Summary: A rediculous and muddled 007 installment

The only James Bond story for which Albert Broccoli never obtained the rights is Casino Royale.
Those are held by Charles Feldman,who,following the success of Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and
Goldfinger,decided that he wanted to make his own Bond film.
The opening is promising. We are introduced to the "real" James Bond (David Niven), a retired "pure spy"
who is horrified by the outragious activities of the agent currently assigned his name and number. M (John
Huston) appeals for Bond's return to active duty. Spies all over the world are being killed, and the
governments of the Soviet Union, France, The United States, and England have temporarily set aside their
differences to combat SMERSH, the criminal organization suspected of the murders. At first, Bond refuses, but after M is killed, he changes his mind and agrees to come back.
For twenty minutes, Casino Royale is clever, witty, and exacting in it's satire. The conventions so popular in
the official Bond movies -- the gadgets, the women, and the cars -- are skewered with relish. Bond is a
reserved twit with a stutter who looks and acts nothing like the dashing Connery version, and his contempt
for the "tricks of the trade" is plain.
Despite an impressive cast that includes such notables as Niven, Sellers, Allen, Welles and Jacqueline Bissett
Casino Royale is too ridiculous and muddled to be of more than passing interest to real Bond enthusiasts. The
few good aspects of this farce are vastly outweighed by the bad. Besides, given how close some of the Bond
movies have come to self-parody, it's questionable whether an outright satire is warranted.