Salute to Charles Bennett

Not many writers can claim to have collaborated with Alfred Hitcock, did the first adaptation of an Ian Fleming novel or created the (arguably) second-most popular villain on The Wild, Wild West.

Then again, few writers had the longevity or talent of Charles Bennett (1899-1995).

Bennett was a screenwriter on Hitchcock’s <a.1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much and The 39 Steps.

Decades later, Bennett, along with writer Antony Ellis, adapted Ian Fleming’s first novel, Casino Royale, for television. It was a tricky affair. Even though CR was Fleming’s shortest novel, it would be used as part of CBS’s Climax! anthology program in 1954. That meant squeezing the short novel (or novella, depending on your personal definition) to a 60-minute time slot. Even though there were fewer commercials then compared to today, it still meant 50 to 52 minutes of airtime.

Bennett and Ellis ended up making James Bond into an American operative (Barry Nelson) and transforming Felix Leiter into a European agent. Also, the writers melded two characters, Vesper Lynd and French agent Rene Mathis, into “Valerie Mathis.”

Here’s the ending of the 1954 production, including the end titles, which haven’t been included in all home video releases:

About a decade later, Bennett penned an episode of The Wild, Wild West. It featured a villain named Count Manzeppi, intended to be a recurring foe similar to the popular Dr. Loveless. Manzeppi, played by Victor Buono (007 screenwriter Richard Maibuam’s choice to play Goldinger), would only appear in two WWW episodes. Still, Manzeppi was memorable. Here, in the Bennett-scripted debut, he confronts a U.S. Secret Service agent (whose life expectency can be measured in minutes) along with a henchman played by Richard Pryor: