Casino Royale (1967)

I'm still continuing my James Bond marathon this month, but today is a slight deviation from the official films.  Today, I'll be reviewing the spy spoof film Casino Royale (1967).

SYNOPSIS:
Sir James Bond (David Niven), the original gentleman spy, is persuaded by world intelligence leaders to come out of retirement to deal with an exceptionally dangerous threat to all the world's spies.  SMERSH, an international anti-spy organization, has been preying on the growing trend of overly-sexualized spies in the field, by training their own femme fatale unit to seduce and then eliminate them.  Sir James Bond leads MI5 in creating their own unit of James Bonds who are exceptionally trained at resisting feminine charm, and to confuse SMERSH with their identical names and 007 code names.  Will the Bonds be able to track down the mysterious Dr. Noah, leader of SMERSH, and put an end to his schemes?

REVIEW:
This was a fun spoof of the official James Bond films, a bit light on comedy, a bit all over the place, but it delivers on entertainment.  It starts out pretty interesting, drags a bit in the middle, but the third act leading up to the climax is excellent, ending the film in a very chaotic final battle, in very similar fashion to Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles (sans the 4th wall breaking).

Can YOU tell the difference between these two films?

Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman bought the movie rights to all the James Bond novels except the first one, Casino Royale, because Ian Fleming had already sold the rights to a producer/director. The film rights were brought to CBS to create the self-titled hour-long episode on Climax! Mystery Theater (see my first James Bond review for the story on that episode).  The rights to Casino Royale were then handed back and forth for a bit before landing in Charles K. Feldman's hands.  Not able to negotiate a deal with Broccoli and Saltzman to co-produce a film, he decided to make a satire film instead.  Later, in 1999, EON would buy the rights to Casino Royale, and in 2006, they produced a rebooted Bond film of the same name.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Sir James Bond (David Niven) is the perfect gentleman in this film.  He's disgusted by MI5 handing off his real name and 007 code name to their next agent after Sir Bond's retirement.  His former boss, M (John Huston), was trying to keep the legend of the immortal James Bond alive, but the new guy is an alcoholic womanizer who smokes too much and uses too many fancy gadgets instead of raw ingenuity and skill (sound familiar?).  However, when Sir Bond is targeted by SMERSH operatives too, he begrudgingly returns to service.

The perfect gentleman doesn't exi-

Sir Bond is the exact opposite of James Bond, fending off women's advances like a pro.  He refuses to sleep with anyone, doesn't drink, and admits that he's been trying to quit smoking.  He takes over MI5 in the absence of M, and learning that the current James Bond has left to become an actor, Sir Bond decides to form his own troupe of James Bonds in order to confuse SMERSH.  But this is an equal-opportunity employment; three of the James Bonds are actually women!

Even while surrounded by gorgeous women, Sir James Bond keeps his libido in check

Here's where the story starts to get a little muddled.  I guess they wanted to make use of the Casino Royale movie rights at this point, because an elaborate plot is formulated to stop Le Chiffre (Orson Welles) from earning enough money to pay what he owes to SMERSH.  A good chunk of the film is dedicated to setting up this whole plot and carrying it through.  Afterward, Sir Bond's adopted daughter, Mata Bond (Joanna Pettet), named for his deceased lover Mata Hari, is randomly kidnapped in broad daylight via a UFO and taken away.  Sir Bond and his remaining Bonds all track her down to SMERSH headquarters where they come face-to-face with Dr. Noah (an obvious nod to Dr. No).  There, they learn his (ridiculous) master plan and attempt to put a stop to it.  Notice I haven't credited Dr. Noah's name?  No, his face isn't hidden like Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the official James Bond series.  But the character was a surprise villain, having already been established earlier in the film, so I won't spoil it with the actor's name.

The mysterious Dr. Noah, moments before his reveal

Peter Sellers, the actor who plays Evelyn Tremble, one of the recruited James Bonds, apparently nearly ruined this film.  He was very entitled and difficult to work with.  When Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II, visited the set one day, Sellers, who had known her previously, made a very obvious show of greeting her in front of everyone. The princess ignored him and walked right past, instead running up to Orson Welles and fawning over him. Sellers stormed off set, and since then, refused to do any scenes with Orson Welles.  All their scenes together had to be filmed on separate days, with stand-ins for the other.

Also, Peter Sellers had always wanted to do a serious Bond film.  Learning after-the-fact that this role was satire, he made an effort to play it serious regardless.  He demanded changes to his script to match a more serious tone and did his best to eliminate any comedy in his scenes.  Hence why this satire film is light on comedy and drags in the middle, mostly during Sellers' scenes.  That, plus many other conflicts he caused on set, caused him to be fired before all his scenes were complete.  He was supposed to be the lead character, taking over the official James Bond role from Sir James Bond, but with his firing, a new ending was written, bringing Sir James Bond into the field to deal with SMERSH himself.  Which worked out very well, in my opinion.

Peter Sellers injured this actress, firing blanks at her face in this scene. She was terrified to be in a scene with him after that.

RECOMMENDATION:
Overall, it was a very unusual film.  With a slow and boring 2nd act and a total run time of 2 hrs, 11 mins, this film could've easily cut out some scenes and tightened up others.  Transitions between scenes were not always smooth and clear, and even after re-watching it for the 3rd time now, I still had to look up the story online to help me understand exactly what happened in certain places.  The film doubled its $6 million budget during production and was so chaotic and behind schedule, some of the actors walked.  Woody Allen, who plays Sir James Bond's silly nephew, was so outraged at the lavish spending and improper use of time and management on set, that he walked out on his last day of filming and boarded a plane to New York while still in costume.  It's definitely a film you should check out at least once, but if you're intent on doing a James Bond marathon, you can easily skip this one.  It won't add anything of substance to the franchise.

Random Trivia: Ian Fleming actually wanted David Niven to play James Bond in the cinematic version of his novels.  But when the studio chose the Scottish Sean Connery to play an English gentleman, Fleming was pissed.  However, having seen Connery in the role, Fleming eventually decided that he was a good fit, and even re-wrote James Bond's ancestry to make him Scottish-descended.