But Casino Royale if nothing else proves the old adage of you can't spoof a spoof. Failing to get Connery for a traditional Bond film, Feldman decided on the satirical approach instead. Feldman who wound up with the rights after the Bond phenomenon took off tried desperately to get Sean Connery away from Cubby Broccoli, but Broccoli being no fool wasn't having that. According to the Citadel Film Series book, The Films Of John Huston one of the five directors, Ian Fleming had sold the rights to this particular Bond novel to someone else other than Saltzman and Broccoli who brought us the traditional Bond films we know. Five directors had a hand in this film and it looks like I watched five different films in the running time. But I don't know anyone who likes the 1967 all star mess of a Casino Royale.

The version in 2007 that introduced Daniel Craig as James Bond was a competently made action thriller, but I missed the tongue in cheek humor of those Bonds done by Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Pierce Brosnan. Until then we'll have to deal with both the 1967 and the 2007 version, each of whom is bad in its own way. Maybe the third time around someone will get Casino Royale right.

Reviewed by bkoganbing 3 / 10 You Can't Spoof A Spoof It's still one hell of a mess though, worth watching only so you can wonder how they got it so wrong. The stuff set in Scotland is completely interminable, for example, although things do pick up a little for the more traditional climax. CASINO ROYALE has an episodic structure that is generally hard to watch as most of the supposed funny bits are anything but. An appears-in-anything Ursula Andress is the crumpet, while the supporting cast in this bloated production is packed with cameoing stars like Deborah Kerr, John Huston, William Holden, and even one Woody Allen playing 'Jimmy Bond'.

Meanwhile, we get a storyline involving a past-his-prime David Niven as an elderly Bond who recruits various newcomers to the fold, including a poor Peter Sellers. Orson Welles has a few scenes as Le Chiffre, for example, but what happens to him is totally out of left field. The storyline only loosely follows that of the Fleming novel, despite the misleading title.

This is a film filled with extremely broad comedy, touches of surreal humour, and a general lack of both cohesion and coherence so that for most of the running time you're wondering what the hell you're watching. A troubled production leads to a very troubled picture in which new meaning is brought to the phrase 'scattershot'. Reviewed by Leofwine_draca 3 / 10 Messiest film everĬASINO ROYALE, a 1967 spoof of the whole James Bond spy genre, has to be one of the messiest films ever made.

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