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.
(Excerpt) Read more at kentucky.com ...
Good movie, but not the best.
People argue about what’s the best, but being a legend doesn’t change.
Come on, everybody knows “Dude, Where’s My Car?” is the greatest movie ever made.
Goodfellas is another great one!
Mom took me to see Gone With the Wind in about...1969(about 8 years old) at the Alabama Theater in Birmingham. Around Christmas. Matinee. Back when they had Intermission. Made quite an impression. Got to get up and stretch our legs and get a snack and look around that glorious lobby! Damn beautiful and impressive place.
Another movie Wife and I watch at least once a year.
They saved the Alabama. Wife is a big patron. If you get to Bham and can go to an event there I highly recommend it.
That’s a good observation and I’d say you’re right. I just looked at the awards it won and it’s amazing.(Wikipedia)
The Best Years of Our Lives is 10 times the movie Casa Blanca is.
My wife and I were old movie buffs. I always called that movie Three Came Home, knowing it would tweak her.
I didn’t realize that Breaker Morant and Zulu were based on true stories until the very end.
Another favorite of mine is “They Died with their boots on” (Custer). So then I did some research on why the Brits were able to beat the Zulus and why Custer didn’t beat the Indians.
I didn’t get into it too much, but I think the Brits had better guns and better training/discipline. The Brits use of the alternating rows of fire to keep up a steady stream of bullets was interesting and very effective, I’m not a military buff and it makes sense.
I forget the numbers, but it was something like 1 Zulu dead for every 20 rounds fired. For Custer they estimated it was something like 800 rounds for every dead Indian. (The Americans had a bad habit of firing too high under stress).
In Vietnam they guess that it was something like 20,000 rounds fired for every enemy killed!
Don’t know if you’ve ever done it but years ago I took a day trip to one of the camps...Dachau.It was a cold,dreary March day and I must say it was the single most disturbing day of my life.
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Been to Dachau. A cold, dreary day, same as you. Almost fifty years ago now.
I distinctly remember the sculpture at the entrance.
Extremely Disturbing. Left a permanent mark.
Speaking of Vietnam, I’ll add “We were Soldiers Once and Young” to my list of favorite movies.
My daughter was horrified at the scene where John Wayne takes Maureen O'Hara over his knee and spanks her.
The Indians had better guns than Custer.
That was part of it. It is amazing all of the various theories and analysis of the Custer Battle that they have done. Mapping of spent cartridges to figure out where people were, eye-witness accounts, etc.
Yes, they’ve done some amazing studies on the battle. As you know, they found much more to work with after the fire, which, as you mentioned, allowed them to map spent cartridges/positions.
You should see ZULU DAWN with Burt Lancaster. You can see why the Zulus won at Islandwana.
This is true. In his book ON THE BORDER WITH CROOK by Bourke, he mentions that the Indians became “surly” after they traded for tube fed magazine rifles. This was before LBH.
If it were the same world with today’s politicians they would be crying for a ban on those rapid fire rifles.
Whereas, in 1868, the tribes at the Washita received free Government issued Lancaster rifles and pistols before they went on their killer raids into Kansas and got Custer (under orders from Sheridan) on their tail.
Look at the difference in movies over the years.
For Whom the Bell Tolls shows the enemy as being supported by nazi, so the Commies were the “good guys” in the war years.
In THE ANGEL WORE RED the “Republican” Spanish were the enemy and the Franco faction the good guys.
In Pan’s Labyrinth, a fantasy which asks which was more terrifying! The Pro-Franco groups or the Commies as opposed to the girl’s fantasy world of strange fauns.(Commies are the good guys in this one)
***after French troops had killed Americans landing in French North Africa.***
A lot of people have never heard of this. We learned it decades ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Torch
Good post, friend. You know your history.
I am from Birmingham and actually visiting right now! I’ve been to the Alabama Theater too.
I have the 4K of Schindler’s List. The improvement over the DVD is stunning.
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