Rather, the clumsy TV movie demonstrates how easily the world’s most successful franchise - the 22 Eon-produced films have earned more than $11 billion over 50 years, not counting the upcoming “Skyfall” - might have stalled had someone other than Sean Connery been cast in “Dr. The point of beginning with “Casino Royale” isn’t merely one of completism. Over the course of the next twenty-odd weeks, we’ll be revisiting Bond’s oeuvre, film by film in chronological order, with a few off-canon digressions along the way.

buzz-cut who talks of love and throws big haymaker punches. “Jimmy” is an American, for starters, and hardly the refined, martini-drinking gentleman spy we know today, but more of a gorilla with a G.I. As played by Barry Nelson, Bond is a far different character.

That’s how world’s most famous secret agent might have introduced himself in the 1954 hour-long TV version of “ Casino Royale” - the first screen adaptation of the first novel in Ian Fleming’s 007 series.

1954 casino royale