Comments on: Is Casablanca Overrated?

By: eric k

eric k — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:49:49 +0000

I think part of what hurts Casablanca is that it has been copied so much that a lot of it seems cliched now.

I actually think the similarly themed Notorious with Cray Grant and Ingrid Bergman is better, but Casablanca is still very good.

And ditto the Touch of Evil love, amazing film, who would ever imagine that Charlton Heston could be so good in a subtle performance rather than his usual grandiose style.

By: fafaroo

fafaroo — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:06:55 +0000

Subtext four and five layers deep in spots. Honestly bypasses the subconscious if you’re just watching it.

I totally agree. If you don’t get that Casablanca is actually Rick’s coming out story, you’re totally missing it.

The start of a “beautiful friendship”, indeed.

By: bryan

bryan — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:59:22 +0000

Sorry, almost forgot Peter Lorre.
Does anyone remember 2 bugs bunny cartoons, one with Edward G Robinson and Peter Lorre spoofs and the other with Humphrey Bogart and a silent Lauren Bacall (It ends with Bugs voluntarily putting himself into a sandwich because that’s what Bacall wnats to eat!)?

By: bryan

bryan — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:46:53 +0000

Claude Rains was a great actor, and I always make a point of seeing any film I notice he is in on TV. Conrad Veldt was a pretty good actor too (see Contraband in which he plays the good Danish sea captain sorting out the Nazi threat). As too was Sydney Greenstreet.
I think this is a great film, but I love propaganda. Sahara is also a brilliant Bogey propaganda film. I also love the way that they moved Sherlock holmes to the 1940′s to fight Nazis and deliver stirring speeches about subjects such as Canada!)
Does anyone watch foreign films? Because “La Grande Illusion” was so good the Nazis banned it!
I would also reccommend “The 5000 fingers of Dr. T” (T in red lettering), Dr Seuss screenplay musical kids film with an anti-communist undertone.
To return, the Vichy water, the “such much!”, the use of a song from an unsuccessful 1930′s show (“As time goes by”). The propaganda, the good but aloof Rick coming around. This is a great film. Easily in the top 1000 (I think there are at least ten times that many ‘great’ movies, so top thou is not as bad as you’d think).
30′s films? Cagney (any). Marx Brothers (any). Laurel and Hardy (most). Renoir (any including the one that was remade as “down and out in Beverley Hills in the 1980′s).
Silent? Phantom of the Opera, the General, Metropolis.

By: PTCruiser

PTCruiser — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:03:00 +0000

Now you want an opening scene? How about “Once Upon a Time in the West”? The opening scene of Once Upon a Time in the West is marvelous as a form of movie exposition but the technical work involved in shooting the scene is fairly standard. Welles' achievement in the opening of A Touch of Evil, i.e, one camera and no cuts, raised the aesthetic bar a bit.

By: Porlock Junior

Porlock Junior — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 05:58:41 +0000

If you think it’s overrated, you might enjoy Umberto Eco’s essay on How To Make a Cult Classic, in the collection How to Travel with a Salmon. He takes it down pretty thoroughly, and I can’t help being entertained by the essay, though I admire the movie.

Six years ago a bunch of people came over to the house to celebrate the 21st birthday of a certain person here. Freedom Fries were in fashion at the time, and we talked of serving some, but didn’t get around to it. We did drink some decidedly nice Freedom Wine from 1982. Then we watched Casablanca, which most of the crew had not seen; and of course we duly stood for La Marseillaise.

Of course the movie is a bit old and creaky — what do you expect of something that’s as old as I am? — but I think its wind is still good, and it will carry on for a while.

And you do have to watch out for that Derivative stuff in old movies. I had seen The Cocoanuts more than once, and noticed how the choreography looked like Busby Berkeley with the overhead shots and all, before I found out that it was Berkeley’s work that was derivative from Cocoanuts (specifically, Alan K. Foster, I see in looking it up).

By: jose hipants

jose hipants — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 04:21:34 +0000

What erik said.
You best give it another chance, Oliver. You’re a patriotic romantic. Casablanca was made for you.

By: gray lensman

gray lensman — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 04:18:14 +0000

Try watching Casablanca again, keeping in mind the time and place. Be sure you have the unedited version in which Rains’ character takes advantage of the young bride. It was a nasty time in history, with nasty people. In the background is the Holocaust, Vichy France, the War, the Resistance, etc. At the time the movie was considered a brave statement, considering the conservative forces in the US, like Ford, Lindbergh and the Bushes. Many Americans would have let Hitler have his way in Europe and not help Britain. Roosevelt knew we had to Do Something no matter how many lives were lost. The Japanese in the Pacific just added another plot point.

By: Duros62

Duros62 — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:37:25 +0000

I’ve always thought that “Gone With the Wind” was wildly overrated,

Ditto.

By: Quaker in a Basement

Quaker in a Basement — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:56:38 +0000

Plus, you know, there’s Ingrid Bergman.

If you dig Ingrid, you have to see Hitchcock’s “Spellbound.” The picnic scene is awesome.

By: Randy Brown

Randy Brown — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:47:28 +0000

No Standards & Practices in 1933.

Actually, there was the Production Code (aka the “Hays Code”), which existed from 1930 to 1968.

RKO may have snuck a lot of violence past the Hays Office with “Kong.” But remember, audiences were not allowed to see Frankenstein’s Monster throw a little girl into the water two years earlier.

Never seen “Casablanca,” even though I own the Warners DVD. I’ve always thought that “Gone With the Wind” was wildly overrated, as well as “Wonderful Life” (I have no use whatsoever for Christmas movies, except for Alistair Sim’s Scrooge).

“Kane” is perfect, though. The thing blew me away when I was 14 years old and Channel 20 in DC ran it, hyping it as The Greatest Movie Ever Made. (And at that age I HATED dramas.)

By: joel hanes

joel hanes — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:01:06 +0000

Watching it now it feels very derivative, but that’s because it’s the original. Reminds me of the story about the matron who has been to see Hamlet for the first time, and tells her friend, "Well, it was very dramatic, and dreary in parts -- but my dear, it was so utterly full of cliches."

By: Viceroy Matt

Viceroy Matt — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:10:27 +0000

Duros,

Missed that. Off to youtube i go now.

By: liberalrob

liberalrob — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:30:10 +0000

If they did that, there wouldn’t be any story.

Also, Vichy France was at least nominally sovereign territory. The Nazis didn’t officially have the right to go around blowing people away. If they starting expressly violating that sovereignty, especially in North Africa, there was a risk that the Vichy territory would go over to the Allies. De Gaulle was around and there was still a strong nationalist streak in the colonial French. So it makes sense that Major Strasser would attempt to influence the local French constabulary to do his work for him.

Casablanca is a great movie. But as with all art, the greatness lies in the eye of the beholder. Also, 67 years have passed since this movie was released; the fact that you can still consider it a good movie with such a generational gap between your experience and its time speaks to how truly great it is.

By: C.S.Strowbridge

C.S.Strowbridge — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:18:26 +0000

By the time I watched Enter the Dragon, I had seen so many parodies, imitations, and outfight copies that it didn’t have the same effect as it would have if I had watched it before hand.

I think this is true here.

By: I'm a Hick

I'm a Hick — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:59:10 +0000

Thanks for the recommendation re Prince of Foxes, RC.

With regard to Casablanca, as others have pointed out, there’s the basic question of why the Nazis don’t simply shoot Laszlo the first chance they get.

By: Parthenon

Parthenon — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:43:48 +0000

Touch Of Evil’s opening shot is one the most phenomenal things I’ve ever seen.

You might judge a piece by how often its quoted by later artists. Boogie Nights, Goodfellas, Children of Men, Snake Eyes, etc. Probably none of them the equal of Welles’ work in Touch of Evil, except maybe – and it’s a shaky maybe – Children of Men.

By: Zaius Nation

Zaius Nation — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:41:24 +0000

Is Casablanca Overrated? Heresy!

By: Quaker in a Basement

Quaker in a Basement — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:33:23 +0000

Now you want an opening scene? How about “Once Upon a Time in the West”?

When Bronson starts blowing that harmonica, it’s just surreal.

By: Duros62

Duros62 — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:29:08 +0000

I recently watched the original King Kong again. How on earth did that get released in 1933?!

No Standards & Practices in 1933. Did you see the guy near the elevated tracks that gets squished between Kong’s toes?