In contemporary Hollywood, remakes have become a disheartening trend, frequently tarnishing the legacy of esteemed classics. Regrettably, modern adaptations seldom surpass their predecessors, as evidenced by the scarcity of exceptional reinventions. There are rare exceptions where a new version can reasonably be expected to surpass the original. One such rare exception can be found in Casino Royale, the 1967 action comedy directed by Val Guest, Ken Hughes, John Huston, Joseph McGrath and Robert Parrish.
Casino Royale is a James Bond film which happens to be the least known and least appreciated of all. It was one of two Bond films made outside the regular Bond franchise (the second being Never Say Never Again, the 1983 remake of Thunderball). Based on Ian Fleming’s very first novel (itself adapted as a short television play in 1954), it was intended to rival You Only Live Twice. Although commercially successful upon release, the production eventually fell into obscurity, largely dismissed by die-hard Bond enthusiasts.
While all Bond films are, to a certain extent, products of their time, few try so hard to make this clear to the audience as Casino Royale does. What was envisioned as a mere parody of Bond films soon deteriorated into a desperate attempt to look “hip” – or whatever average Hollywood executives thought “hip” meant in the mid‑ to late‑1960s. This reflected not only on the film’s content, but also on its structure and narrative techniques. Five directors were hired and worked independently from each other, often with no clue what the others were doing and with only a vague idea of what the script – written by three different people – was about.
As a result, Casino Royale lacks anything resembling a coherent plot. There are bits and pieces about retired British secret agent Sir James Bond (played by David Niven), an active British secret agent (played by Peter Sellers) using “James Bond” as an alias, Bond’s nephew “Jimmy” Bond (played by Woody Allen), and Sir James Bond’s daughter Mata Bond (played by Joanna Pettet), all involved in something resembling a joint effort by British, American, French and Soviet secret services to thwart SMERSH and its evil plans. By the end, few viewers will know or care what the film was really about. This is the aftermath of a series of spectacular but ultimately pointless scenes marked by atrocious dialogue. Casino Royale features arguably the most impressive cast in the history of Bond films, ranging from Classic Hollywood veterans like George Raft, Charles Boyer and Orson Welles to contemporary superstars like Jean‑Paul Belmondo or future stars like Jacqueline Bisset, but all of them, as in so many bloated 1960s projects, are wasted on “blink‑and‑you’ll‑miss‑them” cameos.
Of course, there are a few entertaining scenes, especially in the section where Ursula Andress in a way spoofs her role in Dr. No. But most of the audience will be bored – only a very small minority acquainted with the more arcane aspects of 1960s cinema will appreciate Casino Royale. And even they are likely to use this film as a cautionary tale about the effects of psychedelic drugs. The commercial success of the film was, in all likelihood, the product of the audience’s mental state, induced by certain substances that later went out of fashion, taking the film on the path to oblivion. Some aspects of it – including the excellent musical score by Burt Bacharach – proved more enduring. Casino Royale gave hope that Hollywood could produce a remake better than the original, and those hopes were justified with the 2006 film, starring Daniel Craig and being a straight adaptation of the source novel, which is now viewed as one of the more successful reboots in recent cinema history.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
(Note: Original version of the review is available here.)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/ InLeo blog https://inleo.io/@drax.leo
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax 1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
Posted using CineTV
