An American CIA agent James Bond (Barry Nelson) is assigned to work with his British counterpart Leiter (Michael Pate) in bringing down the Soviet agent Le Chiffre (Peter Lorre) by beating him in a game of Baccarat. Le Chiffre has been using party funds to gamble and lost and his life depends on his winning and Bond's ability at Baccarat makes him the right man for the job. This first adaptation of the Ian Fleming novel was done for live television and is almost unrecognizable from Fleming's book. The British Bond of HMSS is now an American CIA agent and the CIA agent of the novel, Leiter, is now a British agent and the production, for the most part, focuses on the actual Baccarat game. It's of archival interest mostly as the first James Bond adaptation for film or television and a must for James Bond buffs but of only marginal interest to the casual moviegoer. Nelson makes for a bland Bond and only Lorre as Le Chiffre brings a sense of the Bond universe. With Linda Christian as the first Bond girl, her name changed from Vesper of the book to Valerie.
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