Casino Royale (1966)

Overview The story of Casino Royale is told in an episodic format and is best outlined in "chapters". Val Guest oversaw the assembly of the sections, although he turned down the credit of "co-ordinating director". [edit] Opening sequence Evelyn Tremble and Inspector Mathis meet in a pissoir, where Mathis presents his credentials, setting the tone of the film by satirizing the dramatic opening sequences in the EON Bond films. [edit] Plot summary The movie opens at the country estate of Sir James Bond 007 (David Niven), a legendary British spy who retired from the secret service 50 years ago in 1917. He is visited by the head of British MI6, M (John Huston), CIA representative Ransome (William Holden), KGB representative Smernov (Kurt Kasznar), and Deuxième Bureau representative Le Grand (Charles Boyer). Each in turn implores Bond to come out of retirement; a sinister organization known as SMERSH has been eliminating various agents around the world. Bond implacably spurns all their pleas, and even a letter from the Queen. M then explains to his fellow representatives the reason for Bond's retirement: the love of his life, Mata Hari, the famous exotic dancer and spy, whom it had been his sworn duty to lure to her death. When Bond continues to stand firm, his mansion is destroyed by a mortar attack at the orders of M, who is however killed in the explosion. Bond travels to Scotland to return M's remains to the grieving widow, Lady Fiona McTarry (Deborah Kerr), who has been secretly replaced by SMERSH's Agent Mimi. The rest of the household has likewise been replaced by beautiful female agents posing as McTarry's daughters. The aim of SMERSH is to discredit Bond by destroying his "celibate image". However, Mimi/Lady Fiona becomes so impressed with Bond that she changes loyalties and helps Bond to foil the plot against him. On his way back to London, Bond survives another attempt on his life by eluding a remote controlled milk float full of explosives. David Niven as Bond and Barbara Bouchet as Miss MoneypennySir James Bond is now promoted to the head of MI6. Among his first decisions, he orders that all remaining MI6 agents will be named "James Bond 007", as a ruse to confuse SMERSH. He also hatches a plan to train an irresistible male agent to resist the charms of opposing female agents. His secretary, Miss Moneypenny (Barbara Bouchet), recruits "Coop" (Terence Cooper), a karate expert who begins training to resist seductive women. While training, Coop meets the new "secret weapon", an exotic agent known as the Detainer (Daliah Lavi). Sir James then hires Vesper Lynd (Ursula Andress), a retired secret agent turned millionnaire, to recruit baccarat player Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers), whom he intends to use to turn SMERSH agent Le Chiffre (Orson Welles). Having embezzled SMERSH's money, Le Chiffre is desperate for money to cover up his theft before he is executed. Following up a clue from agent Mimi, Sir James persuades his estranged daughter Mata Bond (Joanna Pettet) to travel to East Berlin to infiltrate International Mothers' Help, a secret school for spies that is actually a SMERSH cover operation. Mata uncovers a plan to sell compromising photographs of military leaders from the United States, USSR, China and Great Britain at an "art auction", another scheme Le Chiffre hopes to use to raise the money he needs. Mata sabotages the auction and destroys the photographs. Le Chiffre's only remaining option is to raise the money by playing baccarat against Evelyn Tremble at the Casino Royale. Tremble arrives at the Casino Royale accompanied by Vesper, who foils an attempt to disable him by SMERSH agent Miss Goodthighs (Jacqueline Bisset). Later that night, Evelyn observes Le Chiffre playing at the casino and realizes that he is using trick sunglasses to cheat. Vesper steals the trick sunglasses, allowing Evelyn to beat Le Chiffre. Le Chiffre then kidnaps Vesper and then captures Tremble while he chases the kidnappers. Le Chiffre then tortures Tremble in a hallucinogenic torture sequence, at the end of which Vesper apparently rescues Tremble but then kills him. Meanwhile, Le Chiffre is killed by SMERSH agents for betraying them. While sightseeing in London, Mata Bond is kidnapped by SMERSH in a giant flying saucer, and Sir James travels with Moneypenny to Casino Royale to rescue her. They discover that the casino is located atop a giant underground base run by the evil Dr. Noah, who turns out to be Sir James's weak-kneed nephew Jimmy Bond (Woody Allen). Dr. Noah/Jimmy reveals that he plans to use biological warfare to make all women beautiful and kill all men over 4-foot-6-inch (1.37 m) tall, leaving him as the "big man" who gets all the girls. However, The Detainer foils his plan by poisoning him with one of his own atomic pills. In a huge and disorganized finale, the casino is overrun by secret agents, including a French Legionnaire (Jean-Paul Belmondo), stereotypical movie cowboys and Indians, George Raft, and Ransome. Eventually, Jimmy's atomic pill explodes, destroying Casino Royale along with practically all the characters.