@@franohmsford754812 Angry Men is incredible. It's also the only other movie with a script as good as Casablanca. But for me Casablanca is still the better film and the greatest film ever made.
You cut out my absolute favorite line: Rick: "And remember, this gun is pointed right at your heart." Captain Renault: "That is my LEAST vulnerable spot"
@@thomastimlin1724 In my small group of very old friends, we ALWAYS blurt out "I'm shocked, SHOCKED I say, that [fill in the blank] is happening here!", when observing the blatantly obvious.
@@iDontShareMyData Always say that to my cats when they chase each other lol. "I am shocked, shocked that to find there are wild cats in this house!" "They're yours, sir..." "Oh....never mind..."
'Play it Sam', 'of all the gin joints in all the world she had to walk into mine', 'we'll always have Paris', 'here's looking at you kid', 'I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship', 'round up the usual suspects', 'kiss me as if it was the last time', and of course, 'when time goes by' all made iconic sayings due to this movie. Love it.
@@MarcosElMalo2 "If you can play it for her you can play it for me. Play It!" How did people come up with that ridiculous misquote? Like saying "You can't handle the fruit...." egad...
I first saw this movie at the Los Angeles Theater back in the 80s. I believe it was the Los Angeles Conservancy that sponsored the event. They had the theater lobby setup as if it were 1940's. Once everyone was seated, the lights were turned off and on the stage there was an old fashioned radio with people sitting around it, all dimly lit as if in shadow, as the radio reports of the invasion of France were played. By being barely lit, you could only see shadows sitting around the radio and it totally focused our attention on every word from the radio. You could hear bombs dropping in the distance in the theater. As the radio was warning the people to leave France if they could, the people sitting around the radio scurried off, the curtains were opened and the opening splash of Casablanca came on the screen. It was fantastic and I have loved that movie ever since.
That's amazing. Wish I could have seen something like that. I first saw this movie back in the early 80s on a tiny black and white TV that had a 5" screen when I lived in my first apartment. Still loved it.
Wow, that’s a cool story! LATC is a beautiful theater. I worked at LATC for a brief period in the late 80s. I was a set carpenter for a set construction company that was hired to build sets for a performance of The Inspector General. I don’t remember my first viewing of Casablanca, but it was on television. I did see it on the big screen once at the Rialto in South Pasadena. There were three revival theaters back then: the Rialto, the Vista, and one more on the West Side whose name I cannot remember. Are you still in L.A.?
I appreciate how this movie, made when it was made, does not take the easy road and obvious path. Rick does not end up with Ilsa. Lazlo does not die heroically, allowing Rick and Ilsa to be together. Everything is not resolved in such a way that the good guys suffer no consequences. Yet, somehow, the ending is very satisfying. Rick does kill the lead Nazi. Renault redeems himself. Victor and Ilsa escape. And best of all, Rick walks off with Renault into a foggy future. The characters are all in very different circumstances at the end from where they started, but all that happens in the movie is they all hang around Casablanca and talk. And that talk is fantastic. This movie is peak snappy dialogue. That dialogue is not just snappy, it fits the characters perfectly.
The reason Ingrid and Bogie were bemoaning the picture at that lunch and how they thought it would be a terrible disaster was because the script was a work in progress throughout filming. One of the major bones of contention especially for Ingrid was that until they filmed the scene at the airport she had no idea which man she was ultimately going to be with. While that surely was very disconcerting for her as an actress that uncertainty helped her performance. It's an accidental masterpiece since while it was an A picture it wasn't seen at the studio as a major production until its completion and the studio realized what it had on its hands. Bogart, after years of doing supporting roles, was on the ascendant at long last with his two films previous to this-High Sierra & The Maltese Falcon (both excellent movies)-finally establishing him as a bankable star but it was Casablanca that set him up as a romantic lead. Likewise Ingrid Bergman had been brought over from her native Sweden, where she was a rising star, by David O. Selznick but hadn't completely captured the American public just yet though her previous performance to this as the ill-fated barmaid Ivy in "Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" had garnered much praise. Casablanca turned that trick for her and afterward she was one of the most sought after and respected actresses of the era until her career was temporarily derailed by what at the time was a major scandal and now seems utterly ridiculous. She had a child out of wedlock with director Roberto Rossellini and the outcry was immense, she was even denounced on the floor of the Senate! Even though the pair married she was shunned in America for nearly a decade, though when she returned with the film "Anastasia" she won her second Best Actress Oscar. I've seen other commenters recommending Hitchcock's "Notorious" which reteams Ingrid and Claude Rains along with Cary Grant and I join in with them. It's one of Hitch's best, the story is tight and all three of the leads are fantastic.
Directors have done far worse than keep an actor or actress a little stressed to assist in getting the best performance from them. You should read about what Stanley Kubrick did to Shelley Duvall during filming for The Shining. He put her though a living hell. In addition to having the rest of the crew ostracize her and doing almost no rehearsals he put her though physically demanding takes which put her health at risk. Jack Nicholson recalls Duvall showing him clumps of her hair which was falling out due to the stress. Nicholson later laments that he followed Kubrick's instructions to not be very supportive and to basically tell her to _Grow up and do your job._ During the infamous baseball bat scene, Kubrick forced the actress to do well over one hundred takes. But he didn't give her any instruction between them. Kubrick was literally trying to break Duvall down by keeping her guessing as to what was wrong with each of the previous performances. The result was the scared, frustrated and helpless performance which Duvall finally produced. And rumor has it that Kubrick used one of the very early takes and that the rest ended up just being torture for Duvall. I've never thought well of Kubrick after learning this.
It is only a legend that Bergman did not know who she should end up with. The reality is the Hayes office (the Hollywood Morality Police which was active from the mid 30's to the mid 60's) would never have permitted a married woman to desert her husband for her lover. They also did not permit any suggestion that Rick and Ilsa has a sexual relationship in Paris, and they could only offer subtle hints that Renault was seducing refugees for exit visas.
@@robertanderson6929 How awful... I've heard kind of similar stories about the way he used the real life relationship between Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut, pushing them psychologically to the limit to explore their worst and most private thoughts and feelings... It was cited as the thing that led eventually to the break up of their marriage. Seems he would use people without regard to their welfare, to get the 'work of art' he wanted.
Actually, Bergman had to know who she would end up with. The Hays office (Hollywood's morality police) would never have permitted a married woman to desert her husband. They also did not permit any hint that Rick and Ilsa had a sexual relationship in Paris, and could only offer hints that Renault was seducing refugee girls for exit visas.
An interesting thing about the "La Marseilles" scene: Yvonne is established as a bit of an opportunist. She ultimately went out with one of the German officers. This marked Yvonne as a traitor conspiring with the enemy. Everyone would have hated her for this. However, during "La Marseilles," they cut to Yvonne crying. It was at a very specific point in the song where it talks about the enemy "coming right into our arms." Yvonne was weeping at the realization that it was exactly what she was doing: taking the enemy into her arms, and she felt horrible about herself. They cut to a shot at the end where Yvonne shouts, "Vive la France!" It lets the audience know that she's changed, and that she'll be immediately breaking it off with the German officer. It's a minor redemption arc for Yvonne. It's a tiny thing, but as a Francophile who speaks French, it's one of the most moving points in the film.
It is an interesting point, but not as significant as the fact that this scene is pivotal for Rick. La Marseillaise *_only_* gets played when Rick approves it. He could have left Laszlo hanging if he'd wanted. He's taken a side, even if he hasn't resolved the papers and Ilsa problem.
@Hexon66 I don't disagree, it's just that as a Francophile, I appreciated the deliberate way it was inserted. "La Marseilles" is hands-down the most explicit national anthem in existence. It ends by saying the blood of the enemy will water their fields. To insert Yvonne at the exact moment the song says, "They're coming right into our our arms," (right before it says "To slit the the throats of our sons and [female] friends") showed a very deliberate choice by the filmmakers. As I say, as a Francophile, I appreciate the detail. 🙂
"I came with Captain Renaut...my husband is with me." "He is? Renaut is getting broad-minded." Most people don't catch that one....but Emily did. It's amazing how clever the dialog is throughout the movie, especially considering the screenplay was written on the fly as they were filming. Great reaction.
Well, it was based on a play, Everybody Comes to Rick’s. I’m curious how much dialogue was lifted from the play. There was also a previous adaptation (that I’ve never seen), although I suspect that the writers wouldn’t have borrowed much from it that wasn’t in the original play. Plays generally rely more dialogue than the movies, so I wouldn’t be surprised if some choice lines were taken from the play. I’ll agree, though. The dialogue is quite witty. It’s also economical-it serves to illuminate the characters and move the plot forward.
@@MarcosElMalo2 The screenplay adds all the delightful parts that people remember most dearly. Here it is the original play script online (I hope Facebook doesn't penalize me for spamming): script-fix.com/produced-screenplays/Ricks.pdf
What do you mean? Sounds like you mean a threesome. If so, that’s 100% wrong. Capt Renault makes girls and wives sleep with him instead of paying the fee. He’s a lech.
@@MarcosElMalo2 I wonder. Per Wikipedia: "Koch and the Epsteins received an Academy Award for best screenplay in 1943, but little recognition was given to Burnett and Alison." I can't find a copy of the original play.
Absolutely! A perfect film in every category. There isn’t one wasted second of screen time, whether visually, in dialogue or pacing. Everything advances the plot or develops character or sets the mood.
I would put as opposition to the lauded "perfect" rating, the gaping cliffs between 1940's Hollywood magnum opus, and today's youth's ability to even grasp its meaning.
There's a reason that "As time goes by" is still the signature theme of WB after all these years, the importance of this movie can not be understated, truly one of the greats of cinema and somehow always feels fresh. People hear the year it was made and get this look on their face, but if they give it a shot they are well rewarded, and even though people have been spoiling this movie through imitation for over three quarters of a century and the story isn't novel to us anymore the power of the filmmaking shines through and the magic can't help but grab hold of you.
Younger people also have a panic attack when they see it's in black and white, like their going to contract a venereal disease or something if they watch a black and white movie, Jesus man, lol
You guys HAVE to watch the Fritz Lang’s classic film M, starring Peter Lorre in an iconic performance that made his career and could have sunk it due to typecasting if he hadn’t fled Germany for Hollywood soon after Hitler came to power. M is one of the earliest serial killer films, and remains one of the greatest ever made.
M? I HAVE TO CHECK THAT MOVIE OUT FOR SURE, YOU MENTIONED IT IS ABOUT SERIAL KILLERS ✅ IT IS ONE OF THE GREATEST ✅ AND IT STARTS WITH THE LETTER M JUST LIKE MY NAME, MAURICIO ✅ THANKS.
I recommend Uruguayan-Argentine director Román Viñoly Barreto's 1953 film, El Vampiro Negro (The Black Vampire) too. Until recently it was a little known film that was rarely, if ever, seen in the USA. It's pretty much a reworking of Lang's M, with added female characters & a repurposing of the narrative as a result. Thinking about it now, there's a line of dialogue in the film from the Prosecutor that's straight out of Casablanca, one of Claude Rains' lines. A blu-ray of the film was released last year. Really good film.
yes, "M" is a real good film. the germans produced a number of great expressionist films in the 1920s and pre-nazi 30s. including 1932's "vampyr" dirrected by Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1929's "Diary of a Lost Girl" directed by G. W. Pabst and lang's 1927's "metropolis."
That scene with the Bulgarian girl is a key to the rest of the film, just watch Rick when she talks about a girl doing a bad thing to her lover...It's the moment that Rick knows just what he needs to do and it parallels his own situation.
This is one of my all time favourite movies. The Marseilles scene always makes my eyes water up. Bit of trivia, a huge amount of the extras were European refugees who had fled from the Germans. So the tears as they defiantly sang were real.
That was also risky. At the time, US was not in the war, there was a reasonable chance that some agreement with Hitler would be reached, which would result in all those people to be deported back into Nazi's hands. BTW, Major Strasser was played by another refugee, from Germany. He frequently played Nazis, but always insisted his characters should be either evil or stupid.
@@migmit Major Strasser's actor, Conrad Veidt, had a Jewish wife so he had a huge reason to flee his home country. Also Conrad Veidt is THE inspiration for the Joker. In the movie The Man Who Laughs, Veidt portrays the main character who has a massive grin carved into his face.
One of the many fascinating things about this flick is the top talent for even the bit part players. Many had fled the Nazis so this project had additional meaning to them. One such example is the actress playing Yvonne and her husband (playing the roulette dealer). They fled the Nazis in an evacuation route that closely resembled the one described at the movie's start.
One of the main thing about Bogart and this film is that the character is meant to reflect America's attitude towards Europe's war at the time. He's basically a good guy, but feels like it's not his business. By the end of the film he's convinced to help the "good" side. The film was meant to bolster the sentiment of the american public towards entering the european theater of the war.
Not many people notice that this movie is so much a cornerstone of Warner Brothers history that "As Time Goes By" has been the background music of the WB movie production card for the last 25 years, and the music of the WB TV production closing credits for the last 20.
I saw this movie in college. I had heard it was a romance, so I didn’t expect to like it. I was blown away with the unexpected humor and how the romance was handled in such a selfless way by the end. It was the perfect ending, and I have loved this movie ever since.
Such a classic film with so many famous scenes and quotable moments. But the scene in particular that I love is the "sing-off" between the French and Germans.
It's momentary and takes a bit more of a keen eye than it should. until the 70's most viewers would get the joke. With a generation or three fully displaced from the events and history only being taught in chunks the full scale of Vichy France is mostly unknown to much of the world as they watch this today.
When you mentioned "the shadows", I was like, "YES! she noticed". Director Michael Curtiz was famous for his use of shadows in many of his movies. "Casablanca" was Curtiz' masterpiece, but he also directed, or rather co-directed "The Adventures of Robin Hood", with Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHavallind, AND Claude Rains. "Of all the gin joints in all towns in all the world, she walks into mine." The dialogue in this movie was as good as it gets, except for maybe "Pulp Fiction", which is COMPLETELY different. Ingrid Bergman, in this movie, is the most beautiful woman ever. Just perfect. You guys should check out "The Maltese Falcon", which stars Humphrey Bogart, as well as Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre, from this movie.
This movie was made in the first year of the US entering the war, and Rick's story arc is a metaphor for the resistance of Americans to entering yet another war in Europe. This is most explicit when Rick asks Sam, "What time is it in America?" Sam's reply doesn't make sense: "December, 1941." That is not a time, but it is the month of the Pearl Harbor attack, so when Rick says they are asleep all over America, he is talking about how they didn't wake up until they were attacked. Of course, "casa blanca" literally means "white house."
@thomasoa I think you misread Rick's story. He ran guns to Ethiopia, where Emperor Haile Selassie was fighting Italian Fascist Mussolini in 1936. Also fought in Spain with the International Brigades in 1937-9 against the Fascist Francisco Franco and his German allies. Rick had firmly established himself as at least a " Fellow Traveler " anti-fascist activist, if not an actual communist. That's why he was on the Nazi's blacklist.
@@alanmacification I'm not sure what you think I misread. Yes, his sacrifice for the causes of the past are not as far in the past as WWI, but the key is that he is on the right side, and his "stick my neck out for no one" rule is bitterness high he can reverse. He is definitely a metaphor for American reluctance to fight n WWII. Metaphor doesn't require exact correspondence.
This is a wonderful film to see with the restored version on the big screen. The setting and music envelopes the audience and the cinematography is really shown in its most artistic beauty. The script was being worked on up to the last minute of filming. Just as no one knew what might happen with the actual war, the production wasn’t sure how to end the movie. Some of that uncertainty and worry and confusion translated as an undercurrent of tension which gives depth to the film. Movies made today -even about that time period - are made with the knowledge of how the war turned out, who won, etc so there is no underlying sense of urgency or mystery or dread which existed within films made at the time.
In my opinion the greatest representation of love ever in a film. There are many kinds of love exhibited in the film, which is beautiful. Great reaction. As we say in Texas; y'all be safe.
The director, Michael Curtiz, was known for exceptional use of shadows, strong black & white contrasts and unusual lighting to create mood and tension.
WW2 was still going on when this film was released. Talk about topical! It had it all: romance, intrigue, star power, and social relevance. What a film.
Fun reaction to a great movie. Here's a suggestion. "Judgment At Nuremberg" is a post WWII courtroom drama dealing with the trial of many Nazi leaders. Sensational performances by Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Werner Klemperer, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, William Shatner, and Montgomery Clift. Directed by Stanley Kramer, the film was released in 1961 and won numerous awards.
Between takes the cast played poker. Ingrid Bergman joined but didn't know how to play. When it was her turn to raise or bet Bogart would prompt her with, "Here's looking at you, kid." The director overheard it and decided to write it into the script.
The most amazing thing about this movie is how many lines you recognize, even if you never saw it or realized this was the source of those lines. It's an amazing script!
Elsa admired her husband but she LOVED Rick. As for the friendship between Rick and Sam it was very unusual for films to have this type of true fairly equal friendship between a black man and a white man. I think it is great. Claud Rained is amazing in this.
Others have mentioned that many of the actors & extras in this film were actually real refugees who fled the Nazi invasion of Europe. But what a lot of people don't know is that Conrad Veidt ("Major Strasser") was as well. German film actor during the 'silent film' era. Married to a Jewish girl. Fled Germany to the UK, and then to the US. He knew that since he was German, he'd be asked to portray Nazis. He had it in his contract (under the old 1940s 'studio system' in H'wood, where actors were treated like athletes working for a sports team) that if he was going to play one, he'd be the nastiest one he could be. Odd additional thing IIRC, Veidt's contract was actually with MGM, and his loan fee to WB made him the highest paid guy on the film. Historical references for Rick: Smuggled guns to Ethiopia? The Ethiopians lost to Italian fascists. Fought with the 'loyalists' in Spain? Lost to the Spanish fascists (who had German weapons). Rick's just tired of losing. Wants to just give up (especially after the heartbreak in Paris), and live in peace - but still hates the fascists. Telling the guy from Deutsche Bank, "..you're lucky the bar's open to you." is the first hint. Letting the band at his club play "La Marseillaise" when Victor tells them to is the next. I'm 61. Saw this film for the first time when I was about 13yrs old. These great old films were what was on TV all night before the infomercial was invented. I owe a big thanks to my grandmother (RIP) for answering all her grandson's questions about the politics in the film. She lived through it all.
When I was 16, I skipped off school and ended up watching this instead of classes. Changed my life. Seriously. I got this movie down to my soul. I've watched it maybe fifty or more times and fall more in love with it every time.
4:27 that is Madeleine LeBeau who refugeed from France right before Hitler invaded. When she is singing and crying her anthem later in the film she is not acting there. In 2016 she was the last survivor passing away at 92
My favourite film of all time and, like you, every time we get to the singing of The Marseillaise, my eyes moisten. And I've seen this film countless times, at home and the cinema.
Everybody Loves "Casablanca" Watch in B&W and Never See in Color! A Great Classic Movie at Any Time and in Every Age- Thank you from an Old Man who has watched and enjoyed "Casablanca' about 100 times! A Movie Classic Forever!
I saw this on the big screen at film forum in the village in NYC and it blew me out of the theater. It is amazing how seeing films on big screen can affect you. They were made for the big screen as far as the cinematography and direction and it really makes a difference. And I also remember thinking how amazing the humor in the film was.
I love the amazing dialog in this movie as well as the amazing lighting and flawless casting. Practically every character in it is special in some way. As a history buff and fan of the golden age of Hollywood, Casablanca is simply my cup of tea. Bogart's Rick made him a star and is absolutely iconic, too. Thank you so much for sharing your reaction with us!
If you would like to see more Claude Rains you have to see him as Prince John in the Errol Flynn version of Robin Hood. He was in a host of movies (including another classic horror tale - The Phantom of the opera) but his big 3 are probably Mr Smith goes to Washington, Robin Hood and Casablanca.
Dang I LOVE masterclass films like Casablanca, The Sting, Die Hard, Back To The Future, It's A Wonderful Life etc. Films whose elements bond together so seamlessly towards an ultra-satisfying pay-off. Bogart's movies are interesting. I need to watch his classic film noir The Big Sleep again because that was like Casablanca on speed and complex - but mindblowing watching his famous razor-sharp detective character pick apart The Big Sleep's formidable criminal underworld.
I saw this movie complete for the first time at university in a movie club at one of the university theatres with a bunch of others who were seeing it for the first time. We laughed all the way through it. Like you we had heard all those catch phrases for years and we finally got to see them in the original movie
Thanks for the reaction! Don't know if you'll see this after a year, but I'd highly recommend watching Bogart and Bacall in "To Have and Have Not". Great characters, chemistry, music and humor, and you can see Bogie and Bacall falling in love while filming. They got married a year later after Bogart finally divorced his alcoholic abusive wife.
And to think when this was made, it was just another film being shot on a Hollywood lot, nothing special about it in the slightest, and yet.... What a classic.. Emily, I've not seen you this emotional since you watched Fateful Findings
Remember, this was made during the war. No one knew how it would end. Many of extras, actors and crew were real immigrants who had fled Europe to evade the Nazis. The scene where they sang La Marsalis to shut the Nazis down, the tears and emotions were real. This wasn’t the past for them, but their daily reality. Keeping this in mind makes the film even more meaningful.
Being an Austrian myself I agree: Carl is great! 🙂 By the way also a lot of non-Austrian characters in this movie are played by Austrian actors. At that time Hollywood had plenty of them.
The movie was made while WWII was still raging. They made a point of hiring French and other European actor refugees to have roles, even as extras, to get them some money. That makes the Le Marseilles scene even better. The people singing it did it with true patriotism in their hearts and souls.
With December right around the corner I would highly recommend the 1942 Christmas Comedy "The Man Who Came To Dinner" It was based on a hit stage play, has more than a few faces you will recognize, and has some of the best comedic dialogue ever put to film. I won't give away the plot but one of the most famous quotes about the film is "It throws everything at you but the kitchen sink although it does have penguins"
One of my all time favorite movies, but it’s not the great romance every one believes it to be, but it’s a great relationship between Rick and Renault is what makes this movie special for me.
Great reaction to a great movie. Excellent comment on that perfect ending. I was so moved by your reaction during the Marseillaise scene that I wept and wept... Thank you ! Kisses from France
This is one of my all time favorite movies. I also love how many other movies and social references are made to quotes, lines, and concepts in this movie. A whole movie created from the concept of rounding up “The Usual Suspects”. A great film that inspired other diverse and unique works from simple lines to music and scenes.
Peter Lorre is the Looney Tunes guy. He was written in as an FU by Warner Bros animators as a sign of respect, because Warner shot his career dead when he supported the set decorators strike.
You have to understand the political significance of this movie. The US population was largely isolationist until Pearl Harbor. Rick represents the US ...evolving to the point of "joining the fight".
I think that may be a bit of an oversimplification. It's established that Rick was far more involved in the larger anti-fascist fight than the US ever was our wanted to be. But he's become disillusioned, a bit too neatly explained (imo), for narrative purposes, through the perceived Ilsa betrayal. I've always read the subtext of the film as being as much as an indictment of US policy as the US being a shining beacon of hope. Why can't Rick go home? Would he want to go home? He *_knows_* the truth that these poor refugees don't yet. The film is too cynical to be purely jingoistic. It's not film noir as such, but the universe it inhabits is pure noir.
@@joeday4293 Take a look at "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" (1939), really the first anti-Nazi film made in the US. Prior to that, the production code barred any criticism of Germany (for several reasons), but "Confessions" was based on a true story and thus was greenlit. After that, some of the studios (Warner Bros. and MGM) began to be more aggressive with anti-Nazi movies, including "The Mortal Storm" (1940) and "The Sea Hawk" (1940).
@@Hexon66 Excellent. We are told very little about Rick. We do know that he "fought" in the war in Ethiopia and in Spain's civil war (no US involvement) on the underdog side (right side) both times for moral reasons, as it is explained that the other side would have paid more, so it wasn't about money. We can assume he was doing something in France because he needed to get out before the Germans came into Paris and left there for Casablanca. He knew immediately who Laszlo was, even details. I, for some reason, just assumed that it was the amount of intel Rick possessed about underground organizations that would have been important to the US. Saying that he couldn't go back was because the US wanted the info just as badly as others. It was Rick that felt he couldn't go back. I agree with disillusioned, but would say more disappointed, both by his own country and by Ilsa. And as you said, a statement about US policy.
There's a great parody of the dueling anthems scene in "The Cheap Detective", which parodies both "Casablanca" and "The Maltese Falcon" among others. A great and terribly underrated film is " A Face in the Crowd" from 1957 starring Andy Griffith. It says things bout the influence of media that's still relevant today. Maybe even more so. For more Bogart and Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet for that matter, check out "The Maltese Falcon". Another great Bogart film is "The Big Sleep".
Thanks for commenting one of my favourite films. I appreciated how you never skipped the best dialogues. Matthiew made me smile when he said you actually did not SEE Claude Rains in The Invisible Man… I have seen that movie and was astonished : how good Claude Rains was ! Fancy getting celebrity only by his voice and his gesture when he wore clothes !!! A great actor, they should have given him an Oscar ! You could watch him (and Paul Henreid) in Now Voyager starring Bette Davis and Dame Gladys Cooper. Greetings from France 🇫🇷
One of the examples of movie magic: Ingrid Bergman was noticably taller than Humphrey Bogart. He had to stand on a box or sit on some pillows when she was next to him.
20:00 Louis (Claude Raines) drops the bottle in the basket after looking at the label. It is Vichy Water, carbonated mineral water, and the city where the pro-German French State under Marshall Petain (aka Vichy France) set up their capital. It symbolized the hope that French collaborators in the French colonies and France itself would turn against the Nazies and become patriots of France again as the Allied Powers began the long effort to liberate Europe.
"Everybody comes to Rick's" was the original title of the unsold play which Warner Brothers bought and adapted into the film script, but they kept rewriting it each day driving everyone crazy...note the moving cameras and shadows making this film a little more interesting visually. You can thank the great Max Steiner for the great orchestration of the movie soundtrack. He also wrote many others including Gone With the Wind. He was the John Williams of his day. I read a complete book on him [Steiner] recently.
For anyone who missed the reference, the bottle of wine dropped into the trash can had a label that read "Vichy". Vichy was a town and region in southern France. After France surrendered in June 1940, the new collaboration government of France was established in Vichy, which was supposedly the unoccupied and still quasi independent France. "Vichy France" was considered a puppet government beholden to the Nazis, and it collaborated and cooperated with Nazi Germany to one degree or another.
Peter Lorre (the actor who was drawn into the Looney Tunes) himself left Germany when the Nazis came to power. I think his most iconic role is as child murderer in "M" - which also was shot in an international version as I get it. HIGHLY recommend that one! :)
Casablanca had a debut on Nov. 26th 1942, wide release Jan 23rd. D-Day for Operation Torch was Nov. 8th. The American's landed in French Africa under fire by Vichy French forces. Casablanca was secured Nov. 10th. This was the start of America taking on Nazi Germany. The United States also were conducting active operations in the North Atlantic to brake the German U boats. By the time this movie hit theaters, U.S. servicemen have been actively fighting, and dying in Africa.
They establish the time of the setting as the first week of December, 1941. Remember the significance of that week. Glad you enjoyed this classic film.
#fact The treatment arrived at the script office at Warner Brothers studios and was first read on Dec 9th 1941. two days after Pearl Harbor attack. The script reader passed it ahead for consideration minutes after finishing it.
I watched Casablanca really late in my life (I think with 40 or so) - and man, was I missing out. The story is proper good and there's some literally classic acting in it (and now I get why it's considered "classic", DAMN!). This is just a great movie!
Casablanca is a classic for sure, while some will suggest "The Maltese Falcon", which is pretty good but a little convoluted. I would suggest "The African Queen" (1951) Bogart and Katherine Hepburn together and a great adventure story.
Check out Key Largo (1948) for another Bogart classic film this time with Lauren Bacall Edward G. Robinson and a loaded cast in very Southern Florida... in a movie that might be even better than this one ! ( on par anyway)
In the 1980s, a film historian submitted the screenplay to 217 agencies under the original title "Everybody Comes To Ricks". Most rejected it without even reading it due to policies about unsolicited manuscripts. Of the people who responded, 33 recognized the script, 8 said it was similar and 41 rejected the screenplay outright with criticisms such as "too much dialogue"
Seems odd to a European that the historical context might not be second nature. Possibly as that period is still so well covered in schools and the wider culture (particularly in the UK, who struggle NOT to refer to it regularly). As such, perhaps not surprising that the discussion didn't cover the main thrust of the movie - that Rick represents the aloof USA, and needs to be convinced that neutrality is actually a callous position to take, given the mess Europe has become (perfectly demonstrated by the confused diaspora in Rick's bar) and eventually needs to take a side and help, which of course is exactly how that war panned out. When the war started, the US genuinely had split opinions about what the German powers represented, and whether it mattered outside Europe. And possibly some had eyes on the benefits of Europe declining. As such, many artists from Dr Seuss to Hollywood helped spread the message that we now take for granted, that there's no such thing as a good Nazi. Cue Indiana Jones Theme! 🎶 Those benefits to the US of Europe's decline were subsequently of interest to some of Truman's administration and beyond (Eisenhower etc). Perhaps that gets picked up a little in Oppenheimer 😉 The 1950s were where the Western genre picked up and ran with the Cold War undercurrent in every script.
You said that you really liked the ending. However at the very end when the two of them are walking off into the dark, what you hear Humphrey Bogart say is not what was originally supposed to be the ending. They had had him come back in and recorded the "...beginning of a beautiful friendship." line for a voiceover.
30 years later, the Super Warnerio Brothers released "What's up Doc", the best screwball comedy in existence, and it was just full to the brim with Casablanca references. Might be something to watch in the future. Emily would definitely love the main character.
Another great film with classic stars- Bette Davis - (and also features Claude Rains and Paul Henreid!) is 1942’s “Now, Voyager.” If you watch it, note how costuming plays an important role in character development.
Yo Pip! The best movie of all time! Ah the singing of La Marseilles. Scene gets me every time. Hits even harder knowing that a lot of the actors in that scene were war refugees from Europe, from the Nazis. Indeed Yvonne (Madeline Lebeau), Rick's sort-of girlfriend at the start of the film, is a good example. About 18 or 19 when the movie was shot; she fled France with her husband (the actor playing the croupier) and stayed in the US throughout the war. When she died she was the last surviving billed cast member of Casablanca. Acting can only take you so far, feeling...can get you further. Also to be fair I must make the point, Claude Raines was/is the Invisible Man. So I can get how she missed him.
Jeez: Lorre's voice was not done by Lorre in the cartoon. Lorre was a quite famous actor at the time...Jeez squared: she said Victor was her hubby..Jeez to the third power: Renault. Apres: My kingdom for a Wilde or a Shaw...And the metaphors are??? MIA. Well here is one: Rick, of course, is a metahpor for the neutral US at the time...
I, along with millions of fans and a growing number of critics, believe that "Casablanca" is the greatest film ever made. Period.
It's not even the greatest Black+White film of all time - That's 12 Angry Men!
@@franohmsford754812 Angry Men is incredible. It's also the only other movie with a script as good as Casablanca.
But for me Casablanca is still the better film and the greatest film ever made.
@@franohmsford7548 That wasn't even Henry Fonda's best B/W movie, which was The Grapes of Wrath.
The greatest propaganda film ever made. Leni Riefenstahl can p... the f... off.
Goodfellas
You cut out my absolute favorite line:
Rick: "And remember, this gun is pointed right at your heart."
Captain Renault: "That is my LEAST vulnerable spot"
They did not laugh outloud hard enough or agt all really for the "You're winnings sir" line...that was strange, it's the funniest line in the movie.
@@thomastimlin1724 In my small group of very old friends, we ALWAYS blurt out "I'm shocked, SHOCKED I say, that [fill in the blank] is happening here!", when observing the blatantly obvious.
@@iDontShareMyData Always say that to my cats when they chase each other lol. "I am shocked, shocked that to find there are wild cats in this house!" "They're yours, sir..." "Oh....never mind..."
'Play it Sam', 'of all the gin joints in all the world she had to walk into mine', 'we'll always have Paris', 'here's looking at you kid', 'I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship', 'round up the usual suspects', 'kiss me as if it was the last time', and of course, 'when time goes by' all made iconic sayings due to this movie. Love it.
As you probably know, the line is often misquoted as “Play it again, Sam”.
Of course it’s the misquote “Play it again Sam” that’s iconic not the actual line
@@prescottlange Your winnings, sir.
@@MarcosElMalo2 "If you can play it for her you can play it for me. Play It!" How did people come up with that ridiculous misquote? Like saying "You can't handle the fruit...." egad...
Ah yes, the iconic line from Casablanca: "When time goes by."
I first saw this movie at the Los Angeles Theater back in the 80s. I believe it was the Los Angeles Conservancy that sponsored the event. They had the theater lobby setup as if it were 1940's. Once everyone was seated, the lights were turned off and on the stage there was an old fashioned radio with people sitting around it, all dimly lit as if in shadow, as the radio reports of the invasion of France were played. By being barely lit, you could only see shadows sitting around the radio and it totally focused our attention on every word from the radio. You could hear bombs dropping in the distance in the theater. As the radio was warning the people to leave France if they could, the people sitting around the radio scurried off, the curtains were opened and the opening splash of Casablanca came on the screen. It was fantastic and I have loved that movie ever since.
That's amazing. Wish I could have seen something like that. I first saw this movie back in the early 80s on a tiny black and white TV that had a 5" screen when I lived in my first apartment.
Still loved it.
Wow, that’s a cool story! LATC is a beautiful theater. I worked at LATC for a brief period in the late 80s. I was a set carpenter for a set construction company that was hired to build sets for a performance of The Inspector General.
I don’t remember my first viewing of Casablanca, but it was on television. I did see it on the big screen once at the Rialto in South Pasadena. There were three revival theaters back then: the Rialto, the Vista, and one more on the West Side whose name I cannot remember.
Are you still in L.A.?
@@MarcosElMalo2 It must have been so cool to work at that theater! I'm not in LA anymore. I'm in Chicago, which also has stunning theaters.
Very cool.
I appreciate how this movie, made when it was made, does not take the easy road and obvious path. Rick does not end up with Ilsa. Lazlo does not die heroically, allowing Rick and Ilsa to be together. Everything is not resolved in such a way that the good guys suffer no consequences. Yet, somehow, the ending is very satisfying. Rick does kill the lead Nazi. Renault redeems himself. Victor and Ilsa escape. And best of all, Rick walks off with Renault into a foggy future. The characters are all in very different circumstances at the end from where they started, but all that happens in the movie is they all hang around Casablanca and talk. And that talk is fantastic. This movie is peak snappy dialogue. That dialogue is not just snappy, it fits the characters perfectly.
The reason Ingrid and Bogie were bemoaning the picture at that lunch and how they thought it would be a terrible disaster was because the script was a work in progress throughout filming. One of the major bones of contention especially for Ingrid was that until they filmed the scene at the airport she had no idea which man she was ultimately going to be with. While that surely was very disconcerting for her as an actress that uncertainty helped her performance.
It's an accidental masterpiece since while it was an A picture it wasn't seen at the studio as a major production until its completion and the studio realized what it had on its hands.
Bogart, after years of doing supporting roles, was on the ascendant at long last with his two films previous to this-High Sierra & The Maltese Falcon (both excellent movies)-finally establishing him as a bankable star but it was Casablanca that set him up as a romantic lead.
Likewise Ingrid Bergman had been brought over from her native Sweden, where she was a rising star, by David O. Selznick but hadn't completely captured the American public just yet though her previous performance to this as the ill-fated barmaid Ivy in "Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" had garnered much praise. Casablanca turned that trick for her and afterward she was one of the most sought after and respected actresses of the era until her career was temporarily derailed by what at the time was a major scandal and now seems utterly ridiculous. She had a child out of wedlock with director Roberto Rossellini and the outcry was immense, she was even denounced on the floor of the Senate! Even though the pair married she was shunned in America for nearly a decade, though when she returned with the film "Anastasia" she won her second Best Actress Oscar.
I've seen other commenters recommending Hitchcock's "Notorious" which reteams Ingrid and Claude Rains along with Cary Grant and I join in with them. It's one of Hitch's best, the story is tight and all three of the leads are fantastic.
It is amazing to me that this script was a work in progress during filming. I think it's a top 3 script of all time.
Directors have done far worse than keep an actor or actress a little stressed to assist in getting the best performance from them. You should read about what Stanley Kubrick did to Shelley Duvall during filming for The Shining. He put her though a living hell. In addition to having the rest of the crew ostracize her and doing almost no rehearsals he put her though physically demanding takes which put her health at risk. Jack Nicholson recalls Duvall showing him clumps of her hair which was falling out due to the stress. Nicholson later laments that he followed Kubrick's instructions to not be very supportive and to basically tell her to _Grow up and do your job._ During the infamous baseball bat scene, Kubrick forced the actress to do well over one hundred takes. But he didn't give her any instruction between them. Kubrick was literally trying to break Duvall down by keeping her guessing as to what was wrong with each of the previous performances. The result was the scared, frustrated and helpless performance which Duvall finally produced. And rumor has it that Kubrick used one of the very early takes and that the rest ended up just being torture for Duvall. I've never thought well of Kubrick after learning this.
It is only a legend that Bergman did not know who she should end up with. The reality is the Hayes office (the Hollywood Morality Police which was active from the mid 30's to the mid 60's) would never have permitted a married woman to desert her husband for her lover. They also did not permit any suggestion that
Rick and Ilsa has a sexual relationship in Paris, and they could only offer subtle hints that Renault was seducing refugees for exit visas.
@@robertanderson6929 How awful... I've heard kind of similar stories about the way he used the real life relationship between Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut, pushing them psychologically to the limit to explore their worst and most private thoughts and feelings... It was cited as the thing that led eventually to the break up of their marriage. Seems he would use people without regard to their welfare, to get the 'work of art' he wanted.
Actually, Bergman had to know who she would end up with. The Hays office (Hollywood's morality police) would never have permitted a married woman to desert her husband. They also did not permit any hint that Rick and Ilsa had a sexual relationship in Paris, and could only offer hints that Renault was seducing refugee girls for exit visas.
An interesting thing about the "La Marseilles" scene:
Yvonne is established as a bit of an opportunist. She ultimately went out with one of the German officers. This marked Yvonne as a traitor conspiring with the enemy. Everyone would have hated her for this.
However, during "La Marseilles," they cut to Yvonne crying. It was at a very specific point in the song where it talks about the enemy "coming right into our arms." Yvonne was weeping at the realization that it was exactly what she was doing: taking the enemy into her arms, and she felt horrible about herself.
They cut to a shot at the end where Yvonne shouts, "Vive la France!" It lets the audience know that she's changed, and that she'll be immediately breaking it off with the German officer. It's a minor redemption arc for Yvonne.
It's a tiny thing, but as a Francophile who speaks French, it's one of the most moving points in the film.
Even not being fluent in the language, I had definitely clocked most of that through subtext.
The shots of her crying while singing are really the emotional high-point of the movie. If you removed those shots, it would be a lesser movie.
It is an interesting point, but not as significant as the fact that this scene is pivotal for Rick. La Marseillaise *_only_* gets played when Rick approves it. He could have left Laszlo hanging if he'd wanted. He's taken a side, even if he hasn't resolved the papers and Ilsa problem.
That scene takes me out of the movie a bit because French were the occupiers of that land just like the germans.
@Hexon66 I don't disagree, it's just that as a Francophile, I appreciated the deliberate way it was inserted. "La Marseilles" is hands-down the most explicit national anthem in existence. It ends by saying the blood of the enemy will water their fields.
To insert Yvonne at the exact moment the song says, "They're coming right into our our arms," (right before it says "To slit the the throats of our sons and [female] friends") showed a very deliberate choice by the filmmakers.
As I say, as a Francophile, I appreciate the detail. 🙂
"I came with Captain Renaut...my husband is with me." "He is? Renaut is getting broad-minded." Most people don't catch that one....but Emily did.
It's amazing how clever the dialog is throughout the movie, especially considering the screenplay was written on the fly as they were filming.
Great reaction.
Well, it was based on a play, Everybody Comes to Rick’s. I’m curious how much dialogue was lifted from the play. There was also a previous adaptation (that I’ve never seen), although I suspect that the writers wouldn’t have borrowed much from it that wasn’t in the original play.
Plays generally rely more dialogue than the movies, so I wouldn’t be surprised if some choice lines were taken from the play.
I’ll agree, though. The dialogue is quite witty. It’s also economical-it serves to illuminate the characters and move the plot forward.
@@MarcosElMalo2 The screenplay adds all the delightful parts that people remember most dearly. Here it is the original play script online (I hope Facebook doesn't penalize me for spamming): script-fix.com/produced-screenplays/Ricks.pdf
What do you mean? Sounds like you mean a threesome. If so, that’s 100% wrong.
Capt Renault makes girls and wives sleep with him instead of paying the fee. He’s a lech.
@@MarcosElMalo2 I wonder. Per Wikipedia: "Koch and the Epsteins received an Academy Award for best screenplay in 1943, but little recognition was given to Burnett and Alison." I can't find a copy of the original play.
Everything about this movie is perfect. Screenplay, acting, score, sets, costumes, casting...everything!❤
Agreed! Perfect movie.
Totally agree. I would add the cinematography. That lighting is gorgeous!
It is definitely worthy of its high reputation.
Absolutely! A perfect film in every category. There isn’t one wasted second of screen time, whether visually, in dialogue or pacing. Everything advances the plot or develops character or sets the mood.
I would put as opposition to the lauded "perfect" rating, the gaping cliffs between 1940's Hollywood magnum opus, and today's youth's ability to even grasp its meaning.
There's a reason that "As time goes by" is still the signature theme of WB after all these years, the importance of this movie can not be understated, truly one of the greats of cinema and somehow always feels fresh. People hear the year it was made and get this look on their face, but if they give it a shot they are well rewarded, and even though people have been spoiling this movie through imitation for over three quarters of a century and the story isn't novel to us anymore the power of the filmmaking shines through and the magic can't help but grab hold of you.
Younger people also have a panic attack when they see it's in black and white, like their going to contract a venereal disease or something if they watch a black and white movie, Jesus man, lol
The best movie ever made. Every line of dialogue is perfect. The cast is an amazing and fascinating group of actors.
You guys HAVE to watch the Fritz Lang’s classic film M, starring Peter Lorre in an iconic performance that made his career and could have sunk it due to typecasting if he hadn’t fled Germany for Hollywood soon after Hitler came to power. M is one of the earliest serial killer films, and remains one of the greatest ever made.
M? I HAVE TO CHECK THAT MOVIE OUT FOR SURE, YOU MENTIONED IT IS ABOUT SERIAL KILLERS ✅ IT IS ONE OF THE GREATEST ✅ AND IT STARTS WITH THE LETTER M JUST LIKE MY NAME, MAURICIO ✅ THANKS.
@@messamurai2658 It is about a singular serial killer.
I recommend Uruguayan-Argentine director Román Viñoly Barreto's 1953 film, El Vampiro Negro (The Black Vampire) too. Until recently it was a little known film that was rarely, if ever, seen in the USA. It's pretty much a reworking of Lang's M, with added female characters & a repurposing of the narrative as a result. Thinking about it now, there's a line of dialogue in the film from the Prosecutor that's straight out of Casablanca, one of Claude Rains' lines. A blu-ray of the film was released last year. Really good film.
@@jeffmartin1026 YES I understood that thank you, BTW any ideas if I could find it on Amazon prime for free🤗
yes, "M" is a real good film. the germans produced a number of great expressionist films in the 1920s and pre-nazi 30s. including 1932's "vampyr" dirrected by Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1929's "Diary of a Lost Girl" directed by G. W. Pabst and lang's 1927's "metropolis."
I'm glad you caught the "Captain Renault's getting broad minded" line. That's a great one slipped past the 1940s sensors.
The whole tension between Louis and Rick is worthy of note. Listen carefully to how L talks about R.
That scene with the Bulgarian girl is a key to the rest of the film, just watch Rick when she talks about a girl doing a bad thing to her lover...It's the moment that Rick knows just what he needs to do and it parallels his own situation.
@flarrfan The way Rick says "No one's ever loved me that much" is crushing. 💔
This is one of my all time favourite movies. The Marseilles scene always makes my eyes water up. Bit of trivia, a huge amount of the extras were European refugees who had fled from the Germans. So the tears as they defiantly sang were real.
That was also risky. At the time, US was not in the war, there was a reasonable chance that some agreement with Hitler would be reached, which would result in all those people to be deported back into Nazi's hands.
BTW, Major Strasser was played by another refugee, from Germany. He frequently played Nazis, but always insisted his characters should be either evil or stupid.
@@migmit Major Strasser's actor, Conrad Veidt, had a Jewish wife so he had a huge reason to flee his home country. Also Conrad Veidt is THE inspiration for the Joker. In the movie The Man Who Laughs, Veidt portrays the main character who has a massive grin carved into his face.
One of the many fascinating things about this flick is the top talent for even the bit part players. Many had fled the Nazis so this project had additional meaning to them. One such example is the actress playing Yvonne and her husband (playing the roulette dealer). They fled the Nazis in an evacuation route that closely resembled the one described at the movie's start.
For the last 35 years of watching this movie, the La Marseilles scene gets me every time.
One of the main thing about Bogart and this film is that the character is meant to reflect America's attitude towards Europe's war at the time. He's basically a good guy, but feels like it's not his business. By the end of the film he's convinced to help the "good" side. The film was meant to bolster the sentiment of the american public towards entering the european theater of the war.
This and The Maltese Falcon are my favorite Humphrey Bogart movies.
"The Treasure of Sierra Madre" and "The Caine Mutiny" are gr8 Bogart films as well.
Add the Big Sleep on that list for myself.
Not many people notice that this movie is so much a cornerstone of Warner Brothers history that "As Time Goes By" has been the background music of the WB movie production card for the last 25 years, and the music of the WB TV production closing credits for the last 20.
I saw this movie in college. I had heard it was a romance, so I didn’t expect to like it. I was blown away with the unexpected humor and how the romance was handled in such a selfless way by the end. It was the perfect ending, and I have loved this movie ever since.
One of the greatest movies ever made
This is by far one of my favorite all-time movies in any genre. I've seen it as many times as any modern movie.
Such a classic film with so many famous scenes and quotable moments. But the scene in particular that I love is the "sing-off" between the French and Germans.
Did anyone notice Louie throwing the Vichy water into the trash? Showing his contempt for the Vichy government.
It's momentary and takes a bit more of a keen eye than it should. until the 70's most viewers would get the joke. With a generation or three fully displaced from the events and history only being taught in chunks the full scale of Vichy France is mostly unknown to much of the world as they watch this today.
Now you have to watch African Queen.
When you mentioned "the shadows", I was like, "YES! she noticed". Director Michael Curtiz was famous for his use of shadows in many of his movies. "Casablanca" was Curtiz' masterpiece, but he also directed, or rather co-directed "The Adventures of Robin Hood", with Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHavallind, AND Claude Rains. "Of all the gin joints in all towns in all the world, she walks into mine." The dialogue in this movie was as good as it gets, except for maybe "Pulp Fiction", which is COMPLETELY different. Ingrid Bergman, in this movie, is the most beautiful woman ever. Just perfect. You guys should check out "The Maltese Falcon", which stars Humphrey Bogart, as well as Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre, from this movie.
"Maltese Falcon" is a must-see.
Agreed.@@rcrawford42
This movie was made in the first year of the US entering the war, and Rick's story arc is a metaphor for the resistance of Americans to entering yet another war in Europe. This is most explicit when Rick asks Sam, "What time is it in America?" Sam's reply doesn't make sense: "December, 1941." That is not a time, but it is the month of the Pearl Harbor attack, so when Rick says they are asleep all over America, he is talking about how they didn't wake up until they were attacked.
Of course, "casa blanca" literally means "white house."
@thomasoa I think you misread Rick's story. He ran guns to Ethiopia, where Emperor Haile Selassie was fighting Italian Fascist Mussolini in 1936. Also fought in Spain with the International Brigades in 1937-9 against the Fascist Francisco Franco and his German allies. Rick had firmly established himself as at least a " Fellow Traveler " anti-fascist activist, if not an actual communist. That's why he was on the Nazi's blacklist.
@@alanmacification I'm not sure what you think I misread. Yes, his sacrifice for the causes of the past are not as far in the past as WWI, but the key is that he is on the right side, and his "stick my neck out for no one" rule is bitterness high he can reverse. He is definitely a metaphor for American reluctance to fight n WWII. Metaphor doesn't require exact correspondence.
This is a wonderful film to see with the restored version on the big screen. The setting and music envelopes the audience and the cinematography is really shown in its most artistic beauty.
The script was being worked on up to the last minute of filming. Just as no one knew what might happen with the actual war, the production wasn’t sure how to end the movie. Some of that uncertainty and worry and confusion translated as an undercurrent of tension which gives depth to the film. Movies made today -even about that time period - are made with the knowledge of how the war turned out, who won, etc so there is no underlying sense of urgency or mystery or dread which existed within films made at the time.
In my opinion the greatest representation of love ever in a film. There are many kinds of love exhibited in the film, which is beautiful.
Great reaction.
As we say in Texas; y'all be safe.
The director, Michael Curtiz, was known for exceptional use of shadows, strong black & white contrasts and unusual lighting to create mood and tension.
WW2 was still going on when this film was released. Talk about topical! It had it all: romance, intrigue, star power, and social relevance. What a film.
Fun reaction to a great movie. Here's a suggestion.
"Judgment At Nuremberg" is a post WWII courtroom drama dealing with the trial of many Nazi leaders. Sensational performances by Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Werner Klemperer, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, William Shatner, and Montgomery Clift. Directed by Stanley Kramer, the film was released in 1961 and won numerous awards.
And rightly so.
With all the great performances in this movie, Claude Raines is my favorite. He steals every scene he's in.
Between takes the cast played poker. Ingrid Bergman joined but didn't know how to play. When it was her turn to raise or bet Bogart would prompt her with, "Here's looking at you, kid." The director overheard it and decided to write it into the script.
The most amazing thing about this movie is how many lines you recognize, even if you never saw it or realized this was the source of those lines. It's an amazing script!
Casablanca is my favourite movie of all time with probably the best cast in movie history (Must of watched it about 20 times)
FINALLY! the greatest movie ever made!
Elsa admired her husband but she LOVED Rick.
As for the friendship between Rick and Sam it was very unusual for films to have this type of true fairly equal friendship between a black man and a white man. I think it is great.
Claud Rained is amazing in this.
I feel like she actually loved both.
@@migmit It is quite possible to love two people with equal fervor but for different reasons and in different ways.
One of the 25 to 50 best films ever done. Your wife is amazing with her emotions and insight. Enjoy the perspective of you both
Others have mentioned that many of the actors & extras in this film were actually real refugees who fled the Nazi invasion of Europe. But what a lot of people don't know is that Conrad Veidt ("Major Strasser") was as well. German film actor during the 'silent film' era. Married to a Jewish girl. Fled Germany to the UK, and then to the US. He knew that since he was German, he'd be asked to portray Nazis. He had it in his contract (under the old 1940s 'studio system' in H'wood, where actors were treated like athletes working for a sports team) that if he was going to play one, he'd be the nastiest one he could be. Odd additional thing IIRC, Veidt's contract was actually with MGM, and his loan fee to WB made him the highest paid guy on the film.
Historical references for Rick: Smuggled guns to Ethiopia? The Ethiopians lost to Italian fascists. Fought with the 'loyalists' in Spain? Lost to the Spanish fascists (who had German weapons). Rick's just tired of losing. Wants to just give up (especially after the heartbreak in Paris), and live in peace - but still hates the fascists. Telling the guy from Deutsche Bank, "..you're lucky the bar's open to you." is the first hint. Letting the band at his club play "La Marseillaise" when Victor tells them to is the next.
I'm 61. Saw this film for the first time when I was about 13yrs old. These great old films were what was on TV all night before the infomercial was invented. I owe a big thanks to my grandmother (RIP) for answering all her grandson's questions about the politics in the film. She lived through it all.
I guess you have never had to say to someone, "We'll always have Paris."
There’s a handful of perfect movies ever made. This is one of them.
I'm shocked -- shocked! -- to discover that you didn't recognize Claude Raines. 😉
When I was 16, I skipped off school and ended up watching this instead of classes. Changed my life. Seriously. I got this movie down to my soul. I've watched it maybe fifty or more times and fall more in love with it every time.
4:27 that is Madeleine LeBeau who refugeed from France right before Hitler invaded. When she is singing and crying her anthem later in the film she is not acting there. In 2016 she was the last survivor passing away at 92
My favourite film of all time and, like you, every time we get to the singing of The Marseillaise, my eyes moisten. And I've seen this film countless times, at home and the cinema.
Everybody Loves "Casablanca" Watch in B&W and Never See in Color! A Great Classic Movie at Any Time and in Every Age- Thank you from an Old Man who has watched and enjoyed "Casablanca' about 100 times! A Movie Classic Forever!
I saw this on the big screen at film forum in the village in NYC and it blew me out of the theater. It is amazing how seeing films on big screen can affect you. They were made for the big screen as far as the cinematography and direction and it really makes a difference. And I also remember thinking how amazing the humor in the film was.
Watch The Maltese Falcon next & see if Emily recognizes any actors.
I love the amazing dialog in this movie as well as the amazing lighting and flawless casting. Practically every character in it is special in some way. As a history buff and fan of the golden age of Hollywood, Casablanca is simply my cup of tea. Bogart's Rick made him a star and is absolutely iconic, too. Thank you so much for sharing your reaction with us!
If you would like to see more Claude Rains you have to see him as Prince John in the Errol Flynn version of Robin Hood. He was in a host of movies (including another classic horror tale - The Phantom of the opera) but his big 3 are probably Mr Smith goes to Washington, Robin Hood and Casablanca.
Dang I LOVE masterclass films like Casablanca, The Sting, Die Hard, Back To The Future, It's A Wonderful Life etc. Films whose elements bond together so seamlessly towards an ultra-satisfying pay-off.
Bogart's movies are interesting. I need to watch his classic film noir The Big Sleep again because that was like Casablanca on speed and complex - but mindblowing watching his famous razor-sharp detective character pick apart The Big Sleep's formidable criminal underworld.
I saw this movie complete for the first time at university in a movie club at one of the university theatres with a bunch of others who were seeing it for the first time. We laughed all the way through it. Like you we had heard all those catch phrases for years and we finally got to see them in the original movie
Fun Fact: the Bulgarian girl was played by the stepdaughter of the studio head, Jack Warner.
Thanks for the reaction! Don't know if you'll see this after a year, but I'd highly recommend watching Bogart and Bacall in "To Have and Have Not". Great characters, chemistry, music and humor, and you can see Bogie and Bacall falling in love while filming. They got married a year later after Bogart finally divorced his alcoholic abusive wife.
And to think when this was made, it was just another film being shot on a Hollywood lot, nothing special about it in the slightest, and yet.... What a classic.. Emily, I've not seen you this emotional since you watched Fateful Findings
Remember, this was made during the war. No one knew how it would end. Many of extras, actors and crew were real immigrants who had fled Europe to evade the Nazis. The scene where they sang La Marsalis to shut the Nazis down, the tears and emotions were real. This wasn’t the past for them, but their daily reality. Keeping this in mind makes the film even more meaningful.
Being an Austrian myself I agree: Carl is great! 🙂
By the way also a lot of non-Austrian characters in this movie are played by Austrian actors. At that time Hollywood had plenty of them.
Victor Laslo ... He represents an ideal human being. Altruistic to the core.
The movie was made while WWII was still raging. They made a point of hiring French and other European actor refugees to have roles, even as extras, to get them some money. That makes the Le Marseilles scene even better. The people singing it did it with true patriotism in their hearts and souls.
22:57 References are tight!
With December right around the corner I would highly recommend the 1942 Christmas Comedy "The Man Who Came To Dinner" It was based on a hit stage play, has more than a few faces you will recognize, and has some of the best comedic dialogue ever put to film. I won't give away the plot but one of the most famous quotes about the film is "It throws everything at you but the kitchen sink although it does have penguins"
One of the most quoted movies of all time.
Paul Henreid is great with Bette Davis in Now, Voyager. And I would argue Bogarts best film is The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
One of my all time favorite movies, but it’s not the great romance every one believes it to be, but it’s a great relationship between Rick and Renault is what makes this movie special for me.
Great reaction to a great movie. Excellent comment on that perfect ending. I was so moved by your reaction during the Marseillaise scene that I wept and wept... Thank you ! Kisses from France
Emily can get some more Claude Rains with Mr Smith Goes To Washington 🙂
This is one of my all time favorite movies. I also love how many other movies and social references are made to quotes, lines, and concepts in this movie. A whole movie created from the concept of rounding up “The Usual Suspects”. A great film that inspired other diverse and unique works from simple lines to music and scenes.
By 1941, one French franc would be worth 5.88 USD, adjusted to 2023 USD, and 10,000 francs would be worth 58,880 USD in 2023.
Peter Lorre is the Looney Tunes guy.
He was written in as an FU by Warner Bros animators as a sign of respect, because Warner shot his career dead when he supported the set decorators strike.
Humphrey Bogart was GREAT at playing Humphrey Bogart
"Sam, would you play our song, just one more time?"
"Of course... DING DONG! The witch is dead! Which old witch? The wicked witch......."
LMAO. Thank you so much!
You have to understand the political significance of this movie. The US population was largely isolationist until Pearl Harbor. Rick represents the US ...evolving to the point of "joining the fight".
To put a cherry on that point, think of what is happening halfway around the world at the exact time when the airport scene occurs.
I think that may be a bit of an oversimplification. It's established that Rick was far more involved in the larger anti-fascist fight than the US ever was our wanted to be. But he's become disillusioned, a bit too neatly explained (imo), for narrative purposes, through the perceived Ilsa betrayal. I've always read the subtext of the film as being as much as an indictment of US policy as the US being a shining beacon of hope. Why can't Rick go home? Would he want to go home? He *_knows_* the truth that these poor refugees don't yet. The film is too cynical to be purely jingoistic. It's not film noir as such, but the universe it inhabits is pure noir.
Wouldn't Rick have been the first man to shoot a Nazi in the movies, before the US was even in the war?
@@joeday4293 Take a look at "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" (1939), really the first anti-Nazi film made in the US. Prior to that, the production code barred any criticism of Germany (for several reasons), but "Confessions" was based on a true story and thus was greenlit. After that, some of the studios (Warner Bros. and MGM) began to be more aggressive with anti-Nazi movies, including "The Mortal Storm" (1940) and "The Sea Hawk" (1940).
@@Hexon66 Excellent. We are told very little about Rick. We do know that he "fought" in the war in Ethiopia and in Spain's civil war (no US involvement) on the underdog side (right side) both times for moral reasons, as it is explained that the other side would have paid more, so it wasn't about money. We can assume he was doing something in France because he needed to get out before the Germans came into Paris and left there for Casablanca. He knew immediately who Laszlo was, even details. I, for some reason, just assumed that it was the amount of intel Rick possessed about underground organizations that would have been important to the US. Saying that he couldn't go back was because the US wanted the info just as badly as others. It was Rick that felt he couldn't go back. I agree with disillusioned, but would say more disappointed, both by his own country and by Ilsa. And as you said, a statement about US policy.
There's a great parody of the dueling anthems scene in "The Cheap Detective", which parodies both "Casablanca" and "The Maltese Falcon" among others.
A great and terribly underrated film is " A Face in the Crowd" from 1957 starring Andy Griffith. It says things bout the influence of media that's still relevant today. Maybe even more so.
For more Bogart and Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet for that matter, check out "The Maltese Falcon". Another great Bogart film is "The Big Sleep".
"The Cheap Detective" is one of my favorite parody movies.
you might consider "The Asphalt Jungle" (1950) - a seriously excellent crime caper
"Asphalt Jungle" is top drawer entertainment.
Thanks for commenting one of my favourite films.
I appreciated how you never skipped the best dialogues.
Matthiew made me smile when he said you actually did not SEE Claude Rains in The Invisible Man… I have seen that movie and was astonished : how good Claude Rains was ! Fancy getting celebrity only by his voice and his gesture when he wore clothes !!!
A great actor, they should have given him an Oscar !
You could watch him (and Paul Henreid) in Now Voyager starring Bette Davis and Dame Gladys Cooper.
Greetings from France 🇫🇷
One of the examples of movie magic: Ingrid Bergman was noticably taller than Humphrey Bogart. He had to stand on a box or sit on some pillows when she was next to him.
20:00 Louis (Claude Raines) drops the bottle in the basket after looking at the label. It is Vichy Water, carbonated mineral water, and the city where the pro-German French State under Marshall Petain (aka Vichy France) set up their capital. It symbolized the hope that French collaborators in the French colonies and France itself would turn against the Nazies and become patriots of France again as the Allied Powers began the long effort to liberate Europe.
"Everybody comes to Rick's" was the original title of the unsold play which Warner Brothers bought and adapted into the film script, but they kept rewriting it each day driving everyone crazy...note the moving cameras and shadows making this film a little more interesting visually. You can thank the great Max Steiner for the great orchestration of the movie soundtrack. He also wrote many others including Gone With the Wind. He was the John Williams of his day. I read a complete book on him [Steiner] recently.
One of my all time favorite movies. As for a suggestion on an other. The original 12 Angry Men.
For anyone who missed the reference, the bottle of wine dropped into the trash can had a label that read "Vichy". Vichy was a town and region in southern France. After France surrendered in June 1940, the new collaboration government of France was established in Vichy, which was supposedly the unoccupied and still quasi independent France. "Vichy France" was considered a puppet government beholden to the Nazis, and it collaborated and cooperated with Nazi Germany to one degree or another.
Peter Lorre (the actor who was drawn into the Looney Tunes) himself left Germany when the Nazis came to power. I think his most iconic role is as child murderer in "M" - which also was shot in an international version as I get it. HIGHLY recommend that one! :)
Casablanca had a debut on Nov. 26th 1942, wide release Jan 23rd. D-Day for Operation Torch was Nov. 8th. The American's landed in French Africa under fire by Vichy French forces. Casablanca was secured Nov. 10th. This was the start of America taking on Nazi Germany. The United States also were conducting active operations in the North Atlantic to brake the German U boats. By the time this movie hit theaters, U.S. servicemen have been actively fighting, and dying in Africa.
They establish the time of the setting as the first week of December, 1941. Remember the significance of that week. Glad you enjoyed this classic film.
#fact The treatment arrived at the script office at Warner Brothers studios and was first read on Dec 9th 1941. two days after Pearl Harbor attack. The script reader passed it ahead for consideration minutes after finishing it.
I watched Casablanca really late in my life (I think with 40 or so) - and man, was I missing out. The story is proper good and there's some literally classic acting in it (and now I get why it's considered "classic", DAMN!). This is just a great movie!
Casablanca is a classic for sure, while some will suggest "The Maltese Falcon", which is pretty good but a little convoluted.
I would suggest "The African Queen" (1951) Bogart and Katherine Hepburn together and a great adventure story.
Check out Key Largo (1948) for another Bogart classic film this time with Lauren Bacall Edward G. Robinson and a loaded cast in very Southern Florida... in a movie that might be even better than this one ! ( on par anyway)
In the 1980s, a film historian submitted the screenplay to 217 agencies under the original title "Everybody Comes To Ricks". Most rejected it without even reading it due to policies about unsolicited manuscripts. Of the people who responded, 33 recognized the script, 8 said it was similar and 41 rejected the screenplay outright with criticisms such as "too much dialogue"
Claude Rains plays a great villain. I love him in Robinhood as Prince John.
Seems odd to a European that the historical context might not be second nature. Possibly as that period is still so well covered in schools and the wider culture (particularly in the UK, who struggle NOT to refer to it regularly).
As such, perhaps not surprising that the discussion didn't cover the main thrust of the movie - that Rick represents the aloof USA, and needs to be convinced that neutrality is actually a callous position to take, given the mess Europe has become (perfectly demonstrated by the confused diaspora in Rick's bar) and eventually needs to take a side and help, which of course is exactly how that war panned out.
When the war started, the US genuinely had split opinions about what the German powers represented, and whether it mattered outside Europe. And possibly some had eyes on the benefits of Europe declining. As such, many artists from Dr Seuss to Hollywood helped spread the message that we now take for granted, that there's no such thing as a good Nazi. Cue Indiana Jones Theme! 🎶
Those benefits to the US of Europe's decline were subsequently of interest to some of Truman's administration and beyond (Eisenhower etc). Perhaps that gets picked up a little in Oppenheimer 😉 The 1950s were where the Western genre picked up and ran with the Cold War undercurrent in every script.
You said that you really liked the ending. However at the very end when the two of them are walking off into the dark, what you hear Humphrey Bogart say is not what was originally supposed to be the ending. They had had him come back in and recorded the "...beginning of a beautiful friendship." line for a voiceover.
30 years later, the Super Warnerio Brothers released "What's up Doc", the best screwball comedy in existence, and it was just full to the brim with Casablanca references. Might be something to watch in the future. Emily would definitely love the main character.
"You must remember this.."
"C Minor 7th.."
Great, great film. Criminally under-rated. Glad to hear someone else hasn't forgotten it!
Another great film with classic stars- Bette Davis - (and also features Claude Rains and Paul Henreid!) is 1942’s “Now, Voyager.” If you watch it, note how costuming plays an important role in character development.
Yo Pip! The best movie of all time! Ah the singing of La Marseilles. Scene gets me every time. Hits even harder knowing that a lot of the actors in that scene were war refugees from Europe, from the Nazis. Indeed Yvonne (Madeline Lebeau), Rick's sort-of girlfriend at the start of the film, is a good example. About 18 or 19 when the movie was shot; she fled France with her husband (the actor playing the croupier) and stayed in the US throughout the war. When she died she was the last surviving billed cast member of Casablanca. Acting can only take you so far, feeling...can get you further. Also to be fair I must make the point, Claude Raines was/is the Invisible Man. So I can get how she missed him.
The dialogue in this movie, delivery, and pacing, has only been matched by Quentin Tarratinno.....perfect film.❤
So I went through this movie going: “hat!” every time I saw one. 🎩
Jeez: Lorre's voice was not done by Lorre in the cartoon. Lorre was a quite famous actor at the time...Jeez squared: she said Victor was her hubby..Jeez to the third power: Renault. Apres: My kingdom for a Wilde or a Shaw...And the metaphors are??? MIA. Well here is one: Rick, of course, is a metahpor for the neutral US at the time...
6:20 I guess that's where the famous phrase "cash in your chips" came from. lol
Some other classics I think you’d like, Philadelphia story, bringing up baby, Christmas in Connecticut, gaslight