3 out of 5

Director: John Huston, Val Guest

Its hard to piece together what to say about this. Uneven, boring at times, stupid at times, and super of-its-era at times, this version of Casino Royale plays at being satire but misses the mark fairly often, which might have been due to the billions of hands apparently fussing about with writing and directing in the background. What it does do right is make you shake your head in curiosity, which is at least enough for 3 stars for me. For those familiar with the Casino Royale story, it shows up here only momentarily, with Peter Sellers playing Evelyn Tremble, a baccarat player hired by James Bond (David Niven) to use his sure-fire baccarat method to defeat Le Chiffre (Orson Welles) at the Casino Royale and thus prevent him from using his gambling winnings for… something. This had been enough plot for a later movie and a previous TV movie, but here another layer is added on – the real James Bond employs 6 people to play James Bond to throw Le Chiffre off his scent. Its an intriguing setup, but doesnt get played out fully, which is true of almost every plot point and sequence, things coming and going sometimes not even for direct comedic effort, but just because… Well, I dont know. The movie is not entertaining, exactly, and not hilarious, but is also not a bad movie, just… Weird. As a parody of Bond (its apparent intention) it fails; nor is it bizarre enough to merit studied attention. It exists. Watch it, raise an eyebrow, note its existence and move on.