CASABLANCA Vs. EVERYBODY COMES TO RICK’S

Worth checking out:
Martin N. Kriegl’s brief 2004 essay on the differences (in html) between Murray Burnett and Joan Alison’s "Everybody Comes to Rick’s," the unproduced play that was the basis for Casablanca, and the film’s screenplay credited to Philip G. Epstein, Julius J. Epstein, and Howard Koch.
Here are a couple of snippets from Kriegl’s text:
"Upon first reading both stage play and screenplay, one is tempted to jump to the conclusion that Casablanca is one of the rare occasions where a story, through adaptation from one medium to another, is elevated from a mediocre (if promising) source material to a gem of rare beauty. …
"The character Rick, a former rebel with apparently inviolable values and principles, who has lost [...]

CASABLANCA IV – Ingrid Bergman

Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca

CASABLANCA III – Humphrey Bogart
That brings me to the last and least of the trio of star performances: Ingrid Bergman’s rather mediocre portrayal of Ilsa Lund. First, it’s not a truly bad performance, but it’s nowhere near great. One need only look at contemporaneous performances by, say, Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, or even Judy Garland, to see how much Bergman pales in contrast. Ilsa is a pawn, a toy, a heroine whose life is the plaything of the two men in her life — and, incidentally, isn’t it interesting how similar in facial construction both Henreid and Bogart are? A fortuitous development that adds some [...]

CASABLANCA

Casablanca (1942)
Direction: Michael Curtiz
Screenplay: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch; from Murray Burnett and Joan Alison’s unproduced play "Everybody Comes to Rick’s"
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Conrad Veidt, S. Z. Sakall, Dooley Wilson, Joy Page
 

Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca
 

By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
About three years ago, I finally gave in to watch It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) for the first time. I had hesitated because of the five- and ten-minute snippets of the film I had seen, and for its reputation as a hokey Christmas story ‘chestnut.’ Well, was I wrong, for It’s a Wonderful Life is a truly great film — arguably the best [...]

Hedy Lamarr III: CASABLANCA, Private Life

Charles Boyer, Hedy Lamarr in Algiers

Hedy Lamarr – Q&A with Author Patrick Agan: Part II
Is it true that Hedy Lamarr refused the lead roles in Casablanca, Gaslight, and Saratoga Trunk? If so, do you know what her reaction was after those three films became huge hits for Ingrid Bergman?
Let’s get one thing straight off the bat. Hedy Lamarr never turned down Casablanca.
L. B. had her solidly booked for several movies, two of which, I think, defined both her talent and her image. True, [producer] Hal Wallis wanted her for it, but Mayer said no as he had Tortilla Flat, Crossroads, and White Cargo already lined up.
Why should L. B. have loaned her over to [Warner [...]

GASLIGHT To Be Lit Again

Warner Bros. has begun developing a remake of Gaslight, the 1944 thriller directed by George Cukor, and starring Charles Boyer as a suave murderer and Ingrid Bergman as his naive — and quite wealthy — wife, who almost goes bananas before the final fadeout. The film received a total of seven Academy Award nominations: best picture, best director, best actor, best supporting actress (Angela Lansbury, in her film debut), and best screenplay (John L. Balderston, Walter Reisch, and John Van Druten), winning in the best actress and best art direction categories. Additionally, Bergman won a Golden Globe for what is one of the weakest performances of her career.
Also in the Gaslight cast were Joseph Cotten, Dame May Whitty, [...]

Best Films – 1943

Set in a 17th-century Danish village, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s masterful Vredens dag / Day of Wrath is a stark, but deeply felt indictment against religious fanaticism and intolerance. Moving performances by ingénue Lisbeth Modin and accused witch Anna Svierkier add a touch of humanity to the horrors shown on screen. It is not a coincidence that Vredens Dag was made in 1943, a time when Denmark was under Nazi occupation. The parallels — and the interconnectedness — between political and religious control are made quite clear in this harrowing masterwork.
 
FILM
Northern Pursuit
d: Raoul Walsh; scr: Frank Gruber, Alvah Bessie
This Land Is Mine
d: Jean Renoir; scr: Dudley Nichols
Vredens dag / Day of Wrath
d: Carl Theodor Dreyer; scr: Carl Dreyer, [...]

Best Films – 1942

FILM
Bambi
d: David Hand; scr: Larry Morey and others
The Black Swan
d: Henry King; scr: Ben Hecht, Seton I. Miller
Casablanca
d: Michael Curtiz; scr: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch
Johnny Eager
d: Mervyn LeRoy; scr: John Lee Mahin, James Edward Grant
The Magnificent Ambersons
d, scr: Orson Welles
The Major and the Minor
d: Billy Wilder; scr: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder
Once Upon a Honeymoon
d: Leo McCarey; scr: Sheridan Gibney
Random Harvest
d: Mervyn LeRoy; scr: Claudine West, George Froeschel, Arthur Wimperis
Tales of Manhattan
d: Julien Duvivier; scr: Ben Hecht, Ferenc Molnar, Donald Ogden Stewart, Samuel Hoffenstein, Alan Campbell, Ladislas Fodor, Laslo Vadnay, Laszlo Gorog, Lamar Trotti, Henry Blankfort
The Talk of the Town
d: George Stevens; scr: Irwin Shaw, Sidney Buchman
 

Carole Lombard, [...]