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.
