Casino Royale (1954 teleplay)

There have been several attempts to bring Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, to the screen. The 1967 attempt was of course one of the most epic trainwrecks in movie history. The first attempt however was an American television production which went to air in October 1954. It was an episode of the Climax anthology series.

It has huge huge problems but these were not necessarily entirely the fault of the people who made this teleplay.

This was live television. All we have is a crude kinescope recording. Being live means it’s very studio-bound. Live television dramas were shot entirely on two or three sets. And the sets had to be simple. There was no way to do live TV any other way. Very early television, from the late 40s and early 50s, is extraordinarily clunky and stodgy mostly due to the extreme limitations of the technology. If you want an example, try watching Racket Squad (1951-53). If you can endure it.

But progress was rapid. Within a year or two of this teleplay’s broadcast TV was becoming much more assured and much more polished. Series like Alfred Hitchcock Presents (which premiered in 1955), Maverick (premiered 1957) and M Squad (premiered 1957) represent a staggering quantum leap from series like Climax.

There was no way to do exciting action scenes on live TV so the action in Casino Royale is very limp.

The other thing to consider is that in 1954 Ian Fleming and James Bond were totally unknown in the United States. Only one Bond novel had been published in the US at that stage and sales were miserable. Even in Britain Bond was still far from being a pop culture icon. In the US nobody had heard of James Bond. So it’s not surprising that in this adaptation he’s an American named Jimmy Bond (played by an American actor) and he’s a totally conventional American screen tough guy.

There is almost no mention at all of espionage. The villain, Le Chiffre, could just as easily have been a regular gangster. Bond could have been an FBI agent.

This is Casino Royale done as third-rate stock-standard hardboiled crime. It just doesn’t feel like a real spy thriller.

The glamorous deadly and sexy Vesper Lynd from the novel is nowhere to be seen. She is replaced by a dull colourless good girl heroine, Valerie Mathis (Linda Christian). Casino Royale without Vesper Lynd is like Double Indemnity without Phyllis Dietrichsen.

All that’s left from the novel is the confrontation between Bond and Le Chiffre at the gaming tables, and a very sanitised version of the scene in which Bond is tortured by Le Chiffre.

The gambling scene is done reasonably well. It’s the kind of scene that could be made to work on live television. Having Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre certainly helps.

Bond’s CIA contact Felix Leiter becomes a British agent, Clarence Leiter (played by Australian Michael Pate).

It’s hard to judge the acting because you always have to remember that this is all done within the constraints of live TV. And in 1954 actors were vaguely aware that TV acting was not like either stage or film acting but they hadn’t yet quite figured out the right approach. It’s amazing to see such entertaining actors as Peter Lorre and Michael Pate coming across as slightly stodgy.

Barry Nelson as Bond is terrible. You have to make allowance for the fact that he’s not actually playing Bond as Bond, he’s playing Bond as a generic American tough guy cop type. But he’s still very dull.

Anything recorded on kinescope (the predecessor to videotape) is going to look rough and this teleplay does indeed look rough. It was apparently thought to be lost fir many years until a copy turned up in the 80s.

Unless you’re a Peter Lorre completist or a Bond completist there’s no particular reason to watch this one. It doesn’t feel even remotely like a Bond thriller.