Valerie Mathis is a fictional intelligence operative employed by the French Deuxième Bureau, an associate of Le Chiffre, and an old flame of American agent James Bond. The character appeared in the 1954 Climax! The episode, Casino Royale, portrayed by Mexican actress Linda Christian, was an amalgam of the literary characters Vesper Lynd and René Mathis, both of whom first appeared in Ian Fleming’s 1953 novel of the same name.
Biography
An old flame of James Bond, the pair had initially met in a casino; she is his ‘good luck charm’ and, while professing to love him, by the time of Casino Royale, had not written to him in a year. Now an associate of Soviet intelligence operative Le Chiffre, she accompanies him to the Casino Royale. After a failed attempt on Bond’s life, she is sent by Le Chiffre to dissuade the spy from playing against him at the Baccarat table – knowing that if he loses, his masters will most likely kill him. She fails, and Bond proceeds to play the following day, despite being threatened by one of Le Chiffre’s men that they will kill her should he win. Concerned for her safety, Bond has his British associate, Clarence Leiter, watch her. The game goes in Le Chiffre’s favor, and Bond is cleaned out. However, Mathis secretly provides 35,000,000 francs to the spy, enabling him to continue the game and defeat Le Chiffre – winning 87,000,000 francs.
Le Chiffre corners Bond in his hotel room, bringing Valerie with him, revealing that she is an agent of the French Secret Service, the Deuxième Bureau. She is bound and is forced to watch as the Soviet operative tortures Bond to discover the location of the cheque. In a desperate bid to stop them, she discloses that she saw Bond with a screwdriver as she arrived – leading the men to leave them in the bathroom as they search the suite. She helps Bond acquire a razor from Le Chiffre’s nearby cigarette case, and they cut their bonds. They overcome their captors, and as Mathis tries to extract the cheque from Le Chiffre’s pocket, he pulls out one of his razors and holds her hostage. She slips from his grasp as he opens the hotel door and Bond shoots him dead. The pair embrace as the scene ends.
