I saw Casablanca for the umpteenth time last night. It’s a wonderful movie and the more times I see Casablanca, the more I enjoy it. There are individual elements of the film you can easily criticize, but overall it is fantastic.
Here are the most important things I took away from Casablanca this time around.
It is another night without cable for me. Fortunately, a solid selection of my DVDs have been transported to Boston so I finally have something to watch. But just what movie am I going to watch?
I’m having some issues deciding what movie I should watch tonight. I’ve narrowed it down to five and the best reason I can think of to watch it. Maybe you can help me out from here.
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Why: Because once upon a time Abigail Breslin was adorable. (I also have not seen this, I think, since it was released.)
Stage Door (1937)
Why: It’s a great early Katharine Hepburn movie that also stars Lucille Ball and Ginger Rogers.
Annie Hall (1977)
Why: I watched Whatever Works this morning and I could go for a really good Woody Allen movie now.
To Have or Have Not (1944)
Why: Lauren Bacall. Bogie. This scene. Need I show you anything more?
Garden State (2004)
Why: In honor of my upcoming return to New Jersey, I should rewatch a movie that filmed in my hometown.
There you have it. Have any other suggestions that might tip the scale in one movie’s favor?
Save this date!
Beginning March 23, you can own The African Queen on DVD. The 1951 classic starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn has never been released on DVD until now.
So why the wait? Paramount took six years to restore the film using 4k digital technology. Jack Cardiff, the film’s cinematographer who passed away in April 2009, provided his commentary of the film for Paramount. Other special features include a new documentary, Embracing Chaos: Making The African Queen, about the making of The African Queen. Martin Scorsese is one of the film experts interviewed for the documentary.
Limited editions will also include: an audio disc with a recording of a radio version of The African Queen; a Senitype film frame collectible reproduction; collectible postcards; and a reproduction of Hepburn’s out-of-print memoir, The Making of The African Queen or How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind.
Now this is something that should make every film geek go nuts.
The Roaring Twenties, directed by Raoul Walsh, is widely considered one of the greatest gangster films and is an homage to early gangster films of the 1930s. It stars James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart in their third and final film together. This is also Cagney’s last gangster film until he appeared in White Heat in 1949.
The film begins at the end of World War One, when three friends Lloyd (Jeffrey Lynn), George (Bogart) and Eddie (Cagney) attempt to return to normal life. Lloyd becomes a lawyer, George becomes a bootlegger and Eddie becomes a cab driver. Since it is the era of prohibition, Eddie builds a business that delivers bootleg alcohol. When George becomes his second in command, tensions build and a power struggle results. over power and romance.
The Roaring Twenties is part-gangster film, part-documentary. It utilizes newsreels, which provide historical context and pleasantly recreate the Jazz Age. Like other classic gangster films, The Roaring Twenties shows the fatalistic rise and fall of a manwho is bound to die in a final act of heroism.
@Cinefille 