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Casino Royale (1967 film)
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Casino Royale is a 1967 comedy spy film originally produced by Columbia Pictures starring an ensemble cast of directors and actors. It is set as a satire of the James Bond film series and the spy genre and is lightly based on Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel.
The film stars David Niven as the original Bond, Sir James Bond 007. Forced out of retirement to investigate the deaths and disappearances of international spies, he soon battles the mysterious Dr. Noah and SMERSH.
The film's famous slogan : "Casino Royale is too much ...
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Encyclopedia
Casino Royale is a 1967 comedy spy film originally produced by Columbia Pictures starring an ensemble cast of directors and actors. It is set as a satire of the James Bond film series and the spy genre and is lightly based on Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel.
The film stars David Niven as the original Bond, Sir James Bond 007. Forced out of retirement to investigate the deaths and disappearances of international spies, he soon battles the mysterious Dr. Noah and SMERSH.
The film's famous slogan : "Casino Royale is too much ... for one James Bond!" refers to Bond's ruse to mislead SMERSH in which six other agents are designated as "James Bond", namely, Baccarat master Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers), millionaire spy Vesper Lynd (Ursula Andress), Bond's secretary Miss Moneypenny (Barbara Bouchet), Bond's daughter with Mata Hari, Mata Bond (Joanna Pettet) and British agents "Coop" (Terence Cooper) and "The Detainer" (Daliah Lavi).
Charles K. Feldman, the producer, had acquired the film rights and had attempted to get Casino Royale made as an official James Bond movie (i.e. one made by EON Productions); however, Feldman and the producers of the official series, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, failed to come to terms. Believing that he could not compete with the official series, Feldman resolved to produce the film as a satire.
The film has had a mixed reception among critics, some of whom regard it as a baffling, disorganised affair, with noted critic Roger Ebert even branding it "possibly the most indulgent film ever made". On the other hand, Andrea LeVasseur called it "a psychedelic, absurd masterpiece" and Robert von Dassanowsky has described it as "a film of momentary vision, collaboration, adaption, pastiche, and accident. It is the anti-auteur work of all time, a film shaped by the very zeitgeist it took on."
Plot
Overview
The story of Casino Royale is told in an episodic format and is best outlined in "chapters". Val Guest oversaw the assembly of the sections, although he turned down the credit of "co-ordinating director".
Opening sequence
The film's opening sequence is a deliberate ironic take on the dramatic opening sequences in the EON Bond films. Evelyn Tremble and Inspector Mathis meet in a pissoir, where Mathis presents his credentials, setting the satirical tone of the film.
Plot summary
The movie opens at the country estate of Sir James Bond 007 (David Niven), a legendary British spy who retired from the secret service 50 years ago in 1917. He is visited by the head of British MI6, M (John Huston), CIA representative Ransome (William Holden), KGB representative Smernov (Kurt Kasznar), and Deuxième Bureau representative Le Grand (Charles Boyer). Each in turn implores Bond to come out of retirement: A sinister organization known as SMERSH has been eliminating various agents around the world. Bond implacably spurns all their pleas. M then explains to his fellow representatives the reason for Bond's retirement: the love of his life, Mata Hari, the famous exotic dancer and spy, whom it had been his sworn duty to lure to her death. When Bond continues to stand firm, his mansion is destroyed by a mortar attack, apparently at the orders of M, who is however killed in the explosion.
Bond travels to Scotland to return M's remains to the grieving widow, Lady Fiona McTarry (Deborah Kerr), who has been secretly replaced by SMERSH agent Mimi. The rest of the household has likewise been replaced by beautiful female agents posing as McTarry's daughters. The aim of SMERSH is to discredit Bond by destroying his "celibate image". However, Mimi/Lady Fiona becomes so impressed with Bond that she changes loyalties and helps Bond to foil the plot against him. On his way back to London, Bond survives another attempt on his life by eluding a remote controlled milk float full of explosives.
Sir James Bond is now promoted to the head of MI6. Among his first decisions, he orders that all remaining MI6 agents will be named "James Bond 007", as a ruse to confuse SMERSH. He also hatches a plan to train an irresistible male agent to resist the charms of opposing female agents. His secretary, Miss Moneypenny (Barbara Bouchet), recruits "Coop" (Terence Cooper), a karate expert who begins training to resist seductive women. While training, Coop meets the new "secret weapon", an exotic agent known as the Detainer (Daliah Lavi).
Sir James then hires Vesper Lynd (Ursula Andress), a retired secret agent turned millionnaire, to recruit baccarat player Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers), whom he intends to use to turn SMERSH agent Le Chiffre (Orson Welles). Having embezzled SMERSH's money, Le Chiffre is desperate for money to cover up his theft before he is executed.
Following up a clue from agent Mimi, Sir James persuades his estranged daughter Mata Bond (Joanna Pettet) to travel to East Berlin to infiltrate International Mothers' Help, a secret school for spies that is actually a SMERSH cover operation. Mata uncovers a plan to sell compromising photographs of military leaders from the United States, USSR, China and Great Britain at an "art auction", another scheme Le Chiffre hopes to use to raise the money he needs. Mata sabotages the auction and destroys the photographs. Le Chiffre's only remaining option is to raise the money by playing baccarat against Evelyn Tremble at the Casino Royale.
Tremble arrives at the Casino Royale accompanied by Vesper, who foils an attempt to disable him by SMERSH agent Miss Goodthighs (Jacqueline Bisset). Later that night, Evelyn observes Le Chiffre playing at the casino and realizes that he is using trick sunglasses to cheat. Vesper steals the trick sunglasses, allowing Evelyn to beat Le Chiffre. Le Chiffre then kidnaps Vesper and then captures Tremble while he chases the kidnappers. Le Chiffre then tortures Tremble in a hallucinogenic torture sequence, at the end of which Vesper apparently rescues Tremble but then kills him. Meanwhile, Le Chiffre is killed by SMERSH agents for betraying them.
While sightseeing in London, Mata Bond is kidnapped by SMERSH in a giant flying saucer, and Sir James travels with Moneypenny to Casino Royale to rescue her. They discover that the casino is located atop a giant underground base run by the evil Dr. Noah, who turns out to be Sir James's weak-kneed nephew Jimmy Bond (Woody Allen). Dr. Noah/Jimmy reveals that he plans to kill all men over tall, leaving the diminutive villain as the "big man" who gets all the girls. However, The Detainer foils his plan by poisoning him with one of his own atomic pills.
In a huge and disorganized finale, the casino is overrun by secret agents, including a French Legionnaire (Jean-Paul Belmondo), stereotypical movie cowboys and Indians, George Raft, and Ransome. Eventually, Jimmy's atomic pill explodes, destroying Casino Royale along with practically all the characters.
Cast
See also List of characters in Casino Royale (1967) for a complete list of all actors who play a major, minor or uncredited role in the film.
- David Niven as Sir James Bond 007 – A legendary British secret agent forced out of retirement to fight SMERSH. David Niven had, in fact, been Ian Fleming's preference for the part of James Bond, EON Productions, however, chose Sean Connery for their series. In a documentary included with the U.S. DVD of the 1967 release of Casino Royale, Val Guest states that Ian Fleming had written the book with David Niven in mind. When the novel was published, Fleming sent a copy to Niven, who for a time considered making Casino Royale into an episode of Four Star Playhouse. David Niven is the only James Bond actor who is mentioned by name in the text of Fleming's James Bond novels: In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond visits an exclusive ski resort in Switzerland where he is told that David Niven is a frequent visitor, and in You Only Live Twice, David Niven is referred to as the only real gentleman in Hollywood.
- Peter Sellers as Evelyn Tremble – A Baccarat Master recruited by Vesper Lynd to challenge Le Chiffre at Casino Royale.
- Ursula Andress as Vesper Lynd – A retired British secret agent forced back into service in exchange for writing off her tax arrears.
- Orson Welles as Le Chiffre – SMERSH's financial agent, desperate to win at Baccarat in order to repay the money he has embezzled from the organization.
- Woody Allen as Dr.Noah/Jimmy Bond – Bond's nephew and head of SMERSH.
- Barbara Bouchet as Miss Moneypenny – The beautiful daughter of Bond's original Miss Moneypenny. She works for the service in the same position her mother had years before.
- Deborah Kerr as Agent Mimi/Lady Fiona McTarry – A SMERSH agent who masquerades as the widow of M but cannot help falling in love with Bond. Kerr was 46 when she played the role and was the oldest Bond Girl in any of the James Bond films.
- Jacqueline Bisset as Miss Goodthighs – A SMERSH agent who attempts to kill Evelyn Tremble at Casino Royale.
- Joanna Pettet as Mata Bond – Bond's daughter, born of his love affair with Mata Hari.
- Daliah Lavi as The Detainer – A British secret agent who successfully poisons Dr.Noah with his own atomic pill.
- Terence Cooper as Coop – A British secret agent specifically chosen, and trained for this mission to resist the charms of women.
- Bernard Cribbins as Carlton Towers – A British Foreign Office official who drives Mata Bond all the way from London to Berlin in his taxi.
- Ronnie Corbett as Polo – A SMERSH agent at the International Mothers' Help who was in love with Mata Hari and expresses the same feelings for Mata Bond.
- John Huston as M/McTarry – Head of MI6 who dies from an explosion caused by his own bombardment of Bond's estate.
- William Holden as Ransome – A CIA agent who accompanies M to persuade Bond out of retirement, then reappears in the final climactic fight scene.
- Charles Boyer as LeGrand – A Deuxième Bureau agent who accompanies M and Ransom to see Bond.
Casino Royale also takes credit for the greatest number of actors in a Bond movie either to have appeared or to go on to appear in the rest of the 'official' series — besides Ursula Andress in Dr. No, Vladek Sheybal appeared as Kronsteen in From Russia with Love, Burt Kwouk featured as Mr. Ling in Goldfinger and an unnamed SPECTRE operative in You Only Live Twice, Jeanne Roland plays a masseuse in You Only Live Twice, and Angela Scoular appeared as Ruby Bartlett in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Caroline Munro, who was an extra, received the role of Naomi in The Spy Who Loved Me. Milton Reid, who appears in a bit part as a guard, played Stromberg's underling, Sandor, also in The Spy Who Loved Me.
Major stars like George Raft and Jean-Paul Belmondo were given top billing in the film's promotion and screen trailers despite the fact that they only appeared for a few minutes in the final film sequence.
Well established stars like Peter O'Toole and sporting legends like Stirling Moss were prepared to take uncredited parts in the film just to be able to work with the other members of the cast. (David McCallum also made a cameo appearance.) The film also proved to be young Anjelica Huston's first experience in the movie industry as she was called upon by her father, John Huston, to cover the screen shots of Deborah Kerr's hands.
Production
Directors
The production proved to be rather troubled, with five different directors helming different segments of the film, with stunt co-ordinator Richard Talmadge co-directing the final sequence. In addition to the credited writers, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, Val Guest, Ben Hecht, Joseph Heller, Terry Southern, and Billy Wilder are believed to have added to the screenplay. Val Guest was given the responsibility of splicing the various "chapters" together, and was offered the unique title of "Co-ordinating Director" but declined, claiming the chaotic plot would not reflect well on him if he were so credited. His extra credit was labeled "Additional Sequences" instead.
Budget
The studio approved the film's production budget of $6 million, already quite a large budget in 1966. However, during filming the project ran into several problems and the shoot ran months over schedule, with the costs also running well over. When the film was finally completed it had run twice over its original budget. The final production budget of $12 million made it one of the most expensive films that had been made to that point. The previous official Bond movie, Thunderball, had a budget of $11 million while You Only Live Twice, which was released the same year as Casino Royale, had a budget of $9.5 million. The extremely high budget of "Casino Royale" caused it to earn the reputation as being "a runaway mini-Cleopatra," referring to the runaway and out of control costs of the 1963 film Cleopatra. The film was due to be released in time for Christmas 1966 but premiered in April 1967.
Feud
The film is notable for the legendary behind-the-scenes drama involving the filming of the segments with Peter Sellers. Supposedly, Sellers felt intimidated by Orson Welles to the extent that, except for a couple of shots, neither were in the studio simultaneously. Other versions of the legend depict the drama stemming from Sellers being slighted, in favour of Welles, by Princess Margaret (whom Sellers knew) during her visit to the set. Welles also insisted on performing magic tricks as Le Chiffre, and the director obliged. Director Val Guest wrote that Welles did not think much of Sellers, and had refused to work with "that amateur".
Sellers ultimately walked off the film before he completed all his scenes, which is why Tremble is so abruptly captured in the film.
Some biographies of Sellers suggest that he took the role of Bond to heart, and was annoyed at the decision to make Casino Royale a comedy as he wanted to play Bond straight. This is illustrated in somewhat fictionalized form in the film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, based upon a biography by Roger Lewis, who claims that Sellers kept re-writing and improvising scenes himself to make them play seriously. This story is in agreement with the observation that the only parts of the film close to the book are the ones featuring Sellers and Welles.
Missing footage
Eventually, Sellers' involvement with the film ended. Whether he was fired or simply walked off is unclear. Given that he often left for days at a time and was involved in conflicts with Welles, either explanation is plausible. Regardless, Sellers was unavailable for the filming of an ending and of linking footage to explain the details, leaving the filmmakers to devise a way to make the existing footage work without Sellers. The framing device of a beginning and ending with David Niven was invented to salvage the footage. Val Guest has indicated in an interview found on the Casino Royale DVD that he was given the task of creating a narrative thread which would link all segments of the film. He chose to use the original Bond and Vesper as linking characters to tie the story together. Guest states that in the originally released versions of the film, a cardboard cutout of Sellers in the background was used for the final scenes. In later versions, this cardboard cutout image was replaced by a sequence showing Sellers in highland dress, inserted by "trick photography".
Signs of missing footage from the Sellers segments are evident at various points. The entire Evelyn Tremble kidnap scene is gone - instead, an outtake of Sellers messing about on set with a racing car was substituted. In this outtake, Sellers calls for the car, a la Pink Panther, to chase down Vesper and her kidnappers; the next thing that is shown is Tremble being tortured. Outtakes of Sellers were also used for Tremble's dream sequence (pretending to play the piano on Ursula Andress' torso), in the finale (blowing out the candles whilst in highland dress) and in the end of the film when all the various "James Bond doubles" are together. In the kidnap sequence, Tremble's death is also very abruptly inserted: it consists of pre-existing footage of Sellers being rescued by Vesper, followed by a later-filmed shot of her abruptly deciding to shoot Tremble, followed by a freeze-frame over some of the previous footage of her surrounded by bodies (noticeably a zoom-in on the previous shot).
So many sequences from the film ended on the cutting room floor that several well-known actors were cut from the movie altogether, including Mona Washbourne and Arthur Mullard.
Final sequence
Jean Paul Belmondo and George Raft received major billing, even though both actors appear only briefly. Both appear during the climactic brawl at the end, Raft flipping his trademark coin and promptly shooting himself dead with a backwards-firing pistol, while Belmondo appears wearing a fake moustache as the French Foreign Legion officer who requires an English phrase book to say 'ooch!' when he punches people. At the Intercon science fiction convention held in Slough in 1978, Dave Prowse commented on his part in this film, apparently his big-screen debut. He claimed that he was originally asked to play "Super Pooh", a giant Winnie The Pooh in a superhero costume who attacks Tremble during the Torture Of The Mind sequence. This idea, as with many others in the film's script, was rapidly dropped, and Prowse was re-cast as Frankenstein's Monster for the closing scenes. The final sequence was principally directed by former actor and stuntman Richard Talmadge.
Rights
Columbia Pictures produced and distributed this version of Casino Royale. In 1997, following the Columbia/MGM/Kevin McClory lawsuit on ownership of the Bond film series, the rights to the film reverted to MGM (whose sister company United Artists co-owns the Bond film franchise) as a condition of the settlement. Years later, as a result of the Sony/Comcast acquisition of MGM, Columbia once again became responsible for the distribution of this 1967 version as well as the co-distribution of the entire Bond series, including the 2006 adaptation of Casino Royale
Reception
The "chaotic" nature of the production was featured heavily in contemporary reviews, while later reviewers have sometimes been kinder towards this. Roger Ebert said "This is possibly the most indulgent film ever made," and Variety said "it lacked discipline and cohesion."
Some later reviewers have been more impressed by the film. Andrea LeVasseur, in the AllMovie review, called it "the original ultimate spy spoof", and opined that the "nearly impossible to follow [plot]" made it "a satire to the highest degree". Further describing it as a "hideous, zany disaster" LeVasseur concluded that it was "a psychedelic, absurd masterpiece". Robert von Dassanowsky has written an article on the artistic merits of the film and says "like Casablanca, Casino Royale is a film of momentary vision, collaboration, adaption, pastiche, and accident. It is the anti-auteur work of all time, a film shaped by the very zeitgeist it took on."
Writing in 1986, Danny Peary noted, "It's hard to believe that in 1967 we actually waited in anticipation for this so-called James Bond spoof. It was a disappointment then; it's a curio today, but just as hard to get through." Peary described the film as being "disjointed and stylistically erratic" and "a testament to wastefulness in the bigger-is-better cinema," before adding, "It would have been a good idea to cut the picture drastically, perhaps down to the scenes featuring Peter Sellers and Woody Allen. In fact, I recommend you see it on television when it's in a two-hour (including commercials) slot. Then you won't expect it to make any sense."
Despite the lukewarm nature of the contemporary reviews the pull of the James Bond name was sufficient to make it the third highest grossing movie in North America in 1967 with a gross of $22,744,718 and a worldwide total of $41,744,718 ($252,000,000 adjusted).
Orson Welles attributed the success of the film to a marketing strategy that featured a naked tattooed lady on the film's posters and print ads. Since its release the film has been widely criticised by a number of people. For instance, Simon Winder called Casino Royale "a pitiful spoof"., while Robert Druce described it as "an abstraction of real life". In his review of the film, Leonard Maltin remarked, "Money, money everywhere, but [the] film is terribly uneven - sometimes funny, often not."
Conversely, Romano Tozzi complimented the acting and humour, although he also mentioned that the film has several dull stretches.
Alongside six other MGM-owned films, the studio posted this one on YouTube, where it has received nearly 34,000 hits.
Music
The original music is by Burt Bacharach. Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass performed some of the songs with Mike Redway singing the lyrics to the title song as the end credits rolled.
The chapter 4 of the movie features the song "The Look of Love" performed by Dusty Springfield. It is played in the scene of Vesper Lynd recruiting Evelyn Tremble, seen through a man-size aquarium in a seductive walk. "The Look of Love" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song. The song was a Top 10 radio hit at the KGB and KHJ radio stations. A year later a cover version by Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66 reached #4 of Billboard Hot 100. Dusty Springfield's version was heard again in the first Austin Powers film, which was to a degree inspired by Casino Royale. The German version of the film, however, features a German adaptation of "The Look of Love" sung by Mireille Mathieu. To make room for her credit in the film titles, the credit for Jean Paul Belmondo was removed in the German language version.
John Barry's song "Born Free" was also used in the film. At the time, Barry was the main composer for the official Bond series.
The original album cover art was done by Robert McGinnis, based on the movie poster and the original stereo vinyl release of the soundtrack is still highly sought after by audiophiles. It is regarded by many music critics as the finest-sounding album of all time.
Soundtrack listing
- "Casino Royale Theme" - Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
- "The Look Of Love" - Dusty Springfield
- "Money Penny Goes For Broke"
- "Le Chiffre's Torture Of The Mind"
- "Home James, Don't Spare The Horses"
- "Sir James' Trip To Find Mata"
- "The Look Of Love (Instrumental)"
- "Hi There Miss Goodthighs"
- "Little French Boy"
- "Flying Saucer" - First Stop Berlin
- "The Venerable Sir James Bond"
- "Dream On James, You're Winning"
- "The Big Cowboys And Indians Fight At Casino Royale / Casino Royale Theme (reprise)"
Track 5, 'Home James...', heard in the film during the brawl at the military auction and Carlton Towers's and Mata Bond's subsequent escape, was re-arranged as "Bond Street", appearing on Bacharach's album 'Reach Out' and on a 45. It bears a fair resemblance to the non-Casino Royale-related instrumental, "Yakety Sax" (as frequently heard on The Benny Hill Show ). In fact, either accidentally or deliberately, "Bond Street" has been used in other shows to soundtrack Benny Hill-style scenes, such as Stewie Griffin's "sexy parties" in Family Guy. "Bond Street" itself has since appeared on the early-90s easy listening compilation CD, This Is...Easy.
One cut conspicuously absent from the film soundtrack is the vocal version of the title song, heard over the film's end credits. The album merely replays the instrumental opening theme in the last track.
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