Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

A Night in Casablanca Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 23, 2020

While A Night in Casablanca evidently was planned at some point to have at least a bit more Casablanca (the film, not the place) in it, the resulting film is a genial send up of films involving foreign intrigue, spies and lost treasures. Reportedly made at least in part to help retire some financial debts on the part of Harpo, A Night in Casablanca came out four years after the legendary Humphrey Bogart — Ingrid Bergman opus, and that lapse of time may help explain at least in part why a straight up parody of the film didn’t ultimately pan out. In a way, A Night in Casablanca seems to be clearly trying to harken back to the very first Marx Brothers feature, The Cocoanuts (available as part of The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection), courtesy of the fact that Groucho once again portrays the manager of a fairly raucous hotel. In this case, however, Groucho's character of Ronald Kornblow is an unwitting dupe who is in charge of a facility after the close of World War II running rampant with ex-Nazis and other scheming sorts, and who may in fact be marked for murder.

Chico, as he sometimes kind of seems to be in some of the Marx Brothers films, is kind of an Italian-ish cipher in A Night in Casablanca, as Corbaccio, a local guy who runs the "Yellow Camel" taxi service. Harpo actually is given more of a "character" to play here, in that Rusty (his character's name) is the valet of a bullying hotel resident supposedly named Count Pfefferman (Sig Ruman), who is in fact escaped Nazi Heinrich Stubel. Stubel is also partnered with lounge entertainer Beatrice Reiner (Lisette Verea), and the two may have been responsible for the not all that mysterious deaths of the previous two managers of the Hotel Casablanca.

So why are there Nazis and their cohorts at Hotel Casablanca, and why do they keep offing the hotel managers? That has to do with a supposedly preposterous thesis postulated by a French lieutenant named Pierre Delmar (Charles Drake, about as French as the American flag), who confesses to having been kidnapped by Nazis during the war and forced at gunpoint to fly a plane full of stolen booty to South America, but who crash landed in Casablanca instead. Having been momentarily detained by the police at the time, when he returned to the plane, the Nazis and the loot were missing. Pierre's girlfriend Annette (Lois Collier), who works for the hotel, is of course convinced that Pierre is on to something, even if the powers that be scoff (though logical types might think that if Pierre had been detained by the police after a plane crash, they might at least know there had been a plane, if not stolen treasure).

The film has the requisite number of subplots of most Marx Brothers films, including a kind of rote and arguably ineffective romantic element between Annette and Pierre (whose "French" names don't do much to establish their national authenticity, at least as delivered in these performanes). There are a number of fun vignettes included, with a totally gonzo sword fight featuring Harpo one of the odder delights.

While probably not at the insanely manic level of the early Marx Brothers outings, A Night in Casablanca is surprisingly brisk and often quite funny. Harpo in particular is given a series of well designed sight gags (some evidently worked on by an uncredited Frank Tashlin), and of course both Chico and Harpo are given improbable but still hugely enjoyable moments to strut their musical talents. The film also offers two versions of the 1920s evergreen by Ted Snyder, Bert Kalmer and Harry Ruby "Who's Sorry Now?" that would itself become a rather improbable early rock 'n' roll (-ish) hit for Connie Francis in 1958.

A Night in Casablanca Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A Night in Casablanca is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of ClassicFlix with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.36:1. This is another very winning presentation from ClassicFlix, though it doesn't have the same consistent levels of clarity that have been seen in some earlier releases by the label. Detail levels are often very enjoyable, including things like the webbed inside of Stubel's toupee (see screenshot 11) or even the checked bathrobe that Stubel wears in some scenes. Contrast is generally solid, with good black levels throughout and nicely modulated gray scale. Grain looks natural, though I didn't notice some expected spikes during things like optical dissolves. ClassicFlix typically does a fantastic job on the restoration side of things, and that's once again the case here, with only very minor speckling and scratches having made it through the improvement gauntlet. A lot of this transfer looks commendably sharp, but there are some fluctuations (typically not dependent on framings or opticals), some of which can be seen in some of the screenshots I've included with this review. My score is 3.75.

A Night in Casablanca Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

A Night in Casablanca features a nice sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track. This is definitely a product of its time, and so some of the music in particular has a somewhat narrow and shallow sound, but there's no actual distortion or other damage. Dialogue and some occasionally goofy sound effects are all presented cleanly and clearly. Optional English subtitles are available.

A Night in Casablanca Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Night in Casablanca Trailer (1080p; 1:11) looks like it may have been created for this release and consists entirely of stills with narration.


• Audio Extras

  On Stage Performance Clip (1080p; 5:52) is from August 1945 and features the Marx Brothers "testing" material.

  
  

  Radio Commercials (1080p; 4:32)

• Image Gallery (1080p; 4:20) begins with the typical instructions to use Chapter Skip buttons for manual advance, but this is authored to advance automatically, so have your Pause button handy if you want to linger on any given image.

Additionally, trailers for other releases from ClassicFlix are included.

A Night in Casablanca Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If common wisdom and/or Groucho's own writing is/are to be believed, Warner Brothers got itself into something of an uproar when this film was announced, at least in its original formulation of parodying the legendary Bogart-Bergman film. While some of what has been reported actually evidently never really occurred, Groucho wasn't above implying that Warner wanted to shut down this film, leading to a series of patently hilarious letters Groucho really did send to the powers that be at the studio (probably as much for self promotional purposes as to put the scare into them). In the oft quoted show business maxim that there's no such thing as bad publicity, Warner might have just as well let things develop as they were initially planned to, but this supposedly redacted and rethought A Night in Casablanca still has quite a few laughs and an overall surprisingly sweet tone. Technical merits are generally solid, and A Night in Casablanca comes Recommended.