Not only did EON Productions not own the rights to Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale, but as the film’s opening credits read, the eventual story was “suggested by” Fleming’s novel to begin with. When he couldn’t make a deal with EON Productions, Feldman eventually made his own version, which started as a serious adaptation, but eventually morphed into a raucous comedy free-for-all. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were getting ready to start the James Bond film franchise, producer Charles Feldman was the rights holder to Casino Royale’s potential movie version.

The adventure ends with Valerie not only surviving, but embracing James, as the story ends. In this case, Bond and his love interest, the newly spun Valerie Mathis (a re-writing of Rene Mathis from the source novel) find themselves as old lovers, thrown together by fate and adversity after some time apart. Rather than adapt the cruelly tragic love story of Vesper Lynd and James Bond, Casino Royale ’54 plays for straight romance, with a happy ending. Nelson’s “Card Sense Jimmy Bond” and Lorre’s Le Chiffre are worthy adversaries, and the dramatic tension in this version is so pulpy and noir, it actually feels closer to Ian Fleming’s works than some of the efforts that would follow. While it’s solely focused on James Bond’s time at Casino Royale, and mostly centered around the high stakes Baccarat game against Le Chiffre (Peter Lorre), this Climax! episode does a pretty good job of telling a 007 story without any reference points to go on.

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