Basically, to get this showdown to a reasonable length the character of Vesper Lynd was combined with that of Bond’s French contact from the novel, René Mathis. Though this televised adaptation follows the plot of the novel it does take several liberties with the source material, not only is Bond no longer a British agent working for MI6 but the character of CIA operative Felix Leiter is now, for some reason, a British agent named Clarence Leiter ( Michael Pate) and the book’s love interest and double agent Vesper Lynd, who was basically Bond’s personal assistant and arm candy in the book, is now Valerie Mathis ( Linda Christian), a previous love of Bond’s but who is now Le Chiffre’s current girlfriend and is later revealed to be a member of France’s external military intelligence agency.

“Can someone please explain baccarat to me?” The show opens with James Bond ( Barry Nelson) coming under fire while arriving at the world-famous gaming establishment Casino Royale and as the show unfolds we quickly learn that Bond has been brought in to bankrupt a notorious Russian operative named Le Chiffre ( Peter Lorre) at baccarat, the reason for this is that Le Chiffre has gambled away money belonging to the Soviet Union and unless he wins big his masters will have him killed. What’s even stranger is the fact that Nelson wasn’t an American playing a Brit as this particular adaptation makes Bond an American agent working for the “Combined Intelligence Agency.”Īired as an entry in the CBS dramatic anthology series Climax! this adaptation of Casino Royale does follow the source material fairly closely, well, as close as you can be for an hour-long show that changes the nationality of James Bond from Brit to American. If you are out for a pub trivia night and the question arises “Who was the first person to play James Bond?” do not be so quick to yell out Sean Connery because back in 1954 CBS televised a live broadcast of an adaptation of Ian Fleming’s novel Casino Royale which starred American actor Barry Nelson, the only American to date to play Britain’s greatest spy.

Casino royale movie 1954