Tue 30 Oct 2018
A TV Review by Michael Shonk: CASABLANCA “Siren Song” (1956).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV Drama[20] Comments
CASABLANCA “Siren Song†April 10, 1956. ABC – Warner Brothers. CAST: Charles McGraw as Rick Blaine, Marcel Dalio as Renaud. GUEST CAST: Mari Blanchard as Elsa Norden, James Mitchell as Francisco, Roberta Haynes as Maria, and Hayden Rorke as Henderson. Written by Frederic Brady. Directed by Richard L. Bare. Produced by Jerome Robinson – Executive Producer: William T. Orr. Based on film CASABLANCA (1942) – One of the rotating series under the title WARNER BROTHERS PRESENTS
Despite its constant efforts to stop such behavior, YouTube is a great source for the TV fan. You never know what TV treasure you will find there. In this case it is a lost episode of the ABC-TV series CASABLANCA (1955-56).
For those who have seen the TV premiere episode of CASABLANCA (1955-56) “Who Holds Tomorrow†(available on “Two Disc Special Edition†CASABLANCA – the film; DVD), “Siren Song†will show how far the series fell in its attempt to capture the magic of the movie.
“Siren Song†is a complete episode of CASABLANCA, but missing the WARNER PRESENTS opening host segment by Gig Young and the end segment that went behind the scenes to promote a Warner Brothers film.
The film CASABLANCA (1942) is still considered one of the greatest films ever made. The romantic adventure of two people and their doomed love affair still has meaning today.
Warner Brothers has made two attempts at adapting the film to TV. I reviewed the NBC 1983 version here.
The 1955 attempt was one of the rotating series under the title WARNER BROTHERS PRESENTS, along with KING’S ROW, CHEYENNE and a dramatic anthology. CASABLANCA would last only ten episodes of the scheduled thirteen.
The series aired on Tuesday at 7:30 to 8:30 on ABC. Opposite on CBS was NAME THAT TUNE followed by NAVY LOG, on NBC it was DINAH SHORE then PLYMOUTH NEWS CARAVAN, at 8pm NBC rotated the MILTON BERLE SHOW, MARTHA RAYE SHOW and the CHEVY SHOW. DuMont left the time period to its local affiliates.
“Siren Song†is a good but predictable TV noir complete with a man-hating femme fatale. The series itself had several flaws with the most serious being Charles McGraw in the Bogart role of the tragic romantic hero Rick Blaine.
Retired matador Francisco yearns to return to the glory of the bullring. He ignores the warnings of his wife and his friend Rick that Francisco is too old to survive the ring.
Everyone notices the beautiful blonde Elsa enter, a femme fatale who few men can resist. Elsa finds pleasure in destroying men. She discards her current lover and sets her sights on Francisco.
Francisco falls for her charm, abandoning his loyal loving wife. It does not take much for Elsa to convince Francisco to fight the bull again.
The film CASABLANCA proved too iconic for this early TV series to live up to, even for the premiere episode “Who Holds Tomorrow†that actually tried.
Comparing the entrance and interior sets of Rick’s Café Americain in “Who Holds Tomorrow†to “Siren Song†illustrates the series budget cuts and that Warner Brothers had given up on the series.
Director Richard L. Bare (77 SUNSET STRIP) did well in capturing the noir mood of the predictable script and the filming of the bullfighting scene was impressive for its time, but Casablanca, the city as well as the heart of the film, were missing.
The series was set in contemporary 1955 Casablanca and portrayed the locale as a center of Cold War intrigue. However in the real world at that time Casablanca was a center of revolution between the Moroccans and the French and Spanish. During the time this series was on the air the French officially granted Morocco its independence.
The tension between the natives and the French (and Spanish) was ignored in this episode and while politics played no role in “Siren Song,†the turmoil of the time should at least have been part of the background atmosphere.
Even a greater mistake was the relationship between Rick and Renaud took a step back as if the movie’s ending never happened. Marcel Dalio was no Claude Raines but in a nice piece of trivia, he had played the role of Emil the croupier in the movie version.
The fatal flaw was Rick. It is no surprise that McGraw failed to match Bogart as the tragic romantic hero. A bigger problem was Rick of the movie was not the Rick of this series. TV Rick seemed content, almost happy with his life. Where was the angst of the movie’s Rick that made the character so romantic?
This episode as with many of early TV series focused on guest characters more than the main star of the series. But CASABLANCA’s appeal was more about Rick than the premise. The audience was there for Rick, not some story about random characters.
The guest cast did OK. Mari Blanchard (DESTRY) was at her best, showing the glee she felt as she used a man and cruelly sent him off to his doom. Today’s old TV fans will notice Hayden Rorke from I DREAM OF JEANNIE, playing the man who paid the bills for his time with Elsa. James Mitchell (ALL MY CHILDREN) as Matador Francisco handled the bullfighting scene better than the self-pitying side of the retired bullfighter.
The major film studios had always looked down on TV as the enemy, but Disney’s financial success of TV series DISNEYLAND the season before and how Disney used it to promote its other product convinced other major studios to give TV a try.
WARNER BROTHERS PRESENTS was that series for Warner Brothers. While CASABLANCA and KING’S ROW were TV failures and other studios attacked Warner Brothers and ABC for the behind the scenes segment as being a six-minute free commercial for Warner Brothers films (which it was), the huge success of the third series CHEYENNE would keep Warner Brothers happy with the profits from the TV business.
Without more episodes its remains difficult to judge this attempt to bring CASABLANCA to the small screen, “Siren Song†was a better than average TV noir drama for the early days of television. But anyone expecting to find the romance adventure worthy of the name CASABLANCA will be disappointed.
October 30th, 2018 at 7:25 pm
I hope to be able to add some images from the series later. In the meantime, don’t wait to watch the YouTube video. One never know how long gems like this will last before being taken down.
October 30th, 2018 at 7:56 pm
Not certain I understood the comment about McGraw, as I thought him marvelous and well cast, and as he did not write or direct what would be a quickie if released theatrically, no reason to hold him accountable. On the Lux video theatre, Paul Douglas played Rick, older and overweight, and also still marvelous.
October 30th, 2018 at 8:29 pm
Wow. How can it be that I never heard of this? Of course, they’ve never quit trying to make movies into TV shows. I can’t remember one that I thought was very interesting, although Doris really liked the one based on Psycho.I watched a few episodes and thought the acting was really good.
October 30th, 2018 at 9:12 pm
Sorry, Barry but McGraw is not Bogart. He is a decent actor but he is not an icon like Bogart. Bogart was not the greatest actor to have ever lived but I can’t think of any actor who could play Rick Blaine better than Bogart. Bogart was at his best playing broken men.
McGraw was better in the pilot episode and the script for Siren Song did not do him any favors.
I need to find the Lux Video Theatre episode you mention. It sounds interesting. I hoped if they let Rick get older they let the character grow beyond WWII Rick.
October 30th, 2018 at 9:23 pm
Cole, magic is rare for all creative work and when you try to recreate that magic you are destine to fail. The remakes, sequels and reboots that succeed are those who create their own version such as M*A*S*H that told the story different in the book, the movie, and the TV series.
What made CASABLANCA the film magic was timing, characters and dialog. It was a movie about a choice most of the audience during WWII had faced personally. The characters were like all good drama real but more dramatic. And some of the most quotable dialog in movie history come from this movie.
Siren Song felt to me as someone pulled out an old script for an anthology series and changed the friend’s name to Rick.
October 30th, 2018 at 10:01 pm
Not a word you have written Michael can be refuted, but there are modifiers. For example, Bogart was not always iconic. In fact, took him a long time to be even a conventional leading man. Casablanca, not The Maltese Falcon, put him into that class. McGraw never had the same opportunities, and I don’t believe a cheaply produced tv series following in the path of a great success does anyone a favor. About the Lux production, Arlene Dahl played Ilsa and Hoagy Carmichael, wonderful as always, was Sam.
October 30th, 2018 at 10:12 pm
I found this quote online:
“Rock-hard and stone-cold would be the heart untouched by Rick’s putting Ilsa on the plane with Laszlo,” said David Hinckley at the New York Daily News, but “I have never, not for the length of a firefly’s flicker, wanted to know what happens next.”
October 30th, 2018 at 10:45 pm
Barry, I find McGraw lacks the softness of Rick (the socialist who fought for all the losers). I can see McGraw as Spade. I think there is a reason for McGraw not getting a chance. I am curious if you agree. I found McGraw a fifties style of actor with a raw toughness, but that style didn’t fit the forties well. Cagney is a good example, I can’t see McGraw crying or dealing with emotions as well as Bogart or Cagney. By the fifties the studio ability to create icons was fading, and those such as James Dean and Brando featured a different acting style.
Anyway, fame is often more due to timing than talent. I doubt CASABLANCA would be so remembered if it had existed in any other time than WWII.
October 30th, 2018 at 11:07 pm
Steve, every attempt to adapted CASABLANCA including an awful book has failed.
I am interested in what happened next, but all the attempts ignored that the film was a reflection of a short period of time when people were willing to sacrifice themselves for a greater good. Rick and Ilsa relationship represented that generation.
Rick the left wing warrior would win one for a change but his history of left-wing causes would have cost him in the Cold War fifties. What happened to Ilsa and her marriage after the cause ended? A look into the characters and how the times betrayed so many of those people would make an interesting story even if you have to leave Casablanca out.
October 30th, 2018 at 11:16 pm
Michael, I agree completely with your analysis relative to both the film and McGraw. Also about Siren song.
October 31st, 2018 at 5:41 am
I think we can settle any dispute here & now:
If Bogey & McGraw got in a fight, who do you think would win? And what if they could use stuntmen?
October 31st, 2018 at 11:15 am
Dan, it wouldn’t matter. John Wayne would step between them until everyone calmed down. Which is lucky for McGraw. If McGraw had hurt Bogie he would have Bacall coming after him.
October 31st, 2018 at 10:04 pm
The problem with the series is they bother to set it in Casablanca and then write it as if it was called Fresno with no sense of anything more Moroccan than the odd fez, and no sense at all of place or time.
I have always liked McGraw, and enjoyed his private eye series, but his Rick is underwritten. There is no sense he came to Casablanca for the waters, or that he has ever had another life somewhere else. Rick is supposed to be haunted by something, and as written here Rick at most seems worried Renault might suspend his liquor license.
Hollywood tried numerous times to recreate CASABLANCA with BACKGROUND TO DANGER, THE CONSPIRATORS, ROPE OF SAND, and again with Bogart in SIROCCO, and they failed every time and half those had many of the same cast members.
I have the feeling with this one that everyone knew it wasn’t going to work as episodic television so they hit the marks and collected the money until it went away. Being professionals that doesn’t mean they didn’t give viewers their moneys worth, jut that they didn’t see the point of going much deeper.
Granted McGraw never got anything like the roles that made Bogart as big star at last (maybe if George Raft had still been around to turn down films like HIGH SIERRA and THE MALTESE FALCON …), but that doesn’t mean I think McGraw had anything like the screen charisma of Bogart or would have become half the star given the same chances.
There were plenty of actors better than Errol Flynn, but none of them were anywhere near what Flynn could be in the right role and film. That’s the nature of stars, they not only get the big break but there is something about them and their relationship with the screen that no one else has.
And that was part of the problem in adapting CASABLANCA to the small screen as a series, because frankly it was at most a good story that blundered into greatness even as director, stars, and screenwriters struggled with it from the beginning.
Supposedly Ingrid Bergman was so confused about what Ilsa was supposed to be feeling it affected her performance, and the decision of Ilsa to fly off with Victor came close to the last minute as did the famous finale with Rains and Bogart. It could as easily been a holy mess as a masterpiece so the idea of lightning striking twice was a pretty unlikely one.
The episodes done for the series like this one were good television, but they weren’t special, and the name CASABLANCA called for more than that.To be honest the series might have worked better set in a roadhouse in Fresno with illegal gambling without the expectations that came with calling it CASABLANCA.
October 31st, 2018 at 10:58 pm
Pretty good comment, David, though the name of Fresno does not work for me. And I don’t think Cleveland does much either, so to be worked out. As for charm, the right word is empathy and Bogart developed a fair amount of that, but even if he had been available to do the series, the fifties were far less empathetic for him than the forties had been.
November 1st, 2018 at 12:24 am
Bogart made a career playing broken defeated heroes. You see Rick in so many of his films such as TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, KEY LARGO and even radio series such as BOLD VENTURE.
Having seen the incomplete pilot episode (available on DVD as I mentioned above) you can see the original attempt with a high budget for the time that WB tried. Siren Song was aired toward the end of its run when it was obviously a “dead series walking.”
I hope more episodes, especially the early ones, show up. I hate to think this episode will be all that is left to judge the series.
November 1st, 2018 at 5:54 am
Just watched this last night.
Biggest problem: the premise of an evil woman who likes to destroy men for kicks is Really Depressing. They should have avoided this at all costs.
Second biggest problem. The original Casablanca film was about desperate but heroic refugees – a riveting topic more relevant than ever today. This TV show is just about rich jet setters hanging out in a nightclub – a trashy premise.
By contrast, both the actors and the set designer are in there trying. The night club set is beautiful.
Charles McGraw was a likable, talented actor. He made many good films over the years. Admittedly, he was not a screen legend like Bogart. He had much better roles in films like Berlin Express, T-Men, The Narrow Margin, Roadblock, Toward the Unknown etc. But he is creditable here, even with this lousy script material.
November 1st, 2018 at 1:06 pm
Mike Grost, the premise of an evil woman who likes to destroy men is the basis of the greatest noir films and stories, but does it belong in a show called CASABLANCA? Not unless she is after Rick (and they tossed that away too quickly).
It was common in radio and in early TV for writers and studios to recycle scripts. WB was famous for it. I think this is an example of that.
If you get a chance to see the incomplete pilot “Who Holds Tomorrow” you will see how sad the sets and atmosphere fell in quality. The interior in “Siren Song” looked like a weak copy of Rick’s and without any sense of location except our memory of the film.
I liked Richard Bare’s direction and Mari Blanchard. She had the ability to give her character depth with her eyes and facial reactions. She made her character more real than the script did. The rest, meh.
November 1st, 2018 at 3:27 pm
michaels, I meant to ask and forgot, were the bull fighting scenes supposed to be in Morocco or Casablanca, or across the Med. in Spain? Part of Morocco was once under Spanish control and I imagine there were bull rings in Spanish Morocco, but I don’t recall one in Casablanca when I was there in the seventies (that doesn’t mean there couldn’t have been one).
I haven’t watched the episode yet, but was wondering if you could clear this up.
November 1st, 2018 at 4:10 pm
I don’t remember them mentioning the location of the bullfight. I would need to watch it again but I don’t remember any mention of location, even the Renaud and Rick scene seem to think the audience remembered the film location and that was enough.
The 1955 revolution that got Morocco its freedom from the French in 1956. Spain possess parts of Morocco the French didn’t but also left. During the time this series aired Renaud’s job would have been different from the WWII time as he would have dealt more with natives than Europeans.
Morocco may have become a hot spot in the Cold War but I suspect it was too busy with its revolution in 1955-56. I also suspect due to your past you would have a better idea about all of that than I do.
November 1st, 2018 at 4:34 pm
David, I went back and rewatched the bullfight section. I suspect the stock footage (of crowd and bullfight) was from Spain but print not clear enough for me to read the signs at the ring.
From action (all the characters are still in Casablanca and have not traveled) I say the bullfight is in Casablanca. The reality of Casablanca at the time seemed to not matter much to TV series. Still like Bare’s work matching stock footage to story action with actors.