History Trivia / CasinoRoyale1967

** Sellers, who allegedly had been led to believe the film was a serious adaptation of the novel, arrived to see it was a comedy spoofing it. Sellers was dismayed and greatly angered, and became increasingly uncooperative toward the production. Among his antics was having actor John Bluthal fired, ordering a set torn down over a dream he had, bringing in Terry Southern to rewrite his character's dialogue in an attempt to outshine his co-stars, and leaving the set for days or weeks at a time.

* WagTheDirector: Creator/PeterSellers caused many problems onset. He had actor John Bluthal (who was to play multiple roles) sacked, ordered a set torn down because he had a dream where his mother visited the set and told him she didn't like it, caused delays by leaving the set for days at a time, refused to be onset with Creator/OrsonWelles and hired Terry Southern to write his dialogue (and not the rest of the script) to "outshine" his costars.

* HostilityOnTheSet: The rift between Creator/OrsonWelles and Creator/PeterSellers was partly caused by the arrival on set of Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II. Sellers had known her previously and greeted her in an ostentatious manner to ensure all cast and crew noticed. However, the Princess walked straight past him and made a big fuss over Welles. Nonplussed, Sellers stormed off the set and refused to film with Welles again. It's also been suggested that the superstitious Sellers disapproved of Welles' use of magic tricks.

** Part of his absent behavior was the HostilityOnTheSet between Sellers and Creator/OrsonWelles. Sources disagree on exactly what caused the rift between the two; Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II, is said to have ignored Sellers in favor of Welles during a set visit, which caused Sellers to throw a tantrum and blame Welles. Wolf Mankowitz claimed that Sellers also felt intimidated by Welles (possibly on account of the extremely superstitious Sellers being spooked by Welles' magic tricks). The animosity was mutual; Sellers felt Welles wasn't taking scenes seriously while Welles refused to shoot scenes with "that amateur". Sellers became so disruptive that he was fired from the production with a number of his scenes still unfilmed.

* CreatorBacklash: Got one from star Creator/PeterSellers, who wanted a serious Bond film but wound up with another comedy that he was ejected from.

* OldShame: For the actual Bond copyright holder EON and for the movie's cast. Creator/WoodyAllen to this day regrets taking part in the film, calling the production "a madhouse".

* DescendedCreator: Creator/JohnHuston originally wrote the role of M with Robert Morley in mind. When Morley was unavailable, Huston played the part himself.

* DuelingWorks: It was released in the same year as a Creator/EonProductions ''Film/JamesBond'' film, ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'', which got better reviews and the best results at the box office. Outside of this, ''Casino Royale'' got a DEFCON-1 level backlash from Eon producers, who became hell-bent on preventing any other Bond production not authorized by them from taking place, setting the stage for their long and bitter legal feud with Kevin [=McClory=] later, which only fully ended in 2013, 7 years after [=McClory's=] death and nearly 5 decades from when ''You Only Live Twice'' and ''Casino Royale'' hit theaters. Eon Productions also scored a major victory in the long run when they managed to acquire the rights to ''Casino Royale'' and triumphantly released a [[Film/CasinoRoyale2006 proper adaptation]] of the novel in 2006.

** The production scrambled as the plot was hastily rewritten to account for missing and unfinished scenes. 5 different directors would be credited for the final film (Creator/JohnHuston, Creator/ValGuest, Ken Hughes, Joseph [=McGrath=] and Robert Parrish. Richard Talmadge also did uncredited directing). Creator/DavidNiven was brought in for new scenes that would wrap around scenes Sellers had been in while other sequences were either cut, dropped or replaced entirely, which eventually led to a film about multiple agents named James Bond in a zany parody of EON's films. The resulting chaos caused the film's budget to run far over what it had began with.

** And as for EON Productions? While they couldn't take direct legal action against the film, it caused them to take a ''much'' more aggressive stance in protecting their hold of the Bond franchise. It was also a key factor in EON's decades-long feud and legal entanglments with Kevin [=McClory=], who held rights to the Bond novel ''Literature/{{Thunderball}}'' (and who would make his own unoffical Bond film with ''Film/NeverSayNeverAgain''). The film's reputation along with legal issues kept the rights out of EON's hands until 1999, and in 2006 they would finally make [[Film/CasinoRoyale2006 their own adaptation of Fleming's novel]].

** EON Productions (who were behind the official film series) did not have the rights to the novel as Creator/IanFleming had sold the film rights to ''Literature/CasinoRoyale'' seperately to Gregory Ratoff, who died in 1960 before he could find backers to fund the film; the film rights ended up in the hands of producer Charles K. Feldman. Feldman and EON producer Albert R. Broccoli attempted to make the film a co-production, but Feldman and Broccoli butted heads over profit divisions and production dates which lead Feldman to break off talks. Feldman attempted to sign on Creator/SeanConnery, but balked when Connery demanded one million dollars for the role.

* BillingDisplacement: Creator/PeterSellers and Creator/UrsulaAndress get top billing as they were originally the stars of the film. However, after Sellers left the film, material with Creator/DavidNiven was shot to wrap around Seller's and Andress' material in which Niven became the main character. Niven taking over what was intended as a Sellers vehicle is the inverse of ''Film/{{The Pink Panther|1963}}''.

* ScrewedByTheLawyers[=/=]ChannelHop: Creator/ColumbiaPictures lost the rights to the film after they got entangled in a lawsuit by MGM/UA and Eon Productions (they wanted to make a rival Bond series, holding already the rights to ''Casino Royale'' and allying with Kevin [=McClory=], who helped with ''Film/{{Thunderball}}''), trading them and the book rights for the ones MGM held to Franchise/SpiderMan (which then [[Film/SpiderManTrilogy became]] Columbia's own CashCowFranchise before it stalled in 2014 and prompted them to integrate it into Creator/{{Disney}}/Creator/{{Marvel}}'s [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]]).

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: During Cooper's AFSD training, one of the women trying to seduce him claims that every fifth child in the world is Chinese. True in 1967, but not anymore, thanks to a combination of the one-child policy and increasing growth rates in the third world.

* BillingDisplacement: Creator/PeterSellers and Creator/UrsulaAndress get top billing as they were originally the stars of the film. However, after Seller's left the film, material with Creator/DavidNiven was shot to wrap around Seller's and Andress' material in which Niven became the main character. Niven taking over what was intended as a Sellers vehicle is the inverse of Film/ThePinkPanther1963.

* ProductionPosse: Creator/PeterSellers, Creator/PeterOToole, Creator/WoodyAllen, Ursula Andress and Music/BurtBacharach all previously worked on ''Film/WhatsNewPussycat'', also produced by Charles K. Feldman.

* DuelingWorks: It was released in the same year as a Eon Productions James Bond film, ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'', which got better reviews and the best results at the box office. Outside of this, ''Casino Royale'' got a DEFCON-1 level backlash from Eon, who became hell-bent on preventing any other Bond production not authorized by them from taking place, setting the stage for their long and bitter legal feud with Kevin [=McClory=] later, which only fully ended in 2013, 7 years after [=McClory's=] death and nearly 5 decades from when ''You Only Live Twice'' and ''Casino Royale'' hit theaters. Eon Productions also scored a major victory in the long run when they managed to acquire the rights to ''Casino Royale'' and triumphantly released a [[Film/CasinoRoyale2006 proper adaptation]] of the novel in 2006.

* FakeBrit: American actor/filmmaker Creator/JohnHuston plays M, who's [[AdaptationalNationalityChange inexplicably a Scotsman]] in this continuity.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** The producer had intended to cast Creator/SeanConnery as Bond, but balked at the star's paycheck demands ($1 million, which wasn't cheap back then). It is assumed that had Connery been cast, it would have been a straight 007 film rather than the parody it would eventually become. Years later, Connery ran into the producer and told him it would have been much better if he had agreed to the million-dollar paycheck.
** Capucine, Creator/JoanCollins, Creator/SophiaLoren, Creator/ShirleyMacLaine and Creator/ElizabethTaylor turned down the role of Vesper Lynd.
** Collins also turned down the role of Giovanna Goodthighs.
** Music/FrankSinatra was considered for Cooper.
** Music/BarbraStreisand was considered for a cameo, while Creator/JackLemmon refused a role.
** Charles K. Feldman wanted Creator/BrigitteBardot for the role of Mata Bond.
** An entire sequence involving Tremble going to the front for the underground James Bond Training School (which turns out to be under Harrods, of which the training area was the lowest level) was never shot, thus creating an abrupt cut from Vesper announcing that Tremble will be James Bond to Tremble exiting the elevator into the Training School.
** At the start of TheSixties, Feldman was able to get Creator/HowardHawks interested in the novel, and there were some initial talks between Feldman, Hawks and Creator/LeighBrackett about adapting it, with Creator/CaryGrant floated as a possibility to play Bond. Then they saw a preview screening of ''Film/DrNo'' and Hawks decided it would be pointless to even try doing ''Casino Royale'', so he completely dropped the idea.

** EON Productions (who were behind the official film series) did not have the rights to the novel as Ian Fleming had sold the film rights to ''Casino Royale'' seperately to Gregory Ratoff, who died in 1960 before he could find backers to fund the film; the film rights ended up in the hands of producer Charles K. Feldman. Feldman and EON producer Albert R. Broccoli attempted to make the film a co-production, but Feldman and Broccoli butted heads over profit divisions and production dates which lead Feldman to break off talks. Feldman attempted to sign on EON Bond star Creator/SeanConnery, but balked when Connery demanded one million dollars for the role.
** Feldman, with a script written by ''Film/Scarface1932'' screenwriter Ben Hecht, brought the film to Columbia Pictures who agreed to take on the project. Hecht had initially written a straightforward adaptation of the novel but he died in 1964, just two days before he was due to present his final script to Feldman. Feldman, seeing the spy film craze beginning due to the success of EON's Bond films, opted to change the film into a parody of Bond to seperate it from the pack, bringing in several writers (among them Wolf Mankowitz and Billy Wilder) to rewrite the script before and during shooting, while Creator/PeterSellers ended up in the lead role.

** Part of his absent behavior was the HostilityOnTheSet between Sellers and Creator/OrsonWelles. Sources disagree on exactly what caused the rift between the two; Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II, is said to have ignored Sellers in favor of Welles during a set visit, which caused Sellers to throw a tantrum and blame Welles. Wolf Mankowitz claimed that Sellers also felt intimidated by Welles (possibly on account of the extremely superstitious Sellers being spooked by Welles's magic tricks). The animosity was mutual; Sellers felt Welles wasn't taking scenes seriously while Welles refused to shoot scenes with "that amateur". Sellers became so disruptive that he was fired from the production with a number of his scenes still unfilmed.

** When the film finally released in April 1967, it was blasted by critics for a long list of reasons, among them being its nonsense plot and choppy editing. Virtually nobody involved in the production had nice things to say about the experience, and many of those who worked on the film saw their careers [[StarDerailingRole derailed]] or [[CreatorKiller killed]]; of the film's directors, John Huston was mostly unscathed while Val Guest, who had handled Nivan's scenes, was scapegoated for the mess and reduced to directing films like ''[[AwfulBritishSexComedy Confessions Of A Window Cleaner]]'' for the rest of his career. Charles Feldman develped heart issues as a result of the stress incurred by the film and died two years after the film's release. Peter Sellers suffered a black mark to his reputation thanks to his actions on the set, which led some studios to simply not deal with him at all, though he would bounce back after a string of failures with ''Film/TheReturnOfThePinkPanther''.

* TroubledProduction: The reason that Evelyn Tremble and Le Chiffre are not seen in the same shot during the Baccarat scene is that when they tried to get Creator/PeterSellers and Creator/OrsonWelles in the same studio, Sellers balked. He felt that Welles was not taking the scene seriously (remember that Sellers had wanted the movie to be the straight adaptation he was promised and was increasingly enraged over the continual slide into wacky parody the script was taking). Sellers was also an extremely superstitious man and took exception to Welles performing magic tricks during shooting, and finally refused to appear at the same time with Welles, forcing their lines to be shot at separate times. Sellers left mid production and an obscene amount of directors and actors were brought in to try and salvage what was left.

* TroubledProduction: Not only did an obscene number of directors and screenwriters get involved, but the actors fought with them, and [[HostilityOnTheSet with each other]] -- the reason that Evelyn Tremble and Le Chiffre are not seen in the same shot during the Baccarat scene is that when they tried to get Creator/PeterSellers and Creator/OrsonWelles in the same studio, Sellers balked. He felt that Welles was not taking the scene seriously (remember that Sellers had wanted the movie to be the straight adaptation he was promised and was increasingly enraged over the continual slide into wacky parody the script was taking). Sellers was also an extremely superstitious man and took exception to Welles performing magic tricks during shooting, and finally refused to appear at the same time with Welles, forcing their lines to be shot at separate times.

* BillingDisplacement: Creator/PeterSellers signed on back when the film was serious. At that point, it was intended to be a vehicle for Creator/DavidNiven. Much rewriting and scene-stealing later, Sellers actually ends up with top billing alongside Creator/UrsulaAndress. This wouldn't be [[Film/ThePinkPanther1963 the first time Sellers entirely stole what was intended to be a vehicle for Niven.]]

* CreatorBacklash:
** Got a DEFCON-1 level backlash from EON, who became hell-bent on preventing any other Bond production not authorized by them from taking place, setting the stage for their feud with Kevin [=McClory=] later.
** Also got one from star Creator/PeterSellers, who wanted a serious Bond film but wound up with another comedy that he was ejected from.

* DuelingWorks: It was released in the same year as an official Bond, ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice''. This duel affected the official release to the point where it became one of the factors in the long and bitter Broccoli/[=McClory=] legal feud that started a decade later and only fully ended in 2013, 7 years after [=McClory's=] death and nearly 5 decades from when ''You Only Live Twice'' and ''Casino Royale 1967'' hit theaters.

* ChannelHop: Originally released by Creator/ColumbiaPictures, who handled distribution for over 30 years until a lawsuit brought on by MGM over the novel's movie rights led to studio parent Sony selling the film rights as well as this film to MGM.

* ScrewedByTheLawyers[=/=]ChannelHop: Creator/ColumbiaPictures lost the rights to the film after they got entangled in a lawsuit by MGM/UA and Eon Productions (they wanted to make a rival Bond series, holding already the rights to ''Casino Royale'' and allying with Kevin [=McClory=], who helped with ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'').

* ChannelHop: Originally released by Creator/ColumbiaPictures, who handled distribution for over 30 years until a lawsuit brought on by MGM over the novel's movie rights led to studio parent Sony selling the film rights as well as this film to MGM. Ironically, Sony got the movie rights to ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' as a trade-off.

* DeletedRole: Creator/IanHendry was cut out of this project. All that remains of his role is a dead body being removed.

* ChannelHop: Originally released by Creator/ColumbiaPictures, who handled distribution for over 30 years until a lawsuit brought on by MGM over the novel's movie rights led to studio parent Sony selling the film rights as well as this film to MGM.

* ScrewedByTheLawyers[=/=]ChannelHop: Creator/ColumbiaPictures lost the rights to the film after they got entangled in a lawsuit by MGM/UA and Eon Productions (they wanted to make a rival Bond series, holding already the rights to ''Casino Royale'' and allying with Kevin [=McClory=], who helped with ''Film/{{Thunderball}}''), trading them and the book rights for the ones MGM held to Franchise/SpiderMan (which then [[Film/SpiderManTrilogy became]] Columbia's own CashCowFranchise before it stalled in 2014 and prompted them to integrate it into Creator/{{Disney}}/Creator/{{Marvel}}'s [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]]).

* ChannelHop: Originally released by Creator/ColumbiaPictures, who handled distribution for over 30 years until a lawsuit brought on by MGM over the novel's movie rights led to studio parent Sony exchanging them for the ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' movie rights, a trade that would prove to be very beneficial for Sony later on (see ScrewedByTheLawyers below).

* ChannelHop: Originally released by Creator/ColumbiaPictures, who handled distribution for over 30 years until a lawsuit brought on by MGM over the novel's movie rights led to studio parent Sony exchanging them for the ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' movie rights, a trade that would prove to be very beneficial for Sony later on.

* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine: Burt Kwouk, Creator/PeterSellers' costar in ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' series, makes a cameo as a Chinese General. Alas, they don't share any scenes.