Here we have a piece of television history from live series Climax on American Television. 1954 was the era where American TV was done live and this is considered by many a film now, but it is easy to tell it was done live. There are a few muffs on some sound portions of it, and the feeling of this kinescope is stage which it should be. Live TV was a unique stage for American television. Back when this was done, most tv was basing their teleplays on novels and good writers. Ian Fleming's novel has nothing to be ashamed of here.
Granted Barry Nelson the first Bond is American, and has no accent, he is doing this live with no editing for goofs. The start of this live Bond is very interesting in that the very first scene is Bond being shot at. So in the very first live Bond, they are already trying to kill him. As for the first Bond Girl, Linda Christian is part Mexican and did something in real life every Bond girl would have liked to do - marry Tyrone Power and have 2 children by him. Her acting name Christian came from Power renaming her after his screen character Fletcher Christian.
The real gift here is seeing Peter Lorre doing a live Bond adversary. You can tell some of the sound issues in one scene as Lorre is speaking but only the last half of his lines are audible due to a sound malfunction. As this show is part of the live tv assembly line you can understand why it is only 50 minutes (got to have those commercial breaks) and why the action is limited throughout.
Most impressive things to watch for is the casino card game sequence which is well staged and rarely done live on tv back then (this is not the gambling channel on modern tv and most of the time those broadcasts with exceptions are not live), Bonds first screen kiss with Mrs. Tyrone Power (not a bad start James), and how they manage to stage live fighting scenes. There is a concession to being live in that not seen is the scenes where the actors are actually shot by the stage guns. They are done in another room.
A must mention here is Michael Pate as Clarence Leiter. Blimey, he is an actor from down under and is quite impressive in his role here. Pate played a lot of character actors roles in films and tv. His roles varied widely but he always seems to know how to play a role. While the first name here is a bit odd, his acting fits his role very well. You can find his work elsewhere to see the variety of roles and he did a lot of television as well. He did a fair amount of live acting on tv in the 1950's and that might explain why he appears very much at ease on screen here.
While we do not have the stunt work and locales of later Bond films, for a live television presentation this is very good. Having Ian Fleming's material really helps. If your into watching live tv from this era besides checking this out, Rod Serling's Kraft Theater script of Patterns done live on Kraft Theater in early 1955 is one I would highly recommend. Several of the live shows done in this era were redone as good movies later. Casino Royale is one that has been done twice with David Niven and Roger Craig as 007. While the films seem like distant relatives to this live presentation, this first Bond is very much worth investing 50 minutes and is on You Tube Currently.
Granted Barry Nelson the first Bond is American, and has no accent, he is doing this live with no editing for goofs. The start of this live Bond is very interesting in that the very first scene is Bond being shot at. So in the very first live Bond, they are already trying to kill him. As for the first Bond Girl, Linda Christian is part Mexican and did something in real life every Bond girl would have liked to do - marry Tyrone Power and have 2 children by him. Her acting name Christian came from Power renaming her after his screen character Fletcher Christian.
The real gift here is seeing Peter Lorre doing a live Bond adversary. You can tell some of the sound issues in one scene as Lorre is speaking but only the last half of his lines are audible due to a sound malfunction. As this show is part of the live tv assembly line you can understand why it is only 50 minutes (got to have those commercial breaks) and why the action is limited throughout.
Most impressive things to watch for is the casino card game sequence which is well staged and rarely done live on tv back then (this is not the gambling channel on modern tv and most of the time those broadcasts with exceptions are not live), Bonds first screen kiss with Mrs. Tyrone Power (not a bad start James), and how they manage to stage live fighting scenes. There is a concession to being live in that not seen is the scenes where the actors are actually shot by the stage guns. They are done in another room.
A must mention here is Michael Pate as Clarence Leiter. Blimey, he is an actor from down under and is quite impressive in his role here. Pate played a lot of character actors roles in films and tv. His roles varied widely but he always seems to know how to play a role. While the first name here is a bit odd, his acting fits his role very well. You can find his work elsewhere to see the variety of roles and he did a lot of television as well. He did a fair amount of live acting on tv in the 1950's and that might explain why he appears very much at ease on screen here.
While we do not have the stunt work and locales of later Bond films, for a live television presentation this is very good. Having Ian Fleming's material really helps. If your into watching live tv from this era besides checking this out, Rod Serling's Kraft Theater script of Patterns done live on Kraft Theater in early 1955 is one I would highly recommend. Several of the live shows done in this era were redone as good movies later. Casino Royale is one that has been done twice with David Niven and Roger Craig as 007. While the films seem like distant relatives to this live presentation, this first Bond is very much worth investing 50 minutes and is on You Tube Currently.