Oh, come now! Awful sets, cheesy back projection. Listen to Ebert’s commentary. Camera pans through an arch into a room which suddenly has a wall where the arch was, and physically impossible other room. The hamminess of some of the dialogue.
The thing I got out of Roger Ebert’s DVD commentary is that Ebert really does not like Paul Henreid. Granted, this is not Henreid’s best performance (for me, that’d probably be in Now, Voyager), but Rog snipes at him every time he’s on the screen. Okay, so he’s not Bogart… but who is?
My theory on why this movie resonates so strongly is because it does not end with a clinch. Same thing with GWTW. I think that we as viewers generally are so conditioned to expect a happy romantic ending to our movies, that it comes as something of a shock when we don’t get it; the story stays with us, perhaps as unfinished business. Even with its wonderfully clever dialogue and other charms, I wonder how Casablanca would be considered today if Ilsa had stayed with Rick?
Yeah, but Henried was really stiff. Incidentally, Now, Voyager was filmed on almost all of the same sets, and had the same freakin cast! Henreid and Rains!
I still don’t understand what back projection and cheese have in common (cheese is delicious?), but anyway. I have seen both Now, Voyager (twice) and Casablanca (numerous times), and I can’t think of a set that both movies share.
I can’t argue with that: he is a stick. It’s just that Ebert seems remarkably hostile toward him even so.
It came as rather a surprise to me when I first got Turner Classic Movies and had the opportunity to see Henried in other films, including Now, Voyager. From Casablanca, who would guess that this man could actually be charming, funny, even sexy? (I just love the cigarette erotica in Now, Voyager.) I remember talking about this once before, in some thread on old movie stars at least a year ago. It’s kind of sad that Victor Lazlo is what he’s chiefly remembered for these days.
I’d be interested too in knowing which sets are in both movies.
Harry Reasoner once did a segment on Casablanca on 60 Minutes. He points out the usual “movie” stuff about the movie, but adds that the film came out at just the right time, too. Classic love story, good cast of characters, and a world so turned upside down and in such upheaval that a romantic movie with some comc touches was the just thing that people needed to see. Sometimes it isn’t just the movie, but the times in which is made that make the difference.
I saw the movie recently after reading this thread and while I still think it’s a masterpiece some the criticisms here are valid. For instance the Time Goes By theme is overused. Not all the acting is of the same high standard; for instance Bergman isn’t very good in her more emotional scenes. Still I was once again reminded how witty the script was; there is a reason why “the usual suspects” and “I’m shocked, shocked” have become part of the general culture. Overall the acting is very good and Claude Rains is outstanding. The Marseillaise scene remains one of the most rousing in cinema history.
The city street (albeit dressed differently) and the train station.
Sheesh, you left out “Round up the usual suspects!”
Best part is knowing that, after they (the Epstein brothers) wrote the line–thinking it was the perfect capstone to the perfect script–they got a call from the director. They had filmed it:
Major Strasser has been shot, round up the usual suspects.
(with no pause or anything). They had to “suggest” that a pause and a significant glance, and then the final line, would be better.
Major Strasser has been shot…[glance]…round up the usual suspects.