Climax!

Being a Bond fan, procuring the video of this original broadcast was neither an easy feat nor overlooked in its importance. The October 21, 1954 episode of "Climax!" was the first time James Bond appeared on-screen, and nearly half a century later Bond is still making movies.

The "live" quality of the show makes it all that much more enjoyable; the spontaneity of the lines spoken and the fact that the actors are working with an actual time limit makes for a show in which the flow is constant and consistent, the interest is kept to an expected level, and the characters are more realistic. These are qualities which cannot be replicated in some 20 overly planned and rehearsed later Bond films - but this only makes Casino Royale different - not better.

It is certainly entertaining, to say the least, to watch the original characterization of "Jimmy" Bond - a fast-talking American agent - and compare it to the amazingly developed cool-headedness of today's 007. What a difference 45 years can make!

I have only seen a few of these shows, they are pretty rare to see. One of them was "Trail of Terror" with Robert Preston and Diana Lynn in 1957. It was a live tv production, about the murder of a Dr., Lynn's husband. Preston was great in this as the police detective, and Lynn gave one of her typically latter day great tv performances. She acted on television from 1950 to 1965 and really expanded her range of acting; this was a typical great one as the grieving wife who almost goes against her values but is able to right her mistake at the last minute. Another excellent episode of Climax, and they are basically one hour long live films, was Katherine Ann Porter's "Pale Horse, Pale Rider." It starred Dorothy McGuire and John Forsythe, the second of their live television performances (they had earlier starred in a 1951 live remake of Dark Victory). Pale Horse, Pale Rider was a beautiful love story set in 1918, with the backdrop of WWI and the Spanish Flu, from which more Americans died than did American soldiers in WWI. This was one of the last, really, of McGuire's romantic roles and she is typically beautiful, charming, and lovely in it. It is one of her best television roles and she is very moving as the girl who falls in love only once. All in all, Climax was a great show from the ones I have seen and I wish I could see more!

Just for information purposes: if you buy the spoof of Casino Royale (David Niven, Peter Sellers, et al) on DVD, this Climax episode is included on it under the special features category.

The sound and video quality was not the greatest, but was about what I expected for a copy of TV video. Of the two, I prefer the spoof - Peter Sellers makes a great Bond and I loved it when he had to put on his glasses to shoot the cork off Ursula Andress' champaign bottle. If you've never seen the spoof and like Austin Powers, you should rent it. Soundtrack is good too. ; ; ; ;

I often think about this show. It was an amazing show and sometimes for an eight year old it was pretty scary. I remember one show where someone was walking through an alley and you just knew something bad was going to happen. I walked through an alley like that on my way home from school. After seeing that showed I walked through it really fast. I wish these shows were on DVD. I would love to see the episodes again.