i take his Americanization with a grain of salt because of the circumstances of the production... that is, James Bond was not yet very well known to Americans at the time and the production was done for US live television in the 1950s...
Leiter was the only person who called him Jimmy, but Bond referred to himself still as James, and in any event, most people referred to him simply as "Bond" and "Mr. Bond", so again, i see little fault here...
as for the idea of being captured and still coming out on top, i included that because it's something you see in every James Bond film... you've seen it over and over again: Bond does something particularly good, but then the baddie captures him and always puts him in a tight spot, but somehow, he always gets free and saves the day... no difference with CR'54...
same goes for the one-liners... Bond kills somebody - one-liner; Bond nearly gets killed - one-liner... that's just the way Bond is... and that's just the way Nelson plays him...
and as for being "not much of a killer", i don't that statement can be justified at all... i mean, Nelson portrays Bond as being a pretty tough character (both somewhat weathered and able to withstand torture), and he kills two characters in the closing minutes of the program...
Nelson doesn't have to look/sound like Sean Connery or Roger Moore or anyone else to pull off a decent Bond... certainly 8+ years of raised production standards and the ability to take and re-take scenes, coupled with the rising poularity of the Bond novels over the years, and innovations in special effects paved the way for Dr. No and some of its decendants to knock the socks off CR'54, but that doesn't negate the fact that given the times and the circumstances, Barry Nelson did a very good job playing what would go on to become cinema's greatest superspy, James Bond!
