Casino Royale (1954): First James Bond screen adaptation

various | July 23, 2011

[EveningStar]

The first screen adaptation of a James Bond book was telecast on October 21, 1954 on the anthology series, Climax!. Barry Nelson played CIA agent Jimmy Bond.

Wikipedia article

IMDb article

Casino Royale (1954)

The Curious Legacy of Casino Royale

In spite of the YouTube titles, this was shown in 1954, not 1953. You may have to crank up the volume a bit:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

[EveningStar]

With the passing of Linda Christian, the first Bond girl, here's the first Bond "movie."

[EveningStar]

ping

[Chainmail]

Ping for after the kids go to bed and let me have the big computer

[fabjr60]

“Card Sense” Jimmy Bond was Americanized by Barry Nelson. Peter Lorre is well worth watching as Le Chiffre.

[Red_Devil 232]

Just watched the 2006 version of Casino Royale on TV with Daniel Craig as 007. Best of the Bond movies,IMO. 007 is violent and determined and no namby pamby in this version!

[sinanju]

Amazing! I never heard of this production.

Um... uh... how do they handle the crude, brutal torture scene where Le Chiffre has Bond tied naked in a chair with the seat kicked out and whacks him in the doodads with a knotted rope?

Peter Lorre played the baddie here. I can just see him getting off on that.

[yarddog]

I believe I actually saw this or maybe there was another B&W version of it on TV. I can’t remember a thing about it tho.

I always thought “Dr. No” was the best of the movies. It was also closest to the book. There hasn’t been a good one since “Thunderball”, at least to me.

[tlb]

A local cable access show ran this last summer. It’s worth watching. Peter Lorre steals the show as you would expect. He usually did.

Live television back in the 50s was a wild and wooly adventure. The blocking left a lot to be desired. Throughout this production repeatedly you see the shadows of the camera or the boom mike.

But the best flub is at the very start of the show. They show three bullet impacts. The prop man got carried away and fired four. You can almost feel the director cursing.

And the torture scene, note the razor blade is at all times kept pointed AWAY from the girl.

I can only imagine when this was over, the actors in chorus said “thank god THAT’S over”.

[Red_Devil 232]

They had it but did not show where the the knotted rope was hitting - but you knew immediately what was being hit! OUCH!

[Nepeta]

I've always liked the 1967 movie. I find the other Bond movies tedious (and I am a fan of action movies).

[william clark]

Actually, From Russia With Love is closest to the book of any. Dr. No was my favorite of the Fleming novels (that I’ve read), but the movie really short-changed his running the air-duct gauntlet sequence.

[yarddog]

Well none of them were right by the book but “From Russia With Love” came fairly close. I think “Dr. No” was a bit closer tho.

I can remember scenes from the book being done exactly the same in the movie. Even such little things as a guy tapping his matchbox on the table.

[devolve]

[RayChuang88]

I've read the original From Russia With Love and the movie itself is probably the closest in "feel" to the original novel, though of course there were added scenes and the evil organization was SPECTRE, not the SMERSH (which was actually a real counter-intelligence operation that was part of the Soviet Red Army from 1943 to 1946).

[Perdogg]

ping

[trisham]

Wow. 1954.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***I always thought “Dr. No” was the best of the movies. It was also closest to the book. There hasn’t been a good one since “Thunderball”, at least to me.***

I have a preference for FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.

[yarddog]

It appears a lot of people agree with you.

All of the first movies went fairly much by the book. After “Thunderball” they began to just use the title and nothing much else from the original story.

For instance, I think “The Spy Who Loved Me” had absolutely nothing to do with the book.

[devolve]

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

^{1930 Blower Bentley}