1967 james bond film casino royale

Casino Royale is a comedy spy film originally produced by Columbia Pictures starring an ensemble cast of directors and actors. It is set as a satire of the James Bond film series and the spy genre, and is loosely based on Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel. The film is notable for an ensemble cast of numerous well known actors (some in blink and you'll miss it cameos) and having several major directors involved. Critically panned at the time, and often left off Bond lists today, it was actually a commercial success, and some of its music hit the charts in more than one country.

The film stars David Niven as the original Bond, Sir James Bond Forced out of retirement to investigate the deaths and disappearances of international spies, he soon battles the mysterious Dr. Noah and Smersh. The plot, however becomes highly convoluted after the first two scenes, and this is one of the major criticisms of the film.

The film's slogan: "Casino Royale is too much… for one James Bond!" refers to Bond's ruse to mislead Smersh in which six other agents are designated as "James Bond", namely, Baccarat master Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers), millionaire spy Vesper Lynd (Ursula Andress), Bond's secretary Miss Moneypenny (Barbara Bouchet), Bond's daughter with Mata Hari, Mata Bond (Joanna Pettet), and British agents "Cooper" (or "Coop" played by Terence Cooper) and "The Detainer" (Daliah Lavi).

Charles K. Feldman, the producer, had acquired the film rights and had attempted to get Casino Royale made as an EON Productions Bond film; however, Feldman and the producers of the Eon series, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, failed to come to terms. Believing that he could not compete with the Eon series on a level playing field, Feldman resolved to produce the film as a satire.^[1]

Plot[]

Overview[]

The story of Casino Royale is told in an episodic format and is best outlined in "chapters". Val Guest oversaw the assembly of the sections, although he turned down the credit of "co-ordinating director".^[2] The fact the film had several directors means that many of the sections have very different flavours to one another.

Opening sequence[]

Evelyn Tremble/James Bond (Peter Sellers) and Inspector Mathis meet in a pissoir or vespasienne (a French public urinal), where Mathis presents his "credentials". This sets the tone of the film by satirizing the dramatic opening sequences in the EON Bond films, and other Cold War spy films.

The setting is France, probably Paris. A group of school children pass by singing Frère Jacques, and there is graffiti on the pissoir saying "les Beatles" (sic). Unlike most Eon films, the opening is not a grand action sequence, at least not in the usual sense.

It is not fully explained who these men are, or what they are up to.

The film then cuts to title cards, which are semi-animated, with a score by Tijuana Brass.

Plot summary[]

M meets Bond[]

We then see a radical change of scene, now in England, we see an impromptu conference at the stately home of Sir James Bond. Sir James is a legendary spy, who has been retired for some fifty years. The visitors are the heads of several major intelligence agencies - M of the British MI6, American CIA representative Ransome, Soviet KGB representative Smernov, and French Deuxième Bureau representative Le Grand. The Red Chinese are not at the meeting, although they feature later.

All of the visitors implore Bond to come out of retirement to deal with Smersh who have been eliminating agents: Bond spurns all their pleas. When Bond continues to stand firm, his mansion is destroyed by a mortar attack at the orders of M, who himself is killed in the explosion. His mansion destroyed, Bond has little choice but to take on the mission.

There is no indication of Bond having a wife or children, or even a girlfriend.

Scottish and London scenes[]

The scene changes yet again, with Bond travelling north of the border to M's Scottish castle. He is there returning M's remains to the grieving widow, Lady Fiona McTarry. However, the real Lady Fiona has been replaced by Smersh's Agent Mimi. The rest of the household have been likewise replaced, with Smersh’s aim to discredit Bond by destroying his "celibate image" by taking incriminating photographs for blackmail. Attempts by a bevy of beauties to seduce Bond fail, but Mimi/Lady Fiona becomes so impressed with Bond that she changes loyalties and helps Bond to foil the plot against him.

Among other things:

• Bond takes part in a grouse shoot, in which the grouse have been replaced by grouse shaped killer drones.
• He also attempts to take a bath, only to find Buttercup in there, complaining it was not hot enough.
• A feast and dance at which Bond bests two heavyweight clansmen, a series of bagpipers and Aunt Mimi. Bagpipes feature later on in the film.

On his way back to London, Bond survives another attempt on his life. This time it is by a speeding milk float.

A beautiful blonde agent, Jag is on his tail, following orders and directions from the Dairy, or Smersh HQ. She ends up being totalled by the milk van.

MI6 HQ[]

Niven's Bond is promoted to the head of MI6. He learns that many British agents around the world have been eliminated by enemy spies because of their inability to resist sex. Bond is also told that the 'sex maniac' who was given the name of 'James Bond' when the original Bond retired has gone to work in television. He then orders that all remaining MI6 agents will be named "James Bond ", to confuse Smersh. He also creates a rigorous programme to train male agents to ignore the charms of women. Moneypenny recruits "Coop", a karate expert who begins training to resist seductive women: he also meets an exotic agent known as the Detainer.

Vesper hires Tremble[]

Bond then hires Vesper Lynd, a retired agent turned millionaire, to recruit baccarat player Evelyn Tremble, whom he intends to use to beat Smersh agent Le Chiffre. Having embezzled Smersh's money, Le Chiffre is desperate for funds to cover up his theft before he is executed.

East Berlin[]

Following up a clue from agent Mimi, Bond persuades his estranged daughter Mata Bond to travel to East Berlin to infiltrate International Mothers' Help, a school for spies that is a Smersh cover operation. She is driven there by Carlton Towers and meets Frau Hoffner and Polo there.

Mata uncovers a plan to sell compromising photographs of military leaders from the US, USSR, China and Great Britain at an "art auction", another scheme Le Chiffre hopes to use to raise money: Mata destroys the photos. Le Chiffre's only remaining option is to raise the money by playing baccarat.

Casino Royale[]

Tremble arrives at the Casino Royale accompanied by Vesper, who foils an attempt to disable him by seductive Smersh agent Miss Goodthighs. Later that night, Tremble observes Le Chiffre playing at the casino and realizes that he is using infrared sunglasses to cheat. Vesper steals the sunglasses, allowing Evelyn to eventually beat Le Chiffre in a game of baccarat. Vesper is apparently abducted outside the casino, and Tremble is also kidnapped while pursuing her. Le Chiffre, desperate for the winning cheque, hallucinogenically tortures Tremble. Vesper rescues Tremble, only to subsequently kill him. Meanwhile, Smersh agents raid Le Chiffre's base and kill him for his failure.

Dr. Noah's Lair[]

In London, Mata Bond is kidnapped by Smersh in a giant flying saucer, and James and Moneypenny travel to Casino Royale to rescue her. They discover that the casino is located atop a giant underground headquarters run by the evil Dr. Noah, who turns out to be Sir James's nephew Jimmy Bond. Jimmy reveals that he plans to use biological warfare to make all women beautiful and kill all men over 4-footinch ( m) tall, leaving him as the "big man" who gets all the girls. Jimmy goes to check on The Detainer, and tries to convince her to be his queen, she apparently agrees, but foils his plan by poisoning him with one of his own atomic pills, which will cause him to hiccup till he explodes.

Sir James, Moneypenny, Mata and Coop manage to escape from their cell and fight their way back to the Casino Director's office where Sir James establishes Vesper is a double agent. The casino is then overrun by secret agents and a battle ensues. Eventually, Jimmy's atomic pill explodes, destroying Casino Royale along with everyone inside. Sir James and all of his agents then appear in heaven and Jimmy Bond is shown descending to hell.

Cast & Characters[]