152. Casablanca (1942)

Running Time: 102 minutes
Directed By: Michael Curtiz
Written By: Murray Burnett, Joan Alison
Main Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt
Click here to view the trailer

AS TIME GOES BY

Technically, with the watching of "Casablanca" I've officially crossed the halfway mark and have already started into the second half, as 501 movies watched means that more than half of THE BOOK is complete. "Casablanca" was one of the heavy hitters that I arranged to squeeze in during this 100 and I intentionally saved it until the end, so that I could go out with a bang. Unfortunately, the bang kind of fizzled out.

The film takes place in unoccupied Africa, specifically Casablanca, during World War II, sometime after the occupation of France by the Nazi's. Rick Blaine (Bogart) owns a gin joint in Casablanca, an American expatriate, who commands a certain respect from his clientele. In fact, the main story really doesn't have anything to do with Rick, but rather Victor Laszlo (Henreid), a resistance leader who has escaped from a concentration camp and is a wanted man...very wanted. As the film begins, we learn that many people are trying to make their way to Lisbon and from there, catching a plane to America and the freedoms it offers. In order to get to Lisbon, you either have to have a valid visa or a letter of transit. Early on, we also learn that a stack of letters of transit have recently been stolen from a group of German officers and somehow find their way into the hands of Rick. The other story, the more memorable one, is the story of Ilsa (Bergman), Victor's wife and Rick's former lover, whom Rick was abandoned by in Paris. Rick's still a little bitter about the whole situation and buries his sorrows in the bottom of a glass, while his pal Sam plays "As Time Goes By" on the piano, reminding him of Paris and his days with Ilsa. Now, Victor plans to make for Lisbon with Ilsa in tow, but what will Rick have to say about their departure.

I remember watching this film a long time ago. It was about the time that I really started to take an interest in movies and since I had heard so much about the reputation of this film, I decided to give it a go. Well, the experience ended up turning me off of classic movies for a while. I remember watching and not being able to grasp what was so fantastic about this film. A great love story? Sure, but those were a dime a dozen. Were people finding appeal in this film because it mixed this great love story with a World War II backdrop? I don't know, but it wasn't doing anything for me. I remember I also watched "Citizen Kane" around the same time and I couldn't grasp that one either. As time has gone by, I've learned to appreciate "Citizen Kane" a little more, but, even after today's viewing and all of my changes in taste, I still can't find appeal in "Casablanca".

As I mentioned in earlier posts, for films like "To Have and Have Not" and "The Big Sleep", I just don't get Humphrey Bogart. I realized today that the guy really never shows any emotion. I mean, here you have this guy, Rick; he's had his heart stomped on by this woman, Ilsa, yet Bogart chooses to play it cool throughout, barely losing his temper and letting his cigarette dangle calmly from his lips. Rick should be furious, Bogart should be putting in some serious emotion, screaming at Ilsa, begging her to explain why she broke his heart, destroyed his hope for love. I just can't get into the guy or his performances. I'll be the first to admit, he's one cool customer. In fact, he may be the coolest damn customer to ever grace the big screen, but what's cool? Maybe being cool was enough to get you by in the 1940s, but cool just doesn't work for me, unless there's a little more to it. There are still many Bogart films remaining in THE BOOK ("The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", High Sierra", "The Barefoot Contessa", "Beat the Devil", "The African Queen" and maybe more) and I'm determined to find one that appeals to me, one that will change my mind about Bogart and make me want to see even more of his films, non-BOOK films. I'll be on the lookout for a good Bogart performance, I promise. And, honestly, it's not that he's bad, it's just that he doesn't work for me and here, that's what counts.

RATING: 4/10  The story was good enough and flowed well enough to get at least a '4', but I can't go any higher. That's gonna' wrap things up for this 100 folks. I'll be back with you either later tonight or tomorrow to present my 5th TOP 20 list and I hope you're as excited for it as I am.

MOVIES WATCHED: 501
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 500

July 8, 2012  11:42am

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7S REPOST: 176. Mildred Pierce (1945)

Running Time: 111 minutes

Directed By: Michael Curtiz

Written By: Ranald MacDougall, from novel by James M. Cain

Main Cast: Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Zachary Scott, Bruce Bennett, Jack Carson

Click here to view the trailer

SEVEN SHADOWS WEEK: DAY 2

NOTE: The following review first appeared on Shadows and Satin. It is being reposted here for completist purposes. 

One night later, the rainstorms in my town have come to a halt, but the week of tribute to the juicy genre of film noir is only just beginning. Tonight, I sunk my teeth into “Mildred Pierce” and came out a happy moviegoer.

Save for the beginning and the end, “Mildred Pierce” isn’t your typical piece of film noir, at least it’s not what I think of when I picture the genre. As the film opens, gunshots fill the air and a mustached man, whom we later learn is Monte Beragon (Scott), keels over dead, his last word: “Mildred!” From there we head to the police station where suspects are being filed in, Mildred Pierce Beragon (Crawford), now Monte’s widow, one of them. Mildred is sat in front of the police Captain’s desk and from there we’re into a flashback. We learn that Mildred wasn’t always married to Monte, as we travel back to the day she separated from her first husband, Bert Pierce (Bennett) due to a bunch of little problems; most notably Mildred’s handling of their two daughters – Veda and Kay. You see, Bert has just lost his job and Mildred tries her best to make a few bucks here and there, baking pies and selling them around town. Mildred wants nothing more than to be able to provide for her daughters and quickly realizes that her eldest, Veda, has expensive tastes. When Bert moves out, Mildred has to take a job as a waitress. She picks it up fast, making enough in tips to support her and the girls and being able to provide Veda with fancy dresses and singing lessons, among other things. Eventually Mildred becomes such a good waitress that she decides to open up a restaurant of her own – enter Monte Beragon, owner of a property that would be perfect for a restaurant. Along with friend and business consultant/real estate man Wally Fay (Carson), Mildred buys the property and opens up, what turns out to be, a booming restaurant called “Mildred’s”. In fact, the restaurant does so well, that Mildred turns it into a chain and makes a pretty good living for herself. All the while she’s being courted by Monte, whom Veda loves to flaunt about the town with, flaunting her wealth. I know it doesn’t sound like a piece of film noir, but don’t worry – soon greed, deception and murder rear their ugly heads and you won’t believe the outcome!

This was my first time seeing “Mildred Pierce” and boy, I didn’t know what I was missing having not seen it prior to tonight. This was a hell of a picture, no bones about it. “Mildred Pierce” uses it’s opening moments to show you a dark world – a man being murdered, Mildred ready to throw herself over a bridge, the introduction of Wally Fay and his following of Mildred back to her beach house, complete with a few drinks and a notion that he might get lucky. During the opening moments of the film, it really does feel like that greedy underworld that I often associate with film noir. Then we get to the police station and Mildred starts to tell her story. After a while, I started to forget those opening moments and allowed myself to be consumed by what was happening onscreen at any given time – Mildred being a typical housewife, baking pies, waitressing to make ends meet. Then, as we started to roll into the second half and everything still seemed pretty hunky-dory as far as the situations were concerned, I started to remember those opening moments again. I started to realize that, “Hey, there’s a murder coming and something so heinous that Mildred flirts with the idea of offing herself”. That’s when I started watching the clock. Not because I was bored and wanted it to end, but because I knew there were only twenty minutes left and in the flashback Mildred still hadn’t even married Monte!!  If I was the type who bit their nails, then certainly I’d be typing with bandages wrapped around my fingers, because by the time we got the payoff, I was ready for some answers. I won’t spoil anything here, but trust me; you need to check this one out!

Oh and let’s not forget the cast. Joan Crawford turns in a performance that won her an Academy Award and rightfully so. She’s so sexy here, but not in a blatant way – in a classy way. The rest of the cast is fine too, as I thought Zachary Scott and Ann Blyth were both marvelous. In fact, I can’t believe I had never even heard of Zachary Scott before, but there was something about him that made me want to listen when he spoke. Before I got to the computer tonight, I was saying to myself, “The character of Veda Pierce may be one of the nastiest villains I’ve seen on film in a while” and I’ll be damned if the character wasn’t nominated for the “AFI 100 Years…100 Villains” list. Oh and how about Michael Curtiz, who’s shown me some great versatility as I’ve worked my way through the book and knocked my socks off with films like this, “Captain Blood” and “Angels with Dirty Faces”. I’m not a fan of “Casablanca”, but why is it that director’s always seemed to get recognized for the wrong picture? When people remember Curtiz they should be citing one of the films I named above, not the movie set in Morocco with Bogey and Bergman.

So basically what I’m getting at is that this film is really a breath of fresh air and one that I’d recommend to people who aren’t fans of classic or black & white pictures. It’s one of those old movies that really makes you forget that it was made in 1945 and just comes across as what it is -  a damn fine film!

RATING: 9/10  I can’t go the full ‘10’ because as of press time I’m just not feeling it. Or maybe I’m just hoping that film noir gets even better than this and want to save my ‘10’ for one of the next five. Next up: “The Postman Always Rings Twice”. 

MOVIES WATCHED: 444
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 557

April 1, 2012  12:30am

RE-POSTED: May 8, 2012  12:37pm

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