Casino Royale *** (1967, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, Orson Welles, Ursula Andress, John Huston, William Holden, Deborah Kerr) – Classic Movie Review 839

The original 1967 Casino Royale movie is a huge-scale, vastly costly James Bond spoof, starring David Niven as British secret agent Sir James Bond, who is called out of retirement after the death of M to fight evil enemy agents SMERSH.

Sir James Bond conceives the ultimate plan of naming every agent James Bond. One of the Bonds, whose real name is Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers), is sent to take on Le Chiffre (Orson Welles) in a game of baccarat. But Sir James Bond soon finds his status is threatened by his young nephew Jimmy Bond (Woody Allen) when he turns out to be the ultimate villain.

It is sometimes funny, occasionally even hilarious, with an expert cast of 60s luminaries trying hard to sparkle. Orson Welles is Le Chiffre, Ursula Andress is Vesper Lynd, Peter Sellers is Evelyn Tremble, John Huston is M, William Holden is Ransome, Charles Boyer is Le Grand, John Huston is M / General McTarry and Deborah Kerr is Lady Fiona McTarry. As you would expect, Sellers is particularly funny.

But it is also very uneven and Bond again proves hard to send up as by 1967 it had already become a self-parody in the first place. Maybe having six directors did not help to produce a coherent movie: John Huston, Ken Hughes, Val Guest, Robert Parrish, Joseph McGrath and Richard Talmadge. How could it?

Very much an icon and relic of the swinging sixties, Casino Royale has surprisingly worn quite well and now enjoys some minor status as an entertaining little pop-culture icon. It is a welcome weekend afternoon TV regular in the UK.

There are cameos by Peter O’Toole as a piper (his fee was allegedly a case of champagne), Jean-Paul Belmondo as a French Foreign Legionnaire and George Raft as himself, doing his famous coin-tossing routine.

Ronnie Corbett plays Polo in Casino Royale.

Also in the cast are Joanna Pettet, Daliah Lavi as The Detainer (007), Kurt Kasznar, Jacqueline Bisset, Derek Nimmo, Ronnie Corbett as Polo, Geoffrey Bayldon as Q, Duncan Macrae, John Wells, Arthur Mullard, Terence Cooper, Anna Quayle, Barbara Bouchet, Bernard Cribbins, Colin Gordon, Tracy Reed, John Bluthal, Graham Stark, Chic Murray, Jonathan Routh, Richard Wattis, Vladek Sheybal, Percy Herbert, Valentine Dyall, Frank DeKova, Bert Kwouk, John le Mesurier, Sterling Moss, Mona Washbourne and David Prowse, with Caroline Munro uncredited as Guard Girl.

It is the only James Bond movie to date to feature two US Top 40 chart-toppers. They are the Casino Royale Theme by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass and The Look of Love by Dusty Springfield, with music by Burt Bacharach and lyrics by Hal David. They went to No. 27 and No. 4, respectively, on the US Billboard Chart. The Look of Love was nominated for a Best Song Oscar.

Casino Royale was the first James Bond novel, published in 1953 by Ian Fleming, and was the only Bond novel not obtained by producer Harry Saltzman when he bought the rights in 1961. Casino Royale was remade in 2006 with Daniel Craig. In 2006 it was the last of the original Fleming novels to be filmed by Eon Productions, which has now filmed all Fleming’s Bond novels, although some just in title, eg The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), and You Only Live Twice (1967).

Casino Royale producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson secured the rights in 2000 when Sony exchanged them for MGM’s rights to Spider-Man, which they filmed in 2002 with Tobey Maguire.

Geoffrey Bayldon, known for his roles in Catweazle from 1970 to 1972 and the Crowman in Worzel Gummidge, died 10 May 2017, aged 93. He appeared in several horror films: Dracula, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, The House That Dripped Blood, Asylum and Tales from the Crypt.

RIP Daliah Lavi.

RIP Daliah Lavi, who died on 3 May 2017, aged 76.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 839 derekwinnert.com

The Casino Royale first edition cover, conceived by Ian Fleming.