This is a thread about CASABLANCA because it is utterly awesome and the best black and white film ever.

I'm not a film buff. Not seen the Ambersons. The debate is about my level, so I'm here.

OK?

The play on which the movie is based was written before America went to war. It also failed to cast Strasser as particularly evil, per this site. The site also says that Howard Koch sought to emphasize the propaganda value of the story in developing the screenplay. But the script, essentially written by committee, was unfinished when production started in May '42, six month after America entered the war, and, though it's not completely clear, this interview suggests that Koch screenwriters considered the script to be written after American entered the war. Bergman and the writers didn't know for sure until well into production which guy she was going to end up with (which actually explains my problem with Bergman's performance/character).

Someone was asking about French verbs on your thread yesterday and i linked it. If you'd like my identity, you're more than welcome to it.

gabbnebb's right about the who ends up with whom at the end part. If I recall correctly, the 'beginning of a beautiful friendship' scene was shot weeks after principal photography was over.

So now that we've outed the Eco within, do we have to say that, dispite it's obvious flaws, we've thought about it some more and we do like Casablanca after all, to show we are not slaves to the things we have read written by famous critics?

Why ever not?

TS Victor Laszlo vs. Laszlo Lowenstein vs. Laszlo Kovacs (I) vs. Laszlo Kovacs (II)

To each his own then...

- Fabulous photography!!! Moody, striking, atmospheric, dramatic - the whole ball of wax.

- The plot is total cornball, but the pacing and dialogue are so crisp that you never have time to dwell on the silliness of it all. Each vignette is a perfect little bon-bon of entertainment. No waste. No chewing necessary.

- Claude Rains was having a ball and so were the scriptwriters for him. Every line he spoke was a gem. Probably a commentary on Hollywood studios in there.

- Not a good scenery-chewing Nazi to be found anywhere, just the ho-hum cardboard kind.

- It is very rainy and foggy in Morrocco. Who knew?

"Ninochka"
"Andrei Rubylev"
"Broken Blossoms"
"Pandora's Box"
"Orphans of the Storm"
that film w/Dirk Bogarde where he's a homosexual doctor who gets blackmailed (heh, sorry, bad memory)
"Sabrina"
"Valley of Song"
"Kind Hearts and Coronets"
"Passport to Piml1co"
"Night of the Demon"

That's eleven, but never mind, and I'm not even getting into Ford or Kurosawa films, either.

So obviously, I don't think it's the best black & white film ever, though I do like it quite a lot.

I don't really give a shit about what "name" critics think, and am curious as to why you keep bolstering your arguments by bringing these people's opinions in, c*l*m.

Regarding films as "quotable" is a bit james brown-edited magazine-ist for me, but I suppose if I were no think of the most quotable film, it would be "Scarface"

http://www.thehollywoodnews.com/images3/edisonposter.jpg

That's eleven, but never mind
Why does anyone like 'Sabrina'?
I was gonna say, there's an obvious one to remove if you want an even ten.

Trouble in Paradise
Search! - Any movie involving Edward Everett Horton and gondolas.

(xpost - please tell me that movie is real)

I sincerely hope that's next. I nominate the five of the seven Sternberg-Dietrich collabs I've seen.

No. What's it called?

Vampyr
The Philadelphia Story
M
The Big Sleep
L'Age d'Or
The Man Who Knew Too Much
A Canterbury Tale
Throne of Blood
Peter Ibbetson
Alphaville

I like the implication in the title that Black & White films are somehow inferior to their Colour cousins. That's LadCrit for you.

tracer, wanna read an AMAZING book on the making of a movie? devil's candy by julie salomom on the making of bonfire of the vanities. just finished it last night. soooooo good.

xpost