Evelyn Tremble ( Peter Sellers): A baccarat expert sent to challenge SMERSH operative Le Chiffre ( Orson Welles) at the titular casino, in the one plot thread that is derived from the original book.The film proceeds to jump back and forth between the misadventures of the faux-007s before most of them are brought together for the climax. Organizing the recruitment of a new team of agents, he also plans to confuse SMERSH by naming all of them 'James Bond' - even the women. Sir James Bond ( David Niven) is forced out of retirement to investigate the deaths and disappearances of various British Secret Service agents, which turn out to be the work of the spy organization SMERSH. Unfortunately, a Troubled Production ensued. It was originally planned to be a straight adaptation of the one novel that Eon Productions (at the time) didn't have the rights to, but producer Charles Feldman instead decided to mount it as spoof of James Bond and spy films in general.

Besides, one can't argue with a version of James Bond that can be enjoyed in only 51 minutes.The second adaptation (after the 1954 Climax! episode) of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, released in 1967. Since this version does end differently from both the novel and the 2006 version of the film (and the 1967 film is 'Casino Royale' is an even further deviation from the original story), losing the end would be a real tragedy for anyone examining how different cultures and times viewed Ian Fleming's iconic character. Without this lower quality footage, the ending would not exist. One has to remember that this was once considered lost and footage was pieced together from two sources. The only complaint from a viewers perspective is that there is a notable drop in video quality shortly before the end.

Overall, the story is truer to the novel and seeing Barry Nelson's American 'Jimmy' Bond is fascinating. There are some major liberties taken in this version of Casino Royale (most notably combining Vesper and Mathis into 'Valerie Mathis,' changing the torture scene, and switching up the nationalities of the characters) but very few of the changes can't be justified based on the format.

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