The world of James Bond 007 has always been one of espionage, action, and style. But even though he’s been an icon of the big screen since the ’60s, so has the natural enemy of cool action heroes: parody. While many modern audiences would turn to names like Austin Powers for the greatest parody spy, the ’60s had its own answers for James Bond, like the 1967 film Casino Royale.
Unlike another parody spy, James Coburn’s In Like Flint, which premiered the same year, Casino Royale is a movie that leaned heavily into slapstick humor and chaos to tell its story. But even with the James Bond name attached to it, it still has only a 24% on Rotten Tomatoes. But that score only emboldens just how strange the movie is and why it has to be seen to be believed.
Casino Royale Explores the Absurdity of James Bond
Based on the name of the first book in the James Bond series by Ian Fleming, Casino Royale isn’t about a hardened spy sent to stop a criminal organization. Instead, it’s about many spies with the same name all being trained to stop a criminal organization. In effect, it’s the first movie to really play on the idea that James Bond is a codename rather than one person and may have even started the theory.
The reason for this, however, is that when James Bond is forced out of retirement to be the head of MI6, and in order to stop SMERSH from world domination, he has to train new Bonds to reject the sexual advances of evil women spies because too many were dying from just that. What results is a chaotic final act, more than a few Bonds thrown in, and an ending that feels straight out of Monty Python.
In 1967, the Bond franchise was on its fifth movie with You Only Live Twice, and there was more than enough time to understand the tropes that come with the character. Bond had yet to become a parody of himself, as Sean Connery was still the only Bond on screen, but there was still more than enough room to poke fun at the character.
Casino Royale does this well, from poking fun at Bond’s many gadgets to his romantic womanizing ways, and all the while still maintaining perfect British dry humor that carries the otherwise silly movie to the finish line. All that to say, it can’t be carried alongside the best Bond films, or even spy films. Yet it’s still one of the best examples of poking fun at what it meant to be James Bond at the time, and showed that parodies aren’t anything new in the entertainment industry.
Casino Royale Isn’t Afraid to Poke Fun at the Iconic Spy
While the average audience probably didn’t see the hilarity in a concept like James Bond until Roger Moore injected some camp into the franchise, it didn’t mean that the camp wasn’t already there as is. From villains that had man-eating sharks to elaborate plots to take over the world, there have always been more than enough James Bond tropes to poke fun at, and Casino Royale didn’t hold back in the least.
One of the best examples of this is when Peter Sellers’ character is getting trained to be the next James Bond, and everyone else around him is trying to work on their karate chops, something Connery did a lot, to testing out new gadgets. It proves that while it’s fun to see in the movies, there has to be a reality where these gadgets and techniques are being tested, and it has to look a bit silly.
Then there’s the constant distrust in the spy game that leads to Sellars punching a man through a door simply for welcoming him to France at the airport. There’s also a scene where Bond judges Inspector Mathis’ accent, and it’s just laughed off as if it weren’t scripted. There’s always suspicion mixed in with dry humor in Casino Royale, and nowadays it may not seem that high-brow, but, in reality, it’s the exact kind of deadpan humor needed to make fun of a franchise that’s so consistently serious and deadpan instead.
Casino Royale is a Mess, But One That Deserves a Place in Spy Cinema
To say Casino Royale is a masterpiece would be overselling it, as it’s not without its flaws, such as the general chaos of the movie leading to confusion, or the fact that there are so many moving parts that it’s far too complex to be a simple spy film. Nevertheless, it sought to accomplish exactly what it wanted to do, and because of that, it still has to be talked about today. Plus, it manages to be a Bond-adjacent film that doesn’t feel offensive, unlike Connery’s Never Say Never Again, which challenged the main franchise and failed.
Casino Royale isn’t perfect, even if it doesn’t deserve its 24% on Rotten Tomatoes, but the one thing that isn’t talked about is how it managed to influence future spy parodies, most notably, Austin Powers. Not only is Austin one of the most recognized characters in comedy, but the film itself takes beats from Casino Royale, such as the use of the “The Look of Love” song. In the end, even if Casino Royale isn’t loved, it’s still a movie with a massive legacy that can’t be ignored, and that’s saying something.
There’s a lot that has been done in the medium over the decades that make Casino Royale a staple in the genre and also worthy of being looked at without its imperfections. From acting legends like David Niven and Peter Sellers in the film to inspiring future movies of a similar flair, Casino Royale is one of the most important and strangest spy parodies out there. It may not be a must-buy for anyone’s movie library, but it’s more than worthy of being seen once and given the proper respect for how it impacted the genre.
Casino Royale
- Release Date
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April 13, 1967
- Runtime
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131 minutes
- Director
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John Huston, Joseph McGrath, Ken Hughes
- Writers
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John Law, Michael Sayers
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Peter Sellers
Evelyn Tremble
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Ursula Andress
Vesper Lynd
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