In Defence of Casino Royale (1967)

First I would like to quote some of the naysayers, the "anti-" people... If I may.

The Time Out Film Guide calls it "awful" with a "terrible script". The Video Movie Guide calls it "an overblown bore". Halliwell's calls it "woeful" and "shameless". The Great Man David Thomson, dismisses it as "nonsense". Judith Crist: "witless" & "interminable". E! Online capsulizes it with "disastrous".

Anyway. The film has actually become a little more-- respected isn't the right word, but I don't know what is-- over the years. It is a mess. It is long. Nobody knew what was going on. Five different people directed it. The only vision would have been the producer's, Charles K. Feldman. And I think he got some of what he wanted to get through through: anarchy, sex, decadence and fun.

The Bond films up to that point had bordered on spoofing themselves anyway. And there were the Flint movies and the Matt Helm movies and a lot more that really leaned on the silly/spoof button. Frankly, it was really impossible to go too far. I think the absolute lunacy and lack of focus and direction of Casino Royale lends to its charm. Or, what I think is charming about it. I have more fun in this movie, as far as cameos go, than in, say, Around the World in 80 Days.

David Niven, as Bond, is about as good a person you could have to anchor the film, without ever getting serious about it. In fact, as I'm sure you know, he was Fleming's original ideal for Bond. We also have more truly beautiful, sexy women in this film than any of the real Bond films. Look at this: Ursula Andress, Joanna Pettet, Daliah Lavi, Barbara Bouchet, Jacqueline Bisset. That's five really gorgeous women. And there's a lot more too.

What makes Casino Royale more than just silly fun, is the outstanding music and soundtrack by Burt Bacharach. As great as the Barry scores are this may even be better. Although it is silly to rate them against each other, especially as they are too different. And with Dusty Springfield's classic version of The Look of Love, you really have something very special. There is a piece of music in the film, by the way, that is not on the soundtrack. Breakbeat Era uses it as a central sample to track 15, Life Is My Friend, on their outstanding drum and bass disc Ultra-Obscene. Buy it. Buy the Bacharach soundtrack too. And go ahead and buy a best of Dusty Springfield disc too. And, of Barry's, get Goldfinger, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Thunderball as starters. You know what? Buy the new Fiona Apple album while you're at it.

And then there's the lavish production values and sets, and although much of it is wasted money, some are really neat. And then there's the cast. Even if you get bored and tired, somebody cool's gonna show up in a minute. David Niven, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress (from Dr No), Orson Welles, Joanna Pettet, Daliah Lavi, Woody Allen, Deborah Kerr, William Holden, Charles Boyer, John Huston as M, Kurt Kasznar, George Raft, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Terence Cooper, Barbara Bouchet as the hottest Moneypenny ever, Angela Scoular as the very Scottish "Buttercup", Jacqueline "Jacky" Bisset as Miss Goodthighs, Sellers' talented pals Colin Gordon, Bernard Cribbins, Tracy Reed, Graham Stark, Bert Kwouk [Cato from the Pink Panther films and cast member of both Goldfinger (as Mr Ling) and You Only Live Twice (as Spectre 3)], John Le Mesurier, and Peter O'Toole.

And with the likes of Woody Allen, Ben Hecht, Joseph Heller, Billy Wilder, and Peter Sellers contributing uncredited bits to the script some things are gonna slip through. And the photography is by Jack Hildyard and Nic Roeg.

So, overall, I like Casino Royale more than half the Bond pictures.