In a slight order change, I’ve watched the first ever James Bond adaptation – the CBS TV version of Casino Royale – it’s available on demand from Sky.
This is a live black & white production as part of the Climax! series – it makes a lot of changes to the book, most notably making Bond an American.
Overall, the story is moderately entertaining and definitely a work of its Hays Code time – I don’t think there’s even a single mild swear word. The exposition is a bit clunky at the beginning and Barry Nelson’s Jimmy Bond is too much like Humphrey Bogart for my taste, but Peter Lorre (who specialised in sinister foreigner roles and got caricatured by Mel Blanc in more than one Warner Bros. cartoon I watched when younger, which is why he seemed familiar to me) does a great job as Le Chiffre. The plot is on the whole good and the 48 minutes are filled nicely – the main plot of the novel can only cover that anyway, which is why it only forms the second half of the Craig movie.
With only Never Say Never Again outstanding, I have almost seen every Bond picture, official or unofficial.
7/10
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