Classic Film Review -Casablanca (1942)

There are a few films that are so famous that everyone has heard of them even if they haven’t seen them. Casablanca is one such film. It is beloved even by those who are not usually fans of classic cinema. Thanks to a great script, fabulous actors in memorable parts and well earned hype, it is an indelible work of cinematic art.

Casablanca Summary

Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) is the owner/manager of a café in Casablanca, Morocco. Casablanca is a stopping place of sorts, for those fleeing war-torn Europe on their way to the United States. Rick is an American with a complicated personal and political history. His café helps entertain weary emigres as they wait for their visa papers. Rick is pretty weary himself, a cynical, hard-hearted character who “sticks his neck out for nobody.”

Though Casablanca is a free and unoccupied French territory, there is an intricate mix of politics and nationalities. The recent murder of two German soldiers in possession of incontestable letters of transit ushers in the arrival of the German Major Strasser. Strasser (Conrad Veidt) is on the hunt for the murderer. He is also tasked to ensure that Victor Laszlo (Paul Henried), a leader of the Resistance does not come into possession of those letters.

Into this delicate balance (and Rick’s Café) walks Laszlo and his companion Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman). Lazlo is an international hero seeking help to escape, but Rick isn’t inclined to be helpful. Particularly, when he sees his former love Ilsa on the arm of Laszlo. Not only is he bitter, but Rick is also caught up in a more personal game of politics with the French police captain Louis Renault which allows him to successfully operate his café. He is not willing to jeopardize his business, especially for the woman who abandoned him in Paris on the eve of the German occupation. But Ilsa has a different memory of her abandonment. When she discovers that the letters of transit which she and Laszlo need have found their way into Rick’s hands, she uses every weapon in her arsenal to get them. But not everything or everyone is as it seems in this place of shifting alliances.

To read my full review, please follow me over to The Silver Petticoat Review.

Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.

 

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Inspirational Heroes -Jefferson Smith of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

SUMMARY

Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) is politically unknown when the governor of his state appoints him as a new senator. The governor’s powerful political backer Mr. Taylor(Edward Arnold) demands he appoint someone more amenable to their graft scheme, but Governor Hopper defies him at the behest of his sons, who sing Jeff’s praises. It turns out Jeff Smith is beloved, thanks to his work with the Boy Rangers and well respected by those who know him.

Jeff is honored and then humbled when he learns of his appointment. And even more so when he discovers that he will be working with his state’s other senator, Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), an old and revered friend of his late father’s. Continue reading “Inspirational Heroes -Jefferson Smith of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”

Classic Film Review -Storm Warning (1951)

Mob mentality or its’ kinder term group think has always fascinated me. Maybe because we all grow up hearing the old reprimand, “If your friends jump off a cliff does that mean you have to?” at some point in our lives. Of course, the logical answer is no, and yet many times we find ourselves following the crowd or the trend without much thought. In it’s cruelest form mob mentality will find many normally decent people doing terrible things as part of a group that they would never consider doing by themselves. What makes us follow like sheep to the slaughter over the proverbial cliff?

Storm Warning is a black and white film from 1951 which touches on the reality of how mob mentality can corrupt even decent people.

SUMMARY

Marsha Mitchell (played by Ginger Rogers) makes a brief stop in a small southern town to visit her sister Lucy Rice (played by Doris Day) and meet Lucy’s new husband. Before she even has a chance see her sister, she witness the murder of a journalist by a group of men in white robes. Continue reading “Classic Film Review -Storm Warning (1951)”