Welcome to Casino Royale, the ultimate psychedelic secret agent satire! Packed with girls, guns and gags galore, this “very funny picture” (The New Yorker) delivers “laughs all the way”(Cue)! Starring Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, David Niven, Joanna Pettet, Orson Welles, Daliah Lavi, Woody Allen, Deborah Kerr, William Holden and others, and with an original score from OscarÂ(r) winner* Burt Bacharach, this groovy spy movie is “even farther out” (LA Herald-Examiner) than all other spoofs combi
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Not one but two versions of Casino Royale,
Finally this comedic take on the James Bond series makes its way onto DVD, and for completists and fans of James Bond this DVD promises not only the 1967 version of Ian Flemings first 007 novel but also an edited down version of the very first James Bond movie, the 1950s CBS TV movie that starred Barry Nelson as James Bond (thats right, Sean Connery was NOT the first actor to portray 007). Made for an American audience, the character of James Bond is a CIA agent in that show and Leiter is the British intelligence agent. That movie, which is listed as a special feature on this DVD, also starred Peter Lorre as the villain Le Chiffre. Made in the days of live television this entertaining oddity is worth watching for the bloopers alone.
Years later, the rights to “Casino Royale” made it into the hands of another movie producer who, convinced that any attempt to make a serious version of “Casino Royale” would be doomed without the talents of Sean Connery, decided to make the remake as a comedy instead. With Peter Sellers playing James Bond and Orson Welles taking on the role of Le Chiffre everything seemed to be going fine until a script dispute caused Sellers to walk out on the project. Left with half a movie the producers were in trouble and they scrambled to save their production. One needs to understand this background to the movie to understand why it turned out the way it did. In it’s final version it seems truly confused with several actors portraying the role of James Bond and several directors (including John Huston who also cameos as M) taking a crack at it. There is even an early appearance by Woody Allen and former Bond girl Ursula Andress. For me personally, the Peter Sellers scenes are especially brilliant and very funny and David Niven plays the perfect gentleman spy. The action comes thick and fast and in addition to Andress there are a number of actors familiar to devotees to the rival EON productions. This movie is truly unique among the Bond canon and should be enjoyed as such.
NOTE: This review is NOT for the “Casino Royale (40th Anniversary Edition)” DVD despite the fact that Amazon lists the review on the product page for that 2007 DVD (note the 2002 date of this review).
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Eon Production’s DR. NO was a great hit in the early 1960s, and Eon quickly snapped up the rights to the rest of Ian Flemming’s novels about super spy James Bond–except for the CASINO ROYALE, which had already been purchased earlier by CBS for a 1950s television adaptation. When the property wound up at Columbia Pictures, they decided to create the satire to end all satires with a host of writers, five famous directors, and an all-star cast led by Peter Sellers. But Sellers’ ego reached critical mass during the production and he was fired mid-way into filming–and suddenly roles that were originally envisioned as cameos had to be expanded to finish the project. The result is one of the most bizarre films imaginable. The story, such as it is, finds James Bond (David Niven) called out of retirement to deal with the sudden disappearance of secret agents all over the world. In order to confuse the unknown enemy, Sir James orders ALL secret agents to use the name James Bond–and before you can blink there are Bonds aplenty running wild all over the globe. Eventually all the Bonds, including (through the magic of editing) Peter Sellers, wind up at Casino Royale, where they confront the evil agents of SMERSH and a diabolical mad man with a plot to rule the world.
The plot is absolute chaos, but that doesn’t prevent the film from being a lot of fun to watch. The entire cast runs wild with some marvelous over-the-top performances, and whenever the writers can jam in a gag or a weird plot turn they do precisely that: Bond (Niven) is attacked by decoy ducks; counter-agent Mimi (Deborah Kerr) swings from a drain pipe; Bond’s daughter by Mata Hari (Joanna Pettet) is kidnapped by a UFO; double agent Vesper (Ursula Andress) hides bodies in the deep freeze. And that’s just for starters.
At one point Niven blows up the locked door of a psychedelically decorated dudgeon with lysergic acid–better know as LSD–and in a way this is indicative of the entire film, which was made at the height of the 1960s ultra-mod movement: the whole thing has the feel of a blow-out acid trip, right down to flashing multicolored lights and swinging 60s fashions. It is visually arresting, to say the least. And then there is that famous Burt Bacharach score, easily one of the best of the decade, sporting Herp Albert on the main theme and Dusty Springfield’s legendary performance of “The Look of Love.” On the whole, the film is one of the most entertaining hodgepodges of talent and weirdness I’ve ever encountered, and it never fails to amuse. As for the DVD itself, the print is good and the sound is too. The extras are a bit disappointing, however. The original CBS version, included here, is a bore, and the making-of documentary is essentially a prolonged interview with one the film’s several directors. I’ve found that viewers tend to have extremely different reactions to this film–they either love it or hate it, so you may want to rent this one first. But it’s one of my favorite guilty pleasures, and I recommend it for fans of the unexpectedly odd.
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