Although he receives top billing, even above Niven, his purpose in the film isn't entirely clear. Recruited as a faux Bond is Peter Sellers as Evelyn Trimble.

To throw their nemesis off-track, Bond orders all agents, including the women, at least one dog and a trained seal, to assume the Bond name and number. (They attempt the latter with a set of large Scottish balls and a flock of radio-controlled grouse bombs.) Of course, they fail.Īfter the between-scenes murder of M (director John Huston), Bond takes charge of Intelligence with the aid of Moneypenny (or, rather, Moneypenny's daughter, played by Barbara Bouchet), who tests potential agents in a negligee. Lady Fiona McTarry, played by Deborah Kerr) to either seduce or kill him. I suppose that explains the efforts of the faceless head of SMERSH to shatter Bond's self-image by ordering a castle full of gorgeous spies, led by Mimi (a.k.a. The real Bond, it seems, is distinguished, low-tech and celibate. To preserve the legend, we learn, British Intelligence always has a James Bond, 007, on the roster, and Niven's Bond is disdainful of his current namesake, whom he describes as a womanizing bounder relying on gadgets and leaving a trail of beautiful corpses in his wake. The nut of the plot actually has potential this could have been a good movie, had someone had the vision to take the helm and direct it properly.ĭavid Niven is 'the true, one and only, original James Bond,' dubbed 'the greatest spy in history' by a quartet of world espionage leaders who assemble to beg, then force Bond's return from retirement. If it's a Bond spoof you want, watch Austin Powers. It's billed as a spoof, but too much of it is just plain not funny it's obvious the cast and crew are trying too hard. Even the movie's large cast of well-known and, in some cases, widely respected actors can't save this embarrassment from happening. The film boasts five directors, and the result is a mishmash with little to no sense about it. While not an official part of the series, it does use the Bond character, as well as M, Q, Moneypenny and other familiar names, so it seems to belong from a completist's perspective. It was with a sense of pain and resigned duty that I slipped Casino Royale into my VCR for my ongoing rundown of films in the James Bond milieu.

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