The Tell | Mins 87 & 88

Recorded on March 4th, 2025

On this episode we will be covered minutes 87 & 88 of Casino Royale. Rob Smith and I chat a little bit about the Bond Music Segment at the Oscars. 

First a little announcement, we will now be putting a bonus episode on Patreon, so you can join us over there. It will be more Bond chat, Rob will be doing the weather over there. We’ll do listener mail over there, any questions Bond or otherwise, email the show, therewillbebond@gmail.com that will go over there.

The book reviews we’ve been doing will go over there. All YouTube videos (apart from the free podcast) will appear there first a month ahead of it being released on YouTube. You can also catch the free podcast there a day before it’s released on Spotify and Apple. 

Casino Royale (2006 EON Productions)

MIN 87 

We left it with Bond and Le Chiffre on the balcony, LEO the only surviving henchman of Quantum according to Bond wiki, has been arrested with the bodies of Steven and his henchmen in the boot. 

Casino Royale (2006 EON Productions)

Le chiffre looks out the window and weeps a little blood. Mathis asks if Vesper has melted his cold heart yet. Back to the poker game, Felix raises 300k, the flop is revealed and it’s a JJKKA. All the eyes are on Bond and Le Chiffre, Felix is in the hand but no one is looking at him.

Casino Royale (2006 EON Productions)

STUART BAIRD THE EDITOR on the Blu Ray Commentary

Michael wilson is an expert on cards, we didn’t want to sex it up. The card game gave us so much apprehension. We were all worried that the card game came in the middle section of the film which is often the slow part of the movie. It’s also shot in the same place, it’s the same game, so we had to think about getting the pacing constant.

We hoped to make it accurate and that created limitations. We did a lot of tightening up in those sequences. It’s a lot of eyeball to eyeball. It’s impossible to storyboard. I told Martin the director to shoot it all and leave it with me. We did crane shots, tracking shots, close ups. There was more editing in these sequences than in the action ones.  

Casino Royale (2006 EON Productions)

NEWS –

All the Bond news can be found on the weekly newsletter. 

Oscars 2025 viewers brand James Bond tribute ‘worst’ moment in ceremony’s history

“I’m a huge James Bond fan but unless they are announcing the new Bond I don’t see the point…” one person wrote on X/Twitter, with another chiming in: “This James Bond montage and performance is cool and all, but it has no relevance to… anything about the last year in movies.”

An additional viewer wrote: “I’m so confused. Why are we honouring Bond if there’s no new movie out and we don’t even know when the next movie is coming out?”

Casino Royale (2006 EON Productions)

MIN 88

Bond checks his card and he has ace, king full of hearts. He has a full house and a fairly strong one. He bets 500k. Le Chiffre scratches his head, smells his fingers first which is odd.

We should note that this is the tell that Bond spoke about, the twitch he can’t control when he bluffs. We have some amazing shots of the poker chips here and Le chiffre shuffles them single handed. Mathis notices the tell, and raises one million from Le Chiffre. When Mathis remarks on the tell, it really is for the sake of the audience. Even though a scratch on the temple would be glaringly obvious to any poker player, it’s too subtle an act for the audience to get. We end it with Felix and it’s his move. 

Casino Royale (2006 EON Productions)