The first film to feature Bond, was a 1954 hour-long tv-movie based off of the book, Casino Royale. CBS paid Ian Flemming, $1000 to adapt the book into a tv special. What’s crazy, is they “Americanised” James Bond to be “Jimmy Bond, an American Combined Intelligence Officer” The episode aired live on 21 October 1954 and starred Barry Nelson as secret agent “Card Sense” James ‘Jimmy’ Bond and Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre.
A brief tutorial on Baccarat is given at the beginning of the show by the presenter of the programme, William Lundigan, to enable viewers to understand a game which was not popular in America at the time. For this Americanised version of the story, Bond is an American agent, described as working for “Combined Intelligence”, while the character Felix Leiter from the original novel is British, renamed “Clarence Leiter” and an agent for Station S. René Mathis does not appear as such. His surname is given to the leading lady, named Valérie Mathis, instead of Vesper Lynd.
Here it is, for your enjoyment…. Casino Royale!