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Happy 80th Birthday to the greatest film ever made | Opinion
Kentucky.com ^ | 2/17/2023 | Bob Heleringer

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 ...


TOPICS: TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: casablanca; movie
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There are a lot of movies so I don't know if I agree that Casablanca is the greatest of all but I did watch it again recently and would agree it has stood the test of time.
1 posted on 02/17/2023 9:37:25 PM PST by Saije
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To: Saije

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.


2 posted on 02/17/2023 9:44:32 PM PST by Chad C. Mulligan (eleutheromaniac)
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To: Saije

It’s right up there for me..


3 posted on 02/17/2023 9:44:43 PM PST by rexthecat
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To: Saije

The best is:
“The Best Years of Our Lives”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAfM_1RirWY


4 posted on 02/17/2023 9:45:03 PM PST by leopud
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To: Saije

I don’t know what is the greatest film ever made, but Casablanca is right up there in the Top Ten, IMO...


5 posted on 02/17/2023 9:45:58 PM PST by nutmeg
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To: Saije

Not necessarily the best, but surely one of the greatest.


6 posted on 02/17/2023 9:45:59 PM PST by Trump_Triumphant
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To: leopud

AMEN. “The Best Years of Our Lives” gets my vote for #1 !


7 posted on 02/17/2023 9:46:25 PM PST by nutmeg
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To: Saije

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.


8 posted on 02/17/2023 9:56:08 PM PST by JennysCool ("It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled." - Mark Twain)
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To: Saije

“Casablanca” is very high on the list, but I would put “Kings Row” above it.


9 posted on 02/17/2023 10:05:39 PM PST by The Duke (Never Retreat, Never Surrender!)
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To: leopud

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


10 posted on 02/17/2023 10:05:43 PM PST by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant. Never Fearful.)
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To: Saije
In the final scene of Casablanca, the mechanics visible behind Bogart and Bergman were actually Midgets hired to make the Cut-Out plane (1/3 size) in the background look real.

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.

11 posted on 02/17/2023 10:06:18 PM PST by 11th_VA (XX < > XY)
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To: Saije
I don't know if I agree that Casablanca is the greatest of all

Rick is such a grumpy, grouchy loser. What did Isla ever see in him? Her husband was a much better catch.

12 posted on 02/17/2023 10:14:32 PM PST by Right_Wing_Madman
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To: Right_Wing_Madman

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!!”


13 posted on 02/17/2023 10:34:09 PM PST by drSteve78 (Je suis Deplorable STILL )
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To: 21twelve

Breaker Morant

“Shoot straight you bastards!”

Third favorite movie.


14 posted on 02/17/2023 10:37:01 PM PST by drSteve78 (Je suis Deplorable STILL )
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To: Saije

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.


15 posted on 02/17/2023 10:39:11 PM PST by UnwashedPeasant (The pandemic we suffer from is not COVID. It is Marxist Democrat Leftism.)
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To: leopud

“The best is:
“The Best Years of Our Lives”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAfM_1RirWY

I agree.


16 posted on 02/17/2023 10:48:24 PM PST by laplata (They want each crisis to take the greatest toll possible.)
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To: Saije

Good but not best


17 posted on 02/17/2023 11:01:06 PM PST by wardaddy (Truth is treason in the Empire of lies)
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To: sphinx

GOAT movie ping


18 posted on 02/17/2023 11:01:11 PM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: 21twelve

i like the original “manchurian candidate” more.


19 posted on 02/17/2023 11:03:32 PM PST by Mount Athos
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To: Right_Wing_Madman

you didnt understand the movie....


20 posted on 02/17/2023 11:06:32 PM PST by basalt (qb's)
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