A deal was struck to create the biggest James Bond extravaganza of all time, but the resulting film was something else entirely - a wildly uneven parody that required the services of five directors, countless screenwriters, and a cast of international actors and celebrities, many of them reduced to fleeting cameo appearances. During the ensuing melee, Bond makes a strategic exit as Jimmy's internal bomb goes off and the casino and its occupants are blown up.Īt the height of the James Bond craze in the mid-sixties, the studio executives at Columbia Pictures desperately wanted to capitalize on the 007 phenomenon, but Harry Saltman and Albert 'Cubby' Broccoli (who had a distribution deal with United Artists) owned the rights to every Ian Fleming novel except one - Casino Royale, which had been acquired by producer Charles K. Cavalry, United Nations paratroopers, and the Keystone Cops-to invade the casino. Bond then calls for his allies-the French Foreign Legion, tribes of American Indians, the U. Upon learning that the casino is merely a front and that SMERSH is headed by his own fiendish nephew, Jimmy Bond, Sir James utilizes the charms of The Detainer (another 007) to induce Jimmy to swallow an explosive capsule. SMERSH begins to get the upper hand, and Bond swings into action. Mata is also abducted and carried off in a flying saucer. In pursuit, Tremble is captured, tortured, and eventually shot. Although Tremble defeats Le Chiffre at the gaming tables, Vesper is kidnaped as they leave.

While Mata is outwitting SMERSH in Berlin, Bond sends Tremble and Vesper to the famed Casino Royale, and there SMERSH agent Le Chiffre is attempting to replenish his organization's finances by playing baccarat. He enlists the services of Vesper Lynd, the world's richest and most seductive spy Evelyn Tremble, the inventor of a foolproof gambling system Cooper, a strong-arm agent trained to resist women and Bond's own daughter, Mata Bond. To outwit his enemy, Bond decides there should be more than one 007 agent. Bond's charms are such, however, that Lady Fiona gives up her life of espionage and retires to a convent when Bond declines her offer of love. After his longtime superior McTarry ('M') is killed, Bond goes to Scotland to console McTarry's widow, Lady Fiona, unaware that the woman he encounters is actually a SMERSH agent. But as the international crime organization known as SMERSH threatens world domination, he agrees to come out of retirement. The original James Bond (007) retired following his star-crossed love affair with Mata Hari and watched with disdain as his gimmick-laden imitators sullied his name.

Cast van casino royale 1967