A Night in Casablanca
AMG AllMovie Guide:
Top
A Night in Casablanca
Plot
After a five-year absence, the Marx Brothers returned to the screen in the independently-produced effort A Night in Casablanca. Originally conceived as a parody of Casablanca (with character names like "Humphrey Bogus" and "Lowen Behold"), the film emerged as a spoof of wartime melodramas in general. Someone has been methodically murdering the managers of the Hotel Casablanca, and that someone is escaped Nazi war criminal Heinrich Stubel (Sig Ruman). Disguised as a Count Pfefferman, Stubel intends to reclaim the stolen art treasures that he's hidden in a secret room somewhere in the hotel, and the only way he can do this undetected is by bumping off the managers and taking over the hotel himself. The newest manager of Hotel Casablanca is former motel proprietor Ronald Kornblow (Groucho Marx), who, blissfully unaware that he's been hired only because no one else will take the job, immediately takes charge in his own inimitably inept fashion. Corbacchio (Chico Marx), owner of the Yellow Camel company, appoints himself as Kornblow's bodyguard, aided and abetted by Stubel's mute valet Rusty (Harpo Marx). In his efforts to kill Kornblow, Stubel dispatches femme fatale Beatrice Reiner (Lisette Verea) to romance the lecherous manager, leading to a hilarious recreation of a key comedy sequence in the Marxes' earlier A Day at the Races. Arrested on a trumped-up charge, Kornblow, Corbacchio and Rusty escape in time to foil Stubel and his stooges. As in most Marx Brothers epics, A Night in Casablanca includes a tiresome romantic subplot, this time involving disgraced French flyer (Pierre) and his faithful sweetheart Annette (Lois Collier). Though hampered by listless direction and witless one-liners, A Night in Casablanca contains enough hilarity to compensate for its many flaws; some of the best visual gags were conceived by an uncredited Frank Tashlin, including Harpo's legendary "holding up the building" bit. ~ Hal Erickson, RoviReview
While the Marx Brothers' 1946 "comeback" film, A Night in Casablanca, is definitely not among their best, it's still worth seeking out. This is especially true for rabid "Marx-ists," who can either uncritically revel in the boys doing their thing once again or critically parse the differences and similarities between Casablanca and such first rate fare as Duck Soup. But even those who enjoy the Brotehrs but wouldn't consider themselves aficionados should find enough in Casablanca to keep them entertained. True, it does get to be heavy going in a few places. There's too much plot in Casablanca, for one thing, which keeps insisting that it make progress, even if periodically means keeping Grouch, Chico and Harpo from having the fun that these three were born to have. The romantic subplot is the usual annoying hooey, and there's no Margaret Dumont, which is a crime. But Groucho can still sling one-liners that thrill with their deadly precision, and Harpo (working with an uncredited Frank Tashlin comes up with some inspired visual gags. The room-to-room seduction scene with Groucho is a winner, and Chico's verbal inanities are as sterling as ever. While it's a shame Casablanca isn't as amazingly loony as the best of the Brothers's films, it helps to fill the time while one is waiting for A Night at the Opera to be rerun. ~ Craig Butler, RoviCast
- Groucho Marx - Ronald Kornblow
- Harpo Marx - Rusty
- Chico Marx - Corbaccio
- Lisette Verea - Beatrice Rheiner
- Charles Drake - Lt. Pierre Delmar
Credit
Jack Sullivan - First Assistant Director, Archie Mayo - Director, Gregg G. Tallas - Editor, Gregg C. Pallas - Editor, Werner Janssen - Composer (Music Score), Bert Kalmar - Songwriter, Harry Ruby - Songwriter, Ted Snyder - Songwriter, Otis Malcolm - Makeup, Duncan Cramer - Production Designer, James Van Trees - Cinematographer, David L. Loew - Producer, Edward Boyle - Set Designer, Frank Webster - Sound/Sound Designer, Roland Kibbee - Screenwriter, Frank Tashlin - Screenwriter, Joseph Fields - Screenwriter| A Night for Dying Tigers (2010 Film), A Night for Crime (1942 Film) | |
| A Night in Compton (Film), A Night in Havana: Dizzy Gillespie in Cuba (1988 Film) |
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Top
A Night in Casablanca
| A Night in Casablanca | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster. |
|
| Directed by | Archie Mayo |
| Produced by | David L. Loew |
| Starring | Groucho Marx Harpo Marx Chico Marx Charles Drake |
| Music by | Bert Kalmar Harry Ruby Werner Janssen |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | May 10, 1946 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 85 min |
| Language | English |
A Night in Casablanca (1946) was the twelfth Marx Brothers movie, starring Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, and Harpo Marx. The picture was directed by Archie Mayo and written by Joseph Fields and Roland Kibbee, and is generally considered one of the better of the Marx Brothers' later films.[1]
|
Contents
|
Plot
Set in Casablanca shortly after World War II, escaped Nazi war criminal Heinrich Stubel (Sig Ruman) has steadily murdered three different managers of the Hotel Casablanca. Disguised as a Count Pfferman, Stubel's goal is to reclaim the stolen art treasures that he has hidden in the hotel. However, the only way he can do this undetected is by murdering the hotel's managers and running the hotel himself.
The newest manager of Hotel Casablanca is former motel proprietor Ronald Kornblow (Groucho), who is very much unaware that he has been hired because no one else will dare take the position. Inept Kornblow takes charge of the hotel, and eventually crosses paths with Corbacchio (Chico), owner of the Yellow Camel company, who appoints himself as Kornblow's bodyguard, aided and abetted by Stubel's valet Rusty (Harpo). In his many efforts to murder Kornblow, Stubel sends beautiful Beatrice Reiner (Lisette Verea) to romance the clueless manager.
Before Stubel can make his escape to the airfield with the loot, Kornblow, his friends, and Miss Reiner invade his hotel room and sneak from suitcase to closet and back again to unpack his bags, which serves to drive him thoroughly mad. Arrested on false charges, Kornblow, Corbacchio and Rusty eventually crash Stubel's plane into a police station where the brothers expose Stubel as an escaped Nazi.
.jpg)
Cast
- Groucho Marx as Manager Ronald Kornblow
- Harpo Marx as Rusty
- Chico Marx as Corbaccio
- Sig Ruman as Count Pfferman/Heinrich Stubel
- Charles Drake as Lieutenant Pierre Delmar
- Lois Collier as Annette
- Lisette Verea as Beatrice Reiner
- Lewis L. Russell as Governor Galoux
- Dan Seymour as Prefect of Police Captain Brizzard
- Frederick Giermann as Kurt
- Harro Mellor as Emile
- David Hoffman as Spy
- Paul Harvey as Mr. Smythe
Controversy
A popular myth (spread in part by Groucho himself) surrounding the movie is that the Marx Brothers were threatened with a lawsuit by Warner Bros. for the use of the word "Casablanca" in the title, it being an infringement on the company's rights to the 1942 film Casablanca. Groucho responded with a letter asserting that he and his siblings had use of the word "brothers" prior to the establishment of Warner Brothers (and many others had before that), and often the story is told that Groucho threatened a counter-suit based on this assertion. He also mentioned that he would consider further legal action by pointing out to Warners that the title of their current hit film Night and Day infringed on the titles of two Marx Brothers films; A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races.
The true story is that the original storyline for the film was intended to be a direct parody of Casablanca, with the characters having similar sounding names to the characters and actors in the 1942 film. Groucho Marx has said that an early draft named his character "Humphrey Bogus", a reference to the leading actor in Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart.[1] Warner Bros. did not actually litigate, or even threaten to litigate, but it did issue a formal inquiry to the Marx Brothers concerning the plot and script of the film.[2]
The Marx Brothers exploited the situation for publicity, making it appear to the public that a frivolous lawsuit was in the works, and Groucho sent several open letters to Warner Bros. to get newspaper coverage.[2] These letters were among those he donated to the Library of Congress, and he reprinted them in his book The Groucho Letters, which he published in 1967.[3]
In the end, the matter died without legal action, and the storyline of the film was changed to be a send-up of the genre rather than Casablanca specifically.[2] Warner Bros. now owns the distribution rights to this film via Castle Hill Productions.
References
- ^ a b Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers (Hardcover) by Simon Louvish. Thomas Dunne Books; 1st U.S. edition (2000).
- ^ a b c A Night in Casablanca at snopes.com.
- ^ Groucho Marx, The Groucho Letters: Letters From and To Groucho Marx (1967)
External links
- A Night in Casablanca at the Internet Movie Database
- A Night in Casablanca at AllRovi
- A Night in Casablanca at the TCM Movie Database
- The Warner Bros. story at snopes.com
- The letter to Warner Bros.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
TV listings
Copyright © 2012 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Movie Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.
Read more
Mentioned in
Howard Harris
(Writer, Actor, Comedy)
Toccata and Fugue in D Monor
(1946 Film)
The Fundamental Things Apply: Gilmore Girls (TV Episode)
(2003 TV Episode)
Paul Harvey
(Actor, Comedy/Drama)
David Hoffman
(Actor, Drama/Adventure)
» More