In 1954, the Columbia Broadcasting System or CBS Television purchased Casino Royale for a one time live presentation on their new anthology program Climax Mystery Theater. They paid Fleming $1000.00.

Barry Nelson as Jimmy 'Card-Sense' Bond and Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre.

The $25,000 live production aired on Thursday night October 21, 1954 at 8:30 EST. It starred Barry Nelson as American Combined Intelligence Agent ‘Card Sense’ Jimmy Bond. Veteran actor Peter Lorre is honored by being the first Bond villain, Le Chiffre, and Linda Christian played the first Bond girl Valerie Mathis. Although the production was basically a stage play, many of Fleming’s elements from the novel remained. The classic card game against Le Chiffre is obviously there, however it is refreshing to see the scene where Basil, one of Le Chiffre’s henchmen, holding up his walking cane revolver against Bond’s spine only to have Bond foil the henchman’s murderous plans by falling backwards on top of the cane. A definite highlight from the novel.

Just before airtime, the producers realized the sixty-minute production was over by three minutes.

"So they went through and cut three words here, a line there, a half-a-word here, and their script ended up looking like a bad case of tic-tac-toe." recalled Barry Nelson in a Starlog interview from 1983. I tell you it was so frightening that when I entered (the scene) my only thought was, ‘Oh, God, if I can only get out of this mother!’" "I was very dissatisfied with the part, I thought they wrote it poorly. No charm or character or anything."

Peter Lorre agreed and saw Nelson so nervous with all the changes to the script that he commented, "Straighten up, Barry, so I can kill you!"

For decades afterwards, Bond fans had wondered why Barry Nelson  was chosen for the role.  However, his main reason for accepting the part was simply to work with Peter Lorre.  Nelson was a great admirer of Lorre's work and felt he might never get another opportunity to work with him again.

The live performance was considered lost on the pretense that it was not filmed on a 16mm kinescope telecine.  However, in 1981 a Chicago airline executive named Jim Schoenberger discovered, while sifting through old film canisters of presumably the 1967 version of Casino Royale, the black and white film strip.  Quickly he ran the film through a projector and found a pristine copy of the 1954 production.  The film had its first public performance at the James Bond Weekend in July 1981.  Barry Nelson was also in attendance.

VHS and DVD copies are available including one VHS version from Spyguise that has an additional 60 seconds where Le Chiffre is shot not once, but twice before succumbing to an eternal sleep. 

As if the future of the TV production of Casino Royale’s fate was foreshadowed in the first few seconds of the live production, when a prop gun misfired, so would the novel for the next fifty years misfire on the theater screen.

From A Russian, With Love?

In 1955, flamboyant Russian actor and director Gregory Ratoff was in Cairo, Egypt. According to the story by screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr. (he would also pen the 1960's Batman TV series and the screenplay to Never Say Never Again) , "Gregory had been acting in a film titled The Royal Bed, which was about King Farouk. It was a big rip-off. Everyone was trying to rob as much money as possible from the Italian backers, who weren’t allowed into the country. Gregory stole 10,000 pounds in cash, and needed a way to get it out of Egypt. He got down on his knees at the Cairo airport and prayed: ‘As God is my witness, if I get through with this cash, I’m going to buy a TIME magazine when we land in Athens, and use the money to purchase film rights to the first book I read a review of’."

The book turned out to be Casino Royale.

Ratoff borrowed money from then- head of 20^thCentury Fox, Darryl Zanuck and long time friend and producer Charles K. Feldman and paid Fleming $6000.00 for the film rights. During the next five years, Ratoff tried to bring James Bond to the silver screen - unsuccessfully.

"I was a bright young guy fresh out of college." said Semple, "Gregory hired me to write the screenplay. I worked without pay, but it was a great deal of fun. We traveled around the world while he gambled in casinos, supposedly doing research. He was too old-fashioned to work, so I would sit at the typewriter for four or five hours a day in whatever hotel we were staying in, and just turn out pages and pages of scenes. I probably wrote several scripts during a year of traveling throughout Europe. Gregory thought the story was too silly. He said: ‘Nobody believe this James Bond, so we make him into woman. Then, we make great movie.’ The idea was to write it as a vehicle for actress Susan Hayward."

Flamboyant actor and director Gregory Ratoff envisioned actress Susan Hayward as secret agent Jane Bond.

On December 14, 1960, Gregory Ratoff died from leukemia and his widow was left holding the proverbial empty bank account. She was forced to sell any film properties her late husband owned to get out of debt. Feldman was one of the creditors to the Ratoff estate. The former lawyer turned talent scout and producer was handed the film rights to Casino Royale.

A Cry to Battle

Feldman was one of Hollywood’s most intelligent and cultivated talent agents. Handsome, tanned and sophisticated, He was the full definition of success. His yearly salary in 1933 (at the height of the Great Depression) was approximately $500,000 before taxes. His company, Famous Artists, specialized in bringing new and aspiring talent to the studio system. His 300 client list included John Wayne, Richard Burton, Greta Garbo, Tyrone Power, William Holden, George Raft, Lana Turner and Marilyn Monroe.

Born April 26, 1905 in New York City. One of six children whose family name was Gould. Left as an orphan, he was adopted by the Samuel Feldman family of Bayonne, New Jersey. The family moved to California a few years later. By college, Feldman took up law at the University of California at Los Angeles. His first contact with the movie industry occurred during school vacations when he worked at the studios. One of his earliest jobs was as an assistant cameraman for director John (The Searchers) Ford.

Feldman started his own law practice in Hollywood and specialized in the contractual aspects of the film industry. He came up with the idea of creating jobs for his clients instead of fighting for the few available ones. This was the origin of what became known as the ‘package deal’. For example, after buying a story idea for as little as $2,500, he found an unemployed writer, actor, director and producer. He once said, "I didn’t go into competition with the studios. I just bought what they didn’t want or had passed up. I would wrap a story up, then stick an important name on the label, usually the name of a star or top director. The rest was easy. No producer in his right mind would turn down a deal like that."

During his years as a producer, Feldman would bring to the screen films that Hollywood was afraid to touch.  Films such as A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, The Seven Year Itch, and What's New, Pussycat?

After listening to an inspiring speech in 1942 by then U.S. Vice President Henry Wallace, Feldman had a brainstorm of an idea.  He conceived an episodic film that would highlight war fronts during WWII. The six hour film was to be titled "Battle Cry" and enlisted an army of writers including Ben Hecht and Pearl Buck. He even tried to convince the studio heads to make this film on a non-commercial charity basis. Many famous actors and actresses agreed to volunteer their time for this epic production and were promised that they would only work 12 days. A list of famous actors included Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Gary Cooper, Bette Davis, Ida Lupino, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Claudette Colbert, Leslie Howard, Ingrid Bergman, Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott, Merle Oberon, Jean Arthur, Margaret Sullivan, John Garfield, Ann Sheridan, and George Raft were all at one time committed. Film directors Lewis Milestone, Alexander Korda, and Howard Hawks among others were being touted to direct their own segments. Only one scene was filmed and that was of a burning wheat field in upper state California before Jack Warner sent word to shut down production because of escalating cost.

Feldman’s epic idea may have gone up in smoke but it would eventually find its way into Casino Royale 25 years later.

Feldman had many dalliances, according to sources, with some of Hollywood’s most glamorous ladies. He often gave lavish gifts to his clients and kept close ties to studio moguls such as David O. Selznick, Jack Warner, and Darryl Zanuck. Only one studio head refused to do business with Feldman - MGM’s Louis B. Mayer.

In 1933, Feldman met actress Jean Howard at a party in Beverly Hills. According to Ms. Howard, it was ‘love at first sight.’ Unfortunately, she was also the girlfriend to Mayer and would cause such a stir that Mayer would forbid any business transactions with Feldman and Famous Artists.

Charles K. Feldman, Jean Howard, and Louis B. Mayer.  The love triangle that eventually affected Cubby Broccoli's work relationship with MGM Studios. 

It was during this time that one of Feldman’s associates, and aspiring producer, was escorting several new talented actors onto the MGM lot. This young associate was 24 year old Albert Romolo (Cubby) Broccoli and he was about to learn one of Hollywood’s biggest lessons.

According to Broccoli’s autobiography When the Snow Melts, he was there to meet with producer Pandro Berman. The receptionist allowed the actors to enter Berman’s office, but not Cubby. He was barred from the studio lot. Feeling dejected and confused, he returned to Famous Artists and explained the situation to Feldman, who remained silent. Eventually Cubby discovered the truth about his boss and Mayer, and would work on and off with Famous Artists thru the 30s, 40s and early 1950s.