It's on Vice tonight and I'm wondering whether its worth tuning in .

"The 1954 television adaptation of Ian Flemming's novel introduces James Bond (Barry Nelson) as an American agent who matches wits with a spy and terrorist named Le Chiffre (Peter Lorre). Linda Christian, Michael Pate."

UPDATE: turns out they're broadcasting the Daniel Craig version. Found it on you tube however... see one of my posts below for it.

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Hell, I wasn't even aware that this existed until I read your post.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino_Royale_(Climax!)

This is a kinescope -essentially, a motion picture camera pointed at a monitor and filming what is on the screen- in this case, a live TV broadcast, so the picture quality is going to be poor- overly contrasty with bloomed highlights and visual distortions.

However, this was produced during the golden era of live TV dramas. The people who worked on this TV production were of a higher caliber than the half-assed roadies who work in the industry now. In 1954, these productions usually came out of New York, not southern California.

For those reasons, and considering this was until recently a lost broadcast, yes, it's worth your time to view it. I'll tune in myself.

Surprisingly, the original broadcast was in color. The kinescope is, of course, black&white.

Thanks Para.... I'll be watching.

I just looked it up on Vice, and it shows Casino Royale on tonight, but says that it's the Daniel Craig version. No doubt, that's incorrect.

Here's where I found it:

I'm really surprised that this was shot and broadcast in color, so I looked up the series that this episode was part of. Very interesting:

Climax! (later known as Climax Mystery Theater) is an American television anthology series that aired on CBS from 1954 to 1958. The series was hosted by William Lundigan and later co-hosted by Mary Costa. It was one of the few CBS programs of that era to be broadcast in color (using the massive TK-40A color cameras pioneered and manufactured by RCA, and used primarily by CBS' arch-rival network, NBC). Many of the episodes were performed and broadcast live, and although the series was transmitted in color, only black-and-white kinescope copies of some episodes survive to the present day. The series finished at #22 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1955-1956 season and #26 for 1956-1957.

It is well worth seeing. It is strange to have an American Bond, but the acting is great.

Well shit! It is the newer Daniel Craig version they're broadcasting.

Kinda really wanted to see the '54 version. I grew up watching Peter Lorre films among others of his era. Oh well....

That's unfortunate. I'm still glad to have found out that this version exists.

Well what do you know... it's on YouTube! 50:24 length.




Link to original video: https://youtu.be/0Uy5gunqCAA

Thanks for posting this.
I watched it a short while ago and it was an interesting episode.

Pat Sajak bears a slight resemblance to Barry Nelson.
Peter Lorre is always plays the "bad guy" character well.

Very interesting. The card game scene was well done.