“No, I’m the fellow who was missed.”
Credit where it’s due: the unofficial Bond outing Casino Royale (1954) actually nails a line that could have slid seamlessly into any proper 007 film. It’s clean, sharp, and delightfully deadpan. And it’s perfectly delivered by Barry Nelson with the perfect amount of wit. In some alternate timeline, perhaps Nelson went on to order countless martinis and save the world between one-liners. Honestly, I’d be curious to see how Nelson would have fared as the first official James Bond.

