Product Description

Marx Brothers comedy has them ferret out Nazi spies in a Casablanca hotel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24352 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2004-05-04
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 85 minutes

Amazon.com
A Night in Casablanca may not qualify as a Marx Brothers classic, but it's certainly the best of their latter-day comedies. "This picture is funnier than all but a handful of their earlier ones," wrote the usually cantankerous Pauline Kael, and she's right. The Big Store would have been the final Marx movie, but that disappointment, and an attractive new deal with United Artists, prompted the Marx trio to bring freshly anarchic energy to this post-war spoof of wartime intrigue, prompting Warner Bros. (producers of Casablanca) to threaten legal action over the title, to which Groucho responded, "I am sure that the average movie fan could learn in time to distinguish between Ingrid Bergman and Harpo." As it happens, Night bears only passing resemblance to the Bergman/Bogart classic, with Groucho playing the new manager of a hotel in Casablanca, where several previous managers have been murdered while a scheming villain (Marx regular Sig Rumann) plots to steal the hotel's cache of Nazi treasure. Chico and Harpo are up to their usual antics (including piano and harp interludes, respectively), and they all give Rumann the runaround in the film's funniest and most perfectly choreographed scene. The brothers made their final film together with Love Happy three years later, but as any fan will tell you, A Night in Casablanca was the last Marx comedy that mattered. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Play it again, Harpo.
Much has been written of this movie's origin. Briefly stated, the Marx Brothers decided to make at least one more movie after their MGM career ended with "The Big Store." It was a fortunate decision, and the result is a fast-paced spoof of the classic "Casablanca." Regardless of advancing age, Groucho, Chico, and Harpo are delightful to watch. The inspired lunacy of their early Paramount films is gone, but Groucho's stinging one-liners and snappy asides still resonate with biting humor. Harpo's impish antics nicely capture this unique comic's "other-worldly" traits. Harpo's "collapsing building" gag is laugh-out-loud funny! Chico plays the usual amiable airhead who is as smart (or dumb) as he wants to be. Chico's attempts to interrupt Groucho's moveable tryst with the delectable Beatrice are hilarious and recall Groucho and Chico's classic exchanges (e.g., the "Sanity Clause" routine). Margaret Dumont is missing, but Lisette Verea plays Beatrice, a femme fatale in the Thelma Todd mode. Sig Ruman does well as a blustering Nazi spy. The climactic chase scene is amusingly frantic, even though chase scenes were done to death in classic comedies. Some of the Marx sparkle started to fade during their final years at MGM. This movie is a sincere effort to recapture the magic of their best work. There is a refreshing absence of overblown musical numbers. Chico plays the piano and Harpo plays the harp. That is part of the Marx legend, and hardly intrusive. Don't expect another "Night at the Opera" or "Horse Feathers," and you will be pleased. ;-)

A Fond Farewell
By 1946 the Marx Brothers considered themselves retired as a screen team--but brother Chico's on-going financial difficulties coaxed them back into the studio for a final film. The result is a film that will never compete with their sharp-edged comedies of the 1930s but which possesses considerable charm nonetheless.

A NIGHT IN CASABLANCA finds Groucho employed as the manager of the Hotel Casablanca--where three previous managers have met sudden death at the hands of post-war Nazis in search of treasure hidden at the hotel during the war. Time, it seems, mellowed the brothers, and although they retain their sparkle they perform without the manic edge that characterized their earlier films; the result is a much friendlier, cozier style of comedy that feels as comfortable your bedroom slippers.

All three brothers have ample opportunity to shine, and the film includes its share of memorable moments--perhaps most notable the diminishing dancefloor and the hilarious suitcase packing scene. It all has tremendous charm, and all the more welcome for following the several uninspired films the brothers made in the early 1940s. A fitting finish and fond farewell to one of Hollywood's greatest comedy acts; recommended.

The Marx Brothers' Farewell Film
"A Night in Casablanca" (1946) is the best of the later Marx comedies and a fitting finale to their screen career. This postwar escapade features the Marxes in splendid form while recapturing the rough-edged spontaneity of their early Paramount comedies. Margaret Dumont's retirement is compensated by the return of comic villain Sig Rumann (as Heinrich Stubel), who was a terrific foil in "A Night at the Opera" and "A Day at the Races." It may seem odd to place Groucho, Harpo and Chico in a post-WWII setting, but the shenanigans inside the Hotel Casablanca are a refreshing throwback to their first film, "The Cocoanuts" (1929). In many ways, the Marxes have come full circle. The final image of the brothers chasing beautiful Lisette Verea through the streets of Casablanca ends the movie on an appropriately Marxian note, which wasn't the case in most of their MGM efforts.