1954’s ‘Casino Royale’: The story of the first ever James Bond movie
When Daniel Craig rebooted James Bond for a new generation with Martin Campbell’s phenomenal Casino Royale, it was the third time Ian Fleming’s story had been brought to the screen, and the first time came long before Sean Connery had suited up and turned 007 into an instant icon in Dr. No.
The year after the source novel had been published, American network CBS paid Fleming the princely sum of $1,000 to secure the rights to transform Casino Royale into a one-hour special. It wasn’t a feature, and it wasn’t even a standalone story, but an instalment of the anthology series Climax!.
As a result, history will always remember California-born actor Barry Nelson as the first actor to play Bond in any capacity, although ‘Card Sense’ Jimmy Bond of the Combined Intelligence organisation is never going to be the first thing that comes to mind whenever anybody thinks of the most iconic secret agent in the history of popular culture.
Thanks to Casino Royale‘s focus on baccarat as a key part of its plot, Climax! host William Lundigan even opened the episode by explaining the rules of the game to audiences who most likely weren’t familiar with the rules and regulations, with Peter Lorre on bad guy duties as the villainous Le Chiffre.
With the main character having been Americanised, it was decided that the same treatment should be given to Bond’s CIA ally Felix Leiter, who in this case was the distinctly British Clarence Leiter. There’s no Vesper Lynd but Valérie Mathis, while the 50-minute running time severely condensed the story, and the live nature of the filmed production effectively rendered it a play broadcast on television.
After it aired, Fleming agreed a deal in 1958 to write 32 episodes for a proposed Bond TV show, and when MGM snagged the rights to Casino Royale for the all-star comic caper rolled out in 1967, the studio also acquired the rights to the 1954 version and seemed to completely forget that it even existed.
In the meantime, Fleming sold the rights to every single 007 adventure other than Casino Royale and Thunderball to producer Harry Saltzman in 1961, which gave rise to the legendary franchise that’s still going strong to this day. While the big-screen adventures of MI6’s finest went from strength to strength, the character’s maiden foray into on-screen storytelling fell into the ether.
In 1981, a film historian discovered a black-and-white recording of the first Casino Royale, dropping the bombshell on Bond fans the world over that Nelson had suited up and played the part almost a full decade before Connery introduced himself to the world as the suave, sophisticated, and debonair spy. It was an inauspicious start for 007’s screen outings, but it’s nonetheless a key part of the property’s history.