Casino Royale (1967)

Directors:

Val Guest
Ken Hughes

Writers:

Wolf Mankowitz (screenplay) &
John Law (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

28 April 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Action | Adventure

Tagline:

CASINO ROYALE . . . the greatest JAMES BOND! 007 show on earth ! [Australian Daybill Movie Poster]

Plot:

In an early spy spoof, aging Sir James Bond (David Niven) comes out of retirement to take on SMERSH.

Plot Keywords:

Spy | Baccarat | Retirement | Nephew | Villain

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Peter Sellers	...	Evelyn Tremble, James Bond-007
Ursula Andress	...	Vesper Lynd - 007
David Niven	...	Sir James Bond
Orson Welles	...	Le Chiffre
Joanna Pettet	...	Mata Bond
Daliah Lavi	...	The Detainer - 007
Woody Allen	...	Jimmy Bond - Dr. Noah
Deborah Kerr	...	Agent Mimi aka Lady Fiona
William Holden	...	Ransome
Charles Boyer	...	Le Grand
John Huston	...	McTarry - M
Kurt Kasznar	...	Smernov
George Raft	...	Himself
Jean-Paul Belmondo	...	French Legionnaire (as Jean Paul Belmondo)
Terence Cooper	...	Cooper, James Bond-007

Also Known As:

Charles K. Feldman's Casino Royale

Runtime:

131 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (Westrex Recording System) (70 mm prints) | Mono (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Iceland:12 | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Australia:PG (DVD/video rating) | USA:Approved (certificate #29446) | Germany:12 (f) (re-rated) | West Germany:16 (f) | Brazil:14 | Austria:16 | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | Singapore:PG | UK:U (original rating)

Filming Locations:

County Galway, Ireland

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Peter Sellers and Orson Welles hated each other so much that the filming of the scene where both of them face each other across a gaming table actually took place on different days with a double standing in for one the actors.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Dr. Noah is explaining how his atom-bomb pill works, a gun disappears in the time it takes him to open the cupboard.

Quotes:

James Bond: What are you going to do to me?
Le Chiffre: Physically, nothing, Mr. Bond.
James Bond: Ah, so you're going to nothing me to death.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)

Soundtrack:

Claire De Lune

The best of the bizarre

To watch this movie, one must understand something that many appeared to have missed. Chiefly, the mish-mashed, ridiculous, over-blown insanity of it is the entire point. It is this that it aims for, and this that it achieves. It is not really a story, so much as every conceivable joke that could be thought of, thrown into an editing studio and spat out the other end as gold. This movie will challenge many who cannot break-out of the mold of needing a firm plot and some commonsense, but in this regard it is much like a comedic version of a David Lynch film, and I enjoyed Twin Peaks: The Movie even if I still don't get it.

So watch this for the crackling one-liners, ridiculously pretty women, lurid sets and the most completely unself-conscious approach to making a comedy that I have ever seen. It goes beyond funny, and becomes a matter of being shocked into admiration for the sheer silliness of it all. And the fun of trying to explain it to someone afterwards is immeasurable.

"So then the flying-saucer kidnaps Mata Hari and James Bond's love-child, and then James Bond who's David Niven and James Bond who's Woody Allen face-off, and meanwhile James Bond is being tortured with insane hallucinations and someone has snuck into his delusions with a machine-gun bagpipe and through all this Deborah Kerr was a French Scotswoman!"

Much less a true story than very funny surrealist art. Like Salvidor Dali meets The Pythons, but odder. And lots of great satire and stuff, too. See it. Now. If only to broaden your horizons.