The Forgotten Bond: Casino Royale (1954)

Of course I could have called this Casino Royale The First Bond, The Black & White Bond, The Television Bond or The American Bond.

In this film, which is actually a live episode of the CBS television show "Climax!", Barry Nelson portrays "Jimmy" Bond. The episode aired on October 21, 1954. In this movie, James Bond is a american CIA agent and Felix Leiter is a British agent. The mission: Bond is sent to Royale-les-Eaux to bankrupt soviet agent "Le chiffre" played by Peter Lorre.

Apparently, at the end of the program, after Le Chiffre is supposed to have been shot to death, and the show has ended, Peter Lorre got up and walked off the set, but the network had not actually gone to commercial yet. The sight of the dead villian getting up and walking away confused many viewers.

Barry Nelson was born in 1920 and has been a film and television actor since 1941's Shadow of the Thin Man. Other films include: Johnny Eager (1941), A Guy Named Joe (1943), Bataan (1943) and The Human Comedy (1943). After the 1940s Nelson was primarily a television actor although he did play Anson Harris in Airport (1970) and Stuart Ullman in The Shining (1980).

Peter Lorre is one of the greatest character actors in the history of cinema. Films include: M (1931), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), Crime and Punishment (1935), Secret Agent (1936), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1943), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Beat the Devil (1954), and Silk Stockings (1957).