Casino Royale (1967)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Directors:

Val Guest
Ken Hughes

Writers:

Wolf Mankowitz (screenplay) &
John Law (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

28 April 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Action | Adventure

Tagline:

CASINO ROYALE . . . the greatest JAMES BOND! 007 show on earth ! [Australian Daybill Movie Poster]

Plot:

In an early spy spoof, aging Sir James Bond (David Niven) comes out of retirement to take on SMERSH.

Plot Keywords:

James Bond | Baccarat | Spy | Retirement | Nephew

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Peter Sellers	...	Evelyn Tremble, James Bond-007
Ursula Andress	...	Vesper Lynd - 007
David Niven	...	Sir James Bond
Orson Welles	...	Le Chiffre
Joanna Pettet	...	Mata Bond
Daliah Lavi	...	The Detainer - 007
Woody Allen	...	Jimmy Bond - Dr. Noah
Deborah Kerr	...	Agent Mimi aka Lady Fiona
William Holden	...	Ransome
Charles Boyer	...	Le Grand
John Huston	...	McTarry - M
Kurt Kasznar	...	Smernov
George Raft	...	Himself
Jean-Paul Belmondo	...	French Legionnaire (as Jean Paul Belmondo)
Terence Cooper	...	Cooper, James Bond-007

Also Known As:

Charles K. Feldman's Casino Royale

Runtime:

131 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (Westrex Recording System) (70 mm prints) | Mono (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Iceland:12 | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Australia:PG (DVD/video rating) | USA:Approved (certificate #29446) | Germany:12 (f) (re-rated) | West Germany:16 (f) | Brazil:14 | Austria:16 | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | Singapore:PG | UK:U (original rating)

Filming Locations:

County Galway, Ireland

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Dr. Noah's name was a spoof of the name of the Bond villain Dr. No whilst the name of Miss Giovana Goodthighs was a parody of the Miss Mary Goodnight character, both from the Ian Fleming novels.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: In the Jaguar / Bentley / Milk Float chase, when the first truck crashes off the road a camera in plainly visible in the left side of the screen.

Quotes:

Evelyn Tremble: Mr. Mathis, there's something that's been worrying me...
Inspector Mathis: Yes?
Evelyn Tremble: Well, you're a French police inspector, yet you speak with a Scots accent.
Inspector Mathis: Aye, it worries me, too.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Peyton Manning/Carrie Underwood (#32.16)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Born Free

A terribly silly affair that is made worse by the sheer weight of wasted talent involved

With the baccarat winnings of Le Chiffre giving them access to a new funding stream, SMERSH is on the rise and only one man can stop them – James Bond. But not THAT James Bond, he is only a mere playboy with gadgets, the real Bond retired years ago but now finds himself approached to come out of retirement to counter the new threat. With his pure lifestyle and impeccable reputation, SMERSH send an array of lovely ladies after him to sully his image or, if that fails, kill him. Things get more confusing as many other agents (also called James Bond) get involved!

With only the number of uncredited writers outweighing the number of directors, this film screams 'mishmash' and indeed, it transpires, that that's exactly what it is – a silly mess which amazingly manages to be less than the sum of its parts. To waste any time here discussing the plot would be to give the film credit that it simply doesn't deserve – the makers owned the rights to the actual novel and could have made a 'real' film but instead the outcome is a film that is more like a load of poorly conceived individual scenes. Some of these have funny moments but generally they are silly beyond being funny and are just daft for the sake of it. The design, 'humour', directing and script is all very 1960's and I do not mean this as a compliment in this case.

The cast list makes this film even more annoying – some of the funniest men alive are in this film but yet they are given nothing to work with whatsoever. Niven is amusing at times but he does no more than play his usual personae. Sellers is a comic legend but this film has him doing a bad Bond spoof and he struggles even when allowed to ad lib. Allen is an unusual find here and in fairness he is actually funny because he brings his stand up routine to the role and seems to just be having a laugh as he goes.

Even to waste these three actors is a crime, but when you consider that the film also has Orson Welles, Ursula Andrews, Deborah Kerr, William Holden, John Huston, George Raft, Jacqueline Bisset, Derek Nimmo, Ronnie Corbett, Bernard Cribbins, Peter O'Toole, Stirling Moss, David Prowse, Burt Kwouk, John Le Mesurier and a few others then you have to wonder how so many people were fooled into appearing in this. I can only imagine how good it seemed at the development stage ('Bond but with laughs') but I doubt if any of those involved are actually proud to have this on their cv.

Overall this is a pretty awful film but I suppose you may get a few laughs out of it if you can buy into the silly tone but I'm afraid I wasn't even able to get close to the mind state needed to enjoy this. The laughs come occasionally but they are too rare and the plot and actual script are not big and not clever. The end product – a silly, self-indulgent mess of a film that is actually very hard to work though and not worth the handful of laughs that you might actually have.