Casino Royale (1967)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

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:

James Bond | Baccarat | Spy | Retirement | Nephew

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
Casino Royale (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
Casino 007 (Hungary) [hu]
Casino Royale (France) [fr]
Casino Royale (Finland) [fi]
Casino Royale (Spain) [es]
Cassino Royale (Brazil) [pt]
Gazino Royal 007 (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
James Bond 007 - Casino Royale (Denmark) [da]
James Bond 007 - Casino Royale (Italy) [it]
James Bond 007 - Casino Royale (Greece) [el]

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:

Cameo: [Jean-Paul Belmondo] [As a French Foreign Legionnaire.]

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Bond throws down the Chinese girl during his anti-female training, he ends the conflict by saying "Sayonara", which is actually Japanese.

Quotes:

[in a building that is about to explode]
Cooper: What's the strategy, sir?
Sir James: Get out of the bloody place before it blows up!

Movie Connections:

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

Soundtrack:

The Look Of Love

An Unfolding Moment

It helps if you're able to live in Kierkegaard's unfolding moment if you want to enjoy this movie. Or in Fritz Perl's "here and now", to switch hoaxes in midstream. It's pointless to compare "Casino Royale" to any of the other "straight" Bond films. There is no "plot" worthy of the name. The five disparate directors saw to that, to the extent that the writers didn't. It's a succession of gags, puns, and visual effects taking place in spectacularly designed settings, spoofs of German expressionism, psychedelic imagery, and all that. Some of the gags miss the mark. A British soldier who has been practicing karate chops on wooden boards comes to a stiff attention when his superior approaches and snaps a quivering Brit-style salute, knocking himself out with his own hand. Ha ha. Such silliness abounds and at times the movie drags a bit, but there is always another joke around the corner. Orson Welles, with his fat cigar at the card table, performing magic tricks with flags and scarves amid flashing lights while everyone whistles and applauds. Peter Sellers trying on different costumes for Ursula Andress, including one of a gruff old general, "There's nothing wrong with the British Ahmy -- that a damned good swim won't cure." You really can't look for logic in all of this. Listen to the score and watch the performers squeeze the most possible laughs out of their situations. Too bad the movie loses steam at the end so that what should be a climactic pulling together of all the accumulated lines of narrative and jokes is, instead, just plain silly -- clapping seals, parachuting Indians. Ridiculous, but not funny. Writers who have trouble ending absurd movies like this seem to think that a few minutes of chaotic slapstick will serve. "What's New, Pussycat" had the same problem, with people running frantically from room to room in a hotel, a Feydeau farce without laughs. "Sex and the Single Girl" thrust everybody into vehicles and sent them racing down a California freeway with nothing to say. Just about all of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" was an attempt to substitute destruction and speed for wit. I saw this movie when it was released and laughed from beginning to end. I don't find it quite so funny now, (I don't find ANYTHING quite so funny anymore) but I watch it when I can. It's an opportunity to live in the unfolding moment.