The secret services of nations from around the world are fighting a losing battle against the evil organisation of SMERSH, and try to coax veteran spy James Bond (David Niven) out of retirement to help. Bond suggests that all secret agents, including the women, be named James Bond to fool the enemy, and a Baccarat expert (Peter Sellers) is recruited to put a spanner in the works of SMERSH's scheme to take over the world...
This profligate, extravagant fantasy was based on Ian Fleming's novel - well, they kept the title - and was scripted by Wolf Mankowitz, John Law and Michael Sayers. At the time it was intended as an expensive send-up of all things Bond, but ended up as a notorious mess with all of its talents pulling in different directions.
It certainly has the recognisable elements of a sixties Bond adventure, with its beautiful women, pervasive villains, plentiful gadgets and quips. But its humour is self-consciously wacky and heavy handed and the action seems to abide by the rule "If in doubt, blow it up". The lengths the production goes to impress you are overwhelming: for example, one scene has a flying saucer landing in Trafalgar Square to kidnap Mata Bond (Joanna Pettet) - the daughter of Bond and Mata Hari. Any other spy film would been satisified with having her bundled into the back of a car.
The jokes will make you groan, and the innuendo has no zing. On the other hand, novelty value is strong, whether it's seeing Deborah Kerr making a fool of herself, the strange fixation with Scotland, the car chase featuring a deadly milkfloat or the odd psychedelic interlude. In stuffing everything they can think of in to the mix, we even get Sellers doing his comedy Indian accent and Orson Welles performing magic tricks.
As Casino Royale draws on, the plot becomes increasingly difficult to follow the more twists, new characters and set pieces are thrown up. The ending, where one incidental character turns out to be behind the mayhem, barely makes an effort to tie up all the loose ends. The funniest aspect is Woody Allen's contribution, which sounds as if he wrote many of his lines himself ("So long, suckers!"), and the best sequence is where Mata infiltrates the Berlin training school for female spies - that set design is superb.
British writer, director and producer, best known for his science fiction films, who started on the stage, graduated to film scriptwriting (Will Hay comedies such as Oh! Mr Porter are among his credits) in the 1930s, and before long was directing in the 1940s. He will be best remembered for a string of innovative, intelligent science fiction movies starting with The Quatermass Xperiment, then sequel Quatermass II, The Abominable Snowman and minor classic The Day the Earth Caught Fire.
