Hacker Cinema
Casino Royale
1967 · Film · 131 min
Directed by Robert Parrish, Val Guest, Ken Hughes, John Huston, Joseph McGrath
Sir James Bond is called back out of retirement to stop SMERSH. In order to trick SMERSH, James thinks up the ultimate plan - that every agent will be named 'James Bond'. One of the Bonds, whose real name is Evelyn Tremble is sent to take on Le Chiffre in a game of baccarat, but all the Bonds get more than they can handle.
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> The exception obviously is the _Casino Royale_ with Daniel Craig, which most fans view as one of the best Bond films. I've forgotten the specifics, but that book was unavailable to Eon for decades due to some copyright and licensing shenanigans.
Some info on the copyright issues here [1].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino_Royale_(1967_film)
Today it would be impossible. But also much other things in media. Like the first James Bond Casino Royale (1967). There is a scene in a tube with Bond and a younger than 18 years old girl in a tube. Or a in the movie Kickboxer (1988) with Van Damme. There is a scene when they are on a boat on a river in Thailand. You can see at least one young boy complete nude from frontside. Another scene later in the hospital. The brother just grop the butt from the nurse and everybody is laughing. To watch it today feels very strange.
I think the medium plays a role too. In real life I can laugh on some jokes because I know the people and I know is a joke and not serious. But even on the chatgroup from work, I know everyone well, I have a very thin skin in groupchats on jokes. And if I say something, often harsh comments comes back, about "censor" and "we can't even make jokes about". Often I think, I even could maybe laugh, if I heard the joke in person to person.
Old movies is another example. Who ever saw the old, old Bond from the 60s Casino Royale. Bond goes in a bath tube with a 17 year old girl. That scene would never go today.
The first book "Casino Royale" was in fact extremely dark and gritty.
It was the film versions that sanitized the Bond stories.
Austin Powers borrowed a lot from the original Casino Royale (the 60s spoof version), and the classic 60s spoof duology In Like Flint/Our Man Flint (fun watches that still hold up; Austin Powers even directly name drops them). Those 60s spoofs didn't kill campy/fun James Bond, and also show us evidence of this sort of spoof/serious cycle in Bond (and elsewhere) is likely cyclical. If history is to judge, we're about to the point where Austin Powers flutters out of collective consciousness again and given the right actors/directors/producers the Bond movies can do fun stuff again.