Posted on 02/17/2023 9:37:25 PM PST by Saije
When Warner Brothers’ movie, “Casablanca,” was released nationally on Jan. 23, 1943, to coincide with a war-time meeting of President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the same city, New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote that “The Warners . . . have a picture that makes the spine tingle and the heart take a leap.” After 80 years, the iconic film remains a masterpiece and, in my totally subjective estimation, simply the greatest movie ever made.
I can still remember when I was in law school the Vogue Theater in St. Matthews showing “Casablanca” like it was a first-run movie. The packed house, as in earlier generations, was held spellbound by this compelling, World War II-era good-versus-evil saga with dozens of unforgettable characters with a red-hot romance as an extra “added attraction.” People around me sang out loud the soaring “Le Marseillaise,” spontaneously begun on screen by Resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) to drown out the Germans’ “Die Wacht am Rhein” after the Nazis had commandeered a piano at Rick’s Café Americain. If you’re not moved by perhaps the most riveting single scene in any American film, well, you might need to go see a good cardiologist.
“Casablanca” won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1943, along with Oscars for Best Director (Michael Curtiz) and Best Screenplay (Julius and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch). That nominees Humphrey Bogart (“Rick”) and Claude Rains (“Captain Renault”) didn’t win Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, is still shockingly unfathomable.
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In the ‘60 when I was in college the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, just off Hahvud Squayah ran CasaB continuously to the exclusion of all else for at least a decade. Only God knows how many prints they wore out.
It’s right up there for me..
The best is:
“The Best Years of Our Lives”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAfM_1RirWY
I don’t know what is the greatest film ever made, but Casablanca is right up there in the Top Ten, IMO...
Not necessarily the best, but surely one of the greatest.
AMEN. “The Best Years of Our Lives” gets my vote for #1 !
One of the most incredible assemblies of actors in film history, and made even better by the longtime rumor (more than that, I think) that some of the dialogue was “made up as they went along.” It’s still fresh, and moving, and pretty much everything you might want it to be.
Bogart and Bergman are both fantastic. And Claude Rains is just perfect. More than anyone, he deserved the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. He’s a gem.
I would add that second-place in my Best Supporting Actor pantheon is Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday in “Tombstone.” It truly is a stain on Hollywood that he wasn’t even nominated.
“Casablanca” is very high on the list, but I would put “Kings Row” above it.
Thanks for that link. I’ve been on a kick of watching old movies on youtube that I haven’t ever watched but are much aclaimed.
“Breaker Morant” and “Zulu” for starters and both were great.
IIRC I recall a documentary about directors that served in WWII creating war effort films, and one of them after the war did “The Best Years of Our Lives” because of the impact that the war had on him. (I might be wrong, but...)
Zulu
They were prohibited from filming at night on a real runway, due to the war, and had to film in a studio - hence the work around.
What did Isla ever see in him?
“Here’s looking at you, kid”
My favorite simple part of the movie, so telling, is the old couple
“what watch? Such much!!”
Breaker Morant
“Shoot straight you bastards!”
Third favorite movie.
Coming to the theaters March 5 and 8.
https://www.fathomevents.com/series/fathoms-big-screen-classics
This is a movie that should be watched on the big screen. Get your tickets while the best seats are available.
Good but not best
GOAT movie ping
i like the original “manchurian candidate” more.
you didnt understand the movie....
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