I remember as a kid watching the James Bond movies and loving them and then watching this and finding it really bad, but I couldn't really remember why or if I ever even got to the end of the film. Decided to watch it now as an adult and sure enough it is bad - like really bad. Very disjointed and poorly edited together and way too long end justs ends up being a boring mess. I tried to do some reading and find out why it ended up the way it did and apparently Peter Sellers was being really difficult during the filming. Then again the film seems to have six directors for some reason according to Wikipedia, which, I imagine contributed a lot more to the film being what it is than Sellers' behaviour.
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Reply by Notamymerrick
on October 29, 2019 at 8:29 AM
The whole production was a mess, Orson Welles wanted to do a serious film so rewrote his stuff to be serious, Sellers was then re-writing the re-writes to do it his way, neither would actually film in the same room together. Joseph McGrath got punched and fired by Sellers for siding with Welles, so Robert Parrish was brought in to direct.... Peter Sellers then walked out of the production.
Val Guest was brought in to try and fix the fact that Sellers was no longer there by filming new interlinking scenes with David Nivan. Woody Allen then left the set and flew back to New York without finishing his scenes. George Raft is credited although never filmed any of his scenes and most of Ian Hendry's stuff was thrown out in the editing room.
Reply by aholejones
on October 29, 2019 at 9:34 AM
You know it's funny that you mention Orson Welles wanting it to be a serious movie. Of all the weird and out of place stuff in the movie I think I found Orson Welles' impromptu magic performances at the baccarat table the most preposterous and I read that it was his idea to put it in the movie. It's actually making me laugh now thinking about him suddenly busting some weird magic tricks at that table even though it didn't make me laugh when I was watching it.
Reply by Notamymerrick
on October 29, 2019 at 11:25 AM
Yes, You can imagine none of the other cast knowing it was going to happen and him bringing his magic kit in on the day, then levitating a woman on the casino table, pulling our flags from a handkerchief and blowing up a balloon with a champagne bottle.
All while Welles and Sellers talk to each other with non sequitur gibberish edited together from two very different scripts.
The editor needs to be applauded.