Casablanca

Immortal Silverscreen Movie Classic with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman

Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre.
Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in the words of one character, love and virtue. He must choose between his love for a woman and helping her and her Resistance leader husband escape from the Vichy-controlled Moroccan city of Casablanca to continue his fight against the Nazis.

Humphrey Bogart - The Signature Collection, Vol. 1 (Casablanca Two-Disc Special Edition / The Treasure of the Sierra Madre Two-Disc Special Edition / They Drive by Night / High Sierra)

Although it was an A-list movie, with established stars and first-rate writers—Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch received credit for the screenplay—no one involved with its production expected Casablanca to be anything out of the ordinary; it was just one of dozens of pictures being churned out by Hollywood every year. The film was a solid, if unspectacular, success in its initial run, rushed into release to take advantage of the publicity from the Allied invasion of North Africa a few weeks earlier.

Despite a changing assortment of screenwriters frantically adapting an unstaged play and barely keeping ahead of production, and Bogart attempting his first romantic lead role, Casablanca won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Its characters, dialogue, and music have become iconic, and Casablanca has grown in popularity to the point that it now consistently ranks near the top of lists of the greatest films of all time.

Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) is a bitter, cynical American expatriate living in Casablanca. He owns and runs "Rick's Café Américain", an upscale nightclub and gambling den that attracts a mixed clientele: Vichy French, Italian, and Nazi officials; refugees desperately seeking to reach the United States, as yet uninvolved in the war; and those who prey on them. Although Rick professes to be neutral in all matters, it is later revealed that he had run guns to Ethiopia to combat the 1935 Italian invasion, and fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War against Francisco Franco's Nationalists.

Ugarte (Peter Lorre), a petty criminal, arrives in Rick's club with "letters of transit" obtained through the murder of two German couriers. The papers allow the bearer to travel freely around German-controlled Europe and to neutral Portugal, and from there to America. The letters are almost priceless to any of the continual stream of refugees who end up stranded in Casablanca. Ugarte plans to make his fortune by selling them to the highest bidder, who is due to arrive at the club later that night. However, before the exchange can take place, Ugarte is arrested by the local police under the command of Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains), a corrupt opportunist who later says of himself, "I have no convictions... I blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy." Unbeknownst to Renault and the Nazis, Ugarte had entrusted the letters to Rick because "... somehow, just because you despise me, you are the only one I trust." Ugarte dies in police custody without revealing the location of the letters.

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At this point, the reason for Rick's bitterness re-enters his life. His ex-lover, Norwegian Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) arrives with her husband, Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), a fugitive Czech Resistance leader long sought by the Nazis. The couple need the letters to leave for America to continue his work. German Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt) arrives to see to it that Laszlo does not succeed.

When Laszlo speaks with Signor Ferrari (Sydney Greenstreet), a major figure in the criminal underworld and Rick's friendly business rival, Ferrari divulges his suspicion that Rick has the letters. Laszlo meets with Rick privately, but Rick refuses to part with the documents, telling Laszlo to ask his wife for the reason. They are interrupted when Strasser leads a group of officers in singing "Die Wacht am Rhein", a patriotic German song. In response, Laszlo orders the house band to play "La Marseillaise", the French national anthem. When the band looks to Rick for guidance, he nods his head. Laszlo starts singing, alone at first, then long-suppressed patriotic fervor grips the crowd and everyone joins in, drowning out the Germans. In retaliation, Strasser has Renault shut down the club.

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That night, Ilsa confronts Rick in the deserted cafe. When he refuses to give her the letters, she threatens him with a gun, but is unable to shoot, confessing that she still loves him. She explains that when she first met and fell in love with him in Paris, she believed that her husband had been killed trying to escape from a Nazi concentration camp. Later, with the German army on the verge of capturing the city, she learned that Laszlo was in fact alive and in hiding. She left Rick without explanation to tend to an ill Laszlo.

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With the revelation, Rick's bitterness dissolves and the lovers are reconciled. Rick agrees to help, leading her to believe that she will stay behind with him when Laszlo leaves. When Laszlo unexpectedly shows up, after having narrowly escaped a police raid on a Resistance meeting, Rick has waiter Carl (S. Z. Sakall) secretly take Ilsa back to the hotel while the two men talk.

Laszlo reveals that he is aware of Rick's love for Ilsa and tries to get Rick to use the letters to at least take her to safety. However, the police arrive and arrest Laszlo on a minor, trumped-up charge. Rick convinces Renault to release Laszlo by promising to set him up for a much more serious crime: possession of the letters of transit. To allay Renault's suspicions about his motives, Rick explains that he and Ilsa will be leaving for America.

However, when Renault tries to arrest Laszlo, Rick double crosses Renault, forcing him at gunpoint to assist in their escape. At the last moment, Rick makes Ilsa board the plane to Lisbon with her husband, telling her that she would regret it if she stayed, "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life."

Major Strasser drives up by himself, having been tipped off by Renault, but Rick shoots him when he tries to intervene. When police reinforcements arrive, Renault pauses, then tells his men to "Round up the usual suspects." Once they are alone, Renault suggests to Rick that they leave Casablanca and join the Free French at Brazzaville. They walk off into the fog with one of the most memorable exit lines in movie history: "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

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This post is decicated to my old friend George Martyn, who used to watch this movie every single night for as long as i knew him; Rest in Peace George.

 

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The Jungle Book (Original)

Jungle Book is an American color 1942 action/adventure film based on the Rudyard Kipling book, The Jungle Book. The film was directed by Zoltán Korda based on a screeplay adaptation by Laurence Stallings. The cinematography was by Lee Garmes and W. Howard Greene and music by Miklós Rózsa.

The film was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color for the director's brother, Vincent Korda and creative partner Julia Heron.
n 1943 the film's score was re-recorded with narration by Sabu Dastagir and became the first commercial recording of a U.S. film score to be released



The 1942 "Jungle Book" was the first film for which original soundtrack recordings were issued. Previously, when record companies released music from a film, they had insisted on re-recording the music in their own studios with their own equipment. The "Jungle Book" records were taken from the same recordings used for the film's soundtrack, and their commercial success paved the way for more original-soundtrack albums.

Plot Synopsis;

In an Indian village, Buldeo, an elderly storyteller, is paid by a visiting British memsahib to tell a story of his youth. He speaks of the animals of the jungle, and of the ever-present threats to human life posed by the jungle itself. He then recalls his early life:

As a younger man he dreams that his village could one day become an important town, and that the jungle could be conquered. However, when he is speaking about these dreams an attack by Shere Khan the tiger leads to the death of a man and the loss of his child. The child is adopted by wolves in the jungle and grows to be the wild youth Mowgli. Years later, Mowgli is captured by the villagers and recognised as the lost child. Taken in by his mother Messua, Mowgli learns to speak and tries to imitate the ways of men. He becomes friendly with Buldeo's daughter, Mahala, much to Buldeo's distress, since he is convinced that the wild Mowgli is dangerous. When Mowgli and Mahala explore the jungle, they discover a hidden chamber in a ruined palace, containing fabulous wealth. Warned by an aged cobra that the wealth brings death, they leave, but take one coin as a memento. When Buldeo sees the coin he tries to force Mowgli to tell him where the treasure is, but Mowgli refuses.

Later Mowgli fights and kills Shere Khan. As he is skinning the body, Buldeo arrives. He threatens Mowgli with a gun, but is attacked by Mowgli's friend Bagheera the black panther. Buldeo becomes convinced that Bagheera is Mowgli himself, shape-shifted into panther form. He tells the villagers that Mowgli is a witch, as is his mother. Mowgli is chained up and threatened with death, but escapes with his mother's help. However, she and another villager who supports her are tied up, and themselves threatened with burning for witchcraft. Mowgli is followed by the greedy Buldeo and two friends to the lost city. They find the treasure, but Buldeo's friends are killed by the jungle, and their own greed, as they attempt to escape with their booty. Buldeo just survives, but has to jettison his loot. Engraged and maddened, he tries to kill Mowgli, and even the jungle itself, by starting a forest fire. The fire rages, but the wind turns and threatens the village. The villagers flee, but Mowgli's mother and supporter are trapped. Mowgli brings the elephants to the village and breaks open the building, escaping to the river with his Mother, Mahala and other villagers. He is invited to follow them to a new life downriver, but refuses to leave the jungle, turning back to help animals trapped by the fire.

The scene returns to the present day, with the elderly Buldeo telling his story, and admitting that the jungle defeated his youthful dreams. When asked how he escaped from the fire himself, he looks into the camera and says that's another story.



Starring;

• Sabu: Mowgli
• Joseph Calleia: Buldeo
• John Qualen: The barber
• Frank Puglia: The pundit
• Rosemary DeCamp: Messua
• Patricia O'Rourke : Mahala
• Ralph Byrd: Durga
• John Mather: Rao
• Faith Brook: English girl
• Noble Johnson: Sikh

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