Feldman acquired the rights to Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale but couldn’t bring it into production before the first Eon Productions screen adaptation of a Bond novel in 1962. The production history sheds some light on the disaster. And yet, in spite of the sheer abundance, the only things one takes away from the film are a few moments of mild amusement and lasting bewilderment.
The picture boasts at least five directors (one of them being the esteemed John Huston), a star-studded ensemble cast (including Peter Sellers, David Niven, original Bond girl Ursula Andress, the great Orson Welles, and even a young Woody Allen), elaborate sets (there’s a British country manor, a Scottish castle, an Indian palace, a German Expressionist West Berlin spy school, and, of course, the deluxe casino of the title), and a variety of lavish costumes (Sellers even models a few at one point). It’s as if someone had feasted on a cornucopia of cinema and then promptly threw it all up on screen, everything disfigured yet still retaining discernable shapes.
I never knew what was going on anyways.)ġ967’s Casino Royale is a majestically bad film. Spoiler alert! This review gives away the identity of the main villain.
