The ‘Casino Royale’ spoof that impacted the James Bond franchise
It wasn’t until the 21st instalment in the film series that Casino Royale was finally adapted as a true James Bond adventure. It marked the third time the literary debut of Ian Fleming’s secret agent had been brought to the screen.
Sean Connery was far from the first actor to play 007, with a one-hour television special of Casino Royale airing in October 1954, albeit with Barry Nelson as American spy James Bond. The rights to the story were then sold to producer Gregory Ratoff in March 1955, keeping them out of the hands of Eon productions.
By extension, the canonical adventures of MI6’s most famous operative were unable to adapt the first novel in the series. However, there was still an opportunity there to capitalise on Bond’s growing success. Columbia Pictures decided the best way to use their one and only Bond property was to make a star-studded satirical comedy, one that was the polar opposite of the globetrotting espionage epics in every way.
Taking the barest of cues from its source material, David Niven starred as a retired Bond, out of the game and living a quiet life. However, when British agents begin dropping like flies at the hands of the SMERSH organisation, an increasingly ludicrous series of events transpire to plunge the ageing 007 into an anarchic escapade.
Among the other names to feature are Peter Sellers, Orson Welles, Woody Allen, William Holden, John and Huston, with Ursula Andress even drafted in to play Vesper Lend after serving as the original Bond girl in Connery’s Dr. No. It was a bizarre affair, with the volume of talent doing nothing to compensate for laboured gags, messy structuring, and the overriding sense that it would have been much better were the film never made at all.
Casino Royale unsurprisingly earned less money at the box office than Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, and Thunderball, and an argument can be made that it had a direct effect on You Only Live Twice, falling below expectations when it released the very same year.
Whereas the spoof was a respectable performer in cinemas, considering it recouped its production budget three times over and then some, it also released just two months before Connery’s fifth and final outing. The negative reception to Casino Royale may not have had a monumental effect on You Only Live Twice‘s commercial viability, but a real Bond flick arriving so soon after a fake – and terrible – one led to a drop-off in takings nonetheless.
You Only Live Twice earned significantly less than both Goldfinger and Thunderball. It’s not out of the question to say that audience enthusiasm may have dissipated somewhat after the widely-panned Casino Royale routinely mocked the very same mythos that was supposed to be treated with the utmost seriousness and reverence just a matter of weeks later, giving Bond the distinction of being a laughing stock and a world-saving hero in two separate movies in a short space of time.
