Should I Watch..? 'Casino Royale' (1967)

What's the big deal?

Casino Royale is a spy parody film released in 1967 and is loosely based on the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film was the first unofficial James Bond movie made, the result of protracted negotiations between producer Charles Feldman and the producers of the Eon Bond films, Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. The film follows the original James Bond who is called out of retirement to investigate the disappearance of a number of imitators. The ensemble cast includes Peter Sellers, Orson Welles, Woody Allen, David Niven, Ursula Andress, Joanna Pettet, Deborah Kerr and William Holden with supporting appearances from the likes of George Raft, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jacqueline Bisset, Bernard Cribbins and even co-director John Huston himself. The film experienced a troubled production with a total of six directors working on separate parts of the film and Sellers' erratic backstage behaviour, causing multiple issues during the shoot. The film was a hit with audiences with global takings of $41.7 million (around $390 million in 2024) and even picked up an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song, courtesy of legendary composer Burt Bacharach. However, the film failed to find a positive response from critics. The film would be remade in 2006 as an official Bond film, the Daniel Craig-debut and series reboot Casino Royale.

Unforgivable

What's it about?

Legendary British spy James Bond has been knighted and retired for many years, living a quiet life at his country mansion. He is visited one day by his former boss M as well as CIA liaison Ransome, KGB representative Smernov and French Intelligence officer Le Grand. It appears that in his absence, the terrorist organisation SMERSH has grown bolder and now threaten the security of the entire world by abducting a number of spies and political figures. However, Bond is unmoved and turns their request to return to action down but unfortunately, they don't take no for an answer. Bond's mansion is destroyed by mortar fire and M is killed in the confusion.

Attending M's funeral in Scotland, Bond meets M's widow Lady Fiona McTarry and his numerous nubile daughters. However, it soon emerges that this is all a ruse as SMERSH agents are never far behind. As Bond heads to London to decide on the next course of action, his former lover Vesper Lynd has settled into a life of luxury due to her inordinate wealth. Bond recruits Vesper back into the fold and together, they decide to create a program to develop a number of agents to carry the Bond name. One of them is eccentric baccarat expert Evelyn Tremble who finds himself at the titular casino opposite SMERSH operative Le Chiffre...

Trailer

What's to like?

Even at the time, this energetic and... free-flowing (read "improvised") spy spoof would have fallen flat but these days, it is just embarrassing. Yet, in spite of the chaos and almost incomprehensible narrative, there are enough hints to suggest a decent film struggling to get out. Niven certainly makes a plausible Bond, albeit one in his later years and he feels very similar to his character in The Pink Panther. Sellers, by contrast, feels much more restrained here than his iconic performance as Inspector Clouseau although there are still scenes that play to his comic talents. It is a fascinating time capsule, one that matches the Sixties-set parody Austin Powers with its trippy sets, psychedelic cinematography and curious fashions. And of course, it has that fantastic soundtrack by Bacharach which is led by the timeless song The Look Of Love by Dusty Springfield.

Unfortunately, if a film's soundtrack is the best thing about it then you know that things have gone wrong somewhere. I can't fault its ambition as the screen is flooded with ideas and concepts, many of which don't work but at least some do. It's a wild, unrestrained film that feels completely detached from any sort of reality, as if nobody on set had heard of a thing called continuity. No wonder Eon became so protective of the Bond franchise after this chaotic mess - in fact, we should probably thank the original Casino Royale for saving us from any number of cheap knock-offs. So at least it deserves a modicum of good will.

Fun Facts

• Sellers and Welles reportedly hated each other on set, refusing to be on screen together during the baccarat scene. Sellers was determined to play the role as straight as possible, rewriting his scenes (which are noticeably closer to the source novel than the rest of the film) while Welles insisted on filming magic tricks during the scene and described Sellers as an amateur, one who would often disappear for days at a time. Sellers' behaviour was so bad that he was ultimately fired from the film and his character was written out.
• The film's budget was an already sizeable $6 million (around $56 million in 2024) but it ballooned to $12 million as spending got completely out of hand. Feldman originally approached Sean Connery to appear as Bond but couldn't afford his $1 million price tag. He later told Connery that he should have paid him because it would have made filming Casino Royale much cheaper.
• Allen became inspired to shoot his own movies as a result of the chaotic nature behind the scenes of this film. In a letter to a friend, he described the set as "a madhouse" and later admitted regretting making the film.
• Several cast members were already connected to the Eon Bond films or would later appear in them. In addition to Andress (Dr. No), the film features Angela Scoular (On Her Majesty's Secret Service), Burt Kwouk (Goldfinger & You Only Live Twice), John Hollis (For Your Eyes Only) and Caroline Munro (The Spy Who Loved Me) as well as others.

What's not to like?

It's actually hard to know where to start with this because it's such an absolute cluster-eff. It feels like five separate films crudely stitched together, largely because that's exactly what it is. But you get the sense that none of them discussed what they were doing and just decided to do their own thing. There are scenes that simply don't follow on from each other, make no narrative sense at all or are even straight-up outtakes included in the film. Sellers' unprofessionalism led to him being unceremoniously cut from the film before his scenes were completed so, like a lot of the scenes in Casino Royale, they simply improvised around the inconvenience of an absent lead actor. What they should have done, of course, is stop and think about what they were actually doing but this was the Sixties and I assume a lot of people were on drugs.

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The storyline is incomprehensible, the comedy has dated about as well as Woody Allen's reputation and the cast are seem oddly distracted, as if they are unsure what they're doing there. There are a few decent lines in there but they are few and far between for a film of this length, ambition and cast. If anything, the film is funnier in a post-modern sense - this is a legitimate Austin Powers because it's authentic and as this film rumbles on, more and more scenes remind you of moments from Mike Myers's spy parody series. Unfortunately, the film has also aged really poorly in places so random characters dressed like Hitler for no reason and Allen's character being a neurotic, lecherous misogynist feels uncomfortable to watch these days. The film isn't funny or engaging, feeling repetitive due to the frequent recurrence of the film's musical motifs despite the utter madness of what's on screen. And imagine you were living in the Sixties and looking for a decent spy spoof - what exactly is wrong with Our Man Flint, Carry On Spying or TV shows like Get Smart or The Avengers, which is just as trippy as this film is?

Should I watch it?

Unless you're a passionate Bond fan, this film deserves to be dismissed as nothing more than an out-of-date curio. But even for 007 fans, this version of Casino Royale is a horribly disjointed and painfully unfunny mess that makes other spy parodies of the time look like Shakespeare. It's no surprise that Eon kept their prize property so closely guarded for decades as this unofficial Bond effort feels hopelessly inadequate next to the real thing. Connery's tenure as Bond has become idolised by fans whereas this film has been practically buried and rightfully so.

Great For: ruining anyone else's hopes of making their own Bond film, staining careers, horrifying contemporary audiences

Not So Great For: fans of James Bond, anyone thinking this is a comedy, proving that any film with five or more directors is prone to failure

What else should I watch?

Whereas Austin Powers had an extensive number of Bond films and the benefit of hindsight to call upon, this film had the sum total of four Bond films. In fact, the fifth Bond film - You Only Live Twice - was released the same year and blew Casino Royale out of the water with both critics and the box office, despite Connery's well-publicised statement that he would walk away from 007 after filming (he would return in Diamonds Are Forever for the final time). Even the black sheep of the Bond series, 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service with George Lazenby's ill-fated tenure in the tuxedo, now has its defenders and is widely seen as one of the better Bond films. It wouldn't be until Roger Moore's time as a more comedic, light-hearted Bond that the series began to suffer a decline in quality - possibly because the series was in danger of parodying itself.

Interestingly, this would not be the only unofficial Bond film to be produced. Following years of legal wrangling, Never Say Never Again was released in 1983 and competed directly against Roger Moore's sixth outing, Octopussy. Despite being essentially a remake of Thunderball, Never Say Never Again saw the much heralded return of Connery to the role of 007 which was seen as a big plus in its favour. Unfortunately, neither film proved that successful - Octopussy technically won the battle by out-earning its rival but critics largely sided with Never Say Never Again as Moore's reign as Bond was rapidly losing steam at the time. To date, there hasn't been another unofficial Bond film although there have been dozens of cheap imitations and parodies over the years. In more recent years, we've seen the likes of Spy and Kingsman: The Secret Service offering more comedic takes on the spy genre but usually including as many nods to 007 as possible.

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