November 12, 2010

Climax!: Casino Royale

Data
Title: Climax!: episode "Casino Royale"
Year: 1954
Network: CBS
Episode: 1 episode at 50 minutes, from the first season
Director: William H. Brown Jr.
Writers: Charles Bennett & Anthony Ellis, based on the book by Ian Fleming
Starring: Barry Nelson, Peter Lorre, Linda Christian
Music: Jerry Goldsmith

My reaction
Synopsis: special agent Jimmy Bond plays cards to ruin a Soviet agent
How I saw it: online (streaming from Netflix), yesterday
Concept: Good.
Story: Good.
Characters: Indifferent.
Dialog: Good.
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Indifferent. Good for live TV, though.
Special effects/design: Indifferent.
Acting: Indifferent. Sadly, Peter Lorre is having an off day. And Barry Nelson (although it's not his fault) as James Bond is some of the worst casting in history. I don't mind that he's American, so much as he's the most un-Bond-like, baby-faced, apple-pie-and-baseball-type guy you could imagine.
Music: Good.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good). They're limited in what they can do, since it's a live broadcast, so action stuff like the car chase (a crucial part of the book) is conspicuously absent. It's very suspenseful, though. And I like how the adaptation keeps some of my favorite bits in the book that weren't in the movie version.
Objective Rating: 2.7/4 (Good)

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