CASINO ROYALE (NOVEL)

'''Casino Royale''' by Ian Fleming was the first James Bond novel. It would eventually pave the way for 11 other novels by Fleming himself in addition to 2 short story collections, followed by many 'continuation' Bond novels by other authors.
Since first publication on April 13, 1953, by Jonathan Cape, ''Casino Royale'' has thrice been adapted for the screen: (i) the ''Climax!'' CBS television episode with Barry Nelson as "Jimmy Bond", 1954, (ii) an eponymous spoof with David Niven as "Sir James Bond", and (iii) the twenty-first official film in the EON Productions film series with Daniel Craig as James Bond, released November 17, 2006.

Contents

The novel

Plot summary

Story inspirations

Comic strip adaptation

Adaptation history

The 1954 television episode

Cast and characters

The 1967 spoof/Charles K. Feldman production

The unproduced Raymond Benson stage play

The 2006 film

Differences from Original Novel

Trivia

References

External links

The novel

''Casino Royale'' was first released on April 13, 1953, in a United Kingdom hardcover edition by publishers Jonathan Cape^[1]. The first paperback edition of ''Casino Royale'' in the United States was re-titled by publisher American Popular Library in 1955 (this followed a hardcover edition with the original title). Fleming's suggestions for a new title, ''The Double-O Agent'' and ''The Deadly Gamble'', were disregarded in favour of '''You Asked For It'''. The novel was subtitled "Casino Royale" and made reference to secret agent 007 as "Jimmy Bond" on the back cover. In 1960 the original title ''Casino Royale'' replaced ''You Asked For It'' for all further paperback editions in the United States.
In 1954, Anthony Boucher reviewed the book for ''The New York Times,'' commenting that the book, although about a British Secret Service operative, belongs "pretty much to the private-eye school" of fiction. He praised the first part, saying that
:Fleming, in a style suggesting a more literate version of Cheyney's "Dark" series, manages to make baccarat clear even to one who's never played it and produced as exciting a gambling sequence as I've ever read. But then he decides to pad out the book to novel length and leads the weary reader through a set of tough clichés to an ending which surprises nobody save Operative 007. You should certainly begin this book; but you might as well stop when the baccarat game is over.^[2]
When the book came to the UK in paperback form in 1955, readers were given their first glimpse of an image of secret agent James Bond on the book jacket. The image of Bond was based on a photograph of American actor Richard Conte, who would become known for roles in films such as ''Ocean's Eleven'' (1960) and ''The Godfather'' (1972).

Plot summary

Monsieur Le Chiffre ("the cypher"), an agent of the Soviet assassination bureau SMERSH, is running a baccarat game in the casino at Royale les eaux, France, in order to recover SMERSH money he lost in a failed chain of brothels.
Expert baccarat player James Bond (British secret agent 007) is assigned the defeat of Le Chiffre, in the hope that his gambling debts will provoke SMERSH to killing him. After hours of intense play, Bond beats Le Chiffre, but only with extra money provided by covert CIA observer Felix Leiter.
Bond is provided an assistant, the beautiful, emotionally unstable Vesper Lynd, who becomes his lover. Yet she is a Soviet double agent ordered to ensure Bond does not escape Le Chiffre. With her unwilling connivance, Le Chiffre captures and tortures Bond, but during that, SMERSH assassinates Le Chiffre. Unintentionally, the SMERSH assassin (whose organization became the hero's bitter nemesis in later adventures) spares the captive Bond, saying: "I have no orders about you" — yet cuts the Cyrillic letter "Ш" (шпион,''shpion'', spy) in back of Bond's left hand, "for future reference".
Bond spends three weeks in hospital recovering from Le Chiffre's torture, expressing intent to resign from the secret service, and spends his convalescence with Vesper Lynd. He is suspicious of her because of the combination of apparent dishonesty and her terror of a man with an eyepatch. Believing that man to be SMERSH agent Gettler sent to kill them, her and Bond, for her disobedience; Vesper commits suicide, leaving Bond an explaining note. Her betrayal inspires his remaining in service; he tersely reports to HQ: "The bitch is dead now".
In the novel, SMERSH (a real Soviet organization) acts in its initial internal security purpose, targeting suspected disloyal Soviet agents; later gradually expanding to direct confrontation with Western intelligence agencies.

Story inspirations

Ian Fleming stated that ''Casino Royale'' was inspired by certain incidents that took place during his career at the Naval Intelligence Division of the Admiralty. The first, and the basis for the novel, was a trip to Lisbon that Fleming and the Director of Naval Intelligence, Admiral Godfrey, took during World War II en route to the United States. While there, they went to the Estoril Casino in Estoril, which (due to the neutral status of Portugal) had a number of spies of warring regimes present. Fleming claimed that while there he was cleaned out by a "chief German agent" at a table playing Chemin de Fer. Admiral Godfrey tells a different story: Fleming only played Portuguese businessmen and that afterwards Fleming had fantasized about there being German agents and the excitement of cleaning them. His references to 'Red Indians' (Four times, twice on last page) comes from Fleming's own 30 Assault Unit, which he nicknamed his own 'Red Indians'.
The failed assassination attempt on Bond while at Royale-les-Eaux is also claimed by Fleming to be inspired by a real event. The inspiration comes from a failed assassination on Franz von Papen who was a Vice-Chancellor and Ambassador under Adolf Hitler. Both Papen and Bond survive their assassination attempts, carried out by Bulgarians, due to a tree that protects them both from a bomb blast.
Fleming was a confirmed bachelor. There is speculation that he wrote the "ultimate spy novel" about giving up things in life, such as giving up bachelorhood for his girlfriend.^[3]

Comic strip adaptation

Main articles: James Bond comic strips

''Casino Royale'' was the first James Bond novel to be adapted as a daily comic strip which was published in the British ''Daily Express'' newspaper, and syndicated worldwide. It ran from July 7 1958 to December 13 1958, and was written by Anthony Hern and illustrated by John McLusky; the strip was reprinted by Titan Books in the early 1990s and again in 2005; the 2005 collection, titled ''Casino Royale'', also includes the comic strip adaptations of ''Live and Let Die'' and ''Moonraker''.
To aid the ''Daily Express'' in illustrating James Bond, Ian Fleming commissioned an artist to create a sketch of what he believed James Bond to look like. John McLusky, however, felt that Fleming's 007 looked too "outdated" and "pre-war" and thus changed Bond to give him a more masculine look.

Adaptation history

The 1954 television episode

Main articles: Casino Royale (Climax! episode)

In 1954, producer and director Gregory Ratoff of CBS paid Ian Fleming $1,000 to adapt ''Casino Royale'' into a one-hour television adventure as part of their ''Climax!'' series. Additionally, in the late 1950s CBS invited Fleming to write 32 episodes over a two-year period for a television show based on the James Bond character. Fleming agreed and began to write outlines for this series. When nothing ever came of this, however, Fleming grouped and adapted three of the outlines into short stories and released the 1960 anthology ''For Your Eyes Only'' along with an additional two new short stories.
The episode, ''Casino Royale'', aired on October 21 1954 and starred Barry Nelson as secret agent "Card Sense" James 'Jimmy' Bond and Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre. For this Americanised version of the story, Bond is described as an agent for "Combined Intelligence" (apparently confusing what the "C" in CIA stood for), while the character Felix Leiter from the original novel became "Clarence Leiter," an agent for Station S, and a combination of Leiter and Rene Mathis. The name "Mathis" was given to the leading lady, who is named Valerie Mathis (instead of Vesper Lynd).
This was the first screen adaptation of a James Bond novel, and was made before EON acquired the Bond film rights (actually, before there even ''was'' an EON Productions). When MGM eventually obtained the rights to the 1967 film version of ''Casino Royale'', it also received the rights to this television episode.
The hour long showing itself is split into three acts:

★ Act I: Opening -- Opening of Baccarat scene

★ Act II: Opening of Baccarat Scene -- Hotel Room finale Opening

★ Act III: Hotel Room finale Opening -- Ending
According to Lee Pfeiffer[1], a well known James Bond expert, the ''Casino Royale'' TV film was lost for decades after its first broadcast on 21st October 1954. It was not until 1981 when film collector Jim Shoenberger discovered an old film can labeled "Casino Royale". They were almost disposed of when it was thought it was a copy of the more widely known 1967 ''Casino Royale'' parody until he realized it contained a black & white piece.
The recovered telemovie was put on VHS release and shown once on TBS. However, such release (that was later included as a bonus feature to the DVD of the 1967 ''Casino Royale'' film) and the airing on TBS did not include the full finale of the adaptation, which were at that point lost. It was found later on and included on a Spy Guise & Cara Entertainment VHS release. That release is the only one to date which includes the full finale that was last seen on the original broadcast, although as Lee Pfeiffer points out, the very last few seconds of the ending credits are still missing. After the VHS version, Spy Guise offered pre-orders for a DVD release, but rights issues with MGM forced them to scuttle the DVD release. MGM subsequently included the truncated version on its DVD of the 1967 ''Casino Royale''. While Spy Guise has made the full version available to MGM, no public announcement of such a DVD release has been made, and it was not included as an extra on the DVD or Blu-ray version of the 2006 version of ''Casino Royale''.
All incomplete versions, as mentioned above, have the show ending with Bond confronting Le Chiffre and telling Valerie to go call the police. The complete ending has Le Chiffre grabbing Valerie and holding her captive with a razor, while slowly moving out of the room. Bond takes the chance to shoot him. It then ends with Bond and Valerie in embrace, a few words from host William Lundigan, and the credits. The last few moments of the credits remain lost.
There is an urban legend that Peter Lorre, "killed" in Act 3, stood up and walked off camera during the broadcast. In fact, this actually occurred during an earlier episode of ''Climax!'', during an adaptation of Raymond Chandler's ''The Long Goodbye''; the event was widely covered in the media of the day.^[4]

Cast and characters

★ James 'Jimmy' Bond - Barry Nelson

★ Le Chiffre - Peter Lorre

★ Clarence Leiter - Michael Pate

★ Chef DePartre - Eugene Borden

★ Valerie Mathis - Linda Christian

★ Croupier - Jean Del Val

★ Zoltan - Kurt Katch

★ Basil - Gene Roth

The 1967 spoof/Charles K. Feldman production

Main articles: Casino Royale (1967 film)


In 1955, Ian Fleming sold the film rights of ''Casino Royale'' to producers Michael Garrison (later creator of ''The Wild Wild West'') and Gregory Ratoff for $6,000. Ratoff eventually tried to sell the idea of a James Bond series to 20th Century Fox but was turned down. In conjunction with Michael Garrison, Ratoff's widow sold the film rights to producer Charles K. Feldman after Ratoff's death. With the success of the official James Bond film series in the early 1960s, Feldman went to producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman with a proposition to produce a serious film version starring Sean Connery as agent 007, but was turned down after their discontent on a joint production with Kevin McClory on ''Thunderball''. Like McClory's later 1983 production of ''Never Say Never Again'', Feldman started his own production and first approached Connery who was in the heat of frustration playing the role. Connery offered his acceptance to do the film under a $1 million dollar salary (a salary Connery eventually received to return for 1971's ''Diamonds Are Forever'' and an even larger salary on ''Never Say Never Again''), which Feldman disapproved of. Coming off the success of the comedy ''What’s New, Pussycat?'', Feldman decided the best way to profit from the film rights was to make a spoof. Feldman's spoof was produced and released in 1967 by Columbia Pictures whose close TV subsidiary, CBS, also produced the earlier version. Burt Bacharach wrote and arranged the soundtrack, which had appearances by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass and Dusty Springfield.
The spoof was originally going to center on the character of Evelyn Tremble (played by Peter Sellers) and his impersonation of James Bond. However, Sellers expressed increasing discontent when the film became focused on a comedy and not just the original serious treatment, which he felt his performance was suited for exclusively. This led to Sellers walking off the picture and Feldman's inability to continue production; firing the actor. Feldman later turned to one of the original choices to play James Bond before Sean Connery, actor David Niven, to shape his new scenes around what Peter Sellers/Ursula Andress segments could be used. Despite Feldman having on board what Bond film alumni screenwriter Richard Maibaum referred to in a 1987 interview as Fleming's main inspiration for Bond, the parody continued due to the absence of having Connery on board for a Bond film. After this film's budget had ballooned from its original $6 million dollar budget to $12 million, Feldman reportedly told Connery at a later Hollywood party that it would have been cheaper to have paid him his $1 million fee on only a serious version of the ''Casino Royale'' material.

The unproduced Raymond Benson stage play

In 1985, Raymond Benson adapted Fleming's novel into a stage play, although the play was never produced. The play was submitted to a British agent who recommended that it not be produced. In an interview Benson stated,
:''"She was very elderly and in my opinion she just didn't get it. She recommended that the play not be produced. After further thought, Glidrose shelved it with the ultimate decision that a James Bond stage play simply wouldn't work. The films had Bond in a monopoly and there was no way a play could compete. I disagreed, but it was their property."''^[5] — Raymond Benson
In 1996, Benson went on to become the third continuation author of the James Bond novels (not counting John Pearson who did not write original novels in the oeuvre). In total, Benson wrote six novels, three novelisations, and three short stories before retiring from the job in 2002.

The 2006 film

Main articles: Casino Royale (2006 film)


In the 1990s, Sony Pictures Entertainment (which had incorporated Columbia Pictures) decided to make its own serious adaptation of ''Casino Royale'' and had also announced plans to produce its own rival Bond series, but these plans, in addition to Kevin McClory's plans for a second reconfiguration of ''Thunderball'' (the first being ''Never Say Never Again'') were laid to rest when Sony settled a legal action with MGM/UA in 1999 giving up any rights to the James Bond character. Included in the settlement Sony traded the rights to ''Casino Royale'' for MGM's partial-rights to ''Spider-Man''. The distribution rights to ''Never Say Never Again'' were previously acquired by MGM from Warner Bros. in 1997. Kevin McClory claimed until his death in November 2006 to own the film rights to ''Thunderball'', but a court that heard the Sony/MGM case held that his rights had expired.
After MGM's acquisition of the film rights to ''Casino Royale'' there was speculation that an official version would be produced. Ironically, in 2004, a Sony/Comcast consortium acquired the Bond film series rights from co-owner United Artists. Soon after, in 2005, it was announced by EON Productions that their next James Bond adventure would in fact be ''Casino Royale'', to be directed by ''GoldenEye'' director Martin Campbell.
On October 14, 2005 during a news conference by EON Productions and Sony Pictures Entertainment it was announced that English actor Daniel Craig would play James Bond. Taking over from Pierce Brosnan, this is Craig's first appearance as the British secret agent. He is supported in the film by Eva Green as Vesper Lynd and Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre. Judi Dench also returns for her fifth Bond film as Bond's superior, M. In keeping with the fact that ''Casino Royale'' is the first Bond novel, the film is a reboot/prequel, showing Bond at the beginning of his career as a 00-agent. The film was first released on November 17, 2006, and on DVD and Blu-ray Disc March 13, 2007.

Differences from Original Novel

The film is generally faithful to Fleming's novel, although updated. Aside from the change in time period and technology, these were some other changes in the film:

★ Bond is already 007 at the beginning of the novel, whereas the opening segment of the movie shows Bond attaining his double-0 status with his first two kills.

★ In the novel, Bond describes his first two kills to Mathis: a Japanese cipher and a Norwegian double agent. In the movie, they are a British double agent and his contact.

★ In the novel there is no chase scene in Madagascar; nor is there a chase scene at Miami International Airport. However the end of the chase scene from the Casino parallels an incident in the novel.

★ In the movie, Mr. White and his mysterious organization fulfill the SMERSH role in the novel.

★ Solange Dimitrios is not in the novel, although she did appear in ''007 in New York''.

★ Le Chiffre's backstory in the movie is quite different from that of the novel.

★ In the novel, Le Chiffre was close to bankruptcy because he invested in brothels right before prostitution became illegal. In the movie, Le Chiffre lost his clients' funds in a stock short selling scheme thwarted (albeit unwittingly) by Bond.

★ The location of the casino was changed from Royale, France, to Montenegro.

★ In the novel, Bond meets Vesper in a bar with Mathis. In the movie, they first meet aboard a train en route to Montenegro.

★ In the novel, Vesper is affiliated with MI6, as opposed to HM Treasury in the movie.

★ In the novel, Bond had already met and is good friends with Mathis, going as far to request his assistance on the mission. In the movie, Bond meets him for the first time.

★ In the novel, baccarat is the game played by Bond, Le Chiffre and the others. In the movie, it is no-limit Texas hold'em poker.

★ In the novel, the assassination attempt on Bond during the game was done with a gun hidden inside a cane. In the movie, Le Chiffre's girlfriend Valenka poisons Bond's drink.

★ In the novel, Bond crashes his car after hitting a sheet of nails placed in the middle of the road. In the movie, the crash occurs when he swerves off the road to avoid running over Vesper, who has been bound and left on the road.

★ In the novel, Le Chiffre's assassin is an unnamed agent of SMERSH who speaks to Bond for a few minutes and carves the Cyrillic symbol for "spy" on his hand. In the movie, Le Chiffre is killed by his associate Mr. White, but not before he cuts out the tracking device in Bond's arm.

★ In the novel, Vesper commits suicide by overdosing on pills after leaving Bond a confession. In the movie, Vesper locks herself in an elevator that plunges into the water beneath the Venetian building, then deliberately inhales water before Bond can rescue her (this parallels the beginning of ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service''; afterward, Bond discovers that Vesper has left him Mr. White's phone number on her mobile phone.

★ At no point in the novel do the villains obtain the money. In the movie, Mr. White gets away with it until he is hunted down and apprehended by Bond in the final scene.

★ In the novel, Bond generally wore a black neck tie with his ensemble; whereas, in the movie Bond is clearly seen wearing a bow-tie.

★ Although Mathis is suspected to be a traitor in the film, there is no indication that he cooperated with Le Chiffre (or SMERSH, for that matter) in the novel. Mathis returns to help Bond in the ''From Russia With Love'' novel.

★ M is male in the novel but female in the film.

★ There is no suicide bombing attempt on Bond by the two Bulgarians in the movie as there is in the novel. However, a skirmish between Bond and two Ugandans in the movie seems to parallel that incident.

Trivia

★ According to Win Scott Eckert, ''Casino Royale'' is set between June and July 1951.


★ Jonathan Cape, the publishers of the first British edition, would publish the first hardcover editions of every Bond novel (with the exception of novelisations) until ''No Deals, Mr. Bond'' in 1987.

★ The novel’s physical description of Le Chiffre is based on the English occultist Aleister Crowley. Crowley’s interest in sadomasochistic pornography is said to have also influenced a scene in the novel in which Le Chiffre violently tortures Bond’s testicles with a carpet beater.

★ In the novel, Bond meets Felix Leiter for the first time after a run at the roulette table. After introducing himself with the popular line "Bond. James Bond," the two go to the bar where Bond orders his famous “dry martini” (see shaken, not stirred).

★ In 2006, first editions of the book were selling for $30,000 to $60,000 from antiquarian booksellers. Jonathan Cape has reported that 4,728 copies were printed and less than half of those were actually sold commercially; the rest were given to public libraries. A second printing was published by Cape in May 1953 and a third in May 1954 using the same cover. Further printings used a different cover. The first edition’s cover was devised by Ian Fleming and executed by Kenneth Lewis; the motif used on the cover--of blood dripping from a heart--would be included in the opening credits of the 2006 film. Fleming also devised the cover for the first editions of ''Live and Let Die'' (1954) and ''Moonraker'' (1955).

★ According to the biography ''Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood'', by Todd McCarthy, the director of ''His Girl Friday'' considered filming a version of ''Casino Royale'' in 1962, possibly starring Cary Grant as James Bond, but, ultimately, chose not to. There is a webpage that speculates on what a Howard Hawks Bond film might have been like.^[6]

★ The '' episode “The Royale” is set in an alien reconstruction of a fictional hotel and casino called “The Hotel Royale”, which takes its name from a (nonexistent) novel; the episode makes no mention of the Fleming novel. However, the '' episode “Our Man Bashir” has clear allusions to ''Casino Royale'', including a British secret agent playing a game of baccarat against a villain at a French casino.

★ In Wu Ming’s novel ''54'' (pub. 2003), Cary Grant goes on a secret mission on behalf of MI6. In the English countryside he stumbles upon a copy of ''Casino Royale'' and starts to read it. Grant’s harsh judgement on both the plot and the James Bond character is one of the comedic elements in the novel. He ends up discussing the book’s “incoherence” with British secret agents and his friend David Niven, who short-sightedly comments: “They’ll never make a film out of that!”. This reference has a double significance, as Grant (as noted above) was one of the first actors considered to play James Bond and in a version of ''Casino Royale'' while Niven portrayed the character in the 1967 film adaptation of the book.

★ In a documentary included with the U.S. DVD of the 1967 release of ''Casino Royale'', Charles K. Feldman states that Ian Fleming had written the book with David Niven in mind, and therefore sent a copy of the book to Niven.

★ "Casino Royale" is on a sign in a hotel in the which is a parody of James Bond.

References

1. Universal Exports-Casino Royale
2. Boucher, Anthony (1954), "Criminals at Large," ''The New York Times,'' April 25, 1954, p. BR27
3. James Bond: The Man and His World, Chancellor, Henry, , , John Murray, 2005, ISBN 0-7195-6815-3
4. Death Takes a Powder
5. Casino Royale The 'Lost' Stage Play
6. Howard Hawks' CASINO ROYALE

External links

★ - original broadcast of the TV version

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★ A travelogue of Fleming's French in ''Casino Royale''

★ 30 Commando Assault Unit - Ian Fleming's 'Red Indians'

★ James Bond - main article