You need to know this first: In the old days TV didn't count count much for quality and any critique would not have shot down a novel that anything was based on.
This Bond movie was VERY fortunately placed on TV, because as a regular theater release it would have absolutely killed the entire Bond franchise, no questions asked ever after. We would have never enjoyed the funny, tongue in cheek, and very stylish Bond movies we got to know with Connery and Moore in the lead, if this had been in theaters, instead of TV, which nobody took serious back then! The acting of the main "Bond" character was lousy. No, it was worse than lousy, and the thing that makes Bond special, his British manners and tongue, were completely butchered by the urge to do it the "American Way". No style, no finesse. Early on, Bond is leaning against the Casino Royale entrance, smoking a cigarette in a completely exaggerated and outright ridiculous "cool" fashion, and it gets worse from there. As a children's theater production, this would have caused parents to applaud, but for grown ups, this is sheer embarrassment! I have to give it historic significance though, and for any serious fan, it will be a MUST watch. In contrast, you have to appreciate, what Broccoli Productions managed to squeeze out of a set of novels, that could have easily gone sour, just as the "Perry Rhodan" series (world's biggest and longest running SciFi franchise of novels ever - what, you didn't know?) did later on.
I never finished this original 1954 Casino Royale when it ran on TNT many years ago, because it was SO bad, that it was not even the least bit good.
Put it this way: If you are an international SciFi buff, you will know about the German "Perry Rhodan" series of novels that has been published weekly (yes, EVERY week!) since 1961 and is still running without interruption and is not known in the US at all, because of it's lousy debut as an Italian "spaghetti SciFi movie". With over two and a half thousand novels spinning a grand saga of the universe in the same series, it is the worlds longest running and most successful SciFi movie failure ever! Why? Because they released their el-cheapo cheesy movie in theaters back in the 1960's and never recovered from that failure. Look for "Mission Stardust", watch it, and know why the entire series failed to be filmed ever after!
This Bond movie is just as bad, and actually worse, and if it had been in theaters, nobody in the movie world would ever have known Bond, period! If you like pain, watch it! If you are a serious fan of Bond, this is a MUST for education and cultural knowledge.
Otherwise, save the pain and watch something else... like the "Flint" movies, which did it the American way, but with every bit of style to be expected from Bond, and of course the Broccoli Bond movies with Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton :)
This Bond movie was VERY fortunately placed on TV, because as a regular theater release it would have absolutely killed the entire Bond franchise, no questions asked ever after. We would have never enjoyed the funny, tongue in cheek, and very stylish Bond movies we got to know with Connery and Moore in the lead, if this had been in theaters, instead of TV, which nobody took serious back then! The acting of the main "Bond" character was lousy. No, it was worse than lousy, and the thing that makes Bond special, his British manners and tongue, were completely butchered by the urge to do it the "American Way". No style, no finesse. Early on, Bond is leaning against the Casino Royale entrance, smoking a cigarette in a completely exaggerated and outright ridiculous "cool" fashion, and it gets worse from there. As a children's theater production, this would have caused parents to applaud, but for grown ups, this is sheer embarrassment! I have to give it historic significance though, and for any serious fan, it will be a MUST watch. In contrast, you have to appreciate, what Broccoli Productions managed to squeeze out of a set of novels, that could have easily gone sour, just as the "Perry Rhodan" series (world's biggest and longest running SciFi franchise of novels ever - what, you didn't know?) did later on.
I never finished this original 1954 Casino Royale when it ran on TNT many years ago, because it was SO bad, that it was not even the least bit good.
Put it this way: If you are an international SciFi buff, you will know about the German "Perry Rhodan" series of novels that has been published weekly (yes, EVERY week!) since 1961 and is still running without interruption and is not known in the US at all, because of it's lousy debut as an Italian "spaghetti SciFi movie". With over two and a half thousand novels spinning a grand saga of the universe in the same series, it is the worlds longest running and most successful SciFi movie failure ever! Why? Because they released their el-cheapo cheesy movie in theaters back in the 1960's and never recovered from that failure. Look for "Mission Stardust", watch it, and know why the entire series failed to be filmed ever after!
This Bond movie is just as bad, and actually worse, and if it had been in theaters, nobody in the movie world would ever have known Bond, period! If you like pain, watch it! If you are a serious fan of Bond, this is a MUST for education and cultural knowledge.
Otherwise, save the pain and watch something else... like the "Flint" movies, which did it the American way, but with every bit of style to be expected from Bond, and of course the Broccoli Bond movies with Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton :)