The James Bond Film Festival. Part 21: Casino Royale (1954)

Johnny_L.A · July 3, 2004, 10:24pm

Not many people know it, but Casino Royale was shown as a live presentation on the television show Climax! in 1954.

This version starred Barry Nelson as James Bond, Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre, Linda Christian as Valerie Mathis, and Michael Pate as Leiter. While I thought the acting left something to be desired, the story followed the book pretty well.

Le Chiffre is the head of a Communist Party in France. Unfortunately for him, he has a gambling addiction. His bosses in Moscow have gotten wind that Le Chiffre has lost a good deal of Communist Party funds (80 million francs) to the casino. Le Chiffre must win the money back if he wants to have any chance of remaining vertical. (Not that he’d get off scot free; but at least he may live.) The British Secret Service wants him to lose.

In this version, James Bond is an American and “Clarence” (not “Felix”) Leiter is British. Bond is known as an excellent hand at baccarat, and it’s his job to break Le Chiffre. When Le Chiffre loses his money, the KGB will kill him.

The film is straight forward. As I said, it was broadcast live; and it had to fit into a one-hour time slot. Bond meets Leiter who explains the plot. Bond meets an old flame (Valerie), who is in the clutches of Le Chiffre. Le Chiffre is using her as bait to eliminate Bond. But Valerie has other ideas.

The next night Bond and Le Chiffre play baccarat. Bond loses his bankroll, which was given him by Leiter. Bond sits at the table like a lump, but there is a last-minute reprieve. He is handed an envelope containing 35 million francs with a note saying, “You have to win.” Bond wins. Le Chiffre is ruined.

Bond collects his cheque from the casino and heads back to the hotel. He is informed that Le Chiffre plans to kill Valerie if Bond doesn’t give him the cheque. Valerie walks into the room, and for a minute all looks well. Then Le Chiffre and two henchmen (Gene Roth, Kurt Katch) walk in. They have discovered that Valerie works for the French Secret Service.

Bond won’t reveal where he’s hidden the cheque, so he’s beaten up by a henchman. He is bound and put into the bathtub, where Le Chiffre tortures his toes with a pair of pliers. This is too much for Valerie. She tells Le Chiffre that Bond had had a screwdriver in his hand when she entered. Le Chiffre and his men decide to take the hotel room apart. Le Chiffre has three razor blades hidden on his person. One of them is in his cigarette case, which he thoughtlessly leaves in the lavvy. Bond escapes his bonds just as we hear Le Chiffre exclaim that he remembers Bond had been at the hotel room door when he arrived. He surmises the cheque is hidden behind the number plate. Bond asks for some water and a henchman comes in. Bond punches him and beats him unconscious and takes his gun. Le Chiffre comes in to see what the ruckus is, and is shot by Bond. He staggers into the front room. Bond hobbles in on his damaged feet, using Valerie as a crutch. Le Chiffre asks Bond to kill him. “We’re both gamblers, and I lost.” Bond asks Valerie to retrieve the cheque. Roll credits.

Nelson is stiff as James Bond. He tries to swagger, but it just doesn’t work. He looks like an actor who is trying to be a “tough guy”, but whose only experience has been to watch “tough guys” in the movies. Or maybe he was falling back on his WWII propaganda roles. Whatever the case, it just doesn’t work. He pronounces “baccarat” as “back-a-rat”. It’s like a cheese grater on my ears. And to top it all off, Bond isn’t even British!

Peter Lorre was 50 years old when he became the very first Bond villain, but he looks 60. He would be dead ten years later. His performance was somnambulant, but still better than Nelson’s.

Casino Royale is not a bad film, but it does suffer some limitations. Being a live performance, the director did not have the option of multiple takes and editing. Acting styles have changed over the past 50 years, and that is no doubt colouring my perception. On the other hand, I like other films with similar acting better. I think I’m going to stick with the “live production” explanation. The ending is different from the book, as I recall. Bond didn’t shoot Le Chiffre in the book. And the book had a nasty little torture device that required Bond to sit with his genetalia dangling through a hole in a chair. The literary Le Chiffre used his pliers not on Bond’s toes, but elsewhere. This is not something that they could show or imply in 1954, and even today it would make half of the audience squirm in their seats.

Johnny_L.A · July 7, 2004, 3:12am

Golly, I thought cmkeller would comment on it at least!

(I’ll do the 1967 version next time.)

Zebra · July 7, 2004, 3:41am

I’ve only seen the other version and that on broadcast TV with loads of commercials and what I presume are edits.

Amazing job on all those links!

Bryan_Ekers · July 7, 2004, 5:09am

In the book, Bond didn’t kill Le Chiffre at all. LC was shot by a SMERSH assasin. LC hadn’t lost money through gambling, though. He’d invested party funds in a chain of brothels with the fringe benefit of getting as much tail as he wanted, but a French anti-pimping law had forced closure. He was playing high-stakes baccarat to try to recover the funds.

Bond’s torture was accomplished with a carpet beater, not pliers. LC was on the verge of finishing Bond (not kill him, mind you, but finish him) with a carving knife when the assassin showed up.

Johnny_L.A · July 7, 2004, 12:14pm

Ah, right! A carpet beater. It’s been a long time since I read it.

vibrotronica · July 7, 2004, 5:25pm

So, what do you make of Quinten Tarantino’s desire to make a version of Casino Royale with Pierce Brosnan? He says it will be very faithful to the book.

Scott_Plaid · April 19, 2005, 3:18am

Tarantino? Mehh.

I seem to recall seeing it, and as I recall, he was called “Jimmy” Bond in this one.

Exapno_Mapcase · April 19, 2005, 3:51am

That was the 1967 version talked about in this other thread.

Scott_Plaid · April 19, 2005, 11:52am

Maybe it just the insanely large amount of drugs I have just partaken of, but I seem to recall owning the 1967 version on DVD, which contains both version, and I belive he both his nephew, in the one you refer to, and the American version I am talking about are called “Jimmy”. I cannot find my copy now, however.

A summery off of usenet however, seems to back me up.

Bernie Hanssen:

<snip>(Please don’t winge about any grammatical errors - this is copied
verbatim)

Back of Sleeve Notes:

<snip>
Believed to be lost to posterity until its recent rediscovery, this TV
version of Casino Royale, starts Barry Nelson (The Shining, Airport)
as Jimmy Bond, an American CIA agent assigned to work undercover for the
British Secret Service, led by the plummy, uppercrust Englishman
Clarence Leiter (Michael Pate). His mission - to destroy the evil
mastermind Le Chiffre (Peter Lorre - Casablanca, Arsenic and Old
Lace), a powerful Communist agent operating in France. Bond’s devious plan is
to force Le Chiffre to lose a large sum of KGB money at the gambling
tables of Monte Carlo’s infamous Casino Royale, and then to leave him
at the mercy of his Russian paymasters. Bond is aided by double agent
Valerie Mathis (Linda Christian), the first Bond Girl, a blonde femme
fatale working for the Bureau alongside Bond. The climax is a
brilliantly staged ‘card duel’ between Le Chiffre and Jimmy Bond, with
the cards stacked against evil. </snip>
(Then a little plug for The James Bond Fan Club, as it was then;
followed by the copyright info - A Retro Video Release in association
with Orbit Media)

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.fan.james-bond/browse_thread/thread/4a3666f74a8ee7b7/fcc8cc40f6e283b1?q=Casino+Royale+Climax!+1954+%2Bscript&rnum=2#fcc8cc40f6e283b1

In addition, an article from the British Studies Web Pages (For Teachers and Learners of English in Poland), Why should we take James Bond seriously? also refers to the CIA agent as Jimmy.