AJB live commentary on Casino Royale 1967

Higgins

Time for the Off-Topic Encore of our groupwatching!

This time, it‘s

CASINO ROYALE 1967



London Summertime: 20:00
Paris Summertime: 21:00
New York local time 15:00
LA local time 12:00


PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT WE ARE ALL STARTING 10 MINUTES LATER !

The 19:00 deadline is set so that everybody has enough time to find their DVDs/Blu Rays, boot their players and get ready for playing the movie
WE ARE STARTING PRECISELY AT 19:10

- Please make sure that everybody has their BluRay/DVD/VCR ready and start the player latest 19:00 GMT to get done with all the dodgy menus.
- PAUSE YOUR PLAYER
- HIT PLAY PRECISELY AT 19:10.
I‘ll post some timecodes during the thread just in case that somebody has messed it up

Barbel

This will be fun! Looking forward to this.

Barbel

For a long term fan like me, CR67 occupies a strange place since for decades it was the only screen version of Fleming's first novel available. The 54 version was unavailable for a long time and I'd only read about it.
There are a few scenes which work, though they're outnumbered by the many that don't. Niven was a pleasure to watch, as always. Orson Welles could have been a classic villain in a better movie. Peter Sellers was... strange. Not his usual self.
The Bacharach music is very enjoyable, while not in the least Bondian.
The movie as a whole is incoherent, as many have noted, no doubt due to the chaotic production and the many directors.

Barbel

Also, for 1967 this was a very starry cast. Younger viewers may not realise that, or possibly not recognise many then famous faces in cameo roles.

Golrush007

Barbel wrote:

Also, for 1967 this was a very starry cast. Younger viewers may not realise that, or possibly not recognise many then famous faces in cameo roles.

My favourites are Peter O'Toole's very brief cameo, and Stirling Moss.

Barbel

Deborah Kerr, Charles Boyer, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jacqueline Bisset, Bernard Cribbins, Jealous Husbands, Humiliated Chefs, Outraged Tailors- the list is endless!

caractacus potts

Three of the greatest directors in movie history have extended cameos, but I think only John Huston got to actually direct part of it. And that part is no Maltese Falcon...


Also the Look of Love is maybe the most beautiful Bond song ever, and there have been a lot of jazz covers. The scene in the film where it appears is nicely done too, and actually falls into the part of the film adapted from Fleming.

Barbel: is Alpert's instrumental main theme musically related to the Look of Love? they both are built around a four note hook, one slow and sultry, the other fast and zany. When I try to hum, I can make one toon turn into the other, but we know i'm tonedeaf so that's no evidence.

Barbel

No, they're two distinct melodies cp. Both by Burt Bacharach, with lyrics by Hal David (who has official Bond songs to his credit as well inc another contender for most beautiful Bond song ever, "We Have All The Time In The World") although the lyrics for the main theme aren't used till the end, sung by a Mike Redway.

Shady Tree

This is indeed going to be fun, and I think part of the fun is in deciding what angles to take on the film during the viewing. Imho, there wouldn't be too much traction in decrying CR67 for its incoherence, its farcical excesses and its dated and/or misfiring comedic dialogue. Frankly, it is what it is: the ultimate case of "Because movie!" If the film has any unifying theme at all, it's the question of identity - having identity, role-play and false identity - which seems appropriate enough for a movie flirting with the spy genre.

The music is definitely one remarkable feature. For me, another interesting focus would be the film's possible influence on later OO7 movies in the Eon stable - in terms of specific details, but also in some broader aspects. And amidst all the mayhem, there are a number of sequences which sort of work well as Bond material in their own right...

Thunderbird 2

AAAAaaaaaarrrrrgh!!

A Monday?! But I am working the next day. This film demands a double scotch, neat, twice!
I mean, CR-67, Sober?!

Oh Crikey...... There are SO MANY Machines that ping Go! Goping, go Ping even.

Number24

I have to admit I'm at a disadvantage since I'm going to CR-67 sober because I'm a teetotaler

Thunderbird 2

No 24, will You join Me in the SABs when the nonsense starts then?
You keep an eye on Me, I'll keep you topped up with Coke Zero.
Not that I wouldn't.

I'll be selective by only highlighting the best of the Machines that Go Ping.....
Along with a few Machines that Go BOOM!!

Number24

I will.

emtiem

Barbel wrote:

No, they're two distinct melodies cp. Both by Burt Bacharach, with lyrics by Hal David (who has official Bond songs to his credit as well inc another contender for most beautiful Bond song ever, "We Have All The Time In The World") although the lyrics for the main theme aren't used till the end, sung by a Mike Redway.

There was always some thing about the score being recorded in such ridiculously high quality that the LP was used by proper vinyl nerds to prove the quality of their stereo systems, wasn't there? Apparently the album was really famous in soundaphile circles for being the one to get hold of and use to test your equipment.
But sadly the original tapes no longer survive in the highest of quality so any new releases can't quite match that original sound.

CoolHandBond

When I saw this upon release, aged 11, I was bored. I couldn’t understand how a Bond movie could be such a mess. I saw it again on TV during the 70’s and could then appreciate it a little more but I haven’t had any urge to see it again since.

Burt Bacharach’s non-Bondian score is terrific, though. The Look Of Love would have transferred to the montage scene in OHMSS, seamlessly. As far as I remember, a snippet of John Barry’s Born Free theme is played which foretells the use of other film themes in Bond films a decade later.

Thunderbird 2

CoolHandBond wrote:

As far as I remember, a snippet of John Barry’s Born Free theme is played which foretells the use of other film themes in Bond films a decade later.

You remember correctly. Specifically when the M4 (McTarry, Ransom, Smernoff and LeGrande
arrive at Bond Towers.

Barbel

@emtiem- the vinyl was prized by audiophiles as you say and is/was the subject of much discussion on appropriate sites. Sadly, you're right re the tapes- again there is a lot of discussion about re-releases suffering in comparison.
@CHB- yes, a brief excerpt from "Born Free" is heard shortly after the opening titles, as M & co approach Sir James' place and encounter lions.

Shady Tree

On musical references in the CR soundtrack, I think there's also a nod to Boots Randolph's 'Yakety Sax'... two years before 'The Benny Hill Show' adopted it and popularised it against similar scenes of girly mayhem.

emtiem

CoolHandBond wrote:

When I saw this upon release, aged 11, I was bored. I couldn’t understand how a Bond movie could be such a mess. I saw it again on TV during the 70’s and could then appreciate it a little more but I haven’t had any urge to see it again since.

Burt Bacharach’s non-Bondian score is terrific, though. The Look Of Love would have transferred to the montage scene in OHMSS, seamlessly. As far as I remember, a snippet of John Barry’s Born Free theme is played which foretells the use of other film themes in Bond films a decade later.

Plus there’s another bit of fortelling with the Q scene having ‘Bond’ use the ‘poison pen letters’ gag, which Octopussy actually recycled a few years later! What’s surprising is it’s actually supposed to be a bad joke in CR and Q rolls his eyes because he’s heard it a thousand times before!

emtiem

Barbel wrote:

@emtiem- the vinyl was prized by audiophiles as you say and is/was the subject of much discussion on appropriate sites. Sadly, you're right re the tapes- again there is a lot of discussion about re-releases suffering in comparison.

Yes I recently bought the 50th anniversary expanded edition CD (about 35 tracks) which is a lot of fun and even has the end title music. It sounds absolutely fine to me of course but I’m sure the audiophile gang were sad about it!

Golrush007

I have an original LP of the Casino Royale '67 soundtrack which I enjoy listening to fairly regularly. I'm certainly no audiophile, nor do I have the equipment to take full advantage of this album's apparently exceptional audio, but it is definitely a lot of fun to listen to. I'd love to get my hands on the expanded album as there are a few pieces that I've always missed in the original tracklisting, one being the vocal version of the main theme and the other being the music that plays in the scene where Sir James tosses those big heavy balls around at the Mactarry castle.

Barbel

The score to CR67 has stories almost as complicated as the film’s production. Some of the music was expanded and/or re-arranged for other releases; singer Mike Redway contributed two vocals heard in the film, uncredited; it took 45 years for an expanded version of the score to be released; and the original vinyl release was so superbly recorded that audiophiles have sought it out for years- sadly, the CD versions lose that quality though are still pretty good.
Between the releases, some cue titles change names and have been presented in different edits. To avoid getting even more confused, I’ll be sticking (mainly) to the titles as released on the original OST.

emtiem

Isn't there a version with a different singer too? I can't quite remember: I think it may have featured on radio ads from the time or something..?

Barbel

I think Peter Sellers had a go?

Shady Tree

emtiem wrote:

Plus there’s another bit of fortelling with the Q scene having ‘Bond’ use the ‘poison pen letters’ gag, which Octopussy actually recycled a few years later! What’s surprising is it’s actually supposed to be a bad joke in CR and Q rolls his eyes because he’s heard it a thousand times before!

One of the OP dvd commentaries attributes the poison pen letter gag to Roger Moore - an addition he introduced to the OP screenplay. Whether or not Moore was consciously recalling CR67, this is indeed one example of where post-'67 Eon movies echo details in the spoof film.

SpectreOfDefeat

A couple of other Eon connections from CR '67:

Angela Scoular appeared as Buttercup in Casino Royale 67, two years before playing an official Bond girl in the role of Ruby in OHMSS...

Casino Royale '67 prominently features the plot device of an ageing Bond coming out of retirement- 53 years before NTTD did the same...

Barbel

Vladek Sheybal from FRWL as an agent of Le Chiffre... Milton Reid from DN and TSWLM as one of Mata's men... A certain Ms Andress...

Shady Tree

Whilst it's fun to see how CR67 includes references to the first four Eon Bonds, it's the possible echoes of details from CR67 in later Eon films that intrigue me more.

Here are some others...

In the scene following bathtub time with Angela Scoular, Sir James Bond is formally dressed at dinner, flanked by two girls. There's a brief shot underneath the table of each girl draping a bare thigh over Niven's legs - one apiece. The girls are being surreptitious about that, and an embarrassed Sir James makes efforts to continue polite conversation with oblivious matriarch Deborah Kerr. It's hard not to imagine that Peter Hunt had that in mind when devising the OHMSS moment when Scoular's Ruby reaches under the dinner table to write her room number in lipstick on 'Sir Hilary's' thigh, unbeknownst to Irma Bunt.

I don't think any Bond villain before Donald Pleasance (even Dr No) had worn quite the same style of Blofeld costume as Doctor Noah. (Similar to Blofeld's 'surprise' introduction in the WW penthouse suite in DAF, Doctor Noah's entrance surprises because his voice trickery has meant we've not been expecting him to turn out to be Jimmy Bond!) Like Bond in YOLT, Jimmy makes use of an exploding cigarette to get out of a jam. And while CR67 affords us no capsule in space, it does reward us with a space craft landing in Trafalgar Square. Sections of CR67 feature screened televisual images which are absurd because no camera could plausibly have captured them: not previously an Eon trope but definitely a noticeble ingredient of the screen-rich YOLT, with its impossible in-world scanner images of an aerial 'drop in the ocean' and an exploding space capsule.

CR67 opened in cinemas two months before YOLT. Feldman and Broccoli were always on good terms with each other, apparently. But given these odd parallels, it's intriguing to wonder whether, during the making of CR67, Feldman had a mole at Eon feeding him inside knowledge about aspects of YOLT's production. A job, perhaps, for Mister Fisher, the industrial spy used as cover by Connery's Bond! At least one of the CR67 girls was a YOLT Japanese bath girl (seemingly not Asian herself), and Burt Kwouk was in both films, but I don't know how far these rival movies had other personnel in common...

One other for now... Magda's dress for the raid on Kamal's palace in OP is very similar to Mata's pink sequin dress for knockabout scenes in CR67.

Number24

I think this link will work if you want to watch CR-67 tonight:

https://ok.ru/video/535897901720

Higgins

Time reference:
https://greenwichmeantime.com/

35 minutes till loading up
45 minutes till watching

Barbel

Plenty of dubbing going on in this film-


Voice of Dr Noah- Valentine Dyall (Radio’s “The Man In Black”, had been on “The Goon Show” with Sellers)

Robert Reitty of course

and...

wait for it...



Nikki van der Zyl!! (Claims to have done at least part of Ursula Andress' dialogue, a role with which she had experience)