My Favorite Films: Casablanca

In case you didn't already know, December is the month of the Bogie blogathon here at Forever Classics. In conjunction, all of the My Favorite Films post are going to be devoted to my top three picks from Bogie's filmography: Casablanca, To Have and Have Not and The African Queen, in that order (I won't be writing on The Maltese Falcon as it was featured as the noir of the month in April). Today's post is focusing on my favorite film of all time- Casablanca.

Released by Warner Brothers in 1942, the film tells the story of American expatriate and cafe owner Rick Blaine (Bogie) living in unoccupied Africa during World War II. Unexpected complications arise when Rick's former lover (Ingrid Bergman) and her Resistance leader husband (Paul Henreid) arrive at Rick's cafe and ask him to help them flee the Nazi's.

Casablanca is considered by many (including myself) to be the greatest film of all time, and it's obvious why: it's a perfect film with a wonderful cast, screenplay, score and director, all of which I will discuss more in depth later on.

"Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine."

One of the many things that make Casablanca so wonderful is that it contains some of the greatest performances in cinematic history. This is my favorite Bogie's film, tied with The African Queen. I love that he is able to play the cynical tough guy (which he was frequently type-cast as) but in the end still possess the emotions of a man torn between, in Claude Rain's words, love and virtue. (And, for the record, no one will ever be able to say "We'll always have Paris" the way Bogie did.)

Ingrid Bergman's performance as Ilsa Lund is her most popular role, and I consider it to be her best. Ever since my first viewing of Casablanca, I've always taken note in her facial expressions. In particular, when her character is conflicted, she seems to capture the scene perfectly. This is because she herself was confused during filming: Just like Ilsa was torn between helping her husband or staying with the man she really loved, Bergman was clueless about who she would end up with since the screenwriters did not finish writing the final scene until the day it was filmed. Since this is her most remembered film, it's quite astonishing that her Oscar nomination in 1943 was instead for For Whom the Bell Tolls.

It's amazing to look at the chemistry between Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. They did so well in their scenes together, which is odd because they rarely spoke outside of filming, on account of Bogie's wife at the time who constantly accused them of having an affair. The American Film Institute ranks it as the most passionate film ever made, as do I. One great example is the scene in which Ilsa comes to Rick's apartment to ask him for the letters of transit and admits she still loves him. (You can watch that scene here.)

Despite the popularity of Casablanca, Paul Henreid was a very underrated actor. While I don't think he was as great as the leading actors, his performance is still memorable since he plays one of the most important characters in the film. I particularly like the scene in the bar when Laszlo tells Rick he knows he's in love with Ilsa and also persuades him to give them the letters of transit. The supporting cast consists of Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet and S.Z. Sakall, who all, like Henreid, are extremely underrated. Even in supporting roles, they each add a lot to the film. For example, Peter Lorre has maybe eight minutes of screen time and he's in one of the most vital roles.

"We'll always have Paris." "Here's looking at you, kid." "Round up the usual suspects." "Play it Sam. Play, 'As Time Goes By'." Aside from the cast, the most recognizable thing about Casablanca is the screenplay. Even if someone hasn't seen it, the previous quotes are still vaguely familiar. It's a wonder that the screenplay turned out to be so great, considering the difficult time that brothers Julius and Phillip Epstein had writing it. The script was adapted from the play Everybody Comes to Rick by Joan Alison, but the title was changed to attract more viewers, similar to the film Algiers in 1938.

As I mentioned when discussing Bergman, the ending was rewritten several times to find the scene that best suit the story.Being the romantic that I am, I would have liked Ilsa to stay with Rick, but I strongly agree with what Julius Epstein said in the documentary You Must Remember This: The Making of Casablanca (which is available on the special edition DVD): the film wouldn't have the legacy it has today if it ended the way most people wanted it to. It shows a man giving up the woman for something he knows is more important, which is why it's so remembered today.

"As Time Goes By", originally released in 1931, is now one of the most well-known songs in film, but it was almost removed from Casablanca. After filming was complete, composer Max Steiner wanted to replace it with an original song, but, by this time Bergman had cut her hair for her part in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Scenes could not be re-shot and the song could not be removed since it was such a large part of the film, so "As Time Goes By" (thankfully) stayed.

And of course Google didn't have the picture I wanted.

Lastly, I want to discuss Michael Curtiz' direction. Curtiz made several great films including White Christmas and Mildred Pierce, but Casablanca was his masterpiece. Another thing I mentioned about Ingrid Bergman was the closeup shots. It's a remarkable quality, not just with her, but with the film as a whole. For example, the scene when Ilsa comes to Rick's cafe and asks Sam to play "As Time Goes By". Rick, hearing the song, walks over to Sam and he and Ilsa see each other for the first time since she left him in Paris. The way the camera captures their expressions is just perfect. It's one of my favorite scenes in the film.

Overall, I've seen Casablanca dozens of times and it still continues to amaze me as a film. I'll be re-watching it throughout December and I hope many of you will do the same.

Fashion In Film: My Top 10 Edith Head Designs

My contribution to the Fashion In Film Blogathon, hosted by Angela at The Hollywood Revue.

Over the past few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about what to write. As Edith Head is my favorite costume designer, I thought it'd be fun to decide which films/designs of hers I liked best. This is more so ranked on the actresses' whole wardrobe, rather than just one outfit. Also, Angela just posted her top 10 film costumes recently, so make sure you check that out!

10: Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress (1949)

9: Barbara Stanwyck in Ball of Fire (1941)

8: Kim Novak in Vertigo (1958)

7. Bette Davis in All About Eve (1950)

6. Gloria Swanson in Susnet Blvd (1950)

5. Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina (1954)

4. Elizabeth Taylor in A Place In the Sun (1951)

3. Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve (1941)

2. Grace Kelly in Rear Window (1954)

Tried to find a good colored version of this dress...no such luck.

1. Ingrid Bergman in Notorious (1946)

That's it for my top 10 Edith Head designs. A big thanks to Angela for hosting this blogathon!

The Films of Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock

Cary Grant made four films- Suspicion, Notorious, To Catch a Thief and North by Northwest- with my favorite director, Alfred Hitchcock. Grant also referred to Hitch as his favorite director, and Hitch called Grant "the only actor I ever loved in my whole life". I've seen all four of their films together, and enjoy them all, so I decided to say a bit about each of them.

 Grant's first film with Hitch was Suspicion (1941), co-starring Joan Fontaine, who won an Oscar for her role. The film is about an English woman (Fontaine) who marries charming playboy (Grant), then suspects he is planning to murder her.

I would say Suspicion is probably the weakest of the four Grant/Hitch collaborations. Not that it's a bad film- it isn't- but I find the other three films they made together to be much better, one reason being because of the changes made to Grant's character in the film versus the original novel Before the Fact written by Anthony Berkeley. **SPOILER ALERT**. In the book, Grant's character kills Fontaine. However, the studios objected to this as Grant was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood at the time and they feared playing a murderer would ruin his image. Thus, the ending was altered, much to Hitch's objection. I would have liked to see the ending as it was in the novel, since Grant rarely played the villain in any of his films.

The second of their films together is my favorite Hitchcock film, Notorious. Released in 1946, Notorious tells the story of a Nazi spy's daughter (Ingrid Bergman) who is trained by a government agent (Grant) to spy on her father's former colleagues who transfer to Brazil after WWII.

Notorious is one of Hitchcock's most acclaimed films, as it contains two of the most remembered scenes in film history. The first begins at the top of a staircase as Hitch slowly zooms in on Bergman showing a key hidden in her hand. The second is a two-and-a-half minute on-again/off-again kiss between Grant and Bergman that went against the Production Code, which stated that a kiss could be no longer than three seconds.

This is my favorite Hitchcock film for many reasons, one being the wonderful chemistry that the two stars had together.

To Catch a Thief (1955) pairs Cary Grant with Grace Kelly, whom he referred to as his favorite of the many actresses he worked with during his career. It was the third film that both Grant and Kelly made with Hitch (Kelly had starred in Dial M for Murder and Rear Window prior to this). This film is about retired jewel thief John Robie (Grant) who the police believe has returned to his robberies. Kelly plays an heiress who is convinced he is guilty, while her mother (Jessie Royce Landis) believes he's innocent.

Each of the four Grant/Hitchcock films features a car chase scene, the one in To Catch a Thief taking place in Monaco- reportedly on the same road where Kelly's fatal car accident occurred on September 14, 1982, after she supposedly had a stroke while driving.

  Last but not least is the film that would probably be Hitchcock's most famous if not for Psycho: North by Northwest. NxNW stars Grant as Roger Thornhill, a man mistaken by foreign officials for being a government advocate, and is tracked across the United States while trying to prove his real identity. This film co-stars Eva Marie Saint and James Mason.

North by Northwest is most remembered for the iconic crop-dusting sequence. While Grant waits at an isolated bus stop, a biplane is, in another character's words, "dusting crops where there ain't no crops". The plane flies toward Grant, barely missing him. You can watch the scene here if you're interested.


To sum it up, the four films Cary Grant made with Alfred Hitchcock are all worth watching. I'd recommend them to any classic film fan.

Happy birthday, Ingrid!

Happy 96th birthday and RIP to my favorite actress of all time, Ingrid Bergman. I would go into a lengthy monologue to talk about how talented she was, how much grace and beauty she possessed and what a wonderful person she was. But, honestly, words are inadequate when discussing my adoration for this woman.

All I can say is: Happy birthday, Ingrid. May you continue to live on in film viewers hearts forever.

My Movie Character Personality Soup

A few weeks ago, I saw Brandie from True Classic's post  of movie characters she thought defined/described her, and that automatically had me thinking of who I would pick to define myself. I spent awhile and managed to come up with the top five movie characters that I feel relate to me the most:

Amanda Bonner (Katharine Hepburn) from Adam's Rib (1949, dir. George Cukor).

I've always been a feminist, so Amanda's personality and boldness hits close to home. And who wouldn't love to have those cheekbones?

Belle (Paige O'Hara) from Beauty and the Beast (1991, dir. Gary Trousdale).

She's a bookworm and people think she's strange. That's all too familiar...

Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) from The Wizard of Oz (1939, dir. Victor Fleming).

I'm originally from a small town, and, trust me, I know what it's like wanting to be "over the rainbow".

Constance Peterson (Ingrid Bergman) in Spellbound (1945, dir. Alfred Hitchcock).

My love for Bogie made me want to choose Ilsa Lund, but I ended up going with Constance since we share a strong interest in psychology.

Jim Stark (James Dean) in Rebel Without a Cause (1955, dir. Nicholas Ray).

I wouldn't call myself a rebel or a trouble-maker by any means. But, at times, I can't help but identify with certain aspects of Dean's character in a way that I've never understood. Back to the part where people think I'm strange.

Honestly, there are probably several- maybe even dozens- more film characters much like myself, but this is just what I felt resembled me the most. 

I hope you enjoyed this post! Until next time...

My Picks: The 50 Best Female Performances in Film

I was inspired to do this post/meme after seeing it featured on Defiant Success and True Classics. (I'll also be posting my top 50 male performances later in the week.)  I am not, however, limiting myself to only one role per actor. Many of the actresses on this list are remembered for several performances and I think more than just one should be celebrated.

My top 50, in order by film title:

Katharine Hepburn as Rose Sayer in The African Queen (1951, John Huston).

Bette Davis as Margo Channing in All About Eve (1950, Joseph Mankiewicz)

Myrna Loy as Milly Stephenson in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946, William Wyler)

Judy Holliday as Emma "Billie" Dawn in Born Yesterday (1950, George Cukor.)

Celia Johnson as Laura Jesson in Brief Encounter (1945, David Lean)

Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund in Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)

Elizabeth Taylor as Margaret "Maggie" Pollitt in Cat On a Hot Tin Roof (1958, Ricard Brooks)

Shirley MacLaine as Martha Dobie in The Children's Hour (1961, William Wyler)

Bette Davis as Judith Traherne in Dark Victory (1939, Edmund Goulding)

Lee Remick as Kirsten Clay in Days of Wine and Roses (1962, Blake Edwards)

Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity (1944, Billy Wilder)

Patricia Neal as Marcia Jeffries in A Face In the Crowd (1957, Elia Kazan)

Deborah Kerr as Karen Holmes in From Here to Eternity (1953, Fred Zinnemann)

Ingrid Bergman as Paula Anton in Gaslight (1944, George Cukor)

Rita Hayworth as Gilda Farrell in Gilda (1946, Charles Vidor)

Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind (1939, Victor Fleming)

Greta Garbo as Grusinskaya in Grand Hotel (1932, Edmund Goulding)

Katharine Hepbun as Christian Drayton in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967, Stanley Kramer)

Ida Lupino as Marie in High Sierra (1941, Raoul Walsh)

Susan Hayward as Barbara Graham in I Want to Live! (1958, Robert Wise)

Lana Turner as Lora Meredith in Imitation of Life (1959, Douglas Sirk)

Susan Kohner as Sarah Jane Johnson in Imitation of Life (1959, Douglas Sirk)

Donna Reed as Mary Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life (1946, Frank Capra)

Jane Wyman as Belinda McDonald in Johnny Belinda (1948, Jean Negulesco)

Claire Trevor as Gaye Dawn in Key Largo (1948, John Huston)

Gene Tierney as Ellen Berent in Leave Her to Heaven (1945, John Stahl)

Katharine Hepburn as Queen Eleanor in The Lion In Winter (1968, Anthony Harvey) 

Greer Garson as Marie Curie in Madame Curie (1943, Mervyn LeRoy)

Ginger Rogers as Susan Applegate in The Major and the Minor (1942, Billy Wilder)

Mary Astor as Brigit O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (1941, John Huston)

Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins (1964, Robert Stevenson)

Joan Crawford as Mildred Pierce in Mildred Pierce (1945, Michael Curtiz)

Ingrid Bergman as Alicia Hubberman in Notorious (1946, Alfred Hitchcock)

Bette Davis as Charlotte Vale in Now, Voyager (1942, Irving Rapper)

Eva Marie Saint as Edie Doyle in On the Waterfront (1954, Eliz Kazan)

Joan Fontaine as The Second Mrs. DeWinter in Rebecca (1940, Alfred Hitchcock)

Audrey Hepburn as Princess Ann in Roman Holiday (1953, William Wyler)

Audrey Hepburn as Sabrina Fairchild in Sabrina (1954, Billy Wilder)

Claudette Colbert as Anne Hilton in Since You Went Away (1944, John Cromwell)

Olivia de Havilland as Virginia Cunningham in The Snake Pit (1948, Anatole Litvak)

Dorothy McGuire as Helen Capel in The Spiral Staircase (1946, Robert Siodmak)

Natalie Wood as Deanie Loomis in Splendor In the Grass (1961, Elia Kazan)

Judy Garland as Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester in A Star Is Born (1954, George Cukor)

Barbara Stanwyck as Stella Dallas in Stella Dallas (1937, King Vidor)

Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd (1950, Billy Wilder)

Grace Kelly as Frances Stevens in To Catch a Thief (1955, Alfred Hitchcock)

Lauren Bacall as Marie "Slim" Browning in To Have and Have Not (1944, Howard Hawkes)

Mary Badham as Jean Louise "Scout" Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962, Robert Mulligan)

Kim Novak as Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton in Vertigo (1958, Alfred Hitchcock) 

Merle Oberon as Cathy Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights (1939, William Wyler)

This was so hard. I seriously have no idea how I'm going to finish my top 50 male performances. Unfortunately,  I had to leave a lot of great roles out (Adam's Rib, Spellbound) but these are my all-time favorites, and I hope you enjoyed this post.