Casablanca"s 75th Anniversery

Casablanca is even more poignant when you learn that most of the actors on screen were Jewish actors, French and Germans alike, fleeing Europe and Hitler's madness!
When she sang "La Marseillaise" there wasn't a dry eye on the set that day because of who they were at the time and what they had abandoned:cry
 
dascoyne said:
If you can, see it on a big screen, in a dark room watching actively with nothing else going on in the house. Do not be multitasking on your laptop or cooking or whatever because you'll miss everything that makes this film memorable. It's not enough to know the plot. You have to watch with nothing else on your mind to appreciate the story underlying the plot.
Click to expand...

I never, ever multitask when watching a film, unless it's a film I have seen plenty of times already. Like Terminator 2, 150+ times :lol
I despise it when other people do that. Even if it's "just" when you bring a movie to a friend who wants to watch a film with you... why did you want to watch a movie with me if you're gonna spend 60% looking at your phone?
:facepalm

Well if I get the chance I will definitely do my best to see it on the big screen. I don't even know the plot of the film. Just the way I prefer it really.
Thankfully I don't have anything against seeing older films either. Having seen classics like Bullitt, The Great Escape(what a crappy title that truly is :rolleyes), The Maltese Falcon, The Lady from Shanghai...
 
Dem Bones said:
Not to steal any thunder from Casablanca's anniversary, but have any of you seen the movie The Third Man with Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli and Orson Welles? One of my all time favorites and if you're a fan of Casablanca, there's a good chance this is for you:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041959/
Click to expand...

Nope, it's been on my list for a long time, but haven't gotten around to seeing it. I dig Orson Welles, and have seen Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil, and The Lady of Shanghai--all on the big screen--at my local theater which shows old pictures.

Not a Welles picture, but I recently saw another film noir, Laura, starring Gene Tierney. Wanted to see what the fuss was about her overbite. I remembered an old M.A.S.H., in which Hawkeye shows up late for movie night. He sits next to Trapper and asks:

Hawkeye: "What'd I miss?"
Trapper: "Cornel Wilde just kissed Gene Tierney."
Hawkeye: "On the teeth?!"
Trapper: "Right smack on."
Hawkeye; "If he straightens out that overbite, I'll kill him!"

The movie they were watching was, Leave Her To Heaven. Which I've not seen, But back to Laura, it was good, but not great. Dana Andrews didn't really do it for me. Gene was a beauty, though. And famous for her sexy overbite.

The Wook

ps~This is the scene Hawkeye walked in late on.

genetierney.jpg
 
joberg said:
Casablanca is even more poignant when you learn that most of the actors on screen were Jewish actors, French and Germans alike, fleeing Europe and Hitler's madness!
When she sang "La Marseillaise" there wasn't a dry eye on the set that day because of who they were at the time and what they had abandoned:cry
Click to expand...

My father, born after Casablanca was released, always teared up during that scene, his favorite scene in a movie full of favorite scenes. His mentor as an apprentice had been a Jew trapped in Germany and had managed to get to America. (He also worked with a former Allied prisoner of war who said they had a guard who was a lot like Schultz from Hogans Heroes, he was very humane to the prisoners)

When I first watched this movie in college I didn't like it. I gave it an honest go at the time but it made no connection with me, which was odd because I was already a bit of a Bogart fan.
When it was released on DVD for the first time I was in my early thirties and decided to go all in by purchasing it and giving it another chance, after all, everyone loved the film.
I can't count how many times I've seen it now, or how many times I have quoted a line. I even have Dooley Wilson's As Time Goes By on my playlist. Sorry Citizen Kane, this movie is better.
Number one movie, all time. I've got many favorites, but this is the pinnacle.
 
If you can keep on coming up with Classics like that one, go ahead and make it rain in this thread! :thumbsup


Dem Bones said:
Not to steal any thunder from Casablanca's anniversary, but have any of you seen the movie The Third Man with Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli and Orson Welles? One of my all time favorites and if you're a fan of Casablanca, there's a good chance this is for you:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041959/
Click to expand...
 
Re: Casablanca"s 75th Anniversery

The Wook said:
Nope, it's been on my list for a long time, but haven't gotten around to seeing it. I dig Orson Welles, and have seen Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil, and The Lady of Shanghai--all on the big screen--at my local theater which shows old pictures.

Not a Welles picture, but I recently saw another film noir, Laura, starring Gene Tierney. Wanted to see what the fuss was about her overbite. I remembered an old M.A.S.H., in which Hawkeye shows up late for movie night. He sits next to Trapper and asks:

Hawkeye: "What'd I miss?"
Trapper: "Cornel Wilde just kissed Gene Tierney."
Hawkeye: "On the teeth?!"
Trapper: "Right smack on."
Hawkeye; "If he straightens out that overbite, I'll kill him!"

The movie they were watching was, Leave Her To Heaven. Which I've not seen, But back to Laura, it was good, but not great. Dana Andrews didn't really do it for me. Gene was a beauty, though. And famous for her sexy overbite.

The Wook

ps~This is the scene Hawkeye walked in late on.

View attachment 778719
Click to expand...


Yeah, The Third Man builds slowly but once Welles shows up, things really start to move. It's such a great atmosphere movie and has a sly sense of humor, even though the main subject matter is fairly serious. An interesting side note is that it was mostly filmed in 1948 post-war Vienna so the bombed-out locations are for real.

Big fan of Touch of Evil. I saw The Lady of Shanghai a long time ago but it just didn't stick for some reason. Same goes for Laura, so maybe it's time to give those two another shot.

That's funny about the MASH episode. Gene Tierney certainly was a beauty, no argument there. Leave it to those guys to score a solid overbite joke!

- - - Updated - - -

Apollo said:
If you can keep on coming up with Classics like that one, go ahead and make it rain in this thread! :thumbsup
Click to expand...

Deal! Off the top of my head, since we're talking about Bogart, The Big Sleep is another favorite.
 
@Dem Bones, remember, I said I wasn't too fond of, Laura. I certainly don't want to discourage you from seeing it again, but just to reiterate, I wasn't too keen on the male lead, Dana Andrews. He tried to play the tough guy detective--the brooding, strong and silent type. But he was just kind of a stiff and boring, to me. No charisma. But Gene Tierney was fine, and pretty to look at. And Vincent Price turned in his usual good performance. It's just that Andrews weak performance held back the picture from being something special, IMO.

As for, The Lady of Shanghai, it's been a long time since I saw it, so I can't recall exactly how much I dug it. What I remember most is falling in love with Rita Hayworth all over again--the first time had been as a redhead in, Gilda, and this time as a platinum blonde. I guess I'm a sucker for dames.

The boat, Zaca, which was owned by Errol Flynn, featured prominently in the picture. Here is a great photo of the stunningly beautiful Rita, on her 28th birthday! (Also pictured are Errol Flynn, his wife, Nora Eddington, and of course, Mr. Welles.)

RitaHayworth-Birthday-1946.jpg

The Wook
 
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Two more suggestions I'll throw out there:

The Stranger: another Orson Welles flick also starring the great Edward G. Robinson playing against type as the good guy. Welles is an ex-nazi hiding in plain sight as a college professor in a small New England town and Robinson is trying to smoke him out. Not exactly a spectacular storyline but beautifully shot and acted.

Double Indemnity: fantastic noir movie by Billy Wilder starring Fred MacMurray, a smoldering Barbara Stanwyck and the not-so-smoldering but still impressive Edward G. Robinson (again). The first time I saw this the only thing I knew MacMurray from was the old sitcom "My Three Sons" where he played the wise, affable father, so it was funny to see him here playing an amoral dirt bag so convincingly.
 
TCM/Fathom Events showed the film in theaters for the 75th. In January I saw the listing and bought the tickets. I've never bought tickets for anything that far in advance.

It was great to see it on the big screen. I saw some things I didn't notice watching it at home.

I was also surprised that there were many younger kids in the audience. At first this worried me thinking they would be talking or on their phones (I must be getting old) But they seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. Everyone clapped at the end.

on that note: just finished seeing "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" in the big screen for it's 70th (also oddly on the day Bogart died). Another amazing flick. Less people in attendance for this one but that's not surprising.
 
backstagejack1 said:
TCM/Fathom Events showed the film in theaters for the 75th. In January I saw the listing and bought the tickets. I've never bought tickets for anything that far in advance.

It was great to see it on the big screen. I saw some things I didn't notice watching it at home.

I was also surprised that there were many younger kids in the audience. At first this worried me thinking they would be talking or on their phones (I must be getting old) But they seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. Everyone clapped at the end.

on that note: just finished seeing "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" in the big screen for it's 70th (also oddly on the day Bogart died). Another amazing flick. Less people in attendance for this one but that's not surprising.
Click to expand...

Very cool.

What things did you notice about Casablanca on the big screen that you didn't notice at home?

The Wook
 
The Wook said:
Very cool.

What things did you notice about Casablanca on the big screen that you didn't notice at home?

The Wook
Click to expand...

Some of it was obvious stuff, some was little things. I never noticed how fake the beginning looked, when they show the over view of city and it's just a matte painting. Things like how severely scratched the guitar is that the French singer is (horribly) playing in the bar scenes. I also was able to take note of what extras were doing in the background that I hadn't caught before and some of it is perfect and some is funny.

It also allowed me to see the real range of Bogarts subtle facial expressions during scenes and wow.

All this might be easily visible to someone that has a 50" or larger TV but I do not. I've mostly watched this film on a 20-30" screen.

At the end of the day, seeing it on the big screen made me feel that it was meant to be on the big screen and even though some scenes looked more fake/staged it worked somehow. I think if I was an audience member in the era I wouldn't have noticed it.

Seeing it with a handful of other people was a great experience as well. Hearing other people still laugh at a 75 year old scene helps me, as someone that has seen the movie a million times, appreciate it that much more and see it in a new light.
 
backstagejack1 said:
Some of it was obvious stuff, some was little things. I never noticed how fake the beginning looked, when they show the over view of city and it's just a matte painting. Things like how severely scratched the guitar is that the French singer is (horribly) playing in the bar scenes. I also was able to take note of what extras were doing in the background that I hadn't caught before and some of it is perfect and some is funny.

It also allowed me to see the real range of Bogarts subtle facial expressions during scenes and wow.

All this might be easily visible to someone that has a 50" or larger TV but I do not. I've mostly watched this film on a 20-30" screen.

At the end of the day, seeing it on the big screen made me feel that it was meant to be on the big screen and even though some scenes looked more fake/staged it worked somehow. I think if I was an audience member in the era I wouldn't have noticed it.

Seeing it with a handful of other people was a great experience as well. Hearing other people still laugh at a 75 year old scene helps me, as someone that has seen the movie a million times, appreciate it that much more and see it in a new light.
Click to expand...

Casablanca is second only to Star Wars on my list. I've seen it on the big screen, as well, and have also noticed those things. And yes, Bogie was brilliant with his micro-expressions, that, as you said, can only be fully appreciated on the big screen.

The Wook
 
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