I saw *Casablanca * when I was seventeen. I’d avoided it until then - I’m not much of a movie buff and all I knew was that it was a black & white ‘classic’, i.e. boring. But a girl in my class that I was trying to impress couldn’t believe that I hadn’t seen it, so she got her copy and we skipped school to watch it at my house.
And it blew me away. Every line was quotable; it moved from romance to cynicism to broad humour like nothing I’d seen before. I was an instant convert.
For the past few years and open air theater would show movies during the summer. *Casablanca * was always on the program, and I’d round up as many of my friends as I could to go see it. Without fail they’d snicker at the turning globe at the beginning, and yet by the time the bar was singing La Marseillaise they’d be misty-eyed and cheering just like me, and at the end they’d all say ‘that was awesome!’
I love Casablanca, but I love introducing it to people even more
Nobody wants to admit that the writers just screwed up by using De Gaulle’s name. Only with wishful thinking does “De Gaulle” sound like “Weygand”.
That’s not the only error they made. Captain Renault also talks about marching into Berlin with the American army in the last war, when the Allied forces never came within 200 miles of Berlin, before during or after the war.
Oh, come on. The man is French, he pronounces thing differently depending upon the day of the week and exaggerates about the any military efforts not French in a war.
And to help spread, er, fight ignorance:
Actually, I don’t think anyone marched into Berlin before the surrender, did they?
True, but that doesn’t really improve things. Although it does sound like “de Gaulle” to me, he does kind of slur the name.
Here’s another poser: why does Lorre ask Rick to hold the letters? It forces Rick to be the central character, but there’s no particular reason for it, especially if he suspects that he’s going to be caught anyway. Why not just sell them to the Resistance so they can offer it to Lazlo when he shows up? Ugarte doesn’t have any particular reason to hang around other than to provide a sinisterly amusing quip for Capt Renault: “I’m making out the report now. We haven’t quite decided whether he committed suicide or died trying to escape.”
Still, some classic quotes. “I don’t mind a parasite. I object to a cut-rate one.”
One more question about Vichy-run Morocco: Capt. Renault (“the wind blows from Vichy”) is the prefect of police. Major Strasser orders him around-why doesn’t Strasser just take over?
Another great line:
(Capt. Renault): “Major Strasser’s been shot-round up the usual suspects!”
My favorite scene/line(s) is the one where Ilsa is looking at cloth in a bazaar:
Arab: You will not find a treasure like this in all Morocco, Mademoiselle. Only 700 francs.
Rick (approaching): You’re being cheated.
Ilsa (to Arab): It doesn’t matter. Thank you.
Arab (pulling out a sign that says “200 francs” from underneath stall): Ah! The lady is a friend of Rick’s? For friends of Rick, we have a small discount. Did I say seven hundred francs? You can have it for two hundred!
Rick (ignoring Arab): I’m sorry I was in no condition to receive you when you called on me last night.
Ilsa: It doesn’t matter.
Arab (eyes widening, while pulling out a sign that says “100 francs”): Ah, for special friends of Rick’s, we have a special discount. One hundred francs!
91 posts and no one’s mentioned one of my favourite and most useful bits of dialogue from the movie. It’s a tiny little scene, but a good one. Yvonne, a French expatriot who’s had one too many is trying to get the bartender to serve her. Please bear with me if I botch the lines a little.
Bartender: Yvonne, I love you.
Yvonne: Give me a drink!
Rick: Cut her off!
Bartender: Yvonne, I love you.
Yvonne: Give me a drink!
Rick: I said, “Cut her off!”
Bartender: Yvonne, I love you, but he pays me.
Well it seems that everyone in Cassablanca (In the film of course) sees Rick as a straight shooter. He may be cynical and not stick his neck out for anyone but he is completely straight. Ugarte knows Rick has no repect or like for him and in Ugarte’s twisted logic Rick’s honesty about that makes him the only one in the city to trust.
Ugarte hopes that by not having the letters on him when he is arrested he can breeze through the pinch and then pick them up later for the sale he has arranged with Lazlo. (See he was selling to the resistance he just wanted to go to the top dog to get a better price).
Of course it does. It takes place after WWII. Casablanca takes place before Pearl Harbor. That’s like saying Casablanca explores life in North Africa better than The Third Man.
My favorite line (and one that I often quote) is where Rick and Renault are making a bet on if Lazlo’s going to make it out of Casablanca and Renault says, “Oh, go easy on me. I’m only a poor corrupt official.”
Yeah, but the underlying theme of Casablanca is that everyone (and in particular, America, who Rick represents) will come together to fight the evil of European fascism and will stick together to preserve peace. The Third Man explores the fact that the different factions won’t or perhaps can’t cooperate except where their interests coincide (and even then with difficulty) and that in the middle there is plenty of room for corruption which feeds the economy. Casablanca seems (and I think, is) a cross between a fairy tale and pro-Allies propaganda; removed from the environment of Vichy French Morocco the story doesn’t fare too well. The Third Man has, I would argue, a more universal context. And the zither theme is haunting, like a joyous requiem for civilization.
Like I said, maybe it’s just my cynicism. But while Casablanca is kind of a fun way to blow a couple of hours, The Third Man makes me think. And the closing scene is far more memorable.
Picking “holes” in the storyline of Casablanca by refusing to accept the underlying premise that forces suspension of disbelief is stupid. If you refuse to accept a world in which even the baddies play more or less by the rules, then the film is a hopeless mess of stipidity and unreality.
Once you accept that the premise (which you have to admit allows even the “evil” Nazis to have some semblance of decency) is valid, the movie does just fine for plot. Yes, there are some minor difficulties, but frankly this is true of every single movie ever made. Plots always have holes.
And I disagree that Bogart was just being Bogart. First of all, if you watch enough of his films, you will see that he didn’t really HAVE a particular persona he played in film; his characters are as different as Queeg and Allnut. Further, even if we focus on the typical Bogart-as-private-eye character, this isn’t how he behaves during the flashback scenes to Paris before the arrival of the Germans, when he has first met Ilsa and is in love. Just MHO.
