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Casino Royale
Casino Royale 1967
"Casino Royale is too much ... for one James Bond!"
Directed By Ken Hughes, Joseph McGrath, John Huston, Robert Parrish, Val Guest, Richard Talmadge
Screenplay By Wolf Mankowitz, John Law, Michael Sayers
Cast Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, Ursula Andress, David Niven
Produced By Charles K. Feldman, Jerry Bresler
Cinematography By Jack Hildyard, Nicolas Roeg, John Wilcox
Film Editing By Bill Lenny
Music By Burt Bacharach
Distributed By Columbia Pictures
Franchise 007: James Bond Franchise
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Release Date April 13, 1967
Runtime 131 Minutes
Rating PG
Budget $12,000,000
Gross $41,700,000
Based on Casino Royale by Ian Fleming


Overview[]

Casino Royale is a 1967 British produced comedy espionage film starring David Niven, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, Woody Allen, and Orson Welles.  It was directed by Ken Hughs, Joseph McGrath, John Huston, Robert Parrish, Val Guest, and Richard Talmadge. This version was very loosely based on the Ian Fleming novel of the same name and was the second adaptation of it; the first being a 1954 television movie with a modernized third adaptation being released in 2006.

The 1967 version of the film however is not considered to be officially canon as it is not part of the Eon Productions film series and was heavily altered from its source material to be a more farcical lampoon comedy. This is partially due to the fact that Ian Fleming sold off the filming rights to the "Casino Royale" novel several years earlier and before Eon Productions acquired the license for the remainder of his novels and the legal rights to it remained tied up for years afterwards.

Retired spy James Bond is forced to come out of retirement to deal with the threat of SMERSH!  But the aging agent is out of his depth and needs some help.  If SMERSH thought that having one Bond was bad enough, wait until they find themselves up against seven!

Plot[]

Cast[]

Production[]

Casino Royale was the first James Bond novel published by Ian Fleming in 1953 and its success paved the way for the establishment of a multimedia franchise. Fleming subsequently sold the rights to CBS to use the novel for the basis of a TV episode in Climax! in 1954 and later filming rights to producers Gregory Ratoff and Michael Garrison in 1955 but Twentieth-Century Fox subsequently rejected their pitch proposal. Ratoff subsequently died in 1960 and his heirs and Garrison sold the filming rights to producer Charles K. Feldman for $75,000.

Film producers Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli and Harry Saltzman later optioned the rights to Ian Fleming's subsequent and future Bond novels in 1961 when they became partners and established Eon Productions intending to create a multi-picture franchise starring the British secret agent. They discovered that Casino Royale however was the sole novel not available for adaptation and entered negotiations with Feldman to acquire the rights for Casino Royale as well. However it soon became clear that a quick settlement was not viable which prompted Broccoli and Saltzman to focus on adapting Dr. No instead which was released in 1962. Eon Productions finally offered $500,000 and a percentage of the royalties from the film in exchange for his filming rights in 1964. However Broccoli and Saltzman clashed repeatedly with Feldman which resulted in him to reject the deal and approached rival studio, Columbia Pictures which agreed to finance Casino Royale which was finally released in 1967 despite directly competing against Eon Productions' adaptations of James Bond.

Feldman even approached Sean Connery in an attempt to have him appear in the signature role of Bond for his film but balked at Connery's asking price of one million dollars.  Afterwards, Feldman decided to transform the film into a spoof of the Bond films instead.  Reputedly, after several spiraling production costs Feldman later encountered Connery at a party and admitted that "paying him the million would have been cheaper". 

Despite lackluster reviews and numerous challenges and extended legal attempts by Eon Productions, filming rights to Casino Royale remained inextricably tied to Columbia Pictures which was then acquired as a subsidiary of Sony Pictures for the better part of three arduous decades. Eon Productions were finally able to broker a deal to acquire the rights in exchange for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's rights to Spider-Man for Casino Royale in 1999 by which time, all of the various individuals involved in the original legal wrangling; Cubby Broccoli, Saltzman, Fleming, and Feldman had since passed away.

Additional/Alternate Movie Taglines[]

  • CASINO ROYALE ... the greatest JAMES BOND! 007 show on earth!
  • Casino Royale is too much ... for one James Bond!
  • James Bond 007 Casino Royale is the #1 Sensation Across the Nation!

Reception[]

Casino Royale premiered on April 13, 1967 in Odeon Leicester Square in London. It broke several box office records in the history of the theater and had a total gross of $22.7 million domestically with $41.7 million internationally.

While a huge commercial success, the film garnered near universal panning by critics and audiences alike who viewed it as "pitiful of the spy spoof", "incoherent", and "more of the talent agent rather than the secret agent" referring to the ensemble number of stars who appeared in it. Roger Ebert proclaimed it, "possibly the most indulgent movie ever made".

The Rotten Tomatoes website bestowed it with a 26% "Rotten" approval rating while MetaCritic gave it mixed reviews and scored it "48 out of 100". The film has been released on VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, and Blu-Ray. It has also been released in a special 40th Anniversary Special DVD.

Trivia[]

  • This is only film where James Bond dies.
  • David Niven was actually Ian Fleming's first choice as the actor to play 007.
  • A huge personality clash erupted between Peter Sellers and Orson Welles while shooting the film. It developed to the point where neither man could tolerate being in the same room with the other. As a result, several scenes where they were interacting across from each other had be shot twice; with one actor doing his lines to a stand-in and the next day, the scene would be reshot with the other actor performing his to another stand-in. These clashes grew to the point where it was decided to let Sellers go even though he hadn't actually finished some of his scenes which required the later parts of the script to be rewritten to account for his absence.  Ironically enough, it was Sellers who originally suggested that Welles be considered for his role in the film.
  • A number of actors who were hired for this movie weren't even aware that this would not be a "true" James Bond film rather than a spoof movie. Reputedly, Peter Sellers frequently tried to rewrite his scenes for a more serious tone.
  • Woody Allen was appalled at the mismanaged production of the film; often spending weeks idly sitting around due to delays. He spent his free time playing high-stakes poker and using the winnings to purchase German Expressionist Art and jazz records as well as writing the script for his 1969 film, Take the Money and Run. Due to not having a script, he frequently had to ad-lib and improvise his own gags for his scenes; but refused to be listed as a writer or have any part of the credits of the film. Reputedly, once he was finished filming, he didn't even bother changing out of his costume but fled for the airport as quickly as he could and to this day, "regrets" that he even took part in it.

External Links[]

IMDb

Trailer[]

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