Casino Royale (1967. Dir: John Huston / Ken Hughes / Val Guest / Robert Parrish / Joe McGrath / Richard Talmadge)
When James Bond writer Ian Fleming sold the rights in the 1950s for an obscure American TV adaptation of his even more obscure first super spy novel, Casino Royale, little did he know that the deal he struck would return to haunt him. Although written in the 1950s it would take until the early 1960s for Fleming’s glamorous and violent adventures of MI6’s finest to play in tune with the zeitgeist of a Britain supposedly swinging into the future but actually trapped in the past thanks to an economic and industrial slump and a crusty old establishment who despite rumours to the contrary still had a tight grip on Britain’s fate. James Bond and his derring dos abroad for Queen and Country was a fantasy release for a country that despite winning a major war was no longer a key player on the world stage. Producer Albert ‘Cubby’ Broccoli saw in James Bond a lucrative franchise of films and tested that theory with a relatively low budget and low key version of Dr No which became a huge box office success that kick started and defined an entire genre.Subsequent films, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice made the 007 brand a worldwide phenomena that belonged exclusively to Broccoli and Fleming. That Casino Royale such turn up like a bad penny should have been expected. Casino producer Charles Feldman originally approached Broccoli to see if he could ‘borrow’ Sean Connery for the film. Despite having a script and budget in place he was flatly refused and perhaps with of a sense of grievance decided to re-adapt his Bond as mickey taking spoof. it was hard to see how far a satire based on an already close to self-parodying set of characters could go to being successful. It certainly wasn’t an original idea. Almost as soon as Dr No opened various parodies grabbed hold of its coat-tails, most notably Our Man Flint with James Coburn and the US sitcom I-Spy and ‘ironic’ drama serial The Man From U.N.C.L.E. None of these were particularly good - although the two Flint movies have their moments - but while Feldman lacked originality he certainly made up for it in the budget stakes.A phenomenal for it’s time $12 million plus secured an all star cast that included Orson Welles, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, Woody Allen, John Huston, Peter O Toole, William Holden and even Deborah Kerr yet the resulting film howls like a dog, albeit one in a very expensive collar. David Niven (who would have made an excellent straight 007 if the series had been made in the 1950s) stars as a retired James Bond, depressed by the image and sex obsessed legend that has been created around him and forced into one more job to avenge the death of his old boss ‘M’ at the hands of the international criminal gang S.M.E.R.S.H. Along the way he encounters half a dozen other 007s, all called James Bond and all on the same mission. Ridiculous gadgetry, flying saucers and awful double entendres abound. It’s a confused bordering on criminal movie that had five directors working on it at various stages. Never has the phrase ‘too many cooks’ rung so true. What’s most disappointing is that while you watch it you can actually see why it could have been a brilliant satire, instead it’s full of wasted opportunity and talent leaving the audience with just one question. “What was the point of that?” That said, if you want some justification for watching it Dusty Springfield sings an amazingly moving version of ‘The Look Of Love’ and Burt Bacharach’s music score throughout is jolly. Many Bond fans feel cheated by the film’s disrespect for the original novel - basically it shares only the title - but are no doubt relieved that this summer sees the release of of a proper version starring new Bond, Daniel Craig.
The Drink: You’ll be shaken not stirred by this so don’t waste the Martini. Get a bottle of Thunderbird fortified wine and swig it out of the bottle. It’ll make the pain go away. Or if you’re not in a boozy mood how about a bottle of MI5-Alive fruit drink. Not too much, though, it might make you MI sick.
The Food: A nice Spy-cy curry? Fish Goldfingers?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment