Climax! (television)

Climax! (a.k.a. Climax Mystery Theater) was a television show that ran on the American network CBS from 1954 to 1958. It was an hour long anthology suspense/mystery drama.

Related Topics:
Television show - American - CBS - 1954 - 1958

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In 1954, an episode of Climax! featured Ian Fleming's secret agent James Bond in a television adaptation of Casino Royale. It starred American Barry Nelson as an American secret agent "Jimmy Bond" and Peter Lorre as the villain Le Chiffre. This was the first screen adaptation of a James Bond novel, and was made before EON Productions acquired the Bond film rights. EON would not, in fact, obtain the rights to Casino Royale until the late 1990s. The Climax! presentation was a pilot for a potential series that never emerged, and it is the only episode of this anthology series currently available on DVD; it was included as a bonus feature on the MGM DVD release of the 1967 film adaptation of the novel.

Related Topics:
1954 - Ian Fleming - James Bond - Casino Royale - Barry Nelson - Peter Lorre - EON Productions - 1990s - MGM - 1967

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In an earlier episode of Climax!, during an adaptation of Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye, actor Tristam Coffin, playing a dead body, arose in shot and walked off stage. The event was widely covered in the media of the day, later becoming an urban legend that was attributed to Peter Lorre and the previously mentioned Casino Royale adaptation http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/deadman.asp.

Related Topics:
Raymond Chandler - The Long Goodbye - Tristam Coffin - Urban legend

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