The late Barry Nelson started the ball rolling in an episode of the Climax! a live TV show series with a different story each week. Casino Royale is a low key TV production and it feels it. Whilst some could easily scoff at the production budget, it is important to remember that this was filmed live, much like watching a play in the theatre. Sets could wobble or fall over, dialogue could be forgotten, overlap or words could be modified on the fly. There would not be any exciting car chases or action sequences, fist fights were particularly ropy.
This outing is actually one of the few times the movie stayed, somewhat, faithful to the book and it is a commendable effort. A couple of the roles are reversed and characters combined to make for a simpler narrative. Creative tinkering allows for the story to fit into the shorter run time and the live broadcast delivery. The greatest shame is that as the production was live the quality of the surviving print has aged poorly over time and whilst Casino Royale is still watchable it would not be glossy enough for a modern audience. In saying that, I have the utmost respect for Live television era.
Nelson suits the role of the CIA agent Jimmy Bond and his portrayal gives the regular viewer and the Bond fan something different to examine. By the end of the short run time he had made the role his own. This is actually a performance that holds up, remember that this was the first time anyone had played Bond. Connery would have the biggest influence on the role in the years to come so Nelson stands out as the only actor who cannot be assessed for Connery’s influences. When Connery took over to role of Bond, Casino Royale had been forgotten about entirely. Connery had a fresh canvas to paint with and, as debatable as it is, Lazenby and Moore merely touched up that canvas in the decades following.
As for the rest of the cast, Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre is simply a fun villain and a terrific casting decision, this would be a role played subsequently by Orson Welles and Mads Mikkelsen. Lorre looks much as you would expect Le Chiffre to look and it is great to think that in the life span of the Bond movies, Lorre was the first Bond villain. Linda Christian is stunning as Valeria Mathis (no Vespa Lynd here.) Casino Royale was an oddity of her career as she rarely appeared in TV productions and would be filmed toward the end of her marriage to Tyrone Powers.
Casino Royale did not surface again until the late 1990’s. Barry Nelson was rediscovered as the lost Bond, and to me the news was bigger than the announcement of Goldeneye. I remember buying the video direct from the US in a cardboard slip case. However, this was a version that was a restoration in process. This version was incomplete, there were no end credits and the picture was incredibly rough. When I first watched in my mid to late teens and my expectations were too high to enjoy this. Instead, the Casino Royale VHS became a show piece more than a film to enjoy. Something to bring out, blowing a curious visitor’s mind that there was a Bond film they had likely never heard of.
Casino Royale 1954 has been released a few times. My first release VHS is missing the last two minutes, these were restored in subsequent versions.
Both Casino Royale 1954 and 1967 have gone hand in hand as MGM released the 1954 version as an extra on a DVD release of the 1967 version. Curiously, this included the shorter version. The back cover shows it billed as a “made for TV” movie.
A dedicated US Blu Ray release features the complete cut, however, there is a resident logo throughout the entire presentation and the picture quality comparable to the VHS.
If you are curious, there is a copy on Youtube.
