Filmmakers always seem to despair when given the task of making a card game exciting on film, but the potential is there - 'The Cincinnati Kid'(65) is a good example and the 2006 version of 'Casino Royale' also did a good job. The script follows Fleming's premise: Bond's mission is basically to outplay the main villain at cards (baccarat, in this case) and take his money this remained the major plot point of the new film version in 2006.

What brief fight scenes there are, towards the end, are somewhat crude and awkward, not surprising since it is a live broadcast. It's typical, however, of the limitations of the live television format from the fifties: two or three different small sets (rooms) are used for the entire show the action is slow, driven mainly by dialog, and it has the feel of a stage play, in three acts. Yep, we've definitely entered a Twilight Zone-type warped version of the Bond mythology. Completing the reversal on Fleming's original concept, Bond's buddy Leiter is a British agent (always an American CIA agent in the future films). In footage nearly lost, reflected in the muddy black-and-white presentation, we witness an historic first - the first TV or film incarnation of James Bond. Let's enter a dim, bygone alternate universe where James Bond was an American agent, strolling through a low-budget TV production adaptation of the Ian Fleming novel.

The program concerns itself only with the all-important game of baccarat taking place in the Casino of the title and as such is much less exciting than any subsequent Bond outing but, for all that, Lorre's professionalism and the sheer naivete and, indeed, rarity of the whole thing gives it a certain charm which keeps one watching. operative Clarence(!) Leiter and Polish Kurt Katch as one of Le Chiffre's henchmen. In fact, even Bond himself - occasionally referred to as Jimmy! - is an American here (played by the rather uncharismatic Barry Nelson) and the wildly international cast also consists of Austrian Peter Lorre as the villain of the piece Le Chiffre, Mexican Linda Christian as the female interest, Australian Michael Pate as C.I.A. The first ever screen representation of James Bond is, understandably, miles removed from the way we have come to know and love Britain's top secret agent for starters, this 50-minute adaptation of Ian Fleming's first Bond novel is not only shot in black-and-white but was recorded live for an American TV program entitled 'Climax!'.

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