Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time

9/11/2014

Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time

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A naked, colorful lady and an impressive list of stars compete in grabbing your attention on the poster for producer Charles K. Feldman's Casino Royale

QUICK REVIEW:

Everyone (almost) is James Bond in this ultimate, (and probably the first) Bond spoof, which is based on Ian Fleming's first Bond novel, (which is also the basis of the 2006 'real' Bond movie.)

Woody Allen (Broadway Danny Rose (1984)) is a neurotic, minority complex-plagued gnome, who hiccups atomic bombs, and Orson Welles (The Trial (1962)) plays embezzler villain Le Chiffre ...

Casino Royale sports an incredible star cast, - including also Peter Sellers, Jean Paul Belmondo, Deborah Kerr, Charles Boyer, William Holden, Ursula Andress and many others, - with several big boys behind the camera as well; directors Ken Hughes (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)), John Huston (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)), Joseph McGrath (The Magic Christian (1969)), Robert Parrish (Doppelgänger (1969)) and Richard Talmadge (What's New Pussycat (1965)) and Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard (1950)) and Ben Hecht (Notorious (1946)) are just two of the men that supplied writing for the film.
Burt Bacharach's (What's New Pussycat (1965)) music is, well, silly and over-the-top, - just as the rest of this spy comedy.
Despite the American studio (Columbia Pictures) and many American stars and crew members, Casino has a lot of British soul and fun dead-pan-lines, especially from David Niven (55 Days at Peking (1963)), also as James Bond:

David Niven, surrounded by strangely clad, beautiful ladies, gets a chance to show off his sizable comedic chops in Charles K. Feldman's Casino Royale

The film was a notorious mess production-wise, with Sellers disappearing with scenes unmade: He was reportedly afraid of Welles, who insisted on doing magic tricks in his scenes. Sellers had also hoped to have played his Bond seriously. The huge Casino Royale's budget grew bigger than contemporary Bond hits Thunderball (1965, 11 mil. $) and You Only Live Twice (1967, 9.5 mil. $), which came out 2 months after the spoof, but the zeitgeist was fortunately on its side, and it became a big hit.
Casino Royale is silly as hell, but good fun.

Woody Allen goofs around in producer Charles K. Feldman's Casino Royale

Woody Allen and Ursula Andress are both James Bond on this poster for Charles K. Feldman's Casino Royale

Watch the silly trailer here and 'join the Casino Royale fun movement!'

Cost: 12 mil. $
Box office: 41.7 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of Casino Royale?
Other good spy spoofs?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (17-24)

9/11/2014

Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time

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