Casino Royale (1967 film)
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Casino Royale is a UK-American comedy motion picture released on 13 April, 1967. A spoof of the James Bond film series, it is lightly based on the Ian Fleming first Bond novel of the same name. It features Orson Welles, as the villain Le Chiffre, battling James Bond in the guises of Sir James Bond (David Niven) and six other James Bonds: Terence Cooper (named Coop), Woody Allen (Bond's nephew Jimmy Bond), Joanna Pettet (Mata Bond, illegitimate daughter of Mata Hari and James Bond), and Peter Sellers (card-sharp Evelyn Tremble impersonating Bond at Casino Royale).
Prior to the release, Charles K. Feldman, the producer, had acquired the film rights and attempted to get Casino Royale made as an official (made by EON Productions) James Bond movie; however, the producers of the official series, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, turned him down. Believing he couldn't compete with the official series, the novel was then adapted as a spoof of not only of James Bond, but of the entire spy fiction genre. The Sellers–Welles segment is the only portion based upon the novel.
Plot summary
The story of Casino Royale is told in a somewhat disjointed, episodic form and is best outlined in "chapters". Note: some of these chapters overlap.Chapter 1
M (here referred to by his family name, McTarry, and played by John Huston) accompanies representatives of the CIA, KGB and French secret service to the massive country estate of Sir James Bond (David Niven), an eccentric First World War hero who resigned from the secret service after luring the love of his life, Mata Hari, to her death in front of a firing squad. (The film ignores the fact that these events would have taken place 50 years earlier, suggesting that in the Casino Royale universe, the First World War occurred during the time of the real world's Second World War.) During the intervening years, Bond's name has become symbolic of the spirit of the secret service, to the extent that another individual (decried by Bond as being oversexed) has been given his name and his number, 007 (a vague reference to Sean Connery's Bond).M and the others beg Bond to lend his leadership to a mission investigating the disappearance and deaths of secret agents around the world. When Bond refuses, M orders a military strike on Bond's mansion; the mansion is destroyed, but M is killed in the attack.
Chapter 2
Sir James travels to McTarry Castle in Scotland in order to return McTarry's remains to his ancestral home. All that does remain of M is his toupee, which is promptly dubbed a "hairloom" by Lady Fiona (Deborah Kerr), his grieving widow. Bond soon finds himself fending off the advances of McTarry's many daughters. Unknown to Bond, McTarry's wife and family have been replaced by agents of the mysterious Dr. Noah, who have been assigned to either discredit or kill Bond. At the helm is Agent Mimi, disguised as Lady Fiona, on account of her having the best Scots accent. But after Bond handily defeats a gang of thugs in a sport involving players throwing heavy stone cannonballs at each other, Fiona falls in love with Bond, and is imprisoned by her fake daughters to prevent her from helping him. Bond is then invited to a ceremonial grouse shoot (it should be noted that according to Lady Fiona, "whenever a McTarry dies, the grouse come into season"), but the grouse turn out to be disguised flying bombs (though they really look more like puffins than grouse). Meanwhile, with some creative acrobatics, Lady Fiona manages to escape and helps Bond to foil the attack. En route back to London, Bond survives another attempt on his life involving a remote-controlled dairy truck, which fatally backfires on the female agent luring him into the trap.Chapter 3
Bond, now promoted to the position of M, settles into McTarry's old office and his secretary, Miss Moneypenny's daughter (Barbara Bouchet). Bond's first order is to rename all remaining MI6 agents "James Bond 007" in order to confuse the enemy. He also orders that an agent be found who has enough self-control to resist the charms of female enemy agents. Such an agent is found in "Coop" (played by one-time Bond candidate Terence Cooper). Although Coop is able to resist the charms of M/Bond's "secret weapon" - an exotic agent known as The Detainer (Daliah Lavi), he is unable to resist entering into a romantic liaison with the smitten Miss Moneypenny.Chapter 4
Sir James convinces millionaire spy Vesper Lynd (Bond film veteran Ursula Andress) to recruit baccarat expert Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers) into taking part in a mission to undermine the finances of Le Chiffe, who is now trying to win back the money owing to SMERSH at the Casino Royale. After a brief fling with Vesper, Tremble receives a whirlwind indoctrination into the ways of spying thanks to Q.
Chapter 5
Proceeding on a clue provided by Fiona, Bond reconciles with his long-estranged daughter Mata Bond (Joanna Pettet) - also the lookalike daughter of Mata Hari - who spends her time smoking from hookahs, going to analysts, and giving poor dance recitals. (As noted earlier, the First World War must have happened more recently in the Casino Royale universe, as Mata Bond is only in her mid-20s.) Recruited into MI6, Mata is sent to East Berlin (via taxi) to follow Fiona's clue and infiltrate a school for nannies which is actually a front for a spy school (the same one Mata Hari attended) from which Fiona had received her orders to intercept Bond in Scotland. Mata encounters her mother's teachers and a plan to sell compromising photographs of military leaders from the United States, China and Great Britain at an "art auction," which she disrupts. The pictures are being sold by Le Chiffre (Orson Welles) in order to make money to pay back SMERSH after he squandered the organization's money at the gambling tables. As Mata takes her taxi cab back to London, Le Chiffre realizes he'll have to raise the money in the casino.Chapter 6
In the only section of the film remotely connected to the novel, James Bond 007 (aka Evelyn Tremble) arrives in France for his encounter with Le Chiffre at the Casino Royale. Le Chiffre, however, would rather amuse the crowd with elaborate magic tricks and illusions than play cards. Despite Le Chiffe using trick sunglasses to cheat, Tremble ultimately defeats the villain at the game, but he is soon kidnapped and tortured by Le Chiffre. During a hallucinogenic torture sequence (which involves a huge group of bagpipers and Peter O'Toole), Tremble is ultimately killed by Vesper, who tells him, "Never trust a rich spy" before machine-gunning him down with her bagpipe. Le Chiffre, meanwhile, turns out to actually be an agent of Dr. Noah and is killed in suitably bizarre fashion.Chapter 7
After Mata Bond is kidnapped from the heart of London by a giant UFO, Sir James and the rest of the surviving James Bond 007s head to Casino Royale to rescue her and discover that the casino is located atop a giant underground base run by Dr. Noah, who turns out to be Sir James' weak-kneed nephew, MI6 Agent Jimmy Bond (Woody Allen), last seen escaping a firing squad in Central America earlier in the film (although exactly why how he could be doing this at the same time as masterminding the McTarry Castle exploit is left unexplained). Jimmy's plan is to kill all men over 4 foot 6 inches tall, leaving the diminuative villain the big man who gets all the girls. Meanwhile, as a huge brawl breaks out in the casino involving secret agents, French police, stereotypical movie cowboys and Indians, George Raft, William Holden, and a seal with the name tag "James Bond 007", "The Detainer" tricks Jimmy into swallowing a miniature nuclear bomb, leading to an explosive finale. As the film ends, the various Bonds are seen playing harps in Heaven, including Jimmy Bond -- a fact quickly rectified as the angel of Evelyn Tremble sends Jimmy "to a place where it's terribly... hot."
This version of Casino Royale is notable as the only legally authorized (albeit unofficial) Bond story in any venue in which the main character (all "versions" of him, in fact) is killed off.
Cast and characters
- Sir James Bond - David Niven
- Evelyn Tremble/James Bond - Peter Sellers
- Dr. Noah/Jimmy Bond - Woody Allen
- Mata Bond - Joanna Pettet
- McTarry/M - John Huston
- Vesper Lynd - Ursula Andress
- Le Chiffre - Orson Welles
- The Detainer - Daliah Lavi
- Agent Mimi/Lady Fiona McTarry - Deborah Kerr
- Ransome - William Holden
- Le Grand - Charles Boyer
- Himself - George Raft
- French Legionnaire - Jean-Paul Belmondo
- Cooper/James Bond - Terence Cooper
- Miss Moneypenny - Barbara Bouchet
- Miss Goodthighs - Jacqueline Bisset
- Hadley - Derek Nimmo
- Polo - Ronnie Corbett
- Inspector Mathis - Duncan Macrae
- Frau Hoffner - Anna Quayle
- Smernov - Kurt Kasznar
- Buttercup - Angela Scoular
- Eliza - Gabriella Licudi
- Heather - Tracey Crisp
- Peg - Elaine Taylor
- Meg - Alexandra Bastedo
- Casino Director - Colin Gordon
- Carlton Towers - Bernard Cribbins
- Fang Leader - Tracy Reed
- Casino Doorman/M.I.5 Man - John Bluthal
- Q - Geoffrey Bayldon
- Fordyce - John Wells
- Casino Cashier - Graham Stark
- Chic - Chic Murray
- John - Jonathan Routh
- British Army Officer - Richard Wattis
- Le Chiffre's Representative - Vladek Sheybal
- Driver - Stirling Moss
- Piper - Peter O'Toole
- 1st Piper - Percy Herbert
- Control Girl - Penny Riley
- Captain of the Guards - Jeanne Roland
- Sir James Bond's Butler - Erik Chitty
- Dr. Noah's voice - Valentine Dyall
- Chinese General - Burt Kwouk
- Vesper Lynd's Assistant - Paul Ferris
- Chauffeur - John Le Mesurier
- Frankenstein's Monster - Dave Prowse
Crew
- Directed by: John Huston, Val Guest, Kenneth Hughes, Joseph McGrath, and Robert Parrish.
- *Val Guest was also 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.
- Produced by: Charles K. Feldman, Jerry Bresler, John Dark
- Suggested by the novel by: Ian Fleming
- Screenplay by: Wolf Mankowitz, John Law, Michael Sayers
- *Casino Royale had many contributors to the overall script that went uncredited, including: Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, Val Guest, Ben Hecht, Joseph Heller, Terry Southern, and Billy Wilder
- Original music by: Burt Bacharach. Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass and Dusty Springfield performed some songs also.
- *John Barry also contributed to the song "Born Free", but was uncredited. At the time, Barry was also the main composer for the official Bond film series.
Trivia
- Columbia Pictures produced and distributed this version of Casino Royale. Ironically, due to the Sony/Comcast acquisition of Bond rights holder MGM/UA, Columbia is now responsible for the co-distribution of the Bond series, and thus will act as distributor for the forthcoming 2006 remake of Royale, so therefore, in a sense, Columbia again holds some rights to the 1967 version (particularly through the parent company Sony Pictures Television's assumption of the television rights).
- The film is notable for the behind-the-scenes drama involving the filming of the Peter Sellers segments. Sellers felt intimidated by Orson Welles to the extent that, except for a couple of shots, neither were in the studio simultaneously. Welles also insisted on performing magic tricks as Le Chiffre, and the director obliged. Sellers ultimately walked off the film before he completed all his scenes, which is why Tremble is so abruptly captured. 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.
- The single most successful element of the film was the song "The Look of Love", performed by Dusty Springfield and heard during the Peter Sellers segment. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song, it has become a standard for its era. It was heard again in the first film, which was to a degree inspired by Casino Royale.
- 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 getting shot, 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.
- 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, while eFilmcritic's Stephen Thanabalan noted that Casino Royale was the very first 'spy spoof film' to father an official genre that directly utilised the notion of 'sex selling satire' for promotional media.
- 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, Vladek Sheybal appeared as 'Kronsteen' in From Russia with Love, Angela Scoular appeared as 'Ruby Bartlett' in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Burt Kwouk featured as a SPECTRE operative in You Only Live Twice, Jeanne Roland appeared in the same film as a masseuse. Finally Caroline Munro, who was an extra, took a much larger role as 'Naomi' in The Spy Who Loved Me.
- 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.
External links
- Robert von Dassanowsky, "Casino Royale at 33: The Postmodern Epic in Spite of Itself." Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 22, April (2000).
| The James Bond films |
|---|
| Official films Dr. No | From Russia with Love | Goldfinger | Thunderball | You Only Live Twice | On Her Majesty's Secret Service | Diamonds Are Forever | Live and Let Die | The Man with the Golden Gun | The Spy Who Loved Me | Moonraker | For Your Eyes Only | Octopussy | A View to a Kill | The Living Daylights | Licence to Kill | GoldenEye | Tomorrow Never Dies | The World Is Not Enough | Die Another Day | Casino Royale | Bond 22 |
| Unofficial films Casino Royale (1954 TV) | Casino Royale (1967 spoof) | Never Say Never Again |
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