A Night in Casablanca
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| A Night in Casablanca | |
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 Theatrical release poster. |
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| 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 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
A Night in Casablanca (1946) was the twelfth Marx Brothers' movie. The film stars Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, and Harpo Marx. It was directed by Archie Mayo and written by Joseph Fields and Roland Kibbee. It is generally considered one of the better of the Marx Brothers's later works. [1]
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[edit] Plot
The story takes place in Casablanca after World War II. Two managers of a hotel have been murdered, Ronald Kornblow (Groucho) is hired to replace them. The villain of the movie is Count Pfefferman, also known as Heinrich Stubel (a Nazi) played by Sig Ruman, (from A Night at the Opera). When a number of priceless objects stolen by the Nazis are hidden there by Nazis, they quickly take full control of the hotel.
The film contains the song "Who's Sorry Now?" with music by Ted Snyder and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. It is sung in French by Lisette Verea playing the part of Beatrice Rheiner, and then later sung in English (see image). Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 is played twice, once by Chico on piano as an intro to the Beer Barrel Polka, and again by Harpo on the harp.
Miss Rheiner, as an accomplice of Stubel, is supposed to seduce Groucho. In several scenes the two of them parody Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not, including a scene in which he says "You don't have to sing for me--just whistle." He watches her as she swivels away; then he turns to the camera and says, "That reminds me--I must get my watch fixed."
As in A Day at the Races, Harpo uses charades to tell Chico about the plot to undermine (or kill in this case) Groucho's character.
Before Stubel can make an escape to the airfield with the loot, Kornblow, his friends, and Miss Rheiner invade his hotel room and sneak from suitcase to closet and back again to unpack his bags, and drive him thoroughly nuts. And at the end, Harpo, having knocked out Stubel's pilot in the plane, actually gets the plane off the ground--before plowing it into the police station, where the brothers expose Stubel as an escaped Nazi and chase Miss Rheiner into the distance!
[edit] 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
[edit] 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 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 sue, or even threaten to, but 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 donated to the Library of Congress by Groucho, and reprinted in his book The Groucho Letters (1967). [3]
In the end, the matter died without legal action, and the storyline of the film was changed to be a send-up on the genre rather than Casablanca specifically. [2] Somewhat ironically, Warner Bros. now owns the distribution rights to this film via Castle Hill Productions.
[edit] 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 Casablance at snopes.com.
- ^ Groucho Marx, The Groucho Letters: Letters From and To Groucho Marx (1967)
[edit] External links
- A Night in Casablanca at the Internet Movie Database
- A Night in Casablanca at the TCM Movie Database
- The Warner Bros. story at snopes.com
- The letter to Warner Bros.
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