launch of the official Bond film franchise. In fact, the film itself was widely thought to be lost until 1981, when Jim Schoenberger (yeah…I don’t know who that is either) was rummaging through a garage full of old film canisters and stumbled upon what he thought was a copy of the 1967 spoof version of Casino Royale. Old Jim was in for a surprise after firing up the projector to take a look. What he found was the first James Bond film ever made. A few pieces were missing, including bits of the final scene, but those have since been recovered elsewhere and the full picture was subsequently made available on VHS (and later DVD/Blu Ray).
Casino Royale 1954 Barry Nelson
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Opening and Title Sequences
The opening title sequence consists of the classic 1950’s era narrator voice-over and the series’ title staring us down in all caps:
Don’t worry, I laughed too
There is no clear cut theme song, or much music throughout the rest of the film for that matter. What little music there is consists of stereotypical brassy and incoherent riffs that are as unmemorable as they are infrequent. After the brief title sequence, we cut to some gumshoe television series host, William Lundigan, playing with a deck of cards in a shoe (not of the foot variety, but that of the casino). In this brief prologue, Lundigan comes across as fairly smooth and confident. So why didn’t he play James Bond? Anyway, he briefly explains some casino card playing basics before introducing tonight’s game, which will be played for “the highest stakes of all” in an adaptation of Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale…
William Lundigan explains the purpose of a casino shoe…but forgets to mention why we should care
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Casino Royale 1954
Characters and Plot
Act I opens up on the casino’s exterior. Or to be more specific, the front door. Don’t get excited about any exotic locations, though. This is the closest we get to any exterior scenery. The quick-minded Jimmy Bond narrowly avoids a rather low-key assassination attempt when a couple of drive-by thugs take pot shots from their car. This is meant to draw us, the audience, into the exciting and dangerous world of espionage. Does it work? Well……no comment.
After the opening sequence, we learn of Jimmy Bond’s reputation thanks to the timely introduction of Clarence Leiter, who more or less serves as the voice of the plot, meticulously explaining everything as we go along. Clarence, played by Australian actor Michael Pate, is nothing like his Felix Leiter counterpart. He’s the savviest character in the film and has that British air of class that the Bond character is sorely missing. He becomes more likable as the film progresses, but doesn’t come across as smart and resourceful until he briefs Bond on Le Chiffre’s situation. This is the point where the character becomes more grounded, initially having come across as a flustered fanboy of Bond’s. I was a little surprised when he didn’t ask for an autographed photo. The role is one of the many elements of the film that foreshadows ingredients which would be crucial to the formula of the official Bond series. The ally is always a bit slower and less talented than James Bond and largely plays a subservient role, even when said ally is supposed to be in a higher ranking position, such as Tiger Tanaka in You Only Live Twice, but we’ll leave him for another discussion.
Clarence Leiter (left) threatens the concierge
Leiter nips at Bond’s heels until they sit down to discuss the two most important things the audience needs to be able to follow in order to prevent them from turning the TV off halfway through the teleplay. Bond explains the baccarat side of things: how to play, what the cards mean, etc. Leiter explains the story’s premise, which, when discussing the high points, one finds that it is quite faithful to the original novel. Le Chiffre, or Herr Ziffer as he is known in some circles, is the “toad-like” creature (hahahahahaha!) whom Bond has been assigned to bankrupt at the baccarat table, thus preventing him from clearing his debt with the Soviets. SMERSH, the KGB death squad found in almost all of Fleming’s early novels, is never mentioned.
Le Chiffre is played by classic bad guy actor Peter Lorre, who acted in a variety of the era’s memorable films such as The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca. Despite all the things wrong with this picture, Lorre would be right at home as a Bond villain in the official series. Although I’ve always looked at his portrayal as more of a henchman role than a leading bad guy. Nonetheless, he is the best part of the film and is in fact the closest incarnation to Ian Fleming’s original creation out of the three actors who played the character over the years. His voice and demeanor are genuinely creepy, but the low production values and choppy script are extremely limiting.
Go fish, Mr. Bond
Before Bond and Leiter have their little chat about the plot, a discussion unfolds on the casino floor between the villainous Le Chiffre and the lovely Valerie Mathis (I’m serious, she’s pretty hot - see below). Valerie is a hybrid between the novel’s Vesper Lynd and Rene Mathis, but in a departure from the source material she is immediately shown in cahoots with the villains. Played by Mexican actress Linda Christian, Valerie turns out to be an old flame of Jimmy’s and her true allegiance remains ambiguous throughout the film as she dabbles with the likes of Le Chiffre while almost simultaneously flirting and/or making out with Bond. In the end, her association with the French Deuxieme Bureau is revealed and she clings to Bond for the rest of the film in typical “damsel in distress” fashion, more or less foreshadowing the role that most Bond girls would play in the forthcoming film series. There’s also a bit of rough-housing in which Bond slaps her around…something that would never fly in this day and age but would become a recurrence throughout the early Bond flicks. With having no template to go off of, Linda Christian does a fair job as the first Bond girl, but unfortunately good looks don’t always make up for wooden personality, which she has a lot of, especially in her interaction with Barry Nelson. Ah well…one can’t place much blame on the actress herself when she’s in a situation involving an underwritten character in an underwritten live teleplay.
At least they got one thing right…
Apart from the four major characters (Bond, Le Chiffre, Valerie, and Leiter), there is very little by way of characterization for the remaining actors. The whole MI6 crew, including M, Miss Moneypenny, etc., are absent from the story. The supporting cast mainly consists of Le Chiffre’s three lackeys, which resemble in absolutely no way the quirky, larger than life henchmen that would come to fruition in the coming decade. Instead we have Basil, Zoltan, and Zuroff. Who played them is of no importance, but it’s interesting to note that in my brief glance at Wikipedia, I found that Zuroff is played by “Unknown actor.” Basil is physically imposing, but otherwise the trio is neither threatening nor memorable. I guess you can only do so much with a strict 50 minutes to tell your story.
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Production Values
As one might deduce from what we’ve reviewed so far, the majority of the film takes place in the casino. Seeing as how it’s a sound stage, the set is very obviously cramped, leaving Bond and Leiter to discuss their plans while sitting no more than eight feet away from the enemy. No wonder they’re whispering!
If things aren’t happening in the casino, then they’re happening in the hotel room. Oddly enough, I found Bond’s snooping and checking for bugs extremely reminiscent not only of passages in the novel, but scenes in the first couple EON produced Bond films where Sean Connery’s 007 does pretty much the same thing.
The card game itself isn’t terribly hard to follow if one has some sort of concept of how baccarat works (although I’m convinced that nobody actually knows how to play it). It takes up the majority of Act II and the outcome is faithful to the novel, complete with Bond losing it all before Leiter swoops in with a convenient monetary donation to help him buy back into the game and defeat Le Chiffre once and for all. The interaction between hero and villain is actually convincing on some levels, both here and in the rest of the film, which can largely be attributed to Peter Lorre’s acting chops. It’s immediately following the game that one of the sequences adapted directly from the book occurs. Zoltan, one of Le Chiffre’s bodyguards, silently approaches Bond with the first Bond gadget ever depicted onscreen: a gun hidden inside a walking stick. Barry Nelson channels his inner Daniel Craig by displaying brute physicality to avert the attack! Don’t believe me? Then watch this:
I…don’t know what to say
The final third of the novel is condensed (and I’m talking CONDENSED) into Act III of the teleplay, where Bond is tortured at the hands of Le Chiffre. The novel’s epic car chase was omitted and in its place is a quick elevator ride up to the hotel room where Le Chiffre is waiting. No, he doesn’t have a carpet beater and carving knife in hand (or a knotted rope for those of you who have only seen the 2006 film adaptation). Instead he throws Bond in a bathtub and goes to work on removing his toenails with a pair of pliers. None of it is actually depicted onscreen, of course, but I felt that this was a clever way to depict a brutal and crucial part of the story in a manner that retains some sense of macabre and still get past the censors of 1950’s broadcast television. It also includes Barry Nelson’s best bit of acting and he actually seems to be trying, at one point stating, “Pain and killing’s part my job.” A line that slightly hearkens back to the darkness of the books. This sequence segues into the denouement of the film. I won’t reveal what happens (not that there’s much to give away), but I’m sure you could’ve guessed that things don’t end quite as tragically melancholy as the novel.
Jimmy and Valerie
There’s a longstanding rumor that since the teleplay was presented live with little room for serious error, actor Peter Lorre can be seen standing up after his death scene (that’s not a spoiler – he’s a James Bond villain and therefore doomed from the start) and walking off camera, presumably to his dressing room. This rumor is actually false, but it did happen during the previous Climax! episode, which was an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye.
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Release and Aftermath
The film’s reception and exposure was underwhelming and even Ian Fleming was disappointed. Fleming quickly turned around and sold the full rights to Casino Royale to producer Gregory Ratoff for $6,000, ultimately paving the way for the biggest sacrilege in James Bond history (the 1967 spoof). As for the stars, Barry Nelson went on to appear in a whole lot of movie and television roles that nobody remembers, occasionally willing to comment on his stint as the world’s most famous secret agent, but rarely in a positive light. He passed away in 2007 at the age of 89. Peter Lorre was at the twilight of his career when he starred as the world’s first Bond villain, and spent his few remaining years battling illness and addiction. He died of a stroke in 1964 at 59 years old. Linda Christian was more famous for her off-screen relationships than she was for any of her film roles. She passed away in 2011 at the age of 87.
All in all, this was a very rough start to the James Bond film franchise and that’s if you even want to consider it the beginning. I wouldn’t blame you if you’d prefer to start counting in 1962. It is, however, an extremely interesting and rarely acknowledged chapter in the history of 007. For what little they had to work with and all the changes made to the essence of the James Bond character, there are elements of the film which are surprisingly faithful to the original novel. For die-hard Bond fans, I would highly recommended watching it in its entirety. And best of all, it can be found all over the internet. As for everybody else, which encompasses the majority of the world’s population, there’s really nothing to see here. If you want to see Barry Nelson in a role that better suits him, stick with The Shining and watch for his paper tray boner.
Yes, according to Room 237 this is an actual fan theory
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Final Verdict
Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 10
It gets some cool points for its history as well as at least making an effort with very little to work with.
Better than the Book? No
Copyright © 2014 by Peter Nordgren
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James Bond will return in Dr. No
Casino Royale will return in 1967
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Posters and Fan Art
VHS cover
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DVD/Blu Ray cover
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Fan made DVD cover
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Jeff Marshall poster