Casino Royale (1967)

Casino Royale 1967 is a curiosity and a mess. A producer owned the rights to Fleming’s first novel, couldn’t make a serious version to compete with Connery, and decided to make a spoof with every star he could hire instead. It’s a 3.

Five directors are credited, and several more worked on it uncredited. That tells you most of what you need.

The Premise

Sir James Bond, the original, retired and living quietly, is pulled back to fight SMERSH, and his strategy is to name every agent James Bond to confuse the enemy. From there the film fragments into set pieces: a Scottish castle, a baccarat game, a spy school in Berlin, a flying saucer and a finale in a casino with cowboys, seals and a monkey.

The Production

Peter Sellers was the star and the problem. He wanted to play Bond seriously, clashed with the producer and famously feuded with Orson Welles, and left before his part was finished, so his character simply disappears. Directors were brought in to film separate segments and nobody seems to have been in charge of the whole.

The Cast

David Niven, Ursula Andress, Deborah Kerr, William Holden, Jean-Paul Belmondo, George Raft, John Huston and Woody Allen are all in it. Allen, as Bond’s cowardly nephew Jimmy, gets the best lines. Welles plays Le Chiffre as a card-trick magician and seems amused by the whole thing.

The Music

Burt Bacharach wrote the score, and it’s much better than the film. Dusty Springfield’s The Look of Love was nominated for the Oscar and is still a standard. Herb Alpert’s title theme is fun.

The Rights

The film’s real legacy is legal. Its existence kept Fleming’s first novel out of the Eon series for forty years, until Sony acquired the rights and Casino Royale became Daniel Craig’s first film in 2006.

Craft Note

Is Casino Royale (1967) worth watching?

Only as a curiosity. It’s a 3: a wasted cast, a few Woody Allen jokes and a great soundtrack. Listen to the music and watch the 2006 film.

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