Casino Royale 1967 Opening Song
Quartet Records and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer presents a very special new edition of Burt Bacharach’s timeless classic soundtrack for the 1967 James Bond spoof Casino Royale to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
More complex and surreal than the 'Thunderball' / 'Never Say Never Again' saga, 'Casino Royale' was the first James Bond novel by Ian Fleming. Adapted into a one-hour teleplay in 1954 for NBC's 'Climax' show, the novel's film rights were ultimately purchased by top Hollywood agent Charles K. Feldman, yet it took years before a feature film. Trailer clip - Casino Royale (1967) - (Pan-and-scan Trailer) Casino Royale (1967) - (Movie Clip) Open, My Credentials airing: Peter Sellers is introduced (with Duncan MacRae) as the first of many 007's, then ornate period credits, but mostly the evocative Burt Bacharach theme song, opening producer Charles K. Feldman's sprawling James Bond. Burt Bacharach appropriately comes up with a rambunctious soundtrack for the 1967 James Bond spoof, Casino Royale. Things get underway with Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass ' performance of the fast-paced main title, which features the usual Bacharach mix of pop phrasing and complex arrangements; this theme is subsequently augmented with a lush string arrangement and marching band rhythms on 'Sir James' Trip to Find Mata' and turns into a mod rock jam during 'Flying Saucer First Stop Berlin.' Lyrics to Casino Royale Theme (Main Title) by Herb Alpert from the Casino Royale 1967 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack album - including song video, artist biography, translations and more! The main title theme to the 1967 James Bond spoof 'Casino Royale' and the first track of the soundtrack composed by Burt Bacharach (taken from the original v.
The infectious main theme performed by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass is just the starting point of an epic comedy ride that includes such highlights as the unforgettable “The Look of Love,” sung by Dusty Springfield, or the epic fight music at the end of the film. Produced by record industry legend Phil Ramone, the original soundtrack LP offered selected highlights, expertly edited to showcase the best parts of the entire score. Thanks to the legendary sound quality of the stereo copies, this record became one of the most highly sought-after collectibles in the industry.
Previously released on CD by several labels, including us (twice, both now out of print), this edition is an important landmark for this legendary score, and we can proudly say that it now sounds better than ever. This new edition has been produced, restored and mastered by Chris Malone, rebuilding the score from the ground up. Malone’s work has focused on addressing unintended technical anomalies (such as filling dropouts and covering analogue splices) rather than broadly applying a modern sound palette. He has eschewed dynamic range compression and retained the brilliance of the original recording. Because the LP program derived from the original film recordings (with some edits made for a more pleasure listening), we have included it on our CD and added all the music composed by Bacharach that was not on the LP to make a 77-minute CD. The bonus tracks are in mono (music stems are still the only available source to date), but Chris has worked them in a very different mood from our previous edition, respecting the mono without adding any stereo reverb and carefully restoring each track in a very warm way. We can say the sound is day and night compared with our previous edition. Live and learn.
This release includes a bonus track making its CD debut: the promo-single version by Mike Redway, and arranged by Bacharach, of the song “Have No Fear, Bond Is Here.” The CD also showcases all-new, exclusive liner notes from film music writer Jeff Bond, and new art design by Nacho B. Govantes in a 20-page full-color booklet.
Ian Fleming
The monster finally gets a DVD release. More complex and surreal than the 'Thunderball' / 'Never Say Never Again' saga, 'Casino Royale' was the first James Bond novel by Ian Fleming. Adapted into a one-hour teleplay in 1954 for NBC's 'Climax' show, the novel's film rights were ultimately purchased by top Hollywood agent Charles K. Feldman, yet it took years before a feature film could finally be made. By that time, Sean Connery had already debuted as James Bond, and the first wave of spy spoofs were beginning to leave the studio gates and saturate theatre and television audiences.
Feldman conceded the only usable bits of the novel were the brief scenes in the actual casino, and decided to go for comedy, engaging initially four directors to make separate segments, and have the whole lot wrapped together with some cohesive 'sleigh,' ending with a big slapstick finale at the casino (Royale). The legendary production was ultimately co-ordinated (cleaned and wrapped up) by veteran Val Guest, an able craftsman in various genres, and the beast was unleashed to audiences in 1967, where it did make a kind of impression.
Joseph McGrath
It's an aberration in the Bond filmography (and not part of the Official List, no Broccoli here), but for many it's a guilty pleasure, boasting extraordinary sets, a magnificent roster of stars - many in one-shot cameos - and arguably Burt Bacharach's best film score. The album sold and continues to sell well, partly due to the immortal perfection of 'The Look Of Love,' and its audiophile quality. (Yes, there's even new vinyl pressings out there.) The cover art (blotted out on the DVD but present in the featurette) is classic 60s psychedelia - that latter word being a key instruction from agent/producer Feldman to his directors: make weird and wonderful.
MGM's transfer is luminous, capturing the lush colours of the diverse sets and locations - stuffy English estates, Kafkaesque East Berlin, Ursula Andress' expansive boudoir, Woody Allen's lair under the Playboy Club - and exotic costumes for the lead characters and oddball villains (heavily spoofed by Mike Myers in his Austin Powers series).
Originally released in mono, 'Casino Royale' has been given a Dolby 5.1 retrofit, placing mono music tracks (with slight pseudo-stereo warming) in the front surrounds; dialogue, sound effects and music in the centre speaker; and rear surrounds offering panning effects with slight reverb/echo; and a few sound effects processed for explosions. It's one of the better remixes, in part because each of the stems hasn't been drenched in reverb.
Casino Royale 1967 Song
A commentary from co-director Val Guest would have immortalized the production's history (his recollections regarding 'The Day The Earth Caught Fire' are highly informative), but his comments in the included featurette certainly paint vivid images of working with John Huston and some of the film's main cast - Niven, Lavi, and Allen in particular - and offers a concise history lesson of Feldman's efforts to get Bond onscreen for almost a decade. Guest, spriteful at 91 years, mentions his upcoming memoirs, though the more curious can glean brief production anecdotes from John Huston's 1980 autobiography, 'An Open Book,' and volume 2 of Robert Parrish's memoirs, 'Hollywood Doesn't Live Here Anymore.'
Along with an original trailer, MGM has included a real treat for Bond fans - the original 1954 'Climax' teleplay, starring Barry Nelson as the first James Bond (here, Americanized for TV), with Peter Lorre as the villainous Le Chiffre, Linda Christian as the babe, and Michael Pate as Leiter. This legendary live broadcast, adapted by Antony Ellis & Charles Bennet, is typical of the era: a tight distillation of the book's card battle, fifties tough talk, and some roughing up at the end before Bond wins the day. Besides archival value for Bondphiles, fans of live TV will no doubt be delighted to add one of the few surviving kinescopes to their collection. MGM's transfer is quite good, showing no visible artifacting from a decent 16mm print, with straightforward mono sound. (Before the widespread use of videotape, Kinescopes - filming off a special monitor - was the only way to record and preserve a live TV broadcast. The filmed copies were also used to broadcast programs in different time zones, since it was impractical to repeat live productions hours later.)
Cached
The more formal tone of Ian Fleming's novel was properly revisited in the 2006 film version of 'Casino Royale.'
John Huston
© 2002 Mark R. Hasan