Hot Picks

- There's No Such Thing as Zombies 2020

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Maxxie LaWow: Drag Super-shero 2024

- Watch the Skies 2022

- Dream Hacker 2025

- Love and Comminication 2022

- If I Could Ride Again 2025

- Freak Off 2025

- Lavender Men 2025

- Lost Cos 2023

- Sound of the Surf 2022

- The Stillness 2025

- Frankie Freako 2024

- The Texas Witch 2025

- Cannibal Mukbang 2023

- Bleeding 2024

- No Choice 2025

- Nahual 2025

- Bitter Souls 2025

- A Very Long Carriage Ride 2025

- The Matriarch 2024

- Oxy Morons 2025

- Ed Kemper 2025

- Piglet 2025

- Walter, Grace & the Submarine 2024

- Midnight in Phoenix 2025

- Dorothea 2025

- Mauler 2025

- Consecration 2023

- The Death of Snow White 2025

- Franklin 2025

- ApoKalypse 2025

- Live and Die in East LA 2023

- A Season for Love 2025

- The Arkansas Pigman Massacre 2025

- Visceral: Between the Ropes of Madness 2012

- The Darkside of Society 2023

- Jackknife 2024

- Family Property 2: More Blood 2025

- Feral Female 2025

- Amongst the Wolves 2024

- Autumn 2023

- Bob Trevino Likes It 2024

- A Hard Place 2025

- Finding Nicole 2025

- Juliet & Romeo 2025

- Off the Line 2024

- First Moon 2025

- Healing Towers 2025

- Final Recovery 2025

- Greater Than 2014

- Self Driver 2024

- Primal Games 2025

- Grumpy 2023

- Swing Bout 2024

- Dalia and the Red Book 2024

- Project MKGEXE 2025

- Two to One 2024

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

Climax! - Casino Royale

episode 1.3

USA 1954
produced by
Bretaigne Windust for CBS
directed by William H. Brown jr
starring Barry Nelson, Peter Lorre, Linda Christian, Michael Pate, Eugene Borden, Jean Del Val, Gene Roth, Kurt Katch, William Lundigan (host)
screenplay by Charles Bennett, Anthony Ellis, based on the novel by Ian Fleming, music by Jerry Goldsmith

TV-series
Climax, James Bond, Casino Royale

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dick Turpin

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kamen Rider

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!


American (!) secret agent and master gambler James Bond (Barry Nelson) gets a new assignment: To clean out Russian secret agent and passionate gambler Le Chiffre (Peter Lorre). The story behind it all: Le Chiffre has lost a large lump of money belonging to the Soviet Union at the gambling tables, but tomorrow night he plans to win it all back. Which he won't if he gambles James Bond of course ...

Le Chiffre has a secret weapon though, Valerie (Linda Christian), a former girlfriend of Bond now working for the Russians, and Le Chiffre threatens to shoot her should Bond try to defeat him. The next night at the gambling table, Bond deliberately loses all his money - until he receives funds to continue gambling from noone else but Valerie hereself, and now he cleans out Le Chiffre as he was meant to. Bond later learns that Valerie is actually a double agent working for the French, so she was on his side all the time, but he also learns that Le Chiffre is a sore loser, so he takes both Bond and Valerie captive and tries to get the location of the money Bond has won but Le Chiffre considers his out of Bond, primarily via torture. But Bond is not one to give up and after a big fistfight it all ends happily ...

 

The very first time James Bond was brought to the screen was via (then standard) live television - and James Bond-enthusiasts are quick to label this one as blasphemy, mainly because Bond is an American in the show and doesn't really have too many of the now famous Bond-mannerisms down. The blasphemy-claim is of course a bit of an exaggeration because the character James Bond was hardly as iconic in 1954 as it is today (Casino Royale the book, Bond's introduction to the world, was only published in 1953).

All of this of course says little about the show's own merits ... and in all, Casino Royale is ok television, it's fast-moving, features plenty of suspense, and Peter Lorre as a villain is great as was to be expected. Sure, there is little in terms of over-the-top action we are now used to from the James Bond of the movies, and the sets are very limited due to the very nature of live television, but this is still a well-made little TV-thriller. Sure, Barry Nelson doesn't ring true as James Bond, but that might also be due to hindsight ...

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find Climax! - Casino Royale
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find Climax! - Casino Royale here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!