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Post by wmcclain on Mar 25, 2020 11:44:39 GMT
Casablanca (1942), directed by Michael Curtiz. A disillusioned man regains his soul when an old flame surrenders to him completely. You need to load a man up with responsibility before he gets self-respect and does the right thing. Miscellaneous notes after a lifetime of I-have-no-way-of-estimating-how-many viewings: - Do you hear Sam playing "The Very Thought of You" in the background a couple of times?
- "Rick's" looks like a great saloon. I wish I'd had somewhere like that to hang out. Minus the nazi jamboree and gunplay, of course.
- My best viewing of this was long ago in a campus venue. The crowd was not composed of film buffs but they were willing to be entertained. When the camera rose from the chessboard to show Bogart's face: a deep and heartfelt gasp. When he said "Here's looking at you, kid": total meltdown.
- Set in December 1941, just before the US entered the war -- and made just after -- this was a model for Warner wartime entertainment over the next few years, although never equaled. Well-intentioned without being too heavy, plenty of colorful characters, with an ordinary guy American hero who is tough enough to see it through.
- Note how "America" is the promised land. Everyone flees the Old World for the New.
- I was on a discussion list where a film professor found the camera work "risible", which is how you have to talk when you are an academic. I still don't know what she meant. It is a studio-bound film with the attendant degree of fantasy, but looks gorgeous throughout. I notice a lot of radial motion away from the camera, unusual for that time.
- Notice how Rick's office/apartment has an invisible wall?
- Look how Ingrid Bergman's eyes shine!
- The singing battle of "The Watch on the Rhine" vs "La Marseillaise": no one can resist it. One of the great moments of cinema.
- The unquestionable "letters of transit" are, of course, ridiculous, but we don't mind.
- Marcel Dalio, Rick's croupier, doesn't even get credit. He'd been a star in France before the war. See The Rules of the Game (1939)
- The Bulgarian groom is played by Helmut Dantine, who later had a career as nazi villains. Actually he was an anti-nazi activist and had been in a concentration camp.
- It's startling to hear Ilsa call Sam "boy". That was the term for grown men in certain jobs, for example the little old white bus conductor in It Happened One Night (1934), but I don't know if it was usual for musicians. The Boys in the Band?
Max Steiner score. Available on lovely Blu-ray with velvety-smooth grain. 
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Post by OldAussie on Mar 25, 2020 12:06:36 GMT
After decades of loving this on television and home video I have seen it twice on the big screen in the last 2 years. Irresistible.
"Round up the usual suspects" is my favourite line in movies.
Love all your threads by the way.
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Post by wmcclain on Mar 25, 2020 12:52:26 GMT
Did you know... The woman trying to sell her diamonds in Casablanca and the woman who recognizes Dr Szell who is fetching his diamonds in Marathon Man...  ...are both played by actress Lotte Palfi Andor. Like many of the uncredited cast in Casablanca she was a refugee from the war. |
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Post by politicidal on Mar 25, 2020 14:16:47 GMT
One of my very favorites. 10/10.
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Post by mikef6 on Mar 25, 2020 15:05:43 GMT
The cinematographer was Arthur Edeson who also lensed The Maltese Falcon and The Mask Of Dimitrious. He was nominated for three Oscars. “Casablanca” was never intended to be considered a masterpiece. It was, indeed, an “A” picture, but was put into production to capitalize on current events in North Africa. But the cast was first class talent from top to bottom: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Raines, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and French star Marcel Dalio, himself a refugee from WWII, in the small role of a croupier (as already pointed out). While the Classical Era is normally not known for authentic casting, this movie about immigrants fleeing Nazi terror has its secondary players full of actual European immigrants who had fled Nazi terror. Future director Don Siegel (Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, Dirty Harry) created the opening montage. Adapted from Murray Burnett and Joan Alison’s unproduced play “Everybody Comes To Rick’s.” Twin brothers Julius and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch were the writers. The flashback structure here and in Citizen Kane from the previous year is one of its major innovations and one of the major marks of the post Kane/Casablanca 1940s movies as opposed to previous decades. TWO WOMEN I LOVE One of the non-real life refugees in the cast is Joy Page who was Jack Warner’s step-daughter. She plays the young bride who Rick saves from having to have sex with Capt. Renault by using his rigged roulette wheel to raise the money she needs. Page had a very modest movie and TV career but her scene with Bogie makes her immortal.  Madeleine LeBeau played the cynical bar fly Yvonne who nevertheless cries as she enthusiastically leads the singing of "La Marseillaise.” She died on May 1, 2016 as the last surviving cast member of Casablanca.   |
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Post by teleadm on Mar 25, 2020 18:52:46 GMT
One of those movies I never get tired of watching.  The gambling set:  The cafe set:  |
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Mar 25, 2020 19:25:45 GMT
Well it was due a re-watch, so given the air time it has had this last week or so, now is that time!
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Post by Isapop on Mar 25, 2020 22:05:40 GMT
I believe that "shocked...shocked!" has, over the years, become the most utilized movie quote of all time. It seems that every commentator on politics and society has found it useful at least once.
It's astonishing that Claude Rains didn't win the supporting Oscar for his performance.
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Post by london777 on Mar 25, 2020 23:55:19 GMT
- The singing battle of "The Watch on the Rhine" vs "La Marseillaise": no one can resist it. One of the great moments of cinema. Brings tears to the eyes of this surly old curmudgeon every time. I have just re-watched La Grande Illusion (1937) dir: Jean Renoir. There is a similar scene where the prisoners-of-war defiantly sing La Marseillaise on news of an (as it turns out pointless) French victory. Hard to think Curtiz did not get the idea from that. Mind you, his version is far more moving, but then Madeleine LeBeau is easier on the eye than a bunch of upper-class British twits in drag.
- Marcel Dalio, Rick's croupier, doesn't even get credit. He'd been a star in France before the war. See The Rules of the Game (1939) And a major role in La Grande Illusion as he is the only one of the group to escape with Gabin.
- It's startling to hear Ilsa call Sam "boy". That was the term for grown men in certain jobs, for example the little old white bus conductor in It Happened One Night (1934), but I don't know if it was usual for musicians. The Boys in the Band? She calls him "boy" because he is black, not because he is a musician. English is not her first language and she is just copying what she has picked up during her travels, without realizing it is denigratory. Where I now live, waiting staff and bar staff are routinely summoned by calling "joven" (youngster) regardless of age.
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Post by hi224 on Mar 25, 2020 23:57:10 GMT
Nominations?.
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Post by london777 on Mar 26, 2020 0:01:27 GMT
I nominate hi224 for his extreme economy with words when he posts.
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Post by jervistetch on Mar 26, 2020 0:03:50 GMT
“I was misinformed.” is a Casablanca line that I use frequently. I used it at work just the other day. For some reason, it always gets a laugh and I’m almost sure that the people who laugh have no idea where I got it from. Selfishly, I keep the line’s origin a secret.
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Post by hi224 on Mar 26, 2020 0:17:17 GMT
Casablanca (1942), directed by Michael Curtiz. A disillusioned man regains his soul when an old flame surrenders to him completely. You need to load a man up with responsibility before he gets self-respect and does the right thing. Miscellaneous notes after a lifetime of I-have-no-way-of-estimating-how-many viewings: - Do you hear Sam playing "The Very Thought of You" in the background a couple of times?
- "Rick's" looks like a great saloon. I wish I'd had somewhere like that to hang out. Minus the nazi jamboree and gunplay, of course.
- My best viewing of this was long ago in a campus venue. The crowd was not composed of film buffs but they were willing to be entertained. When the camera rose from the chessboard to show Bogart's face: a deep and heartfelt gasp. When he said "Here's looking at you, kid": total meltdown.
- Set in December 1941, just before the US entered the war -- and made just after -- this was a model for Warner wartime entertainment over the next few years, although never equaled. Well-intentioned without being too heavy, plenty of colorful characters, with an ordinary guy American hero who is tough enough to see it through.
- Note how "America" is the promised land. Everyone flees the Old World for the New.
- I was on a discussion list where a film professor found the camera work "risible", which is how you have to talk when you are an academic. I still don't know what she meant. It is a studio-bound film with the attendant degree of fantasy, but looks gorgeous throughout. I notice a lot of radial motion away from the camera, unusual for that time.
- Notice how Rick's office/apartment has an invisible wall?
- Look how Ingrid Bergman's eyes shine!
- The singing battle of "The Watch on the Rhine" vs "La Marseillaise": no one can resist it. One of the great moments of cinema.
- The unquestionable "letters of transit" are, of course, ridiculous, but we don't mind.
- Marcel Dalio, Rick's croupier, doesn't even get credit. He'd been a star in France before the war. See The Rules of the Game (1939)
- The Bulgarian groom is played by Helmut Dantine, who later had a career as nazi villains. Actually he was an anti-nazi activist and had been in a concentration camp.
- It's startling to hear Ilsa call Sam "boy". That was the term for grown men in certain jobs, for example the little old white bus conductor in It Happened One Night (1934), but I don't know if it was usual for musicians. The Boys in the Band?
Max Steiner score. Available on lovely Blu-ray with velvety-smooth grain. nominations?.
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Post by TheOriginalPinky on Mar 26, 2020 0:21:37 GMT
Not a lot to add to what has already been said. I've seen this films so many times, I can recite the dialog! If it's on, I watch it. One of the few Steiner scores I can tolerate.
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Post by Isapop on Mar 26, 2020 0:31:07 GMT
One of the few Steiner scores I can tolerate. I hope King Kong is another.
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Post by marianne48 on Mar 26, 2020 15:44:12 GMT
Max Steiner's scores can sometimes be hard to take. Bette Davis complained about his score for Now, Voyager, saying it was obtrusive, and I have to agree--listening to those whining violins throughout that movie, especially when they nearly drown out the dialogue, can be irritating.
As for Casablanca, I remember seeing it for the first time as a kid after hearing that it was one of the greatest movies ever. My first viewing left me thinking it was just okay, but the beauty of this film was that it got better and better with age (mine) and I was able to see something new in it with each viewing. It's been my favorite movie for decades. The singing of "La Marseillaise" gets me teary-eyed every single time.
The movie shows the sophistication of audiences back then--they didn't have to have everything spelled out for them.
When Rick mentions the guy "playing a tinny piano in the parlor" while Ilsa tells her "Mister, I met a man" tale, audiences knew what he was talking about--nowadays, he would simply call her a whore to her face. I remember reading an article in the 1980s that asked coyly, "Did Rick and Ilsa 'do it'?" Well, yeah, the fade-out after Ilsa comes to Rick's apartment was automatically understood by 1940s audiences to be the signal for sex; a more modern film might find it necessary to include Rick and Ilsa peeling off their clothes for a soft-focus sex scene. Roger Ebert complained that Henreid was too wooden in the scene at the airport when Rick announces that Ilsa came to his apartment and tried "everything she could" to get the letters of transit. Henreid doesn't react more strongly because he's not naive--he's pretty much sensed everything that's happened between Ilsa and Rick from the start, and he's man enough to accept and forgive. Rick's remark to Annina about paying a visit to Renault's office/love shack and bringing her husband along--"Captain Renault's getting broad-minded!" is a line I missed countless times before I noticed it as the risque joke it was.
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Post by london777 on Mar 26, 2020 16:32:13 GMT
Max Steiner's scores can sometimes be hard to take. Bette Davis complained about his score for Now, Voyager, saying it was obtrusive, and I have to agree--listening to those whining violins throughout that movie, especially when they nearly drown out the dialogue, can be irritating. My rule for scores, as for camera wizardry, is that, if you are consciously aware of them while watching the film, it is a black mark. Once the movie is finished is the time for analysis and appreciation. It is the director's film. For anyone else to obtrude is like interrupting the Sermon on the Mount or when God was dictating the Ten Commandments. You write that the score in Now, Voyager irritates you. You are lucky. Scores in 90% of movies irritate me.  Observe how Ingmar Bergman uses scores. A brief passage here and there, maybe just a couple of notes. And the rest is silence. Masterly.
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Post by twothousandonemark on Mar 26, 2020 18:08:29 GMT
My #2 all time, it's magical.
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Post by TheOriginalPinky on Mar 26, 2020 20:58:26 GMT
Max Steiner's scores can sometimes be hard to take. Bette Davis complained about his score for Now, Voyager, saying it was obtrusive, and I have to agree--listening to those whining violins throughout that movie, especially when they nearly drown out the dialogue, can be irritating. As for Casablanca, I remember seeing it for the first time as a kid after hearing that it was one of the greatest movies ever. My first viewing left me thinking it was just okay, but the beauty of this film was that it got better and better with age (mine) and I was able to see something new in it with each viewing. It's been my favorite movie for decades. The singing of "La Marseillaise" gets me teary-eyed every single time. The movie shows the sophistication of audiences back then--they didn't have to have everything spelled out for them. When Rick mentions the guy "playing a tinny piano in the parlor" while Ilsa tells her "Mister, I met a man" tale, audiences knew what he was talking about--nowadays, he would simply call her a whore to her face. I remember reading an article in the 1980s that asked coyly, "Did Rick and Ilsa 'do it'?" Well, yeah, the fade-out after Ilsa comes to Rick's apartment was automatically understood by 1940s audiences to be the signal for sex; a more modern film might find it necessary to include Rick and Ilsa peeling off their clothes for a soft-focus sex scene. Roger Ebert complained that Henreid was too wooden in the scene at the airport when Rick announces that Ilsa came to his apartment and tried "everything she could" to get the letters of transit. Henreid doesn't react more strongly because he's not naive--he's pretty much sensed everything that's happened between Ilsa and Rick from the start, and he's man enough to accept and forgive. Rick's remark to Annina about paying a visit to Renault's office/love shack and bringing her husband along--"Captain Renault's getting broad-minded!" is a line I missed countless times before I noticed it as the risque joke it was. She also was told there would be no Steiner score on her ascent on the stairway in Dark Victory - and they lied. She was furious!
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Post by TheGoodMan19 on Mar 27, 2020 0:10:25 GMT
The characters nationalities reflect their nations actions in WWII
1. Rick - American. Neutral, but no friend of the Germans. Tolerates them.
2. Renault - French. Subservient to the Germans, then turns on them
3. Strasser - German. Evil
4. Caselli - Italian. Toady in the German's pocket
5. Laszlo, Berger - Czech and Norwegian. Representing the occupied nations. Heroically resisting
6. Yvonne - French. Representing Vichy France. Initially a collaborator, comes around
7. Ilsa - Swedish. Apolitical
The only exception is Sasha, the Russian. Hollywood didn't know what to make of a Russian
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