That’s right, folks, today we’re going to be looking at the James Bond classic, Casino Royale…….that’s right, the late 60s comedy film starring David Niven, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, Joanna Pettet, Daliah Lavi, Woody Allen, Barbera Bouchet, and Terence Cooper, all as James Bond. What, were you expecting Daniel Craig? But seriously, this is a wild, crazy, absurdist film that I’m still not sure if I enjoyed or was just dumbfounded by. I mean, when you see about five director credits in the opening, and the film isn’t an anthology, then you know something’s up, and let me tell you, it shows. Alright, I’ll try my best to explain the plot, key word “try.”
So, at first, the film follows a now retired James Bond who is being requested by several world representatives, including his old boss M, to come out of retirement and help them fight SMERSH who have been killing off many of their agents. However, Bond refuses this request, feeling as though spy work has degraded since his time with an over-reliance on gadgets and such, as well as a lingering sadness over the loss of his love, Mata Hari. In response to this, M orders that Bond’s house be blown up, an act which ends up killing M in the process. Bond returns M’s remains to his widow in Scotland, who isn’t his widow at all, but a SMERSH agent in disguise. In fact, everyone in the household is actually an agent, and are plotting to defame Bond by seducing him and ruining his image (you see, Bond was never a sex hound at all, rather it was his replacement who took up the mantle of “Bond” that perpetuated the concept). However, none of their schemes work, even their last-ditch efforts to take him out completely, and the faux widow ends up falling for him instead, before deciding to run off and join a monastery. Bond then travels to MI6 and becomes its new leader. With the help of Miss Moneypenny II (the daughter of the original), he plans to give the James Bond mantle to several different agents in order to throw SMERSH off, as well as train their male agents to fight off any sexual urges, since that’s the reason SMERSH has been able to take out so many of them before. One of the agents, Vesper Lynd, is sent off to recruit Evelyn Tremble, a master card player, in the hopes that they could use him to beat Le Chiffe. Le Chiffe is a SMERSH agent who has recently embezzled some of the organization’s money and is desperately trying to replace it before he’s discovered. At the same time, Bond recruits Mata Bond, the daughter he had with Mata Hari, and sends her to West Germany to infiltrate some sort of schooling facility, which turns out to be a front for SMERSH. Meanwhile, Tremble is prompted for his assignment, given the James Bond codename, and gets ready to play Chiffre in a game of baccarat. I’d keep going, but it only gets wilder from there and I don’t want to give everything away. I’ll just note that you should prepare yourself for a wild finale.
As you can probably tell by my plot synopsis, there’s a lot going on in this film. It jumps between several different protagonists and plotlines, and while all are technically connected to the overall storyline, the construction of the film makes it come across as several different stories piled into each other rather than an ensemble comedy, which is what it seems like it was trying to be. Films like Mad Mad World handle this sort of concept better, as they all revolve around a centralized goal (in World’s case, rushing to get to buried treasure before anyone else) and switch between the different participants on a quick, scene-to-scene basis. Casino Royale, on the other hand, switches its focus between whole sequences following different characters, each of whose goal is technically related, but are ultimately more like separate film directions entirely. As I noted before, I saw several director credits in the opening, and it’s definitely noticeable that several hands were in this movie. Some scenes have awkward transitions in which they must quickly fill you in on information that was never shown before, such as when Bond goes to M’s widow and one of the guards briefly discusses the fact that she’s actually an agent in disguise. Other scenes change without a transition, such as one instance during Tremble’s time at the casino, which I won’t spoil, but was certainly a whiplash moment for me. Strange stylistic shifts aren’t uncommon either, such as during Mata Bond’s infiltration of the school, the entire building is constructed like something out of a 20s German Expressionist film (e.g., The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari). I suppose the joke here is that it’s a school in Germany, hence it’s made in a German style, but it doesn’t really lead to anything and clashes with the 60s style of the rest of the film. Oh, and did I forget to mention the flying saucer? I honestly get the feeling they were throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck, and I think they knew how insane the whole affair was, as the finale is just out-and-out chaos, but I won’t give it away. If I was to give this film a legitimate rating, I’d say that it’s not very good. It’s clearly the result of tons of different ideas and directions that never come together well, and it honestly feels like they basically gave up in the latter half of the film. However, in terms of whether or not you should still see it, I’d actually say that you might want to check it out. It’s such a crazy mess and throws so much at you that after a while you just have to give in and say “sure, why not?” You’ll end up embracing the craziness and will want to see just what they’re going to throw at you next. Either that or you might just give up on it entirely, so it might come down to the tolerance of the audience in the end. Still, though, while there were other screwball comedies at the time, such as What’s New Pussycat and the previously mentioned Mad Mad World, I can’t think of any screwball comedies that get this screwy. In the end, I think its worth a watch, even if in an ironic context. Plus, how many times are you going to see David Niven, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, Woody Allen, Orson Welles, Jacqueline Bisset, John Huston, William Holden, and one half of the Two Ronnies all in one film?
In the end, this is a wildly unfocused film that had way too many cooks in the kitchen, but for the sheer crazy spectacle of the whole thing, it’s worth seeing at least once. Considering that this is (sort of) a James Bond film, I suppose its less obscure than other films I could have chosen. However, I rarely if ever see people talk about it and it’s probably only known nowadays to huge Bond fans. So, if you’re looking to see the craziest James Bond film made to date, pour yourself a drink (shaken, not stirred) and take a gamble with Casino Royale.