Casino Royale (1967 film)

Infobox_Film
name = Casino Royale


caption = Film poster by Robert McGinnis
director = Ken Hughes
John Huston
Joseph McGrath
Robert Parrish
Val Guest
producer = Charles K. Feldman
Jerry Bresler
writer = Ian Fleming (novel)
Wolf Mankowitz &
John Law &
Michael Sayers (screenplay)
starring = David Niven
Peter Sellers
Ursula Andress
Orson Welles
Woody Allen
Barbara Bouchet
Deborah Kerr
Jacqueline Bisset
Joanna Pettet
Daliah Lavi
Terence Cooper
Bernard Cribbins
Ronnie Corbett
Geoffrey Bayldon
Derek Nimmo
Chic Murray
William Holden
George Raft
John Huston
music = Burt Bacharach
cinematography = Jack Hildyard, BSC
Nicolas Roeg, BSC
John Wilcox, BSC
editing = Bill Lenny
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = 13 April 1967 (UK)
runtime = 131 min.
country = UK / U.S
language = English
budget = $12,000,000 (estimated)
gross = $22,744,718 (USA)
$41,744,718 (Worldwide)
amg_id = 1:8522
imdb_id = 0061452

"Casino Royale" is a 1967 epic surrealistic satirecite web |url=http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/28/casinoroyale1.html |title = Casino Royale, The Post-Modern Epic in spite of itself |accessdate = 2007-09-13 |author = Von Dassanowsky, Robert ] originally produced by Columbia Pictures starring an ensemble cast of directors and actors. It is set as a satire of the James Bond film series and the spy genre and is lightly based on Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel.

The film stars David Niven as the original Bond, Sir James Bond 007. Forced out of retirement to investigate the deaths and disappearances of international spies, he soon battles the mysterious Dr. Noah and SMERSH.

The film's famous slogan : "Casino Royale is too much ... for one James Bond!" refers to Bond's ruse to mislead SMERSH in which six other agents are designated as "James Bond", namely, Baccarat master Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers), millionaire spy Vesper Lynd (Ursula Andress), Bond's secretary Miss Moneypenny (Barbara Bouchet), Bond's daughter with Mata Hari, Mata Bond (Joanna Pettet) and British agents "Coop" (Terence Cooper) and "The Detainer" (Daliah Lavi).

Charles K. Feldman, the producer, had acquired the film rights and had attempted to get "Casino Royale" made as an official James Bond movie (i.e. one made by EON Productions); however, the producers of the official series, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, had turned him down. Believing that he could not compete with the official series, Feldman resolved to produce the film as a satire.

Plot

Overview

The story of "Casino Royale" is told in an episodic format and is best outlined in "chapters". Val Guest oversaw the assembly of the sections, although he turned down the credit of "co-ordinating director".

Opening sequence

The film's opening sequence is a deliberate ironic take on the dramatic opening sequences in the EON Bond films. Evelyn Tremble and Inspector Mathis meet in a , where Mathis presents his credentials, setting the satirical tone of the film.

Movie Plot

The movie opens at the country estate of Sir James Bond 007 (David Niven), a legendary British spy who retired from the secret service 50 years ago in 1917. He is visited by the head of British MI6, M (John Huston), CIA junior cipher clerk Ransome (William Holden), KGB labour camp inspector Smernov (Kurt Kasznar), and Deuxième Bureau vice detail Le Grand (Charles Boyer).

Bond then insults Ransome's cyanide-spitting carnation, the armoury concealed in Smernov's grotesque boots, the different deadly poisons in each of Le Grand's fly buttons, and M's flame-throwing fountain pens. In the gardens, M and the others then get to the point of the visit: various agents around the world have disappeared or died because of the ruthless organization SMERSH.

Bond abruptly leaves the discussion to play Debussy on his piano. As he plays, the men discuss Bond's retirement following his betrayal of the famed exotic dancer and courtesan Mata Hari, whom he lured to an untimely demise in front of a firing squad in France. When Bond returns and refuses their offer, M gives Bond a letter from Windsor Castle to change his mind. Bond promptly declines once again, causing M to launch a military strike on the mansion. The mansion is blown up by the rockets and M is killed in the resulting explosion. Meanwhile at SMERSH headquarters, the organization's head informs his henchmen that Bond has returned and they must proceed with Plan B in order to destroy his image.

Bond travels to Scotland to return M's remains to the grieving "widow." All that was left of M was a toupee, which is dubbed a 'hairloom' by the "widow" Lady Fiona McTarry (Deborah Kerr). Lady Fiona is actually the french Agent Mimi, chosen to impersonate the widow since she has "the best Scots accent." During the wake, Bond has to fend off the advances of McTarry's many young "daughters." Bond is then invited to a ceremonial grouse shoot even though grouse are out of season (which Lady Fiona explains by stating that "whenever a McTarry dies, the grouse come into season").

That night, Bond handily defeats a gang of thugs in a cannonball throwing competition. Lady Fiona is so impressed with his victory she starts telling him in French that he is magnificent. The other SMERSH agents now doubt her loyalty and worry she has blown their cover, so they imprison her.

The next morning is the grouse hunt, but the grouse turn out to be disguised flying bombs. Agent Mimi escapes and helps Bond to foil the attack by revealing that a magnetic button was placed on his jacket which lead the grouse bombs towards him. Agent Mimi and Bond launch the button back at the SMERSH agents who volley it back to them. After several such volleys, the button lands in the launch truck, destroying it. Mimi subsequently leaves to join a convent after asking Bond to think of her as the second woman in his life.

Returning to London, Bond survives another attempt on his life. A car driven by a SMERSH agent blocks Bond's car from the front while the remote controlled dairy truck full of explosives chases behind him. The truck loses video contact with the SMERSH controllers. Bond passes the blocking car and escapes to safety within his compound, closing the gates behind him. When the gates close, the chasing car skids sideways up against the gates. The truck then crashes into the car and explodes.

Bond is now promoted to the position of M and finds his secretary is his original Miss Moneypenny's daughter, Miss Moneypenny (Barbara Bouchet). Bond then learns from Hadley (Derek Nimmo) that one agent was stabbed to death at a sauna bath in Finland while a second was burnt to death at a blazing bordello in Madrid and a third was garroted in a Tokyo geisha house.

Bond then orders Moneypenny to find an irresistible male agent who has enough self-control to resist the charms of opposing female enemy agents. That night, Moneypenny hires "Coop" (Terence Cooper), a karate expert who loved women. The next day, an impressed Bond orders Moneypenny to get Coop a few dozen girls and orders that all remaining MI6 agents and trainees will be named "James Bond 007", as a ruse, to confuse SMERSH.

While training, Coop meets the new "secret weapon" - an exotic agent known as The Detainer (Daliah Lavi). When resisting The Detainer's charms, Coop quips that he is going to have his head examined after the exercise.

Bond then enters the office of retired millionairess/secret agent Vesper Lynd (Ursula Andress). After watching Vesper's remarks on things like buying the Eiffel Tower for two nuclear warheads and changing her mind about an offer for Rockefeller Center, Bond hires Vesper to find baccarat player Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers) in exchange for reduction in her tax arrears.

Vesper meets Tremble and invites him to her pad. Evelyn at first declines the offer, but reluctantly accepts after dressing up as Hitler, Napoleon, and Toulouse-Lautrec. At HQ the next day, Tremble is given his gadgets by Q (Geoffrey Bayldon) and his assistant (John Wells).

After learning from Hadley that a school for nannies in East Berlin is actually a SMERSH cover operation, Bond reconciles with his estranged daughter Mata Bond (Joanna Pettet) and sends her to Berlin from London in a taxi driven by British Foreign Office official Carlton Towers (Bernard Cribbins). Mata's assignment is to infiltrate International Mothers' Help, which is where Agent Mimi and the others had received their orders to intercept Bond in Scotland.

Mata encounters her mother's former instructors, including the diminutive Polo (Ronnie Corbett), who was in love with her mother and now falls in love with her. She discovers a plan to sell compromising photographs of military leaders from the United States, USSR, China and Great Britain at an "art auction." She is told not to let the auction take place successfully. The pictures are being sold by SMERSH agent Le Chiffre (Orson Welles) in order to make money to pay back SMERSH after he had embezzled the organization's money. Mata grabs the 35 mm slides of compromising photos, outwits the staff, and throws the photos away. Carlton Towers helps her to escape. Upon hearing the news, Le Chiffre realizes he will have to raise the money by gambling in the casino.

Evelyn arrives in France, accompanied by Vesper, for his encounter with Le Chiffre (Orson Welles) at the Casino Royale. At the hotel, Vesper foils an attempt to kill Evelyn by SMERSH agent Miss Goodthighs (Jacqueline Bisset). When Evelyn asks of her, Vesper replies "Don't worry. I took care of her. Now concentrate on the game".

Later that night, at the Casino Royale, Le Chiffre is entertaining the crowd with elaborate magic tricks and illusions and playing — and cheating at — baccarat. Evelyn and Vesper arrive, and while watching Le Chiffre play, realize that he is cheating by use of trick sunglasses. Evelyn challenges Le Chiffre while Vesper sneaks off with the trick sunglasses. Initially, Evelyn loses a few hands and must have more funds credited to him, but eventually beats Le Chiffre and wins the entire pot. While leaving Casino Royale, Vesper is kidnapped, and Tremble chases the kidnappers in a Lotus Formula Three car.

Tremble himself is kidnapped and tortured by Le Chiffre. In a fleeting reference to the original novel, a carpet beater (one of the instruments of torture described by Fleming) is seen protruding from the chair Tremble is strapped to. During the hallucinogenic torture sequence which follows, Tremble finds himself as one of a large group of bagpipers. He encounters Peter O'Toole who asks Tremble if he is Richard Burton. Vesper arrives in the hallucination as a bagpiper and, with a machine gun concealed in her bagpipe, she slays all the bagpipe players. Tremble alone is still standing. Vesper faces him and says, "Never trust a rich spy" as she shoots Tremble. Le Chiffre is killed in a suitably bizarre fashion as a punishment by SMERSH for failing: a gun smashes out of his monitor screen and shoots him in the head.

After Mata is kidnapped from the heart of London by an agent of SMERSH disguised as a palace guard, she is taken away in a giant flying saucer that lands where Nelson's Column formerly stood. Sir James travels with Moneypenny to Casino Royale to rescue her. They discover that the casino is located atop a giant underground base run by Dr. Noah. The evil Dr. Noah turns out to be Bond's weak-kneed nephew Jimmy Bond (Woody Allen), last seen escaping a firing squad in Central America. Because of an extreme case of hero-worship, Dr. Noah is unable to speak in the presence of his uncle Sir James. Dr. Noah's plan is to kill all men over convert|4|ft|6|in|m|sing=on tall, leaving the diminutive villain as the "big man" who gets all the girls. However, The Detainer foils Dr. Noah's plans by successfully poisoning him with one of her own atomic pills. The pills give Dr. Noah the hiccups; on the 400th hiccup, the pill (and Dr. Noah) will explode.

Meanwhile, a huge brawl breaks out in the casino involving secret agents, a French Legionnaire (Jean-Paul Belmondo), stereotypical movie cowboys and Indians, George Raft and Ransome. The Indians then sky-dive into Casino Royale with wigwam-shaped parachutes.

Jimmy finally hiccups his last hiccup, setting off the atomic pill. This leads to an explosive finale in which Casino Royale, along with practically all of the characters, is destroyed. As the film ends, the seven Bonds are seen in Heaven as harp-playing angels, including Dr.Noah – a fact quickly rectified as the ghost-like angel of Evelyn still in a kilt, sends Jimmy "to a place where it's terribly...hot."

*This version of "Casino Royale" is notable as being the only Bond film in which Bond dies.

Cast

See also "List of characters in Casino Royale (1967)" for a complete list of all actors who play a major, minor or uncredited role in the film.

*David Niven as Sir James Bond 007 – A legendary British secret agent forced out of retirement to fight SMERSH. David Niven had, in fact, been Ian Fleming's preference for the part of James Bond, [cite web |url=http://www.hmss.com/books/fleming/|title= Ian Fleming, Author or Spy ?|accessdate=2007-08-24 ] EON Productions, however, chose Sean Connery for their series. In a documentary included with the U.S. DVD of the 1967 release of "Casino Royale", Val Guest states that Ian Fleming had written the book with David Niven in mind. When the novel was published, Fleming sent a copy to Niven, who for a time considered making "Casino Royale" into an episode of Four Star Playhouse. David Niven is the only James Bond actor who is mentioned by name in the text of Fleming's James Bond novels: In "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", Bond visits an exclusive ski resort in Switzerland where he is told that David Niven is a frequent visitor, and in "You Only Live Twice", David Niven is referred to as the only real gentleman in Hollywood.
*Peter Sellers as Evelyn Tremble – A Baccarat Master recruited by Vesper Lynd to challenge Le Chiffre at "Casino Royale".
*Ursula Andress as Vesper Lynd – A retired British secret agent forced back into service in exchange for writing off her tax arrears.
*Orson Welles as Le Chiffre – SMERSH's financial agent, desperate to win at Baccarat in order to repay the money he has embezzled from the organization.
*Woody Allen as Dr.Noah/Jimmy Bond – Bond's nephew and head of SMERSH.
*Barbara Bouchet as Miss Moneypenny – The beautiful daughter of Bond's original Miss Moneypenny. She works for the service in the same position her mother had years before.
*Deborah Kerr as Agent Mimi/Lady Fiona McTarry – A SMERSH agent who masquerades as the widow of M but cannot help falling in love with Bond. Kerr was 46 when she played the role and was the oldest Bond Girl in any of the James Bond films.
*Jacqueline Bisset as Miss Goodthighs – A SMERSH agent who attempts to kill Evelyn Tremble at Casino Royale.
*Joanna Pettet as Mata Bond – Bond's daughter, born of his love affair with Mata Hari.
*Daliah Lavi as The Detainer – A British secret agent who successfully poisons Dr.Noah with his own atomic pill.
*Terence Cooper as Coop – A British secret agent specifically chosen, and trained for this mission to resist the charms of women.
*Bernard Cribbins as Carlton Towers – A British Foreign Office official who drives Mata Bond all the way from London to Berlin in his taxi.
*Ronnie Corbett as Polo – A SMERSH agent at the International Mothers' Help who was in love with Mata Hari and expresses the same feelings for Mata Bond.
*John Huston as M/McTarry – Head of MI6 who dies from an explosion caused by his own bombardment of Bond's estate.
*William Holden as Ransom – A CIA agent who accompanies M to persuade Bond out of retirement, then reappears in the final climactic fight scene.
*Charles Boyer as LeGrand – A Deuxième Bureau agent who accompanies M and Ransom to see Bond.

"Casino Royale" also takes credit for the greatest number of actors in a Bond movie either to have appeared or to go on to appear in the rest of the 'official' series — besides Ursula Andress in Dr. No, Vladek Sheybal appeared as Kronsteen in "From Russia with Love", Burt Kwouk featured as Mr. Ling in "Goldfinger" and an unnamed SPECTRE operative in "You Only Live Twice", Jeanne Roland plays a masseuse in "You Only Live Twice", and Angela Scoular appeared as Ruby Bartlett in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". Caroline Munro, who was an extra, received the role of Naomi in "The Spy Who Loved Me.

Major stars like George Raft and Jean-Paul Belmondo were given top billing in the film's promotion and screen trailers despite the fact that they only appeared for a few minutes in the final film sequence.

Well established stars like Peter O'Toole and sporting legends like Stirling Moss were prepared to take uncredited parts in the film just to be able to work with the other members of the cast. Citation| title = The Girls of Casino Royale| journal = Playboy , February 1967 ] (David McCallum also made a cameo appearance.) The film also proved to be young Anjelica Huston's first experience in the movie industry as she was called upon by her father, John Huston, to cover the screen shots of Deborah Kerr's hands.

Production

Directors

The production proved to be rather troubled, with five different directors helming different segments of the film, with stunt co-ordinator Richard Talmadge co-directing the final sequence. In addition to the credited writers, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, Val Guest, Ben Hecht, Joseph Heller, Terry Southern, and Billy Wilder are believed to have added to the screenplay. Val Guest was given the responsibility of splicing the various "chapters" together, and was offered the unique title of "Co-ordinating Director" but declined, claiming the chaotic plot would not reflect well on him if he were so credited. His extra credit was labeled "Additional Sequences" instead. So you want to be in Pictures, Guest, Val, Reynolds & Hearn, ISBN 1-903-11115-3, 2001 ]

Budget

The studio approved the film's production budget of $6 million, already quite a large budget in 1966. However, during filming the project ran into several problems and the shoot ran months over schedule, with the costs also running well over. When the film was finally completed it had run twice over its original budget. The final production budget of $12 million made it one of the most expensive films that had been made to that point. The previous official Bond movie, "Thunderball", had a budget of $11 million while "You Only Live Twice", which was released the same year as Casino Royale, had a budget of $9.5 million. The extremely high budget of "Casino Royale" caused it to earn the reputation as being "a runaway mini-Cleopatra," [ [http://www.shatterhand007.com/CasinoRoyale67/CasinoRoyale67.html Casino Royale - Through the Looking Glass] Shatterhand007.com. Retrieved 29 May 2007.] referring to the runaway and out of control costs of the 1963 film Cleopatra. The film was due to be released in time for Christmas 1966 but premiered in April 1967.

Feud

The film is notable for the legendary behind-the-scenes drama involving the filming of the segments with Peter Sellers. Supposedly, Sellers felt intimidated by Orson Welles to the extent that, except for a couple of shots, neither were in the studio simultaneously. Other versions of the legend depict the drama stemming from Sellers being slighted, in favour of Welles, by Princess Margaret (whom Sellers knew) during her visit to the set. Welles also insisted on performing magic tricks as Le Chiffre, and the director obliged. Director Val Guest wrote that Welles did not think much of Sellers, and had refused to work with "that amateur".

Sellers ultimately walked off the film before he completed all his scenes, which is why Tremble is so abruptly captured in the film.

Some biographies of Sellers suggest that he took the role of Bond to heart, and was annoyed at the decision to make "Casino Royale" a comedy as he wanted to play Bond straight. This is illustrated in somewhat fictionalized form in the film "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers", based upon a biography by Roger Lewis, who claims that Sellers kept re-writing and improvising scenes himself to make them play seriously. This story is in agreement with the observation that the only parts of the film close to the book are the ones featuring Sellers and Welles. The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, Lewis, Roger, Applause Books, ISBN 1-557-83248-X, 2000 ]

Missing footage

Eventually, Sellers' involvement with the film ended. Whether or not he was fired or simply walked off is unclear. Given that he often left for days at a time and was involved in conflicts with Welles, either explanation is plausible. Regardless, Sellers was unavailable for the filming of an ending and of linking footage to explain the details, leaving the filmmakers to devise a way to make the existing footage work without Sellers. The framing device of a beginning and ending with David Niven was invented to salvage the footage.cite web |url=http://shatterhand007.com/MadRoyale/ItsAMadMadRoyale.html|title= It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Royale| author = Bassinger, Stuart| accessdate=2007-09-13] Val Guest has indicated in an interview found on the Casino Royale DVD that he was given the task of creating a narrative thread which would link all segments of the film. He chose to use the original Bond and Vesper as linking characters to tie the story together. Guest states that in the originally released versions of the film, a cardboard cutout of Sellers in the background was used for the final scenes. In later versions, this cardboard cutout image was replaced by a sequence showing Sellers in highland dress, inserted by "trick photography".

Signs of missing footage from the Sellers segments are evident at various points. The entire Evelyn Tremble kidnap scene is gone - instead, an outtake of Sellers messing about on set with a racing car was substituted. In this outtake, Sellers calls for the car, a la Pink Panther, to chase down Vesper and her kidnappers; the next thing that is shown is Tremble being tortured. Outtakes of Sellers were also used for Tremble's dream sequence (pretending to play the piano on Ursula Andress' torso), in the finale (blowing out the candles whilst in highland dress) and in the end of the film when all the various "James Bond doubles" are together. In the kidnap sequence, Tremble's death is also very abruptly inserted: it consists of pre-existing footage of Sellers being rescued by Vesper, followed by a later-filmed shot of her abruptly deciding to shoot Tremble, followed by a freeze-frame over some of the previous footage of her surrounded by bodies (noticeably a zoom-in on the previous shot).

So many sequences from the film ended on the cutting room floor that several well-known actors were cut from the movie altogether, including Mona Washbourne and Arthur Mullard.

Final sequence

Jean Paul Belmondo and George Raft received major billing, even though both actors appear only briefly. Both appear during the climactic brawl at the end, Raft flipping his trademark coin and promptly shooting himself dead with a backwards-firing pistol, while Belmondo appears wearing a fake moustache as the French Foreign Legion officer who requires an English phrase book to say 'ooch!' when he punches people. At the Intercon science fiction convention held in Slough in 1978, Dave Prowse commented on his part in this film, apparently his big-screen debut. He claimed that he was originally asked to play "Super Pooh", a giant Winnie The Pooh in a superhero costume who attacks Tremble during the Torture Of The Mind sequence. This idea, as with many others in the film's script, was rapidly dropped, and Prowse was re-cast as Frankenstein's Monster for the closing scenes. The final sequence was principally directed by former actor and stuntman Richard Talmadge.

Rights

Columbia Pictures produced and distributed this version of "Casino Royale". In 1997, following the Columbia/MGM/Kevin McClory lawsuit on ownership of the Bond film series, the rights to the film reverted to MGM (whose sister company United Artists co-owns the Bond film franchise) as a condition of the settlement. Years later, as a result of the Sony/Comcast acquisition of MGM, Columbia once again became responsible for the distribution of this 1967 version as well as the co-distribution of the entire Bond series, including the 2006 adaptation of "Casino Royale" [cite news|title=Sony Pictures, in an accord with MGM, drops its plan to produce new James Bond movies.|publisher=New York Times|date=1999-03-30|url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30814FC35540C738FDDAA0894D1494D81&n=Top%2fNews%2fBusiness%2fSmall%20Business%2fMarketing%20and%20Advertising|accessdate=2007-09-14]

Reception

The "chaotic" nature of the production was featured heavily in contemporary reviews. Roger Ebert said "This is possibly the most indulgent film ever made," [Ebert, Roger. [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19670501/REVIEWS/705010301/1023 Casino Royale, review by Roger Ebert] (1 May 1967). Rogerebert.com. Retrieved 29 May 2007.] and "Variety" said "it lacked discipline and cohesion." [ [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19670501/REVIEWS/705010301/1023 Casino Royale, review by "Variety"] (May 1967). Variety.com. Retrieved 29 May 2007.]

Despite the lukewarm nature of the reviews the pull of the James Bond name was sufficient to make it the third highest grossing movie in North America in 1967 with a gross of $22,744,718 and a worldwide total of $41,744,718 ($252,000,000 adjusted). [cite web|url=http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1967/0CARO.php|title=Casino Royale - Box Office Data, Movie News, Cast Information|accessdate=2007-09-05]

Orson Welles attributed the success of the film to a marketing strategy that featured a naked tattooed lady on the film's posters and print ads.

Music

Infobox Album
Name = Casino Royale
Type = Soundtrack
Artist = Burt Bacharach, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass and Dusty Springfield


Background = gainsboro
Released = 1967
Recorded = 1967
Genre =
Length = 34:27
Label =
Producer =
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:5z8o1vajzz9a link]
Misc = Extra album cover
Upper caption = Alternative cover
Background = gainsboro


Lower caption = Re-release cover

The original music is by Burt Bacharach. Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass performed some of the songs with Mike Redway singing the lyrics to the title song as the end credits rolled.

The chapter 4 of the movie features the song "The Look of Love" performed by Dusty Springfield. It is played in the scene of Vesper Lynd recruiting Evelyn Tremble, seen through a man-size aquarium in a seductive walk. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061452/synopsis Synopsis for Casino Royale (1967)] ] "The Look of Love" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song. The song was a Top 10 radio hit at the KGB and KHJ radio stations. A year later a cover version by Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66 reached #4 of Billboard Hot 100. Dusty Springfield's version was heard again in the first film, which was to a degree inspired by "Casino Royale".

John Barry's song "Born Free" was also used in the film. At the time, Barry was the main composer for the official Bond series.

The original album cover art was done by Robert McGinnis, based on the movie poster and the original stereo vinyl release of the soundtrack is still highly sought after by audiophiles. It is regarded by many music critics as the finest-sounding album of all time. [cite web| last = Stachler| first = Joe| title = Joe Stachler on Casino Royale's Great Soundtrack| url=http://www.hmss.com/films/cr/| accessdate = 2006-12-22 ] [cite web| last = Panek| first = Richard| title = 'Casino Royale' Is an LP Bond With A Gilt Edge| url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F2061FFE345C0C7B8EDDAE0894D9494D81| accessdate = 2006-12-22 ]

Soundtrack listing
#"Casino Royale Theme" - Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
#"The Look Of Love" - Dusty Springfield
#"Money Penny Goes For Broke"
#"Le Chiffre's Torture Of The Mind"
#"Home James, Don't Spare The Horses"
#"Sir James' Trip To Find Mata"
#"The Look Of Love (Instrumental)"
#"Hi There Miss Goodthighs"
#"Little French Boy"
#"Flying Saucer" - First Stop Berlin
#"The Venerable Sir James Bond"
#"Dream On James, You're Winning"
#"The Big Cowboys And Indians Fight At Casino Royale / Casino Royale Theme (reprise)"

Track 5, 'Home James...', heard in the film during the brawl at the military auction and Carlton Towers's and Mata Bond's subsequent escape, was re-arranged as "Bond Street", appearing on Bacharach's album 'Reach Out' and on a 45. It bears a fair resemblance to the non-Casino Royale-related instrumental, "Yakety Sax" (as frequently heard on "The Benny Hill Show" ). In fact, either accidentally or deliberately, "Bond Street" has been used in other shows to soundtrack Benny Hill-style scenes, such as Stewie Griffin's "sexy parties" in "Family Guy". "Bond Street" itself has since appeared on the early-90s easy listening compilation CD, "This Is...Easy".

One cut conspicuously absent from the film soundtrack is the vocal version of the title song, heard over the film's end credits. The album merely replays the instrumental opening theme in the last track.

Literary criticism

Simon Winder called Casino Royale a pitiful spoof. [ [http://books.google.co.in/books?id=-E8bg3QxFLwC&dq=Casino+Royale&lr=] ] Robert Druce called an abstraction of real life. [ [http://books.google.co.in/books?id=DlctAAAAIAAJ&q=Casino+Royale&dq=Casino+Royale&lr=&pgis=1] ] Romano Tozzi said the acting is good and there aredull stretches. [ [http://books.google.co.in/books?id=Dm4-AAAAIAAJ&q=Casino+Royale&dq=Casino+Royale&lr=&pgis=1] Page 130]

References

External links

*
* [http://www.mgm.com/title_title.php?title_star=CASINORO "Casino Royale" original trailer]
* [http://www.bondvideos.net/Daniel-craig/Casino-Royale-Spoof-Full-Trailer.html "Casino Royale" satirical trailer in the style of "Casino Royale" (2006)]
* [http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/c/casino-royale-script-transcript-bond.html Complete Dialogue]
* [http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Casino_Royale_1967.aspx?Page=1 Explanations and screenshots]