The film version of Casino Royale from 1967 is most definitely not the serious-minded film with Daniel Craig from 2006. This adaptation is much sillier, a goofy parody of the four Bond films (with Sean Connery) that had already appeared during the 1960s. Sir James Bond (played with his usual debonair air by David Niven) has retired from service as 007, but spies from various countries—Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and France—have been disappearing, so he’s pressed back into service. What follows is a series of explosions, killings, quirky gadgets, and the usual barrage of other spy movie stereotypes, just what you might expect in a Bond film. However, Casino Royale also features some trippy psychedelic visuals and cameos by such movie luminaries as George Raft, Peter O’Toole, and Jean Paul Belmondo. Even a young and already stunning Jacqueline Bissett (billed as “Jacky Bissett”) gets a brief scene where she seduces one of the several James Bonds the film includes. Casino Royale also has extended performances from some great stars. My favorite performance is by Deborah Kerr, who plays M’s widow with the thickest of Scottish brogues and lots of homicidal daughters. Her part of the story involves an attempt to kill Bond after a night of drinking and haggis-eating and dancing and physical competition—pretty strange stuff overall—and that’s even before the day-after-the-funeral grouse hunt. In fact, many of the film’s narrative elements make no sense other than as a way to lampoon the more serious Bond films. For example, when Niven takes over Britain’s spy agency, he thinks they need to find a Bond who can resist women as a way to counteract the image being perpetuated by the “other” Bond films – well, actually, the weakness for sexy women seems to be linked to the disappearance of the spies. This moment does give a lot of beautiful women the opportunity to earn the title of “Bond girl” and for Terence Cooper to kiss a lot of them. Arguably, the most famous Bond girl of them all, Ursula Andress of Dr. No fame, gets recruited by Niven’s Sir James to get the author of a book on how to play baccarat, Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers) to help defeat Orson Welles’ Le Chiffre at the title casino. Welles’ character, you see, is funding SMERSH, the group responsible for kidnapping all of the spies from around the world. He’s also, inexplicably, performing magic tricks at the baccarat table, much to the amazement of the assembled crowd. Andress and Sellers seem to be having the most fun among the actors, Andress winking at her iconic status here as a rich and extravagantly wardrobed double agent who’s always a step ahead of the men she encounters and Sellers getting a couple of moments to wear costumes much like his famed character Inspector Clouseau from the Pink Panther movies. The film does add a nice touch in its inclusion of a younger actors to link characters to the more famous Bond franchise. Miss Moneypenny’s daughter (Barbara Bouchet) is now the new Moneypenny, and Sir James recruits his daughter with Mata Hari, Mata Hari (Joanna Pettet), to help him infiltrate the German school that trains female spies. Most important to the plot, though, is Woody Allen as Sir James’ nephew Jimmy. He only has a few minutes on screen, but his role is integral to tidying up as best it can the convoluted and scattered threads of the plot. By the time the American cavalry—on horseback—shows up, followed by a group of dancing Native Americans, a viewer might be exhausted from having watched an abduction by a spaceship and a gang of gun-toting women in minidresses. The visual overload is quite astonishing. Casino Royale could have easily been nominated for its costume design, which is gloriously mod, or its production design, which is spectacular, but it had to settle for just one nomination: Best Original Song for “The Look of Love,” which plays as the romantic theme when Sellers and Ursula Andress are seducing each other. (Well, to be fair, she’s doing more of the work.) It’s sung in the film by one of the greatest singers of all time, Dusty Springfield, and its inclusion is a true highlight. By the way, the instrumental theme, written by Burt Bacharach and performed by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, is also amazing.
Oscar Nomination: Best Original Song (“The Look of Love”)
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