A stunning and funny movie, GB 1967. Starring: David Niven, Peter Sellers, Orson Welles, Ursula Andress, Woody Allen, Deborah Keer, Terence Cooper, Jean Paul. The “Bond girls” of CASINO ROYALE (1967) poster By the time producer Charlie K. Feldman decided to take the original “Casino Royale” story to the big screen (the first of only two non-Eon Productions of Bond films), other than the casino scene,most of the plot points had been taken for use in other Bond films.

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Le Chiffre (French: [lə ʃifʁ], 'The Cypher' or 'The Number') is a fictional character and the main antagonist of Ian Fleming's 1953 James Bond novel, Casino Royale.^[2] On screen Le Chiffre has been portrayed by Peter Lorre in the 1954 television adaptation of the novel for CBS's Climax! television series, by Orson Welles in the 1967 spoof of the novel and Bond film series, and by Mads Mikkelsen in the 2006 film version of Fleming's novel.

Fleming based the character on occultist Aleister Crowley.^[3]

Novel biography[edit]

Le Chiffre, alias 'Die Nummer', 'Mr. Number', 'Herr Ziffer' and other translations of 'The Number,' 'The Numeral,' 'The Figure,' 'The Cipher,' or 'The Code' in various languages, is the paymaster of the 'Syndicat des Ouvriers d'Alsace' (French for 'Alsatian Workmen's Union'), a SMERSH-controlled trade union.^[4]

He is first encountered as an inmate of the Dachaudisplaced persons camp in the US zone of Germany in June 1945 and transferred to Alsace-Lorraine and Strasbourg three months later on a stateless passport. There he adopts the name Le Chiffre because as he claims, he is 'only a number on a passport'. Not much else is really known about Le Chiffre's background or where he comes from, except for educated guesses based on his description:

Height 5 ft. 8 in. Weight 18 stone.

Complexion very pale. Clean-shaven. Hair red- brown, 'en brosse.' Eyes very dark brown with whites showing all round iris. Small, rather feminine mouth. False teeth of expensive quality. Ears small, with large lobes, indicating some Jewish blood. Hands small, well-tended, hirsute. Feet small. Racially, subject is probably a mixture of Mediterranean with Prussian or Polish strains. Dresses well and meticulously, generally in dark double-breasted suits. Smokes incessantly Caporals, using a denicotinizing holder. At frequent intervals inhales from benzedrine inhaler. Voice soft and even. Bilingual in French and English. Good German. Traces of Marseillais accent. Smiles infrequently. Does not laugh.

Habits: Mostly expensive, but discreet. Large sexual appetites. Flagellant. Expert driver of fast cars. Adept with small arms and other forms of personal combat, including knives. Carries three Eversharp razor blades, in hatband, heel of left shoe, and cigarette case. Knowledge of

accountancy and mathematics. Fine gambler.

In the novel, he makes a major investment in a string of brothels with money belonging to SMERSH. The investment fails after a bill is signed into law banning prostitution. Le Chiffre then goes to the casino Royale-les-Eaux in an attempt to replace his lost funds. MI6 sends Bond, an expert baccarat player, to the casino to bankrupt Le Chiffre and force him to take refuge with the British government and inform on SMERSH. Bond bests Le Chiffre in a game of Chemin de Fer, taking all of his money. Le Chiffre kidnaps Bond's love interest, Vesper Lynd, to lure Bond into a trap and get back his money. The trap works, and Le Chiffre tortures Bond to get him to give up the money. He is interrupted by a SMERSH agent, however, who shoots him between the eyes with a silencedTT pistol as punishment for losing the money.

Le Chiffre's death is seen by the Soviet government as an embarrassment, which in addition to the death and defeat of Mr. Big in Live and Let Die, leads to the events of From Russia, with Love.

Novel henchmen[edit]

• Basil – bodyguard and martial arts expert who takes pleasure in roughing up Bond. He is later killed by a SMERSH agent.
• Kratt – Le Chiffre's Corsican bodyguard who wields a walking-stick gun with which he threatens to cripple Bond at the gaming table. He is later killed by a SMERSH agent.

1967 film biography[edit]

Le Chiffre is a secondary villain in the 1967 satire and appears in one of the few segments of the film actually adapted from Fleming's book. As in the novel, Le Chiffre is charged with recovering a large sum of money for SMERSH after he loses it at the baccarat table. He first attempts to raise the funds by holding an auction of embarrassing photographs of military and political leaders from China, the US and the USSR, but this is foiled by Sir James Bond's daughter, Mata Bond. With no other option, he returns to the baccarat table to try to win back the money. Later, he encounters baccarat Master Evelyn Tremble, who has been recruited by Bond to stop Le Chiffre from raising the money. Le Chiffre attempts to distract Tremble by performing elaborate magic tricks, but fails to prevent Tremble from winning. Afterwards, he arranges for Tremble to be kidnapped and subjects the agent to psychedelic torture in order to get back the money. The torture session is interrupted when his SMERSH masters, led by the film's main villain, Dr. Noah, shoot him dead.

2006 film biography[edit]

In the 2006 film adaptation of Casino Royale, Le Chiffre is portrayed by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. Believed by MI6 to be Albanian and officially stateless, Le Chiffre is a private banker who finances international terrorism. M implies that Le Chiffre conspired with al-Qaeda in orchestrating 9/11, or at least deliberately profiteered from the attacks by short selling large quantities of airline stocks beforehand. In the video game version of Quantum of Solace, it is said that his birth name is 'Jean Duran', in the MI6 mission briefings. A mathematical genius and a chessprodigy, his abilities enable him to earn large sums of money on games of chance and probabilities, and he likes to show off by playing poker. He suffers from haemolacria, which causes him to weep blood out of a damaged vessel in his left eye. As in Fleming's novel, he dresses in immaculate black suits and uses a Salbutamol inhaler, here plated with platinum.

At the start of the movie, Le Chiffre is contacted by Mr. White, a representative of an elite criminal organisation later revealed to be Quantum (and, later still, Spectre). White introduces Steven Obanno, a leader of the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, to Le Chiffre, and arranges to launder several briefcases of money for Obanno. Le Chiffre invests the money along with his other creditors' funds into the aircraft manufacturer SkyFleet. Though SkyFleet's shares have been skyrocketing in wake of a new aircraft they are rolling out, Le Chiffre plans to short the company by purchasing put options, and ordering the destruction of the company's new prototype airliner, set to make its first flight out of Miami International Airport. Bond intervenes and foils the plan by killing Le Chiffre's first contractor for the job, as well as the backup contractor Le Chiffre hires to take his place.^[5]

The failure of his scheme causes Le Chiffre to lose over $100 million. He sets up and enters a high-stakes Texas hold 'em tournament at Casino Royale in Montenegro in an attempt to recoup his losses before his clients find out that their money has been misappropriated and seek revenge against him. Bond is sent to make sure that Le Chiffre does not win back the money, hoping to force him to turn to MI6 for asylum in exchange for information on his creditors and employers. An accountant from HM Treasury, Vesper Lynd, is sent to accompany Bond to make sure the money is used properly.

During the tournament, an irate Obanno and his lieutenant break into Le Chiffre's hotel room, restrain his girlfriend Valenka, and strangle him with a cord. Le Chiffre asks for, and is granted one last chance to win their money back. He offers not one word of objection to Obanno's feigned amputation of Valenka's arm, leading the ruthless warlord to advise her to find a new partner. As Obanno leaves the room, his bodyguard spots Bond and Vesper in the hallway, and hears Valenka's cries coming from Bond's earpiece. Bond kills the bodyguard by throwing him over a railing, then chokes Obanno to death with Vesper's assistance after relieving Obanno of his machete. Rene Mathis arranges the blame to be placed on Le Chiffre's bodyguard Leo by planting the bodies in the trunk of Leo's car.

On the second day of the tournament, Le Chiffre initially outwits and bankrupts Bond, who cannot get additional funding approved by Vesper. However, Felix Leiter, a CIA agent sent to participate in the game, also in hopes of bankrupting Le Chiffre, agrees to bankroll Bond, on the condition that CIA is allowed to take Le Chiffre in afterwards. Desperate, Le Chiffre has Valenka spike Bond's drink. Bond almost dies, but, thanks to an antitoxin kit in his car, a defibrillator, and Vesper's timely interference, he is revived at the last moment and returns to the game. During the final round, Le Chiffre's full house bests the hands of the two players preceding him, but loses to Bond's straight flush.^[6]

Le Chiffre kidnaps Vesper, forcing Bond to give chase, and leads him straight into a trap. Le Chiffre leaves Vesper, bound at the feet and hands, in the middle of the road, and Bond is forced to swerve to avoid hitting her and crashes his car.

Semiconscious, Bond is stripped naked and bound to a chair with the seat removed. Le Chiffre proceeds to whip Bond in the testicles repeatedly with the knotted end of a ship's lanyard, each time demanding the password for the account into which the tournament winnings will be transferred. Bond refuses to give in, telling him that no matter what torture he is subjected to, he will not give up the password and that Le Chiffre's clients will find and kill him. Bond also asserts that if Le Chiffre kills him, no hiding place will be safe. Le Chiffre counters that the information he can give to MI6 will be enough for them to grant him sanctuary even if he does kill Bond and Vesper. When Bond continues to defy him, Le Chiffre brandishes a knife and prepares to castrate him, only to be interrupted by the sound of gunfire outside. Mr. White enters the room with a pistol in hand, having just killed Valenka and Kratt; Le Chiffre pleads for his life and promises to recover the lost funds, but White rejects the offer and kills him. To date, he is the only main Bond villain to die before the film's final act.

Le Chiffre is mentioned in the direct sequel, Quantum of Solace and is also seen in a background image inside MI6.

In Spectre, it is revealed that he was an associate of the titular criminal organization and its leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Blofeld states that Bond's interference in his world led him to destroy Bond's, and that it was no coincidence that all the women in his life ended up dead. The implication is that because Bond foiled Le Chiffre's short-selling scheme, Dominic Greene's Tierra Project, and Raoul Silva's cyber-attack on MI6, he indirectly caused the deaths of Vesper Lynd, Strawberry Fields, Sevérine, and M.

Appearances[edit]

Eon films[edit]

• Casino Royale (2006)
• Quantum of Solace (2008) – mentioned/seen in a photograph only
• Spectre (2015) – mentioned/seen in archive footage and a photograph only

Non-Eon productions[edit]

• 'Casino Royale' (a CBS television adaptation for the TV series Climax!, 1954)
• Casino Royale (a Columbia Pictures release, 1967)

2006 film henchmen[edit]

• Alex Dimitrios – stabbed by Bond with his own knife
• Carlos Nikolic – accidentally blew himself up, courtesy of Bond
• Mollaka – shot by Bond
• Leo – arrested
• Bobbie
• Jochum
• Kratt – shot by Mr. White
• Valenka – shot by Mr. White
• General Grafin von Wallenstein
• Madame Wu
• Sheriff Tomelli
• Lionel
• Ison

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

1. ^Breznican, Anthony (4 April 2008). 'James Bond series takes a 'Quantum' leap'. USA Today. McLean, Virginia: Gannett Company. Retrieved 4 April 2008.
2. ^Black, Jeremy (2005). The Politics of James Bond: From Fleming's Novels to the Big Screen. U of Nebraska Press. p. 6. ISBN978-0-8032-6240-9.
3. ^Macintyre, Ben (5 April 2008). 'Was Ian Fleming the real 007?'. The Times. London, England: News UK. Retrieved 8 April 2008.
4. ^Black, Jeremy (2005). The Politics of James Bond: From Fleming's Novels to the Big Screen. U of Nebraska Press. p. 6. ISBN978-0-8032-6240-9. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
5. ^Cawthorne, Nigel (2012). A Brief Guide to James Bond. Little, Brown Book Group. ISBN978-1-84901-829-6.
6. ^DeMichael, Tom (2012). James Bond FAQ: All That's Left to Know About Everyone's Favorite Superspy. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN978-1-4803-3786-2.

Casino Royale 1967

Vesper Lynd is a fictional character featured in Ian Fleming's 1953 James Bond novel Casino Royale. She was portrayed by Ursula Andress in the 1967 James Bond parody, which is only slightly based on the novel, and by Eva Green in the 2006 film adaptation.

In the novel, the character explains that she was born 'on a very stormy evening', and that her parents named her 'Vesper', Latin for 'evening'. Fleming created a cocktail recipe in the novel that Bond names after her. The 'Vesper martini' became very popular after the novel's publication, and gave rise to the famous 'shaken, not stirred' catchphrase immortalised in the Bond films. The actual name for the drink (as well as its complete recipe) was mentioned on screen for the first time in the 2006 film adaptation of Casino Royale.^[1]

In 1993, journalist Donald McCormick claimed that Fleming based Vesper on the real life of Polish agent Krystyna Skarbek, who was working for Special Operations Executive.^[2]

Novel biography[edit]

Vesper works at MI6 headquarters being a personal assistant to Head of section S. She is lent to Bond, much to his irritation, to assist him in his mission to bankrupt Le Chiffre, the paymaster of a SMERSH-controlled trade union. She poses as a radio seller, working with Rene Mathis, and later as Bond's companion to infiltrate the casino in Royale-Les-Eaux, in which Le Chiffre frequently gambles. After Bond takes all of Le Chiffre's money in a high-stakes game of baccarat, Vesper is abducted by Le Chiffre's thugs, who also nab Bond when he tries to rescue her. Both are rescued after Le Chiffre is murdered by a SMERSH agent, but only after Bond has been tortured.

Vesper visits Bond every day in the hospital, and the two grow very close; much to his own surprise, Bond develops genuine feelings for her, and even dreams of leaving the service and marrying her. After he is released from the hospital, they go on a holiday together and eventually become lovers.

Vesper has a terrible secret, however - she is a double agent working for Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and worked with Bond only because she was ordered to see that he did not escape Le Chiffre. (Her kidnapping was staged to lure Bond into Le Chiffre's clutches.) Before she met Bond, she had been romantically involved with a PolishRAF operative. This man had been captured by SMERSH and revealed information about Vesper under torture. Hence, SMERSH was using this operative to blackmail Vesper into helping them. After Le Chiffre's death, she is initially hopeful that she can have a fresh start with Bond, but she realizes this is impossible when she sees a SMERSH operative with an eye patch, Adolph Gettler, tracking her and Bond's movements. Consumed with guilt and certain that SMERSH will find and kill both of them, she commits suicide, leaving a note admitting her treachery and pledging her love to Bond.

Bond moves at top speed through all the Kübler-Ross model stages of grief following Vesper's death, eventually seeing past his sense of loss the clear implications of her espionage. He renounces her only as 'a spy,' packing her away as a memento in the box room of his life and recalling his professional identity immediately within the present situation. Through to his superiors on the telephone, with quiet emergency he informs them of Vesper's treasonous identity, adding, upon a request for confirmation, 'Yes, dammit, I said 'was.' The bitch is dead now.'

However, Bond's genuine feelings for Vesper never fade. Fleming's tenth novel, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, reveals that Bond makes an annual pilgrimage to Royale-Les-Eaux to visit her grave. In Diamonds Are Forever, Bond skips the song 'La Vie En Rose' in Tiffany Case's hotel room 'because it has memories for him'; this is a song closely associated with Vesper in Casino Royale. In the novel Goldfinger, when Bond has been severely poisoned and believes he is about to enter heaven, he worries about how to introduce Tilly Masterton, who he believes has died along with him, to Vesper.

Film biography[edit]

1967[edit]

In the 1967 version of Casino Royale, Lynd was portrayed by Ursula Andress, who had portrayed another Bond girl, Honey Ryder, in the 1962 film version of Dr. No.^[3]

In this version, which bore little resemblance to the novel, Vesper is depicted as a former secret agent who has since become a multi-millionaire with a penchant for wearing ridiculously extravagant outfits at her office ('because if I wore it in the street people might stare'). Bond (played by David Niven), now in the position of M at MI6, uses a discount for her past due taxes to bribe her into becoming another 007 agent, and to recruit baccarat expert Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers) into stopping Le Chiffre (played by Orson Welles).

Vesper and Tremble have an affair during which she eliminates an enemy agent sent to seduce Tremble ('Miss Goodthighs'). Ultimately, however, she betrays Tremble to Le Chiffre and SMERSH, declaring to Tremble, 'Never trust a rich spy' before killing him with a machine gun hidden inside a bagpipe. She presumably does this for the same reason she does in the novel, as she remarks that it isn't for money but for love. Though her ultimate fate is not revealed in the film, in the closing credits she is shown as an angel playing a harp, showing her to be one of the 'seven James Bonds at Casino Royale' killed by an atomic explosion.

Eon films[edit]

In the 2006 film version of Casino Royale, Vesper Lynd is a foreign liaison agent from the HM Treasury's Financial Action Task Force assigned to make sure that Bond adequately manages the funds provided by MI6. Vesper is initially skeptical about Bond's ego and at first is unwilling to be his trophy at the hold 'em poker tournament hosted by Le Chiffre. However, she assists Bond when Lord's Resistance Army leader Steven Obanno attacks him, knocking a gun out of Obanno's hand and giving Bond the chance to kill him.

She retreats to the shower afterwards, feeling she has blood on her hands from helping to kill Obanno. Bond sits next to her and kisses the 'blood' off her fingers to provide comfort, and they return to the casino. His kindness does not prevent her from doing her job, however; she refuses to bankroll him after he misreads Le Chiffre at the table and loses his table stakes. Shortly afterwards, Vesper saves Bond's life. Poisoned by Le Chiffre's girlfriend, Valenka, Bond struggles unsuccessfully to connect a key wire to his automatic external defibrillator and enters cardiac arrest, but Vesper arrives in time to connect the wire properly, enabling the machine to revive him.^[1][3]

After Bond wins the tournament, Le Chiffre kidnaps Vesper, and Bond gives chase. They fall into Le Chiffre's trap and are tortured by him and his thugs, but are ostensibly saved by Quantum henchman Mr. White, who shoots and kills Le Chiffre for misappropriating the organisation's funds.^[4]

While both are hospitalized to recover, Bond and Vesper fall deeply in love, and Bond plans to resign from the service to be with her. As in the novel, Bond and Vesper go on vacation to Venice, both of them hoping to start a new life. Unknown to Bond, however, Vesper embezzles the tournament winnings and intends to deliver them to a gang of Quantum henchmen. Leading the group is Adolph Gettler, who (like his novel counterpart) has been spying on the two agents since they arrived in Venice, and was spotted by Vesper, much to her visible dismay.

When Bond receives a timely phone call from M and realizes Vesper's scheme, he pursues her as Gettler takes her hostage and throws her in a caged elevator while he and his fellow thugs battle Bond. He eliminates them, including Gettler, but in the process causes the building to flood and start sinking. Vesper resigns herself to death and, after apologizing to James, locks herself in, even as Bond frantically tries opening the elevator. In a final gesture, she kisses Bond's hands as if to clear him of guilt; she begins to run out of air and drowns. Bond finally extricates her and attempts to revive her using CPR, to no avail.

As in the novel, Bond copes with his lover's death by renouncing her, saying 'The job's done and the bitch is dead.' M chastises him, assuming that, when held captive by Le Chiffre, Vesper had cut a deal with her Quantum blackmailers to spare Bond in exchange for the tournament money, pressured by their kidnapping of her boyfriend Yusef. When Bond opens Vesper's mobile phone left in their Venice hotel room, he discovers her note for him with Mr. White's phone number; this enables Bond to track down and confront him at the movie's end.

At the end of the 2008 film Quantum of Solace, Yusef is revealed to be an agent working for Quantum, asked to seduce high-ranking women in the world's intelligence agencies. He is then 'kidnapped' by Quantum, and the women are forced to become double agents in the hope of securing his freedom. This information vindicates Vesper in Bond's eyes, as he realizes she was coerced to embezzle the winnings in Casino Royale. He does not kill Yusef, but leaves him to MI6 and tells M that she was right about Vesper. As he walks away, he drops Vesper's necklace in the snow.^[5]

In the 2015 film Spectre, Bond finds a VHS video tape in Mr. White's hotel room in Morocco labelled 'Vesper Lynd Interrogation'. Ernst Stavro Blofeld, whose Spectre organization is the power behind Quantum, taunts Bond by explicitly taking credit for Vesper's death as part of his personal vendetta against him.

Related character[edit]

The character of Vesper Lynd does not appear in the 1954 television adaptation of Casino Royale. Instead, the character was replaced by a new character named Valerie Mathis, played by Linda Christian, who is depicted as an American. She also betrays Bond (played by Barry Nelson), but comes to his rescue after he is shot by Le Chiffre (played by Peter Lorre). Valerie does not die in this adaptation.

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abDeMichael, Tom (2012). James Bond FAQ: All That's Left to Know About Everyone's Favorite Superspy. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN978-1-4803-3786-2.
2. ^McCormick, Donald (1993). The Life of Ian Fleming. Peter Owen Publishers. p. 151.
3. ^ ^abCawthorne, Nigel (2012). A Brief Guide to James Bond. Little, Brown Book Group. ISBN978-1-84901-829-6.
4. ^Pratt, Benjamin (October 2008). Ian Fleming's Seven Deadlier Sins and 007's Moral Compass. Front Edge Publishing. ISBN978-1-934879-12-2.
5. ^Newby, Richard (4 December 2019). ''No Time to Die' and Finding Closure for Daniel Craig's Bond'. The Hollywood Reporter.

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