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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/casino_sold_9463.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:[[Franchise/JamesBond It all started here.]]]]
3
4->''"The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning."''
5-->-- Opening line
6
7Creator/IanFleming's very first ''Literature/JamesBond'' novel, published in 1953.
8
9The plot follows Bond, as he is tasked to bankrupt a man named Le Chiffre in a card game at the eponymous casino. The idea behind it is to cripple the Russian spy organization SMERSH, whom Le Chiffre is working for.
10
11Fleming sold the rights to the novel separately from the rest of the [[Film/JamesBond main film series]], which is the reason that it took so long for Creator/EonProductions a proper theatrical adaptation of it. The various adaptations are as follows:
12* 1954's ''Film/{{Casino Royale|1954}}'' was an episode made for the American ''Climax!'' TV series produced by Creator/{{CBS}}. While it has the honor of being the first James Bond production outside a book, it Americanized everything including Bond himself, as well as greatly simplifying the story. It starred Barry Nelson as "Jimmy" Bond and Creator/PeterLorre as Le Chiffre. In turn Leiter was [[KeepItForeign changed from American to British]].
13* The 1967 film ''Film/{{Casino Royale|1967}}'' was an unholy mess of a spoof, with no less than ''eight'' Bonds (nine including Creator/SeanConnery, who does not appear but receives a ShoutOut) and [[invoked]][[TroubledProduction almost as many directors]]. Logic ended up paid little heed in the pursuit of comedy. Notably, it includes Creator/DavidNiven as the one-and-only original Sir James Bond -- Niven was Fleming's first choice for the part before Connery made it his own -- as well as Creator/UrsulaAndress's second appearance in a Bond movie, this time as both the Bond girl and James Bond. It also starred Creator/WoodyAllen as young Jimmy Bond (his "disappointing" nephew), Creator/PeterSellers as Evelyn Tremble a.k.a. James Bond, and Creator/OrsonWelles as Le Chiffre.
14* The 2006 film ''Film/{{Casino Royale|2006}}'' is the long-awaited proper adaptation of the novel for the big screen by Eon Productions, the twenty-first film of the long-running film franchise as well as a more grounded ContinuityReboot of it, introducing Creator/DanielCraig as Bond. It [[SettingUpdate updated the story to the 21st century]] and expanded it, turning it into an OriginsEpisode of sorts and amping up the action factor.
15* 2023's ''Casino Royale'', a [[TheMusical musical]] by Creator/TakarazukaRevue. Makaze Suzuho became the first woman ever to [[CrossCastRole play Bond]] in an official manner.
16----
17!!Tropino Royale:
18
19* AuthorAppeal: Ian Fleming loves baccarat, and the novel features an interlude explaining the rules to beginners (which is cut in some editions).
20* BadassBookworm: In addition to his strong mathematical background, it's mentioned that Le Chiffre carries three razor-blades on his person and is skilled at fighting with them. Pity we never see these skills.
21* BigDamnHeroes: Felix's "Marshall Aid" package bails out Bond when he runs out of cash.
22* BloodKnight: When it comes to gambling. Bond is ''very'' excited to play Baccarat with Le Chiffre.
23* BrokenBird: Vesper. She is pretty fragile from the get-go, and outright depressed towards the end of the story. [[spoiler:Realizing that the fear that she would talk after deciding not to work for the Soviets anymore has led to the KGB sending an assassin after her causes her to suffer an outright mental breakdown while vacationing with Bond, ending in her suicide.]]
24* BuxomBeautyStandard: Matthis brings this up when describing Vesper to Bond:
25-->'''Matthis:''' She is very beautiful. Very beautiful indeed. She has black hair, blue eyes, and splendid... er... protuberances. Back and front.
26* CarChase: A relatively low-key one as Bond pursues Vesper's kidnappers, though [[spoiler:it does come to quite a spectacular finish when the bad guys make Bond's car flip over with a bunch of caltrops]].
27* CelebrityResemblance: Bond is described by one character to another as looking similar to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoagy_Carmichael Hoagy Carmichael]]. Bond himself is aware of the comparison (even though he wasn't involved in that conversation -- he's probably heard it a million times). In another scene he looks at himself in the mirror and thinks that Carmichael is much better looking than he.
28** TextualCelebrityResemblance: Leiter is described as fitting into his clothes in a way that is reminiscent of Music/FrankSinatra.
29* TheCommiesMadeMeDoIt: [[spoiler:Vesper's reason for her betrayal. She had a Polish boyfriend who was in the RAF and was captured by the Soviets. He revealed information about her under torture and the Soviets told her that her boyfriend would live only if she worked for them]].
30* CostumePorn: Every outfit Vesper wears gets a gorgeous description.
31* CyanidePill: Mentioned in passing; it's how the only SMERSH operative (so far) captured by the West does himself in.
32* DescriptionInTheMirror: Bond does this in one chapter.
33* DrugsAreBad: Le Chiffre snorts from a benzedrine inhaler while playing against Bond, partly to offend him. Other players also find it disgusting.
34* DontCreateAMartyr: Discussed in the opening dossier for M. [=MI6=] cannot simply assassinate Le Chiffre because that would only martyr him to the communists in France.
35* TheDreaded: SMERSH. Le Chiffre, who generally keeps his cool whether he has the upper hand against Bond & his allies or not, is utterly ''terrified'' when [[spoiler:a SMERSH gunman shows up in the basement of his villa, and doesn't even try to fight back or talk his way out. Vesper's reaction to them is, if anything, even bleaker.]]
36* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Vesper, out of guilt for being an unwilling DoubleAgent, betraying Bond several times, and knowing SMERSH will come after her to get to Bond]].
37* DuelingScar: Of the non-literal type: Bond is described as having a small scar on his right cheek.
38* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Bond is selected for the mission not because of how badass he is - though he is clearly a skilled agent - but because he is the Service's ''best gambler''. The objective is to bankrupt Le Chiffre in order to dissolve his communist trade union (and potential Soviet war asset in France).
39* FailureHero: Bond is ''really'' bad at his job in this book. He ''loses'' at baccarat against Le Chiffre and needs an outside infusion of money to survive, he doesn't kill the BigBad himself (needing [[spoiler:a SMERSH agent]] to do the job and get him out of torture) and [[spoiler:never catches on until too late that Vesper is playing with him]].
40* FakeFaint: One of Le Chiffre's men threatens to shoot Bond with a silenced gun [[SwordCane hidden in his cane]] unless he withdraws from the game, saying he'll be gone from the casino before anyone realises Bond hasn't just passed out. Instead Bond pretends to faint from the tension of the high-stakes game, falling backward in his chair and knocking the weapon from the man's hands.
41* FanDisservice: Le Chiffre is obese, unattractive and gets many unflattering descriptions in the narrative. Fleming based his appearance on Creator/AleisterCrowley.
42* FoodPorn: Not as bad as it would get in later Bond novels, but present. After all, Bond admits in taking ridiculous pleasure in what he eats and drinks. His most notable food is, surprisingly, an avocado; while common today, the fruit was not available in British grocery stores until ''years'' after publication and was unknown to many contemporary readers. Consuming it in France in the early 1950s was a sign of luxury.
43* {{Foreshadowing}}: Early in the novel, Vesper remarks (while speaking of her velvet dress, which shows marks when sat on): "If you hear me scream tonight, I shall have sat on a cane chair." Later, Bond is tortured on what was originally a cane chair -- though the seat ''was'' cut out.
44* GratuitousFrench: M is reading a report by Head of S in which the latter states that Le Chiffre is in the mess he's in because the chain of legal brothels he was running using embezzled party funds were closed by a 1946 French law usually referred to as "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loi_Marthe_Richard la loi Marthe Richard]]", which criminalised them. Head of S gives the full French title of the law [[note]](Loi tendant à la fermeture des maisons de tolérance et au renforcement de la lutte contre le proxénétisme)[[/note]]. M rings him up, asks what (it is implied) "proxénétisme" means -- pimping (literally, "procuring"). M then responds:
45-->"This is not the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlitz_International Berlitz School of Languages]], Head of S. The next time you want to show off your knowledge of foreign jaw-breakers, be so good as to use a crib. Better still, write in English."
46** The inclusion of the above incident borders on HypocriticalHumor, as the rest of the novel is full of dialogue in untranslated (and uncommented-upon) French, and Fleming would often utilize his fluency in writing future books.
47* GreaterScopeVillain: SMERSH, and by extension the Soviet Union as a whole, is this to Le Chiffre.
48* GroinAttack: Bond is interrogated by Le Chiffre with a carpet beater, which is used for this purpose. Le Chiffre notes in his typically detached way that the true ''beauty'' of such torture is not just the pain (which the brain blocks out after a while), but the psychological element at the thought of spending the rest of his life as less of a man brings to the victim.
49* HoistByHisOwnPetard: James Bond actually uses this term when discussing his would-be assassins. They were given two bombs (disguised as cameras) by Le Chiffre's men, being told that one was a smoke bomb and one was a real bomb; they were to activate and throw the real bomb before detonating the smoke to cover their escape. [[spoiler: Unbeknownst to them, the "smoke bomb" was a second explosive to [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness kill them.]] Trying to be clever, they attempted to activate the "smoke bomb" first, simply blowing themselves to pieces outside the restaurant.]]
50* HollywoodSilencer: The SMERSH agent's weapon is improbably quiet. However the unusual calibre (Mathis says .35) and skill of the user imply that the weapon is a specialised tool for an assassin, so the quietness makes sense.
51* HonourBeforeReason: This is the probably best description that can be applied [[spoiler:to the SMERSH agent who kills Le Chiffre but spares the helpless Bond. It's not out of any personal code of ethics, but rather just because his superiors hadn't ''ordered'' him to do anything besides punish Le Chiffre, throwing a bit of BotheringByTheBook into the mix. Bond even notes that the man will probably be raked over the coals by his superiors when he gets back to Russia.]]
52* InterplayOfSexAndViolence: The narrative uses the word ''parabola'' twice, once to describe the victim's responses to ColdBloodedTorture and once to outline the progression and dissolution of a typical love affair.
53* LadykillerInLove: Bond falls hard enough for Vesper to want to propose to her.
54* LudicrousGibs: What happens to [[spoiler:the two Bulgarian would-be assassins who try to kill Bond with a briefcase bomb]].
55* ManlyTears: Bond's response [[spoiler:after finding Vesper Lynd's body and a note confessing what she did]].
56%%* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Le Chiffre.
57* TheNameIsBondJamesBond:
58-->"My name's Felix Leiter," said the American. "Glad to meet you." \
59"Mine's Bond--James Bond."
60* NarrativeProfanityFilter:
61** Though the book renders most of the the French-language dialogue in full, at one point one of Le Chiffre's henchman lets loose with an unspecified "torrent of lewd French."
62** Bond replies to Le Chiffre's demand to know where the prize money is hidden with "... you".
63** This trope actually manages to overlap with PrecisionFStrike in the final scene, in which Bond speaks "one harsh obscenity."
64* NearVillainVictory: Le Chiffre cleans Bond out at the end of Chapter 11 and is just 8 million francs short of the 50 million he needs to pay back SMERSH. Bond has a minor HeroicBSOD, but is rescued by the timely intervention of Felix Leiter('s bosses' pocketbook).
65* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Le Chiffre was modeled on Creator/AleisterCrowley, especially the sadomasochism.
66* PillowPistol: Bond sleeps with a short-barreled .38 revolver under the pillow of his hotel bed.
67* ProfessionalGambler: Bond is very proficient at gambling, making extra money from baccarat. So is Le Chiffre.
68* PunchClockVillain: Bond notes that actual Soviet spies are just that, spies, essentially white-collar workers and bureaucrats just doing a job. He reserves his hatred for SMERSH, the Soviets' loyalty enforcement and assassination division.
69* PunnyName: Vesper Lynd = West Berlin.
70* RansackedRoom: Bond's hotel room is ransacked by {{Mooks}} looking for a cheque. They don't find it because [[spoiler: he's hidden it behind the room number -- on the ''outside'' of the door]].
71* RidiculousExchangeRates: The pound to franc exchange rate, at about a thousand to one. The French government would later introduce the New Franc in 1958 (responding to inflation by replacing 100 Old Francs with 1 New Franc).
72* SoftSpokenSadist: Le Chiffre speaks in a [[FauxAffablyEvil fatherly tone]] while he tortures Bond and lovingly describes the effects of said torture. He drops the act after Bond ''still'' refuses to give up his winnings and tries to castrate him.
73* TheStateless: The villain flaunts his statelessness, claiming to have lost his memory during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and calling himself [[GratuitousFrench Le Chiffre]] ("the number", as "I am just a number on a passport") or any other equivalents in other languages.
74* StayInTheKitchen: Bond's response when realising Vesper [[spoiler: has been kidnapped]] is anger that women can't just stay in the kitchen and leave men's work to the men.
75* StealingFromTheTill: Why Le Chiffre wound up at the Casino Royale in the first place. It's even discussed in Bond's mission briefing, which notes that till-robbers commonly resort to gambling to cover their asses.
76* UsefulNotes/StockholmSyndrome: Discussed. Bond has spoken to enough torture survivors to know that becoming attached to his captors is a risk.
77* StressVomit: What Bond does after [[spoiler:his would-be assassins blow themselves up]]. This is perhaps ''the'' most jarring bit in the novel for those primarily familiar with the cinematic Bond; no [[BondOneLiner snarky quips]] here, folks.
78* SuspiciousSpending: {{Inverted|Trope}}. [=MI6=] learns of Le Chiffre's predicament after he starts selling his luxury items and trying to control his previously loose spending.
79* SwordCane: One of the Bulgar assassins threatens Literature/JamesBond in the casino by pressing a gun concealed in a walking stick against the base of his spine while he is seated at the baccarat table.
80* TheSyndicate: Le Chiffre is the Treasurer and paymaster of the ''Syndicat des Ouvriers d'Alsace''[[labelnote: English]]Workers Syndicate of Alsace[[/labelnote]] (or S.O.D.A), a communist-controlled trade union 50,000 strong, capable of taking over France's northern frontier in the event of a Soviet invasion.
81* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: Or perhaps [[WhatMeasureIsAMook de-emphasis]] -- the final words of the novel [[spoiler:are a deliberately callous report to London. "The bitch is dead now."]]
82* ThisIsReality: During the torture scene, Le Chiffre explains to Bond that there is no hope:
83-->"This is not a romantic adventure story in which the villain is finally routed and the hero is given a medal and marries the girl. Unfortunately these things don't happen in real life."
84** By the end of the novel, Bond [[VillainHasAPoint agrees with Le Chiffre]] for pointing out his naivete.
85* VillainousRescue: A SMERSH operative [[spoiler:arrives and kills Le Chiffre while the latter is torturing Bond]], with the unintended effect of [[spoiler:cutting the torture short and sparing Bond from permanent injury]].
86* WhatIsEvil: The trauma of his torture makes Bond grapple with this question as he recuperates in the hospital, and he even briefly considers quitting his job. [[spoiler:Of course, Vesper's suicide note and the revelation of her betrayal immediately snaps him out of it.]]
87* ZorroMark: [[spoiler:The SMERSH agent who takes down Le Chiffre cuts a Cyrillic letter (Ш) into Bond's hand, as a demonstration of his superiority. Bond later explains that it's the first character of the Russian word for "spy," used to mark agents that SMERSH regards as enemies.]]

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