It’s been a long time since I watched Casino Royale, a spoof of 007 films, which had originally been developed as a serious adaptation of the Ian Fleming novel. When the Bond filmmakers, and Sean Connery didn’t want to be involved, the producers held onto the rights and went with a comedy instead.

With five directors and a slew of James Bonds this one wasn’t a success on any level. Though it has come to be considered a bit of a classic and remembered for it’s soundtrack.

David Niven plays Sir James Bond, retired. When M (John Huston) comes to him to ask him to take one last mission, Bond refuses, and M ends up dead. It looks like 007 has one more mission left in him.

Smersh and Le Chiffre (Orson Welles) are planning their evil deeds, and are ready to stop Bond from interfering. The answer to that, name all agents James Bond to throw them off. This includes Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers).

Ursula Andress plays her second Bond girl, Vesper Lynd (I prefer Eva Green). Joanna Pettet plays the daughter of Bond and Mata Hari, and there’s a whole subplot involving her – she has a bunch of ridiculous one-liners.

There are more recognizable names in the cast as well, Woody Allen, Deborah Kerr, and William Holden. Oh and the lovely Jacqueline Bisset plays Giovanna Goodthighs. Speaking of lovely, Barbara Bouchet plays Moneypenny.

The score was overseen by Burt Bacharach and had additions by Dusty Springfield, and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. It sounds very much in tune with what would come later in the Austin Powers films. And speaking of Austin Powers, there’s a lot of sexbots in this one.

There are some interesting trappings to the film, sets, gadgets, designs, lovely ladies, locations – all essential to a Bond film, nut here everything seems to flounder. There’s too much going on, none of it well-crafted, and instead of being super enjoyable and funny, it ends up being silly.

Spoofs have to walk a fine line, honoring the tropes and original source while also poking fun at it smartly. This one doesn’t quite pull it off. Most people in the film are leaning into it, even when it doesn’t work, while Sellers seems to be trying to play most of it straight, or as straight as one can in a Bond film.

Watch for a quick appearance by From Russia With Love’s Kronsteen – Vladek Sheybal. There’s also a sequence when Bond (Mata Bond) slides down a staircase bannister taking out baddies, later used in Octopussy. And was that Peter O’Toole?

The film sounded like a difficult production. Sellers and Welles hated one another and wouldn’t shoot their scenes together, so production had to work around that. Sellers quit the film due to his erratic behavior, clashes with cast and crew and had wanted to treat the film seriously.

It’s convoluted (you can make that argument for a lot of Bond films), but it just doesn’t work. It’s too much, too many things going on, and not enough attention paid to any of them to make them work.

I didn’t like it back in the day, I don’t like it now. Sorry. And long before Spectre made the mistake of that ridiculous familial reveal, Casino Royale did it first.