Tue 14 Jan 2020
A Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: A NIGHT IN CASABLANCA (1946).
Posted by Steve under Films: Comedy/Musicals , Reviews[6] Comments
A NIGHT IN CASABLANCA. United Artists, 1946. Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Charles Drake, Lois Collier, Sig Ruman. Director: Archie Mayo.
One of the later entries in the Marx Brothers film catalogue and a movie supposed made in order to help Chico Marx pay off his gambling debts, A Night in Casablanca was originally imagined to be a satire of Warner Brothers’ Casablanca (1942), the now classic film starring Humphrey Bogart. Aside from the setting and a Nazi connection, there isn’t all that much that binds these two films together. And to be perfectly honest, this Marx Brothers entry is nowhere near as appreciated as the comedians’ earlier films from the 1930s.
Yet, it remains a worth a look for a few reasons. First of all, there are definitely some good verbal quips from Groucho, and Harpo shines as a mute who must convey his thoughts via music and mime. [See comment #3.] And at the end of the day, even a lesser Marx Brothers film with its zany antics and physical comedy is often better than a lot of the comedies that are produced and released into theaters today.
For me personally, what made A Night in Casablanca worth watching was the fact that an escaped Nazi was the film’s antagonist. It was only one year since the Second World War had ended, and Hollywood had already discovered the allure of stories involving Nazis on the run and the notion of hidden Nazi loot and treasure.
Unlike two other movies from the same year that featured Nazis running from their past – Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (reviewed here) and Orson Welles’s The Stranger (reviewed here) – the Marx Brothers film plays the topic for laughs. Heinrich Stubel (Sig Ruman), the villain here, is more of a stereotypical and buffoonish Teutonic figure than either evil incarnate or an amoral opportunist. But the fact that he is supposed to be someone to root against is transparent.
Here also is something I noticed and I thought I would mention. Groucho’s character, a hotel manager who helps bring Stubel to justice, is named Ronald Kornblow. Ignore the misspelling and you will notice it’s a very stereotypical German-Jewish name. I have to wonder if this was not deliberate, given the Marx Brothers’ own German-Jewish and Alsatian-Jewish origins.
January 14th, 2020 at 5:15 pm
Right on all points, Jonathan. The MGM bloom was definitely off the rose here,and NIGHT lacks the wild anarchy of their Paramount films, but there’s always a certain pleasure to be had watching the Marx Brothers.
By the way, if you get a chance to read THE GROUCHO LETTERS, check out Groucho’s hilarious exchange with Warnr’s legal department over CASABLANCA.
January 14th, 2020 at 9:06 pm
The escaping Nazi criminal had already debuted during the war. Sidney Blackmer in QUIET PLEASE, MURDER! is collecting valuable works of art that can be used to finance Nazi escapes when the war ends. Certainly the war was hardly over before heroes in films were stumbling over escaping Nazi thugs. As early as THE PIED PIPER the plot involves a Nazi officer assuring his niece escapes Europe and gets to America, certain that the the German cause is lost even as France is falling.
Marx Brothers fans hold this and GO WEST YOUNG MAN in pretty low regard despite a few snappy remarks. I’m a little more lenient, but real fans are ardent about how much they hate these two films.
January 15th, 2020 at 6:44 am
You mean Harpo, not Chico. I always found the latter worked best in small doses.
January 15th, 2020 at 1:56 pm
Oops. Neither Jon nor I caught that. I’ll get it fixed ASAP, if not before. Thanks, Jeff!
January 15th, 2020 at 3:47 pm
Hi David, you are right. a lot of hardcore Marx Bros fans really dislike this entry
And Jeff, you caught my mistake. I typed the wrong name originally
January 20th, 2020 at 1:45 pm
As a nearly lifelong Marx fan, this film doesn’t hold a sputtering candle to how ungreat their worst film as stars, THE BIG STORE, a complete bore. The worst film that has all three of the “core” trio, however, is Irwin Allen’s miserable attempt at a comedy version of THE STORY OF MANKIND (all three brothers appear but not together, and fail to help elevate the misery). GO WEST (aka THE MARX BROS. GO WEST) is actually the least bad of their post-Irving Thalberg MGM films, particularly with the rather good end sequence.