At this point, movie character James Bond has far surpassed Ian Fleming novel James Bond in the public consciousness, as well as in monetary returns. Since his first appearance in Dr No, played by hairy Scottish bodybuilder Sean Connery, Bond has become one of the most iconic film characters in the history of cinema, even when the role was taken up by a Kiwi model, an geriatric Englishman, a Welshman, an Irishman, and a blonde bloke with jug ears. Throughout it all, however, there has been a guiding vision and enough tropes of the series to ensure that, whichever era you were watching, it was definitively Bond. It's only during the Daniel Craig incarnation that we've got a proper, definitive version of Casion Royale, the original Fleming novel that first introduced the character. Due to weird rights issue the previous adaptation was a weird hodge podge that was more comedy than straight spy thriller, with multiple actors adopting the Bond "codename", including Peter Sellers, David Niven, and Woody Allen. Yeah, that version wasn't very good, but the Connery films had already been a huge smash and this diversion from the source material didn't really bother people all that much. Or the box office, from the looks of things. To get your weird early version of Bond, you have to go even further back. Because Dr No wasn't actually the first time 007 appeared on-screen; in fact it happened a good ten years earlier, on an episode of the CBS show Climax Mystery Theatre, which adapted Casino Royale into a 48 minute drama. They also localised it for an American audience, meaning we saw the adventures of card ace Jimmy Bond, working for Combined Intelligence, supported by a British agent and facing off against Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre. If there's anything weirder than seeing such a thoroughly British character as James Bond being played by an American, as an American...well, frankly, it doesn't bear thinking about.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
