Casino Royale (1967 film)

Casino Royale is the title given to a parody of James Bond released in 1967, very loosely based in the novel of the same title, produced only because the producers of the actual film series couldn't secure the rights for the novel on time.

An unholy mess of a spoof, with no less than 8 Bonds^[1] and almost as many directors. Logic is paid little heed in the pursuit of comedy. Notably, it includes David Niven as the one-and-only original Sir James Bond —Niven was Fleming's first choice for the part before Connery made it his own— as well as Ursula Andress's second appearance in a Bond movie, this time as both the Bond girl and James Bond. It also starred Woody Allen as young Jimmy Bond (his "disappointing" nephew), Peter Sellers as Evelyn Tremble a.k.a. James Bond, and Orson Welles as Le Chiffre.

Tropes used in the 1967 film include:

• Americans Are Cowboys: The American army is apparently composed of cowboys and Indians.
• And Starring: Terence Cooper and Barbara Bouchet are credited as co-stars, but right before them, George Raft and Jean Paul Belmondo are featured in the secondary cast with no special words around their names despite making a very minor appearance at the climax.
• Anyone Can Die: It's the only movie where James Bond dies. All eight of them. Many at the same time.
• Backwards-Firing Gun
• Bizarrchitecture: East Berlin.
• Non Sequitur Episode: If there was one film that could be called a Non Sequitur Episode this is it.
• Bonnie Scotland: Much of the film's first section takes place here.
• Cast as a Mask: Dr. Noah is pretty much a spoof of this trope.
• Celibate Hero: Niven's Bond, following having to double-cross the love of his life, Mata Hari (yes, that Mata Hari), and have her executed. And then he kisses Moneypenny's daughter. Yeah.
• Cover Drop: During the opening credits, you may have noticed the images of explosions and several characters as angels. These will make sense at the very end.
• Death by Adaptation: James Bond himself!
• Dropped a Bridge on Him / McLeaned: Evelyn Tremble's death, because Peter Sellers quit/was fired from the film.
• Egocentric Team Naming: Once Sir James Bond becomes head of MI 6 after the previous M gets offed, the very first thing he does is rename all his agents, male and female, James Bond 007 as a ploy to confuse the enemy.
• Everyone Join the Party: In the finale, all Hell breaks loose when the Big Bad's casino is invaded by Ransome and an army of secret agents (apparently) sent to assist James Bond, consisting of a French-Foreign Legionnaire, George Raft playing himself, stereotypical Cowboys and Indians, chimpanzees, and even seals. And then everyone else in the casino joins in on the action. No one is safe, especially when the whole casino explodes at the end, killing everyone inside.
• Everything's Better with Monkeys: A chimp shows up in the big fight climax.
• Fluffy Cloud Heaven and Fire and Brimstone Hell: Spoofed in the final scene.
  • "Six of them went to a heavenly spot, the seventh one is going to a place where it's terribly hot."
• Follow That Car!: Spoofed.
• Gainax Ending
• I Am Spartacus: The original Bond gives orders that all agents are to be James Bond, 007.
• Instrument of Murder: Ursula Andress uses the old machine-gun-in-the-bagpipes trick.
• Karma Houdini: Vesper Lynd betrayed MI 6 in the end but, unlike Jimmy Bond, actually makes it to Heaven with the other James Bonds and stays there.
• Kill'Em All: Played for laughs.
• Mood Whiplash: When Vesper Lynd recruits Evelyn Tremble, the film suddenly becomes considerably less wacky, though still heavy on comic Double Entendre; it's where "The Look of Love" comes in - after 40+ minutes of slapstick. Indeed, most of Peter Sellers' scenes come as this compared to the rest of the film, in part because he plays his role mostly straight.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The increasingly zany nature of the film and its production was largely compensating for Sellers being fired before all his material was shot. How zany did things get? In the end, each segment of the movie was filmed by a different director, making it seem absurdly disjointed.
• Rule of Funny: About the only reason for all the stuff that happens in the climactic fight.
• Take That: Niven's Bond calls Sean Connery's Bond a sex maniac who dragged the James Bond name through the dirt, and takes his fellow spies to task for relying on gadgets.
  • Peter Sellers was fired midway through the shoot due to chronic absence and miscellaneous poor behavior, so the filmmakers making up for this by having his character shot to death by the suddenly turncoat Vesper can be seen as this as well.
• Too Many Cooks Spoil the Soup: 5 directors working on it wouldn't lead into good results.
• Villainous Rescue: Mr. White interrupting Bond's torture to kill Le Chiffre.
• Who's Laughing Now?: Jimmy Bond is the Big Bad, intending to conquer the world as revenge against his famous, and infinitely more stylish and sophisticated, uncle.
• Your Makeup Is Running

1. ↑ (9 including Sean Connery, who does not appear but receives a Shout-Out)