Casblanca

The host of Classic Cinema with Chaz is excited to introduce the new theme of Academy Award winning films, starting with the 1942 classic Casablanca. The movie features Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid, and is set in Casablanca during World War II. The story revolves around Rick Blaine, who owns a nightclub and becomes involved in a plot to obtain letters of transit. The film combines romance and drama, and is known for its iconic quotes and references in popular culture. The host recommends watching it and promises to share more movie selections in the future. Hello and welcome to another episode of Classic Cinema with Chaz. Thank you so much for tuning in on this first day of March. I am so excited that you guys are here with me and that we have entered into our new theme, which is Academy Award winning films, films that not only have been nominated but actually won. And so with today, I couldn't think of a better start than to kick it off with 1942's Casablanca. This is an absolute classic. Even if you have never seen the movie, I'm sure that you've probably seen references of the movie or, you know, with the main actor being Humphrey Bogart. He is considered literally like one of the top, top golden age of Hollywood actors back in the day. It also stars Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid as well. This movie is absolutely like, you kind of have to get into it in the beginning so much. Kind of like how they all start off, but it is got a lot of substance to it. And so let's go ahead and it's going to be kind of like a little bit of a lengthy one of the outline, but I'm going to go ahead and dive right into it. So it starts off in December 1941. An American exporite, Rick Blaine, he owns a nightclub and that's played by Humphrey Bogart's character. He owns this nightclub and a gambling den in Casablanca called Rick's Cafe. It attracts a variety of clientele that comes in there, including a bitchy French and a Nazi German official, refugees that are desperate to reach their neutral United States area and those who prey among them, they kind of seek refuge there. So Rick professes to be neutral in the matter. He doesn't want to pick sides. He does run guns to Ethiopia in 1935 and he did fight on the loyalist side of the Spanish Civil War. So he kind of does have something to gain in the situation. Petty Crook, the Yurgati, boasts to Rick, offers letters of transit and obtains by ... Basically he murders two German carriers. The papers allow the bearers to travel freely among the German occupied Europe and to the neutral area of Portugal. The Yurgati's plan to sell them at the club and persuade Rick to hold them for him. But before he can meet his contact, the Yurgati, he is arrested by the local police under the captain there and he basically faces all this kind of criticism. He ultimately ends up dying in custody without revealing that Rick is the one who actually has his letters. Then at that point, Rick's cynical nature and his formal lover, her name is Isla, lewd. That's played by Ingram's character. She enters his establishment, spotting Rick's friend and house pianist, Sam. Isla asks him to play, As Time Goes By, Rick Storms Over Furious, that Sam disobeyed his order to never perform that song again and it's done to see Isla there. She is accompanied there by her husband, Victor, and a flashback reveals that Isla left Rick without explanation when the couple were planning to flee as the German army near Paris. Basically abetting Rick, Lazo and Isla need the letters to escape while the German major stressor arrives in Casablanca to prevent that from happening. When Lazo inquires that he wants to do some business with Rick as they are friendly rivals, he's under the suspicion that Rick has the letters. He returns to Rick's cafe that night and tries to buy them. Rick refuses to sell, telling Lazo to ask his wife why. They are interrupted when Strashler leads a group of the German officers and they were singing some kind of musical number. I can't remember the name of it. I think it's called Die Watch in Rim. Lazo orders the house band to play the song and Rick allows it. The French patriotism grips with the crowd and everyone joins in drowning out the Germans as an distraction. Later Isla confronts Rick in the deserted cafe when he refuses to give her the letters realizing that it was a setup from her husband. She threatens him with a gun but then confesses that she does still love him. She explains that when they met and fell in love in Paris in the 1940s, she believed her husband had been killed attempting to escape from a concentration camp. Then she learned that he was alive and hiding near Paris. She left Rick without explaining to nurse him back to health. Rick's bitterness disinvolves and he agrees to help letting her believe that she will stay with him when her husband leaves, Lazlo. When Lazlo unexpectedly shows up, having narrowly escaped the police raid on the resistance meeting, Rick has his waiter, Carl, spirit Isla away. Lazlo is unaware of Rick's love for her and tries to persuade him to use the letters to take her to safety. When the police end up arresting Lazlo on the trumpeted up charge, Rick persuades the leader to basically release him and promises to set Lazlo up as much more for a serious crime than that of the possession of the letters. Basically his allies are basically giving him a pass. I know this is a lot to unpack. They're giving him a pass and they explain that he and Isla will use those letters to leave for America immediately. When the leader basically tries to arrest Lazlo's deal against the arrangement, Rick forces himself at gunpoint to help assist in their escape. At the last moment, Rick makes Isla board the plane with her husband telling her that she would regret it if she did stay. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but as soon as the rest of your life. That is one of the most famous quotes of this movie. Strasler then tips off and he drives up alone. When he attempts to stop the plane, he then draws a gun on Rick and Rick shoots him dead. The police arrive and order them to round up their usual suspects protecting Rick. Rick has got serious leverage, y'all, by the way, just as a shout out. He suggests that they join the Free French in Brazzaville and they basically walk away in the fog and Rick says, Lewis, I think that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Overall, this movie, I know that was a lot and you guys forgive me for my tongue twisters here and there, but I wanted to make sure I didn't leave out the most important details. This movie is really written very, very well and it is, like I said, it's meant to be, I believe, more of a romantic drama film, but it kind of has like the serious note of the underlining story. All of it is regarding these letters, but it is a classic, I promise you. It has a bunch of classic references that you've seen. I remember my first reference of seeing this movie, I think Michael Jackson was actually talking about it and he loved, Michael Jackson actually loved a lot of black and white movies from the golden age of Hollywood and the scene where there's like the fight scene, he gets a lot of that from Smooth Criminal because in this character that Humphrey Bogart plays, he's known for his infamous trench coat and his fedora hat that he wears and a lot of that and that scene has been reciprocated in a bunch of movies and music videos and it's just a classic. So you guys, please, please, please check it out and I cannot wait to share my next movie selection with you guys. Until then, I'll see you guys at the movies.