Bogie, Bergman live on as time goes by

Press, 11 October 1982, Page 12

Bogie, Bergman live on as time goes by

CASABLANCA Directed by Michael Curtiz Screenplay by Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch. Although 40 years late, this review of ' "Casablanca" (Academy) is something I have wanted to do for a long time. It is pretty obvious that "Casablanca" was brought back now to cash in on Ingrid Bergman's death, and it was with a sad pleasure that I saw this lovely lady’s fine performance in retrospect. This article,- however, is meant not so much as a postmortem as an affirmation of the fact that you. can’t kill good cinema. “Casablanca" won an Academy Award for best film after its release in 1942. Since then, it has definitely aged, with a crazy plot and crazy character acting which simply would not sell if made for today’s more sophisticated audiences. However, on close analysis. the screenplay, besides being entertaining, is cleverly constructed, intelligent and witty — and the characters carry on all the nonsense with that touch of tongue-in-cheek panache which one rarely sees today.

(I am sure that today's actors are equally capable of this kind of serio-cornball performance but it is not called for as much in today's more realistic films.) Today, it seems almost imperative that a film is made on location, while, during the 40s, it was still acceptable to place the exotic setting somewhere in the backlot of the film studio, show where the place is supposed to be on a map at

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the beginning of the film, and. for added authenticity, in this case, make about every fourth character wear a fez. There is little doubt that nostalgia provides the pleasure of seeing such support-ing-role characters as Peter "Popeye" Lorre (a two-bit black marketeer). Sidney Greenstreet (chief of the black market, in white suit and even a fez), and S. Z. “Cuddles” Sakall (as head waiter. “I have already given him the best table. He’s German, and would have taken it anyway.”) With these types wandering on and off screen, I would not have been surprised to see the Marx Brothers appear for a night in Morocco, or even Abbot and Costello in the Foreign Legion (except that was in Algiers). A little higher up the cast list is Claude Rains as the French police prefect (perfectly charming and corrupt, and ending up with Vichy Water); Conrad Veidt as the Nazi major; and Paul Henreid as the underground resistance leader (who is so noble, by modern standards, that he almost makes you sick).

About Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart, nothing much need be said: Bergman is Bergman, Bogart is Bogart — and this is definitely his film.

A critic once remarked that he considered Bogart to be the only actor who did not look ridiculous behind a gun. I can only add that he is one of the few who does not look ridiculous in a white tuxedo.

As an adventure film. "Casablanca" is quite remarkable in that there is very little action, and most of that takes place in Rick's Cafe Americain. A combination bar, night club and gambling casino, this is an incredible place, seething in conspiracies, black-mark-eteering, plots and counterplots.

“Casablanca" is very much a low-brow movie, without the slightest pretension at a message (which could be read into Bogart's classic, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”), so there is little point in analysing its overlapping plots, revolving mainly around European refugees in the Moroccan city awaiting the opportunity to fly to America. Matters do become more intense, however, when a former romance between Bergman and Bogart rekindles after she arrives unexpectedly in Casablanca. It is interesting to note that some of their exchanges towards the end of the movie are filmed with close-up face shots without losing any of the dynamism of the silly plot. . Besides the classic quote. “Here’s lookin’ at you, kid,” this film also offers the haunting tune, “As Time Goes By,” and the eternal question about whether anyone really did say “Play it again, Sam.” Sam (Dooley Wilson) was the black pianist-singer at Rick's place, who specialised in playing nostalgic tunes. One song, however, which he had been ordered by Bogart not to play was- "As Time Goes By." When Miss Bergman turns up, we soon learn that this had been “their song." And it is she who says? “Play the old songs. Sam ... Play it, Sam ... Play it once, Sam, for old times’ sake.” Whether “Casablanca" is your scene or not, it is a fact that they don't make movies like this any more.