Casino Royale 1966

Casino Royal was a spoof of the James Bond series featuring an all star cast of Peter Sellers, David Niven, Ursula Andress, Woody Allen, plus a bunch of cameos by Orson Wells, William Holden, John Houston, and others. You might already know that 2006’s Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig, was the second attempt to make a feature film out of Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel — the first being the widely. Burt Bacharach appropriately comes up with a rambunctious soundtrack for the 1967 James Bond spoof, Casino Royale. Things get underway with Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass' performance of the fast-paced main title, which features the usual Bacharach mix of pop phrasing and complex arrangements; this theme is subsequently augmented with a lush string arrangement and marching band rhythms on.

A collection of unusual screenshots from:

Casino Royale Movie

Also Known As:

• Casino Royale
• James Bond 007 - Casino Royale
• Casino 007
• Casino Royale James Bond 007!
• Cassino Royale
• Charles K. Feldman's Casino Royale
• Gazino Royal 007

Directed by:

Casino Royale 1967

• Val Guest
• Ken Hughes
• John Huston
• Joseph McGrath
• Robert Parrish
• Richard Talmadge

Written by:

First Casino Royale Movie

• Wolf Mankowitz
• John Law
• Michael Sayers
• Ian Fleming (novel 'Casino Royale')
• Woody Allen
• Val Guest
• Ben Hecht
• Joseph Heller
• Terry Southern
• Billy Wilder
• Peter Sellers

Cast:

• Peter Sellers ... Evelyn Tremble / James Bond 007
• Ursula Andress ... Vesper Lynd / James Bond 007
• David Niven ... Sir James Bond / 007
• Orson Welles ... Le Chiffre
• Joanna Pettet ... Mata Bond / James Bond 007
• Daliah Lavi ... The Detainer / James Bond 007
• Woody Allen ... Jimmy Bond / 007
• Deborah Kerr ... Agent Mimi / Lady Fiona McTarry
• William Holden ... Ransome
• Charles Boyer ... Le Grand
• John Huston ... M / General McTarry
• Kurt Kasznar ... Smernov
• George Raft ... Himself
• Jean-Paul Belmondo ... French Legionnaire (as Jean Paul Belmondo)
• Terence Cooper ... Cooper / James Bond 007
• Barbara Bouchet ... Moneypenny
• Angela Scoular ... Buttercup
• Gabriella Licudi ... Eliza
• Tracey Crisp ... Heather
• Elaine Taylor ... Peg
• Jacqueline Bisset ... Giovanna Goodthighs (as Jacky Bisset)
• Alexandra Bastedo ... Meg
• Anna Quayle ... Frau Hoffner
• Derek Nimmo ... Hadley
• Ronnie Corbett ... Polo
• Colin Gordon ... Casino Director
• Bernard Cribbins ... Taxi Driver
• Tracy Reed ... Fang Leader
• John Bluthal ... Casino Doorman & MI5. Man
• Geoffrey Bayldon ... 'Q'
• John Wells ... 'Q's' Assistant
• Duncan Macrae ... Inspector Rene Mathis
• Graham Stark ... Cashier
• Chic Murray ... Chic
• Jonathan Routh ... John
• Richard Wattis ... British Army Officer
• Vladek Sheybal ... Le Chiffre's Auctioneer
• Percy Herbert ... 1st Piper
• Penny Riley ... Control Girl
• Jeanne Roland ... Captain of the Guards
• Jennifer Baker ... Le Chiffre's Assistant
• Susan Baker ... Le Chiffre's Assistant
• R.S.M. Brittain ... Sergeant Major
• Richard Burton ... Himself
• Geraldine Chaplin ... Keystone Kop
• Erik Chitty ... Sir James Bond's Butler
• Frances Cosslett ... Michele
• Alexander Doré ... Extra
• Valentine Dyall ... Vesper Lynd's Assistant / Dr. Noah's Voice
• Hal Galili ... USA Officer at Auction
• Veronica Gardnier ... Bond Girl
• Bob Godfrey ... Scottish Strongman
• Jack Gwillim ... British Officer at Auction
• John Hollis ... Fred
• Anjelica Huston ... Agent Mimi's Hands
• Burt Kwouk ... Chinese General
• John Le Mesurier ... M's Driver
• Yvonne Marsh ... Bond Girl
• Barrie Melrose ... Extra
• Stirling Moss ... Driver
• Caroline Munro ... Guard Girl
• Peter O'Toole ... Scottish Piper
• David Prowse ... Frankenstein's Creature
• Milton Reid ... Temple Guard
• Robert Rowland ... MI5 Agent
• Richard Talmadge ... Keystone Kop

.

You might already know that 2006’s Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig, was the second attempt to make a feature film out of Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel — the first being the widely panned 1966 spoof starring David Niven, Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers and Ursula Andress. What you probably didn’t know is that at one point during its development, the 1966 film was a serious treatment penned by “the Shakespeare of Hollywood,” Ben Hecht. And by one account, Hecht’s script could’ve been one of the best Bond movies ever made. Read more after the jump.

A Casino Royale adaptation had been in the works as early as 1954, but it was in the early ’60s that the project finally fell into Hecht’s hands. Hecht was an acclaimed writer who’d worked (credited or uncredited) on movies like His Girl Friday, Gone with the Wind, the 1932 Scarface, and various Alfred Hitchcock films including Spellbound and Notorious. Writing for The Telegraph, Jeremy Duns dug up the drafts and notes that Hecht had written for Casino Royale between 1963 and 1964.

Although Hecht’s treatment contained “darkly comedic” scenes, for the most part, it was a serious, grown-up adaptation of Fleming’s novel — closer to Martin Campbell’s 2006 film than the 1966 parody it eventually became. The bare bones of the story will be familiar to anyone who saw Campbell’s version — Bond, his lady love Vesper Lynd, Le Chiffre (Colonel Chiffre in Hecht’s script), the torture sequence, the tragic betrayal and eventual suicide. Hecht’s version also includes some new characters not from the book, most notably in the form of Chiffre’s wife Gita and Bond’s ex-fling Lili Wing. The particulars of Chiffre’s background are also different — in Hecht’s script, Chiffre runs brothels used to extort secrets from important leaders.

It seems that Hecht never quite completed his final draft, but Duns was able to approximate what Hecht’s finished product would have looked like by putting Hecht’s last two incomplete drafts together. Duns calls the combined material, from April 1964, “phenomenal”:

Hecht’s treatment of the romance element is powerful and convincing, even with the throwaway ending, but there is also a distinctly adult feel to the story. It has all the excitement and glamour you would expect from a Bond film but is more suspenseful, and the violence is brutal rather than cartoonish.

He goes on to speculate:

Casino Royale might even have been regarded as not just a classic Bond film, but as a classic thriller. We’ll never know, but Hecht’s surviving material offers a glimpse into a cinematic genius at work, and an alternate James Bond adventure as rich and thrilling as anything yet brought to the screen.

So how did Hecht’s masterful script turn into the embarrassment that was the 1966 Casino Royale? Hecht died of a heart attack April 18, 1964, before he was able to finish the project. Producer Charles Feldman made a few more attempts to make the film happen. By 1966, the script had been completely rewritten by Billy Wilder, with additional contributions by Joseph Heller, Terry Southern, Wolf Mankowitz and John Law. The completed film bore almost no resemblance to Hecht’s screenplay.

It’s definitely worth heading over to The Telegraph to read the rest of Duns’ story, especially if you’re a Bond buff. While I’m pretty happy with the 2006 Casino Royale that we eventually got, I can only imagine what a version penned by the guy who wrote Notorious would’ve been like.

[This piece has been amended to show the correct year for Martin Campbell’s film as 2006. The piece previously stated that the film came out in 2004.]

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