Following Ratoff's death in 1960, rights were later acquired by producer Charles K. It was inevitable that the big screen would beckon, and the next year, Fleming sold film rights to Ratoff and Michael Garrison. Director/producer Gregory Ratoff's production starred Barry Nelson as James 'Jimmy' Bond and legendary screen villain Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre. The television industry quickly set its sights on Fleming's novel on October 21, 1954, CBS-TV aired a one-hour adaptation of Casino Royale as part of the Climax! anthology series. Fleming's novel set the tone for those that followed, introducing the 'Bond girl' (Vesper Lynd), the larger-than-life villain (Le Chiffre, agent of SMERSH) and the exotic locations (the French seaside resort of Royale les Eaux, plus Lisbon, Portugal).
'The dry riffle of the cards and the soft whirr of the roulette wheel, the sharp call of the croupiers and the feverish mutter of a crowded casino hide the thick voice at Bond's ear which says, 'I will count up to ten.'' So read the blurb on the jacket of the original printing of Ian Fleming's 1953 novel Casino Royale, which introduced Agent 007 to the world.
