Casino
Royale is a 1967 spy comedy film originally produced by Columbia
Pictures starring an ensemble cast of directors and actors. It is
loosely 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 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".
Charles K. Feldman, the
producer, had acquired the film rights and had attempted to get
Casino Royale made as an Eon Productions Bond film; however, Feldman
and the producers of the Eon series, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry
Saltzman, failed to come to terms. Believing that he could not
compete with the Eon series, Feldman resolved to produce the film as
a satire.
The film has had a
generally negative reception among critics, some of whom regard it as
a baffling, disorganised affair, with critic Roger Ebert branding it
"possibly the most indulgent film ever made". On the other
hand, Andrea LeVasseur called it "a psychedelic, absurd
masterpiece" and cinema historian 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."
The
all star cast included David Niven as Sir James Bond 007. Peter
Sellers as Evelyn Tremble, a baccarat master recruited by Vesper Lynd
to challenge Le Chiffre at Casino Royale and one of the six James
Bonds. Ursula Andress as Vesper Lynd playing 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 organisation. 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 (credited as
Jacky 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. Anna Quayle as Frau
Hoffner who plays Mata Hari's teacher, portrayed as a parody of
Cesare in the German Expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
(her school is modelled on the film's expressionist decor). 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 takes credit for the greatest number of actors in a Bond film
either to have appeared or to go on to appear in the rest of the Eon
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. Jack Gwillim, who had a tiny role as a
British army officer, played a Royal Navy officer in Thunderball.
Caroline Munro, who can be seen very briefly as one of Dr Noah's gun-toting
guards, received the role of Naomi in The Spy Who Loved Me. Milton
Reid, who appears in a bit part as the temple guard, opening the door
to Mata Bond's hall, played one of Dr. No's guards and Stromberg's
underling, Sandor, in The Spy Who Loved Me. John Hollis, who plays
the temple priest in Mata Bond's hall, went on to play the unnamed
figure clearly intended to be Blofeld in the pre-credits sequence of
For Your Eyes Only, while John Wells, Q's assistant, appears in For
Your Eyes Only as Denis Thatcher. 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 scene.
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. Stunt director Richard Talmadge employed
Geraldine Chaplin to appear in a brief Keystone Cops insert. The film
also proved to be young Anjelica Huston's first experience in the
film industry as she was called upon by her father, John Huston, to
cover the screen shots of Deborah Kerr's hands. The film also marks
the debut of Dave Prowse, later the physical form of Darth Vader in
the Star Wars series.
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
all believed to have contributed to the screenplay to varying
degrees. 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 labelled "Additional
Sequences" instead.
Casino Royale was directed
by: Val Guest (additional sequences; scenes with Woody Allen and
additional scenes with David Niven); Ken Hughes (Berlin scenes); John
Huston (scenes at Sir James Bond's house and scenes at Scottish
castle); Joseph McGrath (scenes with Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress
and Orson Welles); Robert Parrish (some casino scenes with Peter
Sellers and Orson Welles) and Richard Talmadge (uncredited as
co-director of the final sequence)
Ben Hecht's contribution to
the project, if not the final result, was in fact substantial. The
Oscar-winning writer was recruited by Feldman to produce a screenplay
for the film and wrote several drafts, with various evolutions of the
story incorporating different scenes and characters. All of his
treatments were "straight" adaptations, far closer to the
original source novel than the spoof which the final production
became. A draft from 1957 discovered in Hecht's papers – but
which does not identify the screenwriter – is a direct
adaptation of the novel, albeit with the Bond character absent,
instead being replaced by a poker-playing American gangster.
Later drafts see vice made
central to the plot, with the Le Chiffre character becoming head of a
network of brothels whose patrons are then blackmailed by Le Chiffre
to fund Spectre. The racy plot elements opened up by this change of
background include a chase scene through Hamburg's red light district
that results in Bond escaping whilst disguised as a lesbian mud
wrestler. New characters appear such as Lili Wing, a brothel madam
and former lover of Bond whose ultimate fate is to be crushed in the
back of a garbage truck, and Gita, wife of Le Chiffre. The beautiful
Gita, whose face and throat are hideously disfigured as a result of
Bond using her as a shield during a gunfight in the same sequence
which sees Wing meet her fate, goes on to become the prime
protagonist in the torture scene that features in the book, a role
originally Le Chiffre's.
Hecht never produced his
final script though, dying of a heart attack two days before he was
due to present it to Feldman in April 1964. Time reported in 1966
that the script had been completely re-written by Billy Wilder, and
by the time the film reached production almost nothing of Hecht's
screenplay remained. The one thing that did endure, and indeed became
a key plot device of the finished film, was the idea of the name
“James Bond” being given to a number of other agents. In
the case of Hecht's version, this occurs after the demise of the
original James Bond (an event which happened prior to the beginning
of his story) which, as Hecht's M puts it “not only perpetuates
his memory, but confuses the opposition." Peter Sellers hired
Terry Southern to write his dialogue (and not the rest of the script)
in order to "outshine" Orson Welles and Woody Allen.
Untitled
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 Eon Bond film, 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.
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 was 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".
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. In the end,
Sellers' involvement with the film was cut abruptly short.
Sellers left the production
before all his scenes were shot, which is why Tremble is so abruptly
captured in the film. Whether he was fired or simply walked off is
unclear. Given that he often went absent 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 him. The
framing device of a beginning and ending with David Niven was
invented to salvage the footage. Val Guest indicated 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".
AV
CLUB FEATURETTE DEPARTMENT
Untitled
Trailer for Casino Royale
(1967). Long before Austin Powers there was this James Bond parody,
based on the Ian Flemming Novel, David Niven, Peter Sellers, and
Woody Allen star as James, James, and Jimmy Bond to thwart Smirch and
it's gambler leader, Orson Welles.
Signs
of missing footage from the Sellers segments are evident at various
points. Evelyn Tremble is not captured on camera; an outtake of
Sellers entering a racing car was substituted. In this outtake,
Sellers calls for the car, à la Pink Panther, to chase down
Vesper and her kidnappers; the next thing that is shown is Tremble
being tortured. Out-takes 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 at 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 film altogether, including Mona Washbourne, Ian
Hendry and Arthur Mullard. 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 translate 'merde!' into 'ooch!' during his
fistfight. Raft's coin flip, which originally appeared in Scarface
(1932), had been spoofed a few years earlier in 1959's Some Like It Hot.
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 a Frankenstein-type Monster for the closing
scenes, principally directed by former actor and stuntman Richard Talmadge.
Columbia Pictures
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 would once again become
responsible for the co-distribution of this 1967 version as well as
the entire Eon Bond series, including the 2006 adaptation of Casino
Royale. However, MGM Home Entertainment changed its distributor to
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment in May 2006. Though Sony
initially released the 2006 adaptation on home video, MGM and 20th
Century Fox released new versions of both this film and the 2006
adaptation on Blu-ray Disc in 2012. Ironically, the 2012 Blu-ray
release of this non-Eon Bond film shows Danjaq LLC, Eon's holding
company, as one of its present copyright owners.
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". 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."
Despite the lukewarm nature
of the contemporary reviews, the pull of the James Bond name was
sufficient to make it the thirteenth highest grossing film in North
America in 1967 with a gross of $22.7 million and a worldwide total
of $41.7 million. 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.
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 (a version of the song was also sung by Peter
Sellers). The title theme was Alpert's second number one on the Easy
Listening chart where it spent two weeks at the top in June 1967 and
peaked at number twenty-seven on the Billboard Hot 100.
The 4th chapter of the film
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 and was a Top 10 radio hit. A year later a version by
Sérgio Mendes and Brasil '66 reached #4 of Billboard Hot 100.
Springfield's version was heard again in the first Austin Powers
film, which was to a degree inspired by Casino Royale. John Barry's
song "Born Free" was also used in the film. At the time,
Barry was the main composer for the Eon Bond series.
The
all star cast included David Niven as Sir James Bond 007. Peter
Sellers as Evelyn Tremble, a baccarat master recruited by Vesper Lynd
to challenge Le Chiffre at Casino Royale and one of the six James
Bonds. Ursula Andress as Vesper Lynd playing 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 organisation. 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 (credited as
Jacky 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. Anna Quayle as Frau
Hoffner who plays Mata Hari's teacher, portrayed as a parody of
Cesare in the German Expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
(her school is modelled on the film's expressionist decor). 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 takes credit for the greatest number of actors in a Bond film
either to have appeared or to go on to appear in the rest of the Eon
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. Jack Gwillim, who had a tiny role as a
British army officer, played a Royal Navy officer in Thunderball.
Caroline Munro, who can be seen very briefly as one of Dr Noah's gun-toting
guards, received the role of Naomi in The Spy Who Loved Me. Milton
Reid, who appears in a bit part as the temple guard, opening the door
to Mata Bond's hall, played one of Dr. No's guards and Stromberg's
underling, Sandor, in The Spy Who Loved Me. John Hollis, who plays
the temple priest in Mata Bond's hall, went on to play the unnamed
figure clearly intended to be Blofeld in the pre-credits sequence of
For Your Eyes Only, while John Wells, Q's assistant, appears in For
Your Eyes Only as Denis Thatcher. 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 scene.
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
all believed to have contributed to the screenplay to varying
degrees. 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 labelled "Additional
Sequences" instead.
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 was 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".
Signs
of missing footage from the Sellers segments are evident at various
points. Evelyn Tremble is not captured on camera; an outtake of
Sellers entering a racing car was substituted. In this outtake,
Sellers calls for the car, à la Pink Panther, to chase down
Vesper and her kidnappers; the next thing that is shown is Tremble
being tortured. Out-takes 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 at 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).
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 a Frankenstein-type Monster for the closing
scenes, principally directed by former actor and stuntman Richard Talmadge.
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."
