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Movies and television have been competing for the same audience's time and money since TV was invented, but they've also formed a strange symbiosis. There have been a heck of a lot of movies based on TV shows, and a heck of a lot of TV shows based on movies.

Some of those shows based on movies have been major pop culture milestones, like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "The Karate Kid," and "Friday Night Lights." And of course a whole lot of been almost completely forgotten, like the sitcoms based on "Dirty Dancing," "Working Girl," and "Animal House."

But one thing these TV shows usually have in common is that they're almost always based on a hit movie. It's not surprising when a blockbuster like "M*A*S*H" or "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" gets turned into a television series. It's even common for smaller, but critically acclaimed films...

Warner Bros. got its due at the Academy Awards on Sunday night, consolidation be damned.

The studio behind the “Harry Potter” franchise, Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy and vintage classics like “Rebel Without a Cause” was recognized on stage at Sunday’s Oscars in observance of its 100th birthday. “Barbie” star Margot Robbie and “The Shawshank Redemption” star Morgan Freeman hit the Dolby Theatre stage to cue up a sizzle reel highlighting Warner Bros.’ legacy.

It was a heartening gesture from Oscar producers to give Warners its due despite the show’s broadcast partner, the Disney-owned ABC.

“I think we’re the greatest storytelling company in the world, and the Oscars is a night to celebrate the greatest stories,” Warner Bros. Discovery Chief David Zaslav told Variety on site at the awards. “Disney is also turning 100, so that’s two great storytelling companies. We root for each other.”

Robbie...

Warner Brothers released “Casablanca” in New York on Nov. 26, 1942, which just happened to be Thanksgiving. But the romantic World War II drama starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid was anything but a turkey. To say the New York Times review was effusive is something of an understatement: “Warners here have a picture which makes the spine tingle and the heart take a leap….And they have so combined sentiment, humor and pathos with taut melodrama and bristling intrigue that the result is a highly entertaining and even inspiring film.”

And critical praise and audiences’ adoration continued when it opened in Los Angeles and nationwide in January 1943. It went on to win three Oscars for Best Picture, director for Michael Curtiz and adapted screenplay for Julius J. and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch. Let’s take a look back on the occasion of the 80th anniversary.

As time has gone by,...

Burbank, Calif., September 13, 2022 – Celebrating the 80th anniversary of its 1942 release, the legendary Warner Bros. film Casablanca will be released on Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack and Digital on November 8, it was announced today by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Starring Academy Award winners Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, critic Leonard Maltin calls Casablanca “the best Hollywood movie of all time.”

The winner of three Academy Awards® including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, Casablanca was directed by Michael Curtiz from a screenplay by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch. The screenplay is based on “Everybody Comes to Rick’s”, an unproduced stage play by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison. The film was produced by Hal B. Wallis.

The cast also features Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Dooley Wilson.

Casablanca was voted the screen’s greatest love story and the #3 film of...

Karina Longworth’s house is, quite possibly, haunted. This is not necessarily something she has experienced herself, she tells me of her pale-pink 1926 Mediterranean, where Longworth could be found one July morning on the frond-shadowed patio. But it is something she has on authority from a friend who drunkenly stumbled in from the pool one night and heard, in the empty home, a dinner party going on in the dining room upstairs. Since then, the hauntedness or unhauntedness of Longworth’s abode has become a matter of some debate. “My...

It's a scene that's one of the most instantly recognizable in cinematic history: Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) walks into the Café Américain in Casablanca, Morocco. Spotting the house pianist, Sam (Dooley Wilson), she implores her old friend to "play it once," referring to a song that Sam knows holds a great deal of significance for her as well as his boss, Rick (Humphrey Bogart), who has forbidden him from playing the tune. Sam obliges Ilsa, however, playing and singing "As Time Goes By," managing to get through part of the song before Rick storms over and angrily stops him. Rick is stunned when...

The post One of Casablanca's Most Memorable Moments Was Almost Cut From the Film appeared first on /Film.

Legendary animator Floyd Norman talks about his all time favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Floyd Norman: An Animated Life (2016)

Vertigo (1958)

Citizen Kane (1941)

Rope (1948)

The Trouble With Harry (1955)

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

Song of the South (1946)

The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)

The Third Man (1950)

The Jungle Book (1967)

The Jungle Book (2016)

The Lion King (2019)

Pinocchio (1940)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

The Old Mill (1937)

Casablanca (1942)

Cinderella (1950)

Singin’ In The Rain (1953)

Paths of Glory (1957)

1917 (2019)

The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)

Star Wars (1977)

American Graffiti (1973)

Sorcerer (1977)

Other Notable Items

Michael Fiore

The Watts riots

The LAPD’s cruel mistreatment of Rodney King

The George Floyd protests

Move in Philadelphia

Walt Disney Pictures

Tfh Guru Roger Corman

Erik Sharkey

The Three Stooges

I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ali TV series (1977)

Muhammad Ali

Fred Calvert

Alfred Hitchcock

Bernard Herrman’s Vertigo score

Robert Burks

The latest...

Lakeith Stanfield plays it again with homages to Casablanca and Joker in the new video for “Fast Life,” his debut single under his music moniker, Htiekal.

Directed by Three Dead Crows, the clip opens with an ode to Casablanca in which Stanfield re-creates a scene between Humphrey Bogart’s Rick and Dooley Wilson’s Sam using some original audio from the film. The sequence fittingly ends with Stanfield’s morose Rick telling Sam to play the song he wants to hear: “Fast Life.” From there, the clip follows Stanfield and...

Last surviving cast member of Casablanca who played Yvonne

The strong plot, the exotic setting, the quotable, piquant dialogue, the cherished performances from a magnificent cast and the emotional Max Steiner score – not forgetting Dooley Wilson as Sam playing As Time Goes By – have ensured that Casablanca (1942) remains the most popular film from Hollywood’s golden age. Madeleine LeBeau (sometimes credited as Lebeau), who has died aged 92, the last surviving member of the cast, was among those whom cinephiles have sanctified for her special connection with Casablanca. LeBeau played Yvonne, one of the many French refugees seeking solace in the Café Americain, run by Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a cynical isolationist.

You must remember this … at the bar sits the attractive Yvonne, who has obviously been drowning her sorrows because Rick has jilted her. “Where were you last night?” she asks him as he passes by. “That’s so long ago,...

Ingrid Bergman ca. early 1940s. Ingrid Bergman movies on TCM: From the artificial 'Gaslight' to the magisterial 'Autumn Sonata' Two days ago, Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” series highlighted the film career of Greta Garbo. Today, Aug. 28, '15, TCM is focusing on another Swedish actress, three-time Academy Award winner Ingrid Bergman, who would have turned 100 years old tomorrow. TCM has likely aired most of Bergman's Hollywood films, and at least some of her early Swedish work. As a result, today's only premiere is Fielder Cook's little-seen and little-remembered From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1973), about two bored kids (Sally Prager, Johnny Doran) who run away from home and end up at New York City's Metropolitan Museum. Obviously, this is no A Night at the Museum – and that's a major plus. Bergman plays an elderly art lover who takes an interest in them; her...

Rex Ingram in 'The Thief of Bagdad' 1940 with tiny Sabu. Actor Rex Ingram movies on TCM: Early black film performer in 'Cabin in the Sky,' 'Anna Lucasta' It's somewhat unusual for two well-known film celebrities, whether past or present, to share the same name.* One such rarity is – or rather, are – the two movie people known as Rex Ingram;† one an Irish-born white director, the other an Illinois-born black actor. Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” continues today, Aug. 11, '15, with a day dedicated to the latter. Right now, TCM is showing Cabin in the Sky (1943), an all-black musical adaptation of the Faust tale that is notable as the first full-fledged feature film directed by another Illinois-born movie person, Vincente Minnelli. Also worth mentioning, the movie marked Lena Horne's first important appearance in a mainstream motion picture.§ A financial disappointment on the...

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the release of "Crash" (on May 6, 2005), an all-star movie whose controversy came not from its provocative treatment of racial issues but from its Best Picture Oscar victory a few months later, against what many critics felt was a much more deserving movie, "Brokeback Mountain."

The "Crash" vs. "Brokeback" battle is one of those lingering disputes that makes the Academy Awards so fascinating, year after year. Moviegoers and critics who revisit older movies are constantly judging the Academy's judgment. Even decades of hindsight may not always be enough to tell whether the Oscar voters of a particular year got it right or wrong. Whether it's "Birdman" vs. "Boyhood," "The King's Speech" vs. "The Social Network," "Saving Private Ryan" vs. "Shakespeare in Love" or even "An American in Paris" vs. "A Streetcar Named Desire," we're still confirming the Academy's taste or dismissing it as hopelessly off-base years later.

Somewhere out there is a wealthy customer who just won himself one of the most expensive Halloween costumes out there: the Cowardly Lion costume from 1939's The Wizard of Oz fetched over $3 million at auction at Bonhams in New York City on Monday. According to the Associated Press, the costume was authenticated to be the one that Bert Lahr wore in the film; a back-up costume fetched almost $1 million in recent years. The costume's previous owner, Los Angeles Museum of Television founder James Comisar, said that the costume was made out of real lion skins, and was extensively analyzed to...

Wizardly sums! The costume that the matchless Bert Lahr wore as the Cowardly Lion in 1939's The Wizard of Oz and the piano Dooley Wilson played in 1942's Casablanca have each been sold by Bonham's auction house for more than $3 million. And while neither result is a record, both sale prices were at the higher end of pre-auction estimates. The Cowardly Lion costume, which had been owned by Los Angeles TV museum founder James Comisar, went for $3,077,000, which includes a buyer's premium of $477,000. The outfit - which is made of real lion's skins - had been rescued from an old...

Wizardly sums! The costume that the matchless Bert Lahr wore as the Cowardly Lion in 1939's The Wizard of Oz and the piano Dooley Wilson played in 1942's Casablanca have each been sold by Bonham's auction house for more than $3 million. And while neither result is a record, both sale prices were at the higher end of pre-auction estimates. The Cowardly Lion costume, which had been owned by Los Angeles TV museum founder James Comisar, went for $3,077,000, which includes a buyer's premium of $477,000. The outfit - which is made of real lion's skins - had been rescued from an old...

1942’s Casablanca has repeatedly been canonized as the best film Hollywood ever made. Its iconic dialogue produced a bevy of quotable lines that sealed seated their seemingly eternal place in movie culture, and it’s damn near impossible to refer to Humphrey Bogart’s iconic career without bringing to mind his worn mug reminiscing to Dooley Wilson’s iteration of “As Time Goes By” in his empty bar’s depths of night. Never has Bogie been so tragically Bogie, or, for that matter, Bergman so classically Bergman, Rains so nobly Rains, Lorre so campily Lorre, and the film’s team of studio scribes so harmoniously in tune towards a pitch-perfect example of Hollywood narrative convention. Given the vaunted reputation of Casablanca, it’s strange that the film’s director, Michael Curtiz, is so often obscured within observations of its notable ensemble, much less considered the film’s reigning auteur. Among all the beloved directors of Classical Hollywood...

Cinema Retro has received the following announcement: 

To celebrate Valentine's Day, the Redford Theatre is offering free admission to this film event weekend in appreciation  gratitude for the support and loyalty of our patrons. That's you!

Join us this weekend for what has been called one of the greatest films Hollywood has ever produced: "Casablanca". The black and white film from 1942 (a colorized version never went over very well) stars Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart, with a stellar supporting cast that includes Paul Henreid, Sidney Greenstreet, Claude Rains and Peter Lorre. While other great films from the '40s faded into obscurity, "Casablanca" just continued to grow in popularity. By 1977, it was the most frequently broadcast movie on TV. As recently as last March, Warner Brothers released a 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collectors Edition Combo Set on Blu-ray. That's all well and good, but how often do you have the opportunity...

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has added an exciting roster of screen legends and beloved titles to the 2014 TCM Classic Film Festival, including appearances by Maureen O’Hara, Mel Brooks and Margaret O’Brien, plus a two-film tribute to Academy Award®-winner Richard Dreyfuss. Marking its fifth year, the TCM Classic Film Festival will take place April 10-13, 2014, in Hollywood. The gathering will coincide with TCM’s 20th anniversary as a leading authority in classic film.

O’Hara will present the world premiere restoration of John Ford’s Oscar®-winning Best Picture How Green Was My Valley (1941), while Brooks will appear at a screening of his western comedy Blazing Saddles (1974). O’Brien will be on-hand for Vincente Minnelli’s perennial musical favorite Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), starring Judy Garland. The tribute to Dreyfuss will consist of a double feature of two of his most popular roles: his Oscar®-winning performance...

Paul Henreid in ‘Casablanca’: Freedom Fighter on screen, Blacklisted ‘Subversive’ off screen Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month of July 2013, Paul Henreid, bids you farewell this evening. TCM left the most popular, if not exactly the best, for last: Casablanca, Michael Curtiz’s 1943 Best Picture Oscar-winning drama, is showing at 7 p.m. Pt tonight. (Photo: Paul Henreid sings "La Marseillaise" in Casablanca.) One of the best-remembered movies of the studio era, Casablanca — not set in a Spanish or Mexican White House — features Paul Henreid as Czechoslovakian underground leader Victor Laszlo, Ingrid Bergman’s husband but not her True Love. That’s Humphrey Bogart, owner of a cafe in the titular Moroccan city. Henreid’s anti-Nazi hero is generally considered one of least interesting elements in Casablanca, but Alt Film Guide contributor Dan Schneider thinks otherwise. In any case, Victor Laszlo feels like a character made to order for Paul Henreid,...

Eleanor Parker: Palm Springs resident turns 91 today Eleanor Parker turns 91 today. The three-time Oscar nominee (Caged, 1950; Detective Story, 1951; Interrupted Melody, 1955) and Palm Springs resident is Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month of June 2013. Earlier this month, TCM showed a few dozen Eleanor Parker movies, from her days at Warner Bros. in the ’40s to her later career as a top Hollywood supporting player. (Photo: Publicity shot of Eleanor Parker in An American Dream.) Missing from TCM’s movie series, however, was not only Eleanor Parker’s biggest box-office it — The Sound of Music, in which she steals the show from both Julie Andrews and the Alps — but also what according to several sources is her very first movie role: a bit part in Raoul Walsh’s They Died with Their Boots On, a 1941 Western starring Errol Flynn as a dashingly handsome and all-around-good-guy-ish General George Armstrong Custer. Olivia de Havilland...

This week at Trailers from Hell, director John Landis takes a look at Vincente Minnelli's musical, "Cabin in the Sky," released in 1943. The hit 1940 Broadway musical version of the Faust legend made it to the screen three years later, with original stars Ethel Waters and Rex Ingram heading an all-star African-American cast and first-time director Vincente Minnelli behind the camera. Jack Benny foil Eddie Anderson replaced Casablanca pianist Dooley Wilson in the lead because "Rochester" was popular enough to allay objections from exhibitors in some of the race-averse Southern states. Released in "glorious Sepiatone."...

Photos for Gangster Squad, Kill Your Darlings, The Hangover Part III and Red 2.

Posters for Parker, A Haunted House, and Escape from Planet Earth.

20th Century Fox has revealed the worldwide release dates for The Wolverine. There's also a trailer for the upcoming Blu-ray release of Willow, and a new viral website for Star Trek Into Darkness.

"'Draft Day', the football-themed drama script with Kevin Costner attached, topped the annual Black List of Hollywood's best unproduced screenplays…" (full details)

"Criterion have announced their March Blu-ray titles which include Terrence Malick’s 'Badlands,' Fritz Lang's 'Ministry of Fear,' Robert Bresson's 'A Man Escaped,' the Charlie Chaplin title 'Monsieur Verdoux,' the 50's version of 'The Blob,' and Powell and Pressburger's 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'…" (full details)

"The Weinstein Company has scrapped the L.A. premiere of...

Photos for Gangster Squad, Kill Your Darlings, The Hangover Part III and Red 2.

Posters for Parker, A Haunted House, and Escape from Planet Earth.

20th Century Fox has revealed the worldwide release dates for The Wolverine. There's also a trailer for the upcoming Blu-ray release of Willow, and a new viral website for Star Trek Into Darkness.

"'Draft Day', the football-themed drama script with Kevin Costner attached, topped the annual Black List of Hollywood's best unproduced screenplays…" (full details)

"Criterion have announced their March Blu-ray titles which include Terrence Malick’s 'Badlands,' Fritz Lang's 'Ministry of Fear,' Robert Bresson's 'A Man Escaped,' the Charlie Chaplin title 'Monsieur Verdoux,' the 50's version of 'The Blob,' and Powell and Pressburger's 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'…" (full details)

"The Weinstein Company has scrapped the L.A. premiere of...

Washington, Dec mber 17: Leonardo DiCaprio has become the new owner of the piano used in classic movie 'Casablanca', after teaming up with a billionaire pal to purchase the item at an auction on Friday.

The instrument, which Dooley Wilson performed 'As Time Goes By' on in the 1942 film, went under the hammer at Sotheby's in New York for 600,000 dollars (375,000 pounds), Contactmusic reported.

According to the New York Daily News, DiCaprio and his rich philanthropist pal Stewart Rahr teamed up to buy the piano, which they now plan to donate to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. (Ani)...

The piano from the classic Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman film Casablanca has sold at auction on Friday, bringing in close to $200,000 less than lowest estimates. Story: 'Casablanca' Piano Could Sell for $1.2 Million  Expected to sell from anywhere between $800,000 to $1.2 million, the blue-and-white upright on which Sam (Dooley Wilson) played it again -- "it" being doomed lovers Rick and Ilsa's song, "As Time Goes By" -- fetched $602,500 at Sotheby's, Reuters reports. The prop was put up for auction by a Japanese collector who purchased it for $154,000 at a

read more...

New York -- The piano used for the song "As Times Goes By" in the classic 1942 film "Casablanca" has fetched more than $600,000 at auction.

The 58-key upright was sold to an unidentified buyer for $602,500 at Sotheby's New York on Friday.

Its pre-sale estimate was up to $1.2 million.

It was offered by a Japanese collector on the film's 70th anniversary.

The collector purchased the movie prop at a Sotheby's auction in 1988 for $154,000.

Humphrey Bogart played Rick Blaine in the Oscar-winning World War II love story, opposite Ingrid Bergman's character, Ilsa Lund.

In a famous flashback scene, Rick and Ilsa lean on the piano at a Paris bistro. Sam, played by Dooley Wilson, plays and sings.

They toast as Rick says: "Here's looking at you, kid."

___

More than...

How much would you be willing to pay to own a piece of film history? Well, on December 14th someone will have a chance to give their answer, as the iconic piano from Casablanca goes up for auction. The Paris piano was used in the scene where Sam (Dooley Wilson) plays the piano and sings As Time Goes By, the love serenade for Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) and Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart).

In 1988 the piano broke auction records, becoming the most expensive movie prop ever sold when a Japanese collector bought it for $154,000. Now that collector is through with his time owning the piano and he’s putting it up for auction through Sotheby’s.

Sotheby’s vice chairman David Redden spoke to USA Today about the piano. Check out his comment below.

Seeing the piano like this is a bit of a revelation, because in the movie it’s in black and white,...

Instrument on which Dooley Wilson played As Time Goes By in classic film is expected to sell for around $1m

The piano from the Oscar-winning film Casablanca could fetch more than $1m (£625,000) when it is sold at auction in New York next month on the 70th anniversary of the premiere of the classic movie, Sotheby's said on Tuesday.

The 58-key piano, on which actor and singer Dooley Wilson performed As Time Goes By, has a pre-sale estimate of $800,000 to $1.2m for the 14 December auction.

Wilson sang the song while playing the role of Sam in the 1942 film as Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, playing the star-crossed lovers Rick and Ilsa, leaned on the piano in a flashback to their time in Paris.

"How can anything say 'I love you' better than the piano from Casablanca?" David Redden, vice-chairman and director of the special projects department at Sotheby's, said.

The film,...

New York — The piano used for the song "As Times Goes By" in the classic 1942 film "Casablanca" is getting another turn at fame.

The instrument is going up for sale at Sotheby's in New York on Dec. 14, and the auction house estimates it'll fetch up to $1.2 million.

It's being offered by a Japanese collector on the film's 70th anniversary.

The collector purchased the movie prop at a Sotheby's auction in 1988 for $154,000.

Humphrey Bogart played Rick Blaine in the Oscar-winning World War II love story, opposite Ingrid Bergman's character, Ilsa Lund.

In a famous flashback scene, Rick and Ilsa lean on the piano at a Paris bistro. Sam, played by Dooley Wilson, plays and sings.

They toast as Rick says: "Here's looking at you, kid."

___

Online: www.sothebys.com...

Well, I haven’t heard Adam Sandler’s Chanukah Song yet – the Festival of Lights starts at sunset on Saturday, December 8th – but I did hear a rant about the War on Christmas on the radio the other day.

Yep, it’s that time of year again. Hallmark Channel has preempted Little House On The Prairie for sickly sweet (and cheaply made) movies with a Christmas theme. Wal-Mart and Target are pushing black Friday – great name for a villain, by the way – and have introduced something called pre-black Friday. Christmas catalogs have been smushed into my mailbox, and the department store halls are beginning to be decked with boughs of holly, fa-la-la-la, la-la-la-la I’ve even caught some Christmas commercials on the TV (although the deluge is yet to come.)

So this year ye olde editor Mike Gold and Big Kahuna Glenn Hauman decided to get in on the act...

As I Said Last Week And The Week Before And The Week Before That – Warning: I’m assuming that people reading this have seen the movie and thus will be fine with my discussing elements of the plot. If you’re one of those who haven’t watched the movie, do yourself a favor and Don’T Read This. See the movie instead and have your own experience with it. Trust me. You’ll be glad you did. If you need a plot synopsis, imdb has a good one here.

This is the fourth and final installment in my examination of the classic Warner Bros. film, Casablanca. Not that I couldn’t go on (and on and on) about it further but I figure there are limits to the patience of all of you out there and I thank you for indulging me thus far in looking at one of my own favorite films.

Chicago – Every seasoned movie lover can attest to having a favorite shot in Michael Curtiz’s 1942 classic “Casablanca,” a picture practically overflowing with indelible imagery. The first appearance of freedom fighter-turned-café owner Rick (Humphrey Bogart) decked out in a white tux, the tearful letter that turns to literal tears in a rainstorm, the final walk through the fog…all unforgettable.

Yet the shot that remains closest to my heart is the one that lingers on the face of Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), as she becomes hopelessly lost in the evocative notes and lyrics of a song from her past. No actress embodies earthy sensuality and misty-eyed passion quite like Bergman, who was at the peak of her luminous beauty at age 26. Her trancelike state of nostalgic longing never fails to mesmerize me, as her eyes convey what words could only feebly articulate.

Blu-ray Rating: 5.0/5.0

Unlike other landmarks of cinema history, “Casablanca...

Spoiler Warning: I’m assuming that people reading this have seen the movie and thus will be free with me discussing elements of the plot. If you’re one of those who haven’t, do yourself a favor and Don’T Read This. See the movie instead and have your own experience with it. Trust me. You’ll be glad you did. If you need a plot synopsis, IMDb has a good one here.

The movie Casablanca turns 70 this year and, to celebrate, Warner Bros is releasing it on Blu-Ray on March 27 and is also showing it, one night only, in selected movie theaters across the country on March 21. I’ve already got the tickets for Mary and myself.

I’ve seen the film at least twice now on the big screen and look forward to seeing it again – I’ve watched it countless number of times on DVD but...

During the early 1940′s the Hollywood studio system was at its peak. At Warner Brothers, studio head Jack Warner and as his right hand man, executive in charge of production, Hal B. Wallis confidently stood shoulder to shoulder with the other major studios. Back then Hollywood would churn out at least one movie per week from each studio. It was like a factory, pumping out movies on a production line. Casablanca was like any other film at the time, made for a cheap buck as opposed to any strong artistic merit. Funny then that it has since gone on to become one of the most beloved films of all time.

Casablanca was just another place on the map until Hal Wallis got his hands on a play entitled ‘Everybody Comes To Rick’s‘. Based upon the travels of playwrights Murray Burnett and Joan Alison, the play was unproduced at the...

“If I could do it all over again…”

How many times have you thought that, or dreamt it, or talked about it? I think everybody does. It’s in our natures, y’know?

“If I knew then what I know now…”

What would you do?

I wouldn’t be a nurse.

I’d go to film school. UCLA or Nyu. I’d aim to be a film editor.

I love movies. So, in keeping with Mike Gold and John Ostrander’s columns about the movies, I thought I would list some of my favorite movies and why I love them. In no particular order. Because every time I pick one as my “all-time fave,” I remember another and hastily move that one to the top spot.

Casablanca: Two men. The woman they both love. And Nazis. Who doesn’t love this move? Humphrey Bogart. Ingrid Bergman. Claude Raines. Sydney Greenstreet.

I didn’t think I would have to insult the intelligence of our readers by pointing out a very simple fact, but based on the first comment we received, I guess I should make something clear. This is a list of our favourite soundtracks of 2011. We are currently working on a list of the best original scores, which should be posted sometime within the week. Let us know if you think we left out any soundtracks you would recommend. Enjoy!

10 – Young Adult

One of the themes of Jason Reitman’s upcoming film Young Adult, is the idea of being stuck in the past, and trying to relive your glory days, and so it’s no surprise that the soundtrack to the film is loathed with 1990s alt-rock cuts. Due December 6th via Rhino Records, the fifteen-track disc features the Replacements, the Lemonheads, Dinosaur Jr., Teenage Fanclub, Cracker, 4 Non Blondes, Veruca Salt and many more.

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will open the 2012 edition of the TCM Classic Film Festival with the world premiere of a new 40th anniversary restoration of Bob Fosse’s Cabaret (1972). TCM’s own Robert Osborne, who serves as official host for the festival, will introduce Cabaret to kick off the four-day, star-studded event, which will take pace Thursday, April 12 - Sunday, April 15, 2012, in Hollywood. Passes are set to go on sale Wednesday, Nov. 9, at 10 a.m. (Et) through the official festival website: http://www.tcm.com/festival.

One of the most acclaimed films of its era, Cabaret stars Oscar®-winner Liza Minnelli as an American singer looking for love and success in pre-World War II Berlin. Michael York and Academy Award® winner Joel Grey co-star in the film, which earned Fosse an Oscar for Best Director and serves as a perfect showcase for his unique choreography and imaginative visual style.

Cabaret...

Last week, we told you about Silencio, David Lynch's new nightclub in Paris, based on a spot first featured in his 2001 film "Mulholland Drive." Our excitement over this new venue got us thinking: what other fictional nightclubs deserve to be converted to real working establishments? Fertile ground for a list, says I.

So here we go. The list is entirely subjective and based on only one rule: no real places. Since this all started with a director taking a fantasy and making it a reality, this piece had to work the same way. Picking places that really existed would be cheating. Hence you won't find 2001 Odyssey Disco from "Saturday Night Fever" below; it was an actual Brooklyn dance club (at 802 64th Street) spruced up with a little movie magic (the production brought in the signature light-up floor).

In one case, someone already has granted our wish and made one of these places.

Dooley Wilson, Humphrey Bogart in Michael Curtiz's Casablanca Casablanca Review Part VI – Lack of Great Themes As I've shown, there are many flaws in Casablanca's narrative; among them the fact that it is melodrama — driven by plot, not character development. All the characters react to what the plot dictates; the plot does not organically flow from their personae. Now, before you claim, "But it's a war film," let me state: It's not, it's a romance set in war, but even were it a war film, just look at the greatest of war films; all of them are driven by characters, not plots. Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory has its dramatic tension not because of the trench warfare, but because of the force of Kirk Douglas' colonel and the reactions of the doomed men he commanded. Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now is driven by the conflicting...

Dooley Wilson, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman in Michael Curtiz's Casablanca Casablanca Review Part IV – Ingrid Bergman The ending is good — Louie and Rick talk of leaving Casablanca after Louie covers for Rick's killing the Nazi Major Strasser — but there is nothing either actor does that lifts the scene above its own well-written basis. Then there is Strasser's portrayer, Conrad Veidt, an actor perhaps best known for his role in Robert Wiene's 1919 silent classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Simply put, is there anything that lifts Strasser above the generic Nazi archetype in thousands of films? No. How about the black marketer, Signor Ferrari (Sydney Greenstreet)? No. This isn't to say that Ferrari does not get off a few good lines, but again, most critics mistake a few good lines — or tear-filled eyes — for good acting, and utterly overlook detailed and restrained performances like Paul Henreid's. Finally, [...]...

Casablanca (1942) Direction: Michael Curtiz Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Conrad Veidt, S. Z. Sakall, Dooley Wilson, Joy Page Screenplay: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch; from Murray Burnett and Joan Alison's unproduced play "Everybody Comes to Rick's" Oscar Movies Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Casablanca By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica: About three years ago, I finally gave in to watch Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946) for the first time. I had hesitated because of the five- and ten-minute snippets of the film I had seen, and for its reputation as a hokey Christmas story "chestnut." Well, was I wrong, for It's a Wonderful Life is a great film — arguably the best Capra ever made. It is also a good example of the auteur theory of filmmaking, in that the film fits remarkably well within the Capra canon. From the...

Dooley Wilson as Sam, the movies’ most famous piano player (who couldn’t really play) in Casablanca. It’s been far too long since I produced the last issue of my newsletter, Leonard Maltin’s Movie Crazy…but issue 28 is now a reality. In fact, it’s already been mailed to our subscribers. (You can learn more Here.) The lead story is my exploration of the music of Casablanca; it’s my all-time favorite movie, but until recently I never thought about all the many and varied musical compositions that make up its soundtrack. If you think Max Steiner simply strung together strains of “As…...