'And afterwords we can run amok! Or if you're too tired, we can walk amok.' - Jimmy Bond

Casino Royale 1967 Cast Images

Mission

Casino Royale (1967) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.


Casino Royale (1967) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. 2:20 casino-royale. An aging James Bond comes out of retirement to once again battle a spy organization, and, atypically, rebuff beautiful women. The main title theme composed by Burt Bacharach, performed by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass.Casino Royale is a 1967 comedy spy film originally produced.

A satirical romp through the spy-fi genre begins as legendary spy Sir James Bond is coaxed out of retirement to take on SMERSH. With M dead in a fantastical explosion Sir James becomes head of MI6 and leads a squad of 'James Bonds' to all fight crime in his name. One is Evelyn Tremble, recruited as one of the many 007s and tasked to face SMERSH agent Le Chiffre at the baccarat table.
Cast
Sir James BondDavid Niven
Evelyn TremblePeter Sellers
Vesper Lynd - 007Ursula Andress
Le ChiffreOrson Welles
Jimmy Bond - Dr. NoahWoody Allen
Agent Mimi aka Lady FionaDeborah Kerr
Mata BondJoanna Pettet
RansomeWilliam Holden

Trivia
Though this film is not part of the EON Productions official series, a number of compilation albums and CDs of James Bond film music actually often incorporate one or both of two tracks from this film, 'The Look of Love' and 'Casino Royale', in their collections. The former is one of Burt Bacharach's most remembered and successful tracks.

Crew

DirectorsVal Guest, Ken Hughes, John Huston, et al
ProducersJerry Bresler, John Dark, Charles K. Feldman
WritersWolf Mankowitz, John Law, Michael Sayers et al
ComposerBurt Bacharach
EditorBill Lenny

Peter Sellers
Evelyn Tremble
Vital Statistics
Running Time131 minutes
Budget$12m
US Box Office$22.7m
Worldwide Box Office$19m

Best Quote
Sir James: 'It's depressing that the words 'secret agent' have become synonymous with 'sex maniac.'

Release Data
RoyaleCasino Royale 1967 CastBond
USA28 April 1967
UK13 April 1967
Australia8 September 1967
Denmark21 December 1967
France22 December 1967
Turkey1 April 1969
Spain11 December 1977

Production Notes
Respected Hollywood producer Charles K. Feldman had recently acquired the rights to the Ian Fleming novel 'Casino Royale' and its source material and had initially approached the producers at EON Productions in order to collaborate on an 'official' version of the debut 007 story. However, after the complexities of 'Thunderball' - having co-produced the fourth James Bond outing with Kevin McClory - Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were reluctant (to say the least) to team up with another production company. The parties could not come to a satisfactory agreement and so parted ways, with EON producing the Japanese-set 'You Only Live Twice', and Feldman, not wishing to compete with the official series for viewers, opting to use the rights to shoot an all-out 1960s spoof of the genre.

Casino Royale Movie 1967 Cast

Feldman sought the backing of Columbia and secured a very respectable budget of $6 million to shoot his spoof, but the production ran into complexities and by the end of the protracted shoot, the budget was almost double that of the expected outlay. This would prove to be greater than that of 'Thunderball', the last official 007 outing. The convoluted nature of the production required the assistance of many directors. Ken Hughes (who would later go on to direct EON Productions' 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang') was brought onto the production to capture the Berlin scenes, John Huston worked with the cast in Scotland (doubling for Sir James Bond's home), Robert Parrish worked on the scenes between Orson Wells and Peter Sellers (largely across the casino table), with Joseph McGrath and Richard Talmadge both contributing to the coordination of extra scenes.

The convoluted nature of the shoot was not helped by its stars, Peter Sellers and Orson Welles, whose feud in the midst of the production reportedly resulted in the two actors unable to work in the same room as one another. Additionally, according to 'The Life and Death of Peter Sellers', the actor was unwilling to stick to the script (which had already been written and rewritten by a squad of Hollywood's most creative screenwriters) and insisted on dropping in his own one-liners and dialogue. As one critic said, Sellers' desired 'to turn the flattery of the role (love scene with Ursula Andress and a hefty sum) into a long-sought Cary Grant-type image.' Director Val Guest wrote that Welles did not think much of Sellers, and had refused to work with 'that amateur'. In the end, Sellers departed the production before all of the planned material was in the can. Fans to this day speculate whether he quit or was fired, but all of that remains unknown but hugely consequential to the fashion in which the film ends.

Peter sellers james bond

'Casino Royale' attracted a number of famed guest stars willing to make cameos with the cinema stars Welles, Sellers and Niven. Peter O'Toole, George Raft and Jean-Paul Belmond all appeared in the film whilst Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren were set to make cameos but were unable to attend the shooting.

As well as the bigger names, Ursula Andress, Vladek Sheybal, Burt Kwouk, John Hollis, Angela Scoular and Caroline Munro were among those cast members that had or would go on to perform in an EON Productions James Bond film.

The film was recently posted to YouTube in its entirety as one of six in a join venture between the studio and MGM. Fans from select global regions can watch it free of charge online today.

Capsule Reviews
'Niven seems justifiably bewildered by the proceedings, but he has a neat delivery of throwaway lines and enters into the exuberant physical action with pleasant blandness. Peter Sellers has some amusing gags as the gambler, the chance of dressing up in various guises and a neat near-seduction scene with Ursula Andress.' -- Variety

Casino Royale 1967 Cast List

'But there is never much chance for the comedy, let alone for the original yarn (which, like all Bond stories, could not be taken seriously, but which at least was a story). The movie is too busy kidding the previous Bond movies, which kidded the books and themselves before they were in turn kidded by the U.N.C.L.E.s and Flints. Poor 007 is now lost in a hall of distorting mirrors. It is no surprise that by the last reel there is a distinct air of defeat about Casino Royale, as if the money ($12 million) and the time (134 minutes) had run out. The final footage shows the U.S. cavalry riding to Bond's rescue, joined shortly by American Indians parachuting from planes and shouting 'Geronimo!', the French Foreign Legion, and a Mack Sennett-style squadron of period policemen. This kind of keystone cop-out was done faster and funnier 34 years ago when the Marx Brothers made Duck Soup. But in those days comedies consisted of scenes and not herds.' -- Time

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'Casino Royale'
Climax! episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 3
Directed byWilliam H. Brown, Jr.
Written byAntony Ellis
Charles Bennett
Story byIan Fleming (novel)
Presented byWilliam Lundigan
Produced byBretaigne Windust
Featured musicLeith Stevens
Jerry Goldsmith
Original air date
  • October 21, 1954[1]
Running time50 minutes
Guest appearance(s)
  • Barry Nelson as James Bond
  • Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre
  • Linda Christian as Valerie Mathis
  • Michael Pate as Clarence Leiter
Episode chronology
Previous
'The Thirteenth Chair'
Next
'Sorry, Wrong Number'
List of Climax! episodes

Barbara Bouchet

'Casino Royale' is a live 1954 television adaptation of the 1953 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. An episode of the American dramatic anthology series Climax!, the show was the first screen adaptation of a James Bond novel, and stars Barry Nelson, Peter Lorre, and Linda Christian. Though this marks the first onscreen appearance of the secret agent, Nelson's Bond is played as an American spy working for the 'Combined Intelligence Agency', and is referred to as 'Jimmy' by several characters.

Most of the largely forgotten show was located in the 1980s by film historian Jim Schoenberger, with the ending (including credits) found afterward. Both copies are black and white kinescopes, but the original live broadcast was in color. The rights to the program were acquired by MGM at the same time as the rights for the 1967 film version of Casino Royale, clearing the legal pathway and enabling it to make the 2006 film of the same name.

Plot[edit]

Act I 'Combined Intelligence' agent James Bond comes under fire from an assassin: he manages to dodge the bullets and enters Casino Royale. There he meets his British contact, Clarence Leiter, who remembers 'Card Sense Jimmy Bond' from when he played the Maharajah at Deauville. While Bond explains the rules of baccarat, Leiter explains Bond's mission: to defeat Le Chiffre at baccarat and force his Soviet spymasters to 'retire' him. Bond then encounters a former lover, Valerie Mathis, who is Le Chiffre's current girlfriend; he also meets Le Chiffre himself.

Act II Bond beats Le Chiffre at baccarat, but, when he returns to his hotel room, is confronted by Le Chiffre and his bodyguards, along with Mathis, who Le Chiffre has discovered is an agent of the Deuxième Bureau, France's external military intelligence agency at the time.

Act III Le Chiffre tortures Bond in order to find out where Bond has hidden the check for his winnings, but Bond does not reveal where it is. After a fight between Bond and Le Chiffre's guards, Bond shoots and wounds Le Chiffre, saving Valerie in the process. Exhausted, Bond sits in a chair opposite Le Chiffre to talk. Mathis gets in between them, and Le Chiffre grabs her from behind, threatening her with a concealed razor blade. As Le Chiffre moves towards the door with Mathis as a shield, she struggles, breaking free slightly, and Bond is able to shoot Le Chiffre.

Cast[edit]

  • Barry Nelson as James Bond
  • Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre
  • Linda Christian as Valerie Mathis (a composite character of Vesper Lynd and René Mathis)
  • William Lundigan as Host/Himself
  • Michael Pate as Clarence Leiter
  • Eugene Borden as Chef De Partie
  • Jean Del Val as Croupier
  • Gene Roth as Basil
  • Kurt Katch as Zoltan
  • Juergen Tarrach as Schultz
  • Herman Belmonte as Doorman

Production[edit]

In 1954 CBS paid Ian Fleming $1,000[2] ($9,520 in 2019 dollars)[3] to adapt his first novel, Casino Royale, into a one-hour television adventure[4] as part of their dramatic anthology series Climax!, which ran between October 1954 and June 1958.[5] It was adapted for the screen by Antony Ellis and Charles Bennett; Bennett was best known for his collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, including The 39 Steps and Sabotage.[6] Due to the restriction of a one-hour play, the adapted version lost many of the details found in the book, although it retained its violence, particularly in Act III.[6]

The hour-long Casino Royale episode aired on October 21, 1954 as a live production and starred Barry Nelson as secret agent James Bond, with Peter Lorre in the role of Le Chiffre,[7] and was hosted by William Lundigan.[8] The Bond character from Casino Royale was re-cast as an American agent, described as working for 'Combined Intelligence', supported by the British agent, Clarence Leiter; 'thus was the Anglo-American relationship depicted in the book reversed for American consumption'.[9]

Clarence Leiter was an agent for Station S, while being a combination of Felix Leiter and René Mathis. The name 'Mathis', and his association with the Deuxième Bureau, was given to the leading lady, who is named Valérie Mathis, instead of Vesper Lynd.[10] Reports that toward the end of the broadcast 'the coast-to-coast audience saw Peter Lorre, the actor playing Le Chiffre, get up off the floor after his 'death' and begin to walk to his dressing room',[11] do not appear to be accurate.[12]

Legacy[edit]

Four years after the production of Casino Royale, CBS invited Fleming to write 32 episodes over a two-year period for a television show based on the James Bond character.[4] Fleming agreed and began to write outlines for this series. When nothing ever came of this, however, Fleming grouped and adapted three of the outlines into short stories and released the 1960 anthology For Your Eyes Only along with an additional two new short stories.[13]

This was the first screen adaptation of a James Bond novel and was made before the formation of Eon Productions. When MGM eventually obtained the rights to the 1967 film version of Casino Royale, it also received the rights to this television episode.[14]

The Casino Royale episode was lost for decades after its 1954 broadcast until a black and white kinescope of the live broadcast was located by film historian Jim Schoenberger in 1981.[15][16] The episode aired on TBS as part of a Bond film marathon. The original 1954 broadcast had been in color, and the VHS release and TBS presentation did not include the last two minutes, which were at that point still lost. Eventually, the missing footage (minus the last seconds of the end credits) was found and included on a Spy Guise & Cara Entertainment VHS release. MGM subsequently included the incomplete version on its first DVD release of the 1967 film Casino Royale.[1]

David Cornelius of Efilmcritic.com remarked that 'the first act freely gives in to spy pulp cliché' and noted that he believed Nelson was miscast and 'trips over his lines and lacks the elegance needed for the role.' He described Lorre as 'the real main attraction here, the veteran villain working at full weasel mode; a grotesque weasel whose very presence makes you uncomfortable.'[6] Peter Debruge of Variety also praised Lorre, considering him the source of 'whatever charm this slipshod antecedent to the Bond oeuvre has to offer', and complaining that 'the whole thing seems to have been done on the cheap'. Debruge still noted that while the special had very few elements in common with the Eon series, Nelson's portrayal of 'Bond suggests a realistically human vulnerability that wouldn't resurface until Eon finally remade Casino Royale more than half a century later.'[17]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ abBritton 2004, p. 30.
  2. ^Black 2005, p. 14.
  3. ^Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. 'Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–'. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  4. ^ abLindner 2009, p. 14.
  5. ^Lycett 1996, p. 264.
  6. ^ abc'Now Pay Attention, 007: Introduction and Casino Royale '54'. Efilmcritic.com. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
  7. ^Benson 1988, p. 11.
  8. ^Andreychuk 2010, p. 38.
  9. ^Black, Jeremy (Winter 2002–2003). 'Oh, James'. National Interest (70): 106. ISSN0884-9382.
  10. ^Benson 1988, p. 7.
  11. ^Lycett 1996, p. 265.
  12. ^Mikkelson, David (April 13, 2014). 'Dead Character Walks Off Stage'. Snopes Media Group Inc. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  13. ^Pearson 1967, p. 312.
  14. ^Poliakoff, Keith (2000). 'License to Copyright - The Ongoing Dispute Over the Ownership of James Bond'(PDF). Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal. Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. 18: 387–436. Archived from the original(PDF) on March 31, 2012. Retrieved September 3, 2011.
  15. ^Benson 1988, p. 10.
  16. ^Rubin 2002, p. 70.
  17. ^Debruge, Peter (May 11, 2012). 'Revisiting 'Casino Royale''. Variety. Retrieved May 20, 2012.

Bibliography[edit]

Casino Royale 1967 Cast

  • Andreychuk, Ed (2010). Louis L'Amour on Film and Television. McFarland. ISBN978-0-7864-3336-0.
  • Balio, Tino (1987). United Artists: the company that changed the film industry. Univ of Wisconsin Press. ISBN978-0-299-11440-4.
  • Barnes, Alan; Hearn, Marcus (2001). Kiss Kiss Bang! Bang!: the Unofficial James Bond Film Companion. Batsford Books. ISBN978-0-7134-8182-2.
  • Benson, Raymond (1988). The James Bond Bedside Companion. London: Boxtree Ltd. ISBN978-0-88365-705-8.
  • Black, Jeremy (2005). The Politics of James Bond: from Fleming's Novel to the Big Screen. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN978-0-8032-6240-9.
  • Britton, Wesley Alan (2004). Spy television (2 ed.). Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN978-0-275-98163-1.
  • Chapman, James (1999). Licence To Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films. London/New York City: I.B. Tauris. ISBN978-1-84511-515-9.
  • Cork, John; Scivally, Bruce (2006). James Bond: The Legacy 007. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN978-0-8109-8252-9.
  • Lindner, Christoph (2009). The James Bond Phenomenon: a Critical Reader (2 ed.). Manchester University Press. ISBN978-0-7190-8095-1.
  • Lycett, Andrew (1996). Ian Fleming. London: Phoenix. ISBN978-1-85799-783-5.
  • Macintyre, Ben (2008). For Yours Eyes Only. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN978-0-7475-9527-4.
  • Pearson, John (1967). The Life of Ian Fleming: Creator of James Bond. London: Jonathan Cape.
  • Pfeiffer, Lee; Worrall, Dave (1998). The Essential Bond. London: Boxtree Ltd. ISBN978-0-7522-2477-0.
  • Rubin, Steven Jay (2002). The James Bond films: a behind the scenes history. Westport, Conn: Arlington House. ISBN978-0-87000-523-7.

External links[edit]

  • Casino Royale (1954) on IMDb
  • Casino Royale 1954 Trailer on YouTube

Casino Royale 1967 Castellano

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