Casino Royale (1967)

spy comedy

directe by : Val Guest - Ken Hughes - John Huston - Joseph McGrath - Robert Parrish
featuring : Peter Seller - Ursula Andress - David Niven - Orson Welles - Woody Allen
running time : 2 hours 30 minutes
Retired after years of international espionage, Agent 007 is lured back into action to battle the evil spy organization SMERSH in this notoriously incoherent parody of the James Bond films. David Niven portrays the aging Bond, who atypically rejects the advances of a variety of women, and agrees to battle SMERSH's hold on the lavish Casino Royale only after organization head M is murdered. Also mixed up in the affair are several other secret agents, all named James Bond, played by everyone from Peter Sellers and Woody Allen to a chimpanzee. Despite a star-studded cast, large production budget, and hit score by Burt Bacharach, the film was universally panned as a muddled, overlong failure, with the occasional amusing sequence lost in the unintelligible surroundings. The participation of several screenwriters and five different directors, only adds to the confusion.

Casino Royale is the original ultimate spy spoof, setting the precedent for the Austin Powers movies of the late '90s. The presence of five directors coupled with the overly complicated plot makes the movie nearly impossible to follow. A satire in the highest degree, this was the first unofficial James Bond movie, but its unnecessary to compare it to any other Bond movies because it is such a hideous, zany disaster. The celebrity cast -- including big talents like Sellers and Allen -- are embarrassingly involved in ridiculous gag after ridiculous gag. For the theatrical release, it even used an appropriately silly marketing campaign that even developed into "The Casino Royale Fun Movement" complete with promotional buttons reading slogans from the movie. Besides these classic pop art images, Casino Royale is most valuable for its musical score, featuring Bacharach, Herb Albert, and Dusty Springfield. The wacky kazoos and harpsichord arrangements, along with the pop gem "The Look of Love," are the perfect accompaniment to the vibrant images in this bizarrely constructed mess of a movie. Completely incoherent, Casino Royale remains a psychedelic absurd masterpiece.