"Climax!" Casino Royale (1954)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

William H. Brown Jr.

Writers:

Charles Bennett (writer)
Anthony Ellis (writer)

TV Series:

"Climax!" (1954)

Original Air Date:

21 October 1954 (Season 1, Episode 3)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

American spy James Bond must outsmart card wiz and crime boss LeChiffre while monitoring his actions.

Plot Keywords:

Spy | Soviet | American | Monaco | Intelligence

Cast

Barry Nelson	...	James Bond
Peter Lorre	...	Le Chiffre
Linda Christian	...	Valerie Mathis
Michael Pate	...	Clarence Leiter
Eugene Borden	...	Chef de Partie
Jean Del Val	...	Croupier (as Jean DeVal)
Gene Roth	...	Basil
Kurt Katch	...	Zoltan
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
William Lundigan	...	Host

Runtime:

48 min | USA:58 min | USA:50 min | USA:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG (video rating) | USA:Not Rated (VHS) | USA:Unrated (DVD) | USA:Not Rated (video) | UK:U (VHS)

Filming Locations:

CBS Television City - 7800 Beverly Blvd., Fairfax, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

CBS Television Network

Trivia:

Producer and Director Gregory Ratoff bought the rights to the Ian Fleming novel "Casino Royale" in May 1954. It was a six month option and Ratoff took this to CBS whom produced and broadcast this one hour episode for "Climax!" (1954). Before the sale, the "Casino Royale" novel had not been successful, and was even retitled and Americanized for its paperback issue. Fleming also needed money. Twelve months later, and after the TV screening, Ratoff bought "Casino Royale" outright in perpetuity for an additional $6000. Both sales including the option and the buy-out are considered to have been sold too cheaply and were two sales that Ian Fleming later regretted. With the money from the larger sale, Ian Fleming bought a Thunderbird car at the cost of £ 3000. Gregory Ratoff passed away on 14 December 1960. His widow in 1961 sold the rights to Charles K. Feldman for $75,000. Feldman would go on to make the James Bond parody, 'Casino Royale (1967).

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: Shadow of the boom mic is visible on the wall behind James Bond as he's explaining the rules of Baccarat to Leiter.

Quotes:

Zoltan: [Directly behind Bond] My cane is in your back, but it is a gun, not a cane, and can blow this space in your spine without a sound. You will appear to have fainted. I shall be gone. Before I count ten, you will accompany me to the office and give me the money. If you call for help, I shall fire. One... two... three... four... five... six...
[Bond suddenly knocks the cane out of Zoltan's hand]

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Real Casino Royale (2006) (TV)

Jim Bond, old-time American-style

Let's enter a dim, bygone alternate universe where James Bond was an American agent, strolling through a low-budget TV production adaptation of the Ian Fleming novel. In footage nearly lost, reflected in the muddy black-and-white presentation, we witness an historic first - the first TV or film incarnation of James Bond. Completing the reversal on Fleming's original concept, Bond's buddy Leiter is a British agent (always an American CIA agent in the future films). Yep, we've definitely entered a Twilight Zone-type warped version of the Bond mythology. It's typical, however, of the limitations of the live television format from the fifties: two or three different small sets (rooms) are used for the entire show; the action is slow, driven mainly by dialog, and it has the feel of a stage play, in three acts. What brief fight scenes there are, towards the end, are somewhat crude and awkward, not surprising since it is a live broadcast. The script follows Fleming's premise: Bond's mission is basically to outplay the main villain at cards (baccarat, in this case) and take his money; this remained the major plot point of the new film version in 2006.

Filmmakers always seem to despair when given the task of making a card game exciting on film, but the potential is there - "The Cincinnati Kid"(65) is a good example and the 2006 version of "Casino Royale" also did a good job. Here, though a static game of cards seemed suitable for a TV episode, the solution was to make the scenes as short as possible. Bond (Nelson) gains the upper hand over Le Chiffre (Lorre) after only a couple of hands in the 2nd act and it's all over. The more intense scenes, in this version's favor, come about in the 3rd and final act, when Le Chiffre employs a tool of torture (below the bottom of the picture, off-screen) on a couple of Bond's toes; I guess he breaks them - actor Nelson gasps in pain convincingly. This retained the essential streak of sadism in Fleming's Bond stories (and the subsequent films), a surprising inclusion considering the bland TV standards of the fifties. Nelson was bland, as well, but adequate. Lorre was Lorre, one of those character actors known for stealing scenes, with an unforgettable voice. He was well cast as the first Bond villain, albeit a TV show version. This was, to its credit, a serious, no-nonsense approach, if quite a bit on the stiff side.

Bond:6 Villain:7 Femme Fatale:6 Henchmen:5 Leiter:6 Fights:4 Gadgets:n/a Pace:5 overall:6-. This was the Bond title that the producers of the regular series of Bond films begun in 1962 were unable to use until the end of the century. The next film version of "Casino Royale" was in 1967, a completely different approach as a satirical silly romp. But James Bond would return on the big screen in "Dr.No"(1962).