Casino Royale

 Year of Release:  1967

Director:  John Huston, Ken Hughes, Robert Parrish, Joe McGrath, Val Guest

Screenplay:  Wolf Mankowitz, John Law, Michael Sayers, based on the novel Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

Starring:  David Niven, Peter Sellers, Ursula Address, Joanna Pettet, Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Deborah Kerr

Running Time:  131 minutes

Genre:  Comedy

Legendary British spy, Sir James Bond (Niven), is dragged out of retirement when British spies begin being systematically eliminated by SMERSH.

This sprawling, self-indulgent mess of a film has no less than five credited directors.  Whereas Ian Fleming's source novel, which first introduced the British super-spy James Bond to the world,  was a taut thriller, the adaptation is barely comprehensible and has only the most passing occasional similarity to the novel.  This is a huge big budget film with an all-star cast, including Hollywood names such as William Holden, George Raft and Charles Boyer, British comedians Ronnie Corbett, Chic Murray and Bernard Cribbins, French New Wave icon Jean-Paul Belmondo, and uncredited appearances from Peter O'Toole and racing driver Stirling Moss.  By the late 1960s, the Bond films were moving further away from Fleming's novels and introducing more comic elements, although they wouldn't become full self-parody until the Roger Moore films of the 1970s.  However this film spoofs Bond mercilessly, everything being played for broad comedy.  It looks like several different films shoved together, and it is a complete mess, at times it looks good, particularly the German expressionist design  of the Berlin spy school, at other times it looks really shoddy.  It manages to shove in UFOs, Frankenstein's monster, cowboys, and a sequence in Heaven among other things.  The climax is a complete mess.  David Niven, who in fact was Fleming's own choice to play Bond, provides some class to proceedings.  Peter Sellers is mostly quite good as the gambler posing as Bond, although he does occasionally fall back on his vaguely offensive funny accent routines.  Woody Allen is Woody Allen, enough said.  Orson Welles just about keeps his dignity as Le Chiffre, the gambler who bankrolls SMERSH.  Ursula Address, the original Bond girl from Dr. No (1962), seems to be having fun as the sinister spy who seduces Sellers.  The film introduces the idea of James Bond, and the 007 number being a code, and hints that the James Bond in the official series is a separate person using the same code name and number, and it does have some gags at the expense of the official Bond films (Sir James:  "Since when did secret agent become synonymous with sex maniac?  Speaking of which, how is my namesake?"). This film does feature about six different James Bonds (maybe something for Eon to consider, since it seems that everyone with an Equity card seems to be named, or has been named, as a possible Bond.  Or maybe it's best not to give them ideas).  Perhaps the best thing about the film is the music written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and performed by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, and Dusty Springfield who sings "The Look of Love", which became a big hit.  I did laugh during the film, but it was kind of a laugh of disbelief, because I kept thinking that it was not going to get any more ridiculous or nonsensical, and yet it always did.  This is very much a product of it's time, and to put it mildly, it has aged very badly, and some elements are quite roblematic, so be warned.

A far more faithful adaptation of Casino Royale was released in 2006 starring Daniel Craig, Eva Green and Mads Mikkelsen.  Whatever you do, don't get the two films confused!

David Niven as Sir James Bond and Barbara Bouchet as Miss Moneypenny in Casino Royale