Casablanca released 50 years ago today

Casablanca Released: November 26, 1942 Studio: Warner Bros. Genre: romance Box Office (numbers in millions) Domestic: 1.72 Worldwide: ? Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: 346.00 Worldwide: ?

Directing: Michael Curtiz Screenwriting: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Paul Henreid Review: This is “one of the most famous films of all time” VD “and indisputably one of the landmarks of the American cinema.” FS It is “achingly nostalgic, clear cut, ruthlessly well plotted – and a film which has triumphantly withstood the test of time.” T98 “The only movie that could rival the average Shakespeare play for number of lasting phrases contributed to everyday speech.” ML It was also “the definitive romantic picture of Hollywood’s Golden Age.” TV “Only Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind could rival Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman as cinema’s greatest pair of star-crossed lovers.” TV Bogart is a jaded, American expatriate running a nightclub in Nazi-occupied Morocco. Former lover Ilsa Lund (Bergman), “who mysteriously left him in Paris, returns to his life and inspires him to stand up for the French Resistance with her husband Victor Laszlo (Henreid).” FS “What began as an unproduced play called Everybody Comes to Rick’s would eventually become the best-loved wartime romance in Hollywood history. But first there were rewrites – lots of them. Casablanca was shot sequentially because the script changed continually throughout filming. You’d never know it now: Every word seems as inviolable as sacred text.” TV In addition, “Rains is marvelous as dapper police chief, and nobody sings ‘As Time Goes By’ like Dooley Wilson.” LM Casablanca also has “one of the best endings ever caught on film.” VD “In the final scene in the fog at the airport, [Rick] dutifully and nobly sacrifices his love for [Ilsa] – ‘We’ll always have Paris.’” FS Sources: FS Filmsite.org “100 Greatest Films” LM Leonard Maltin “100 Must-See Films of the 20th Century” ML Movieline (Dec. 1995). “100 Best Movies Ever Made” by Virginia Campbell and Edward Margulies T98 Time Out (1998). “Readers’ Top 100 Films” TV TV Guide (August 8-14, 1998 issue). “50 Greatest Movies on TV and Video” VD Video Detective (1997). “Top 100 Films of All Time”

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Genre Lists: Awards: Oscars: Wins: 3 – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay Nominations: 8 – including Best Actor (Bogart), Best Supporting Actor (Rains), Best B/W Cinematography Other Lists/Honors: Critics’ Picks: Roger Ebert Leslie Halliwell/John Walker Leonard Maltin First posted 7/26/2019; last updated 6/6/2023.

Unforgiven, the ultimate revisionist Western, released

Unforgiven Released: August 3, 1992 Studio: Warner Bros. Genre: drama/western Box Office (numbers in millions): Domestic: 101.16 Worldwide: ? Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: 205.50 Worldwide: ?

Directing: Clint Eastwood Screenwriting: David Webb Peoples Starring: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Jaimz Woolvett Review: This was actor and director Clint Eastwood’s “magnificent Western masterpiece,” FS finding him “returning to the very genre that made him famous.” MSN It took him “a career to make [but it] was well worth the wait.” RS Eastwood was “able to contemporize the genre” MSN with this “revisionist western” RS “noted for challenging the morality of Western stereotypes created by American film.” A07 The movie “deals with the psychological impact of killing.” MSN Eastwood plays “a retired, poor, notorious ex-bounty hunter William Munny.” FS The “formerly notorious gunslinger” A07 is now a hog farmer, but is “forced to return to his murderous ways after his wife dies and his family needs money.” A07 “In the 1880s frontier town of Big Whiskey, Wyoming, a prostitute’s face has been brutally slashed by vicious cowboys, and her fellow co-workers have raised a $500 bounty. Joined by former sidekick partner Ned Logan (Freeman) and aspiring, cocky gunfighter ‘The Schofield Kid’ (Woolvett), they journey to the town to confront the corrupt, sadistic and autocratic Sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett (Hackman), who has denied justice to the brothel’s women. In a deadly and bloody showdown, Munny’s nihilistic past is graphically brought back.” FS Sources: A07 American Film Institute (2007). “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition” FS Filmsite.org “100 Greatest Films” MSN MSN Entertainment (7/19/2018). “100 Best Movies” by Shahnaz Mahmud RS Rolling Stone (12/30/1999). “100 Maverick Movies of the Last 100 Years”

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Genre Lists: Awards: Oscars: Wins: 4 – including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Hackman), Best Film Editing Nominations: 9 – including Best Actor (Eastwood), Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Sound. Other Lists/Honors: First posted 6/2/2023.