A Night in Casablanca
Theatrical release poster.
Directed by	Archie Mayo
Produced by	David L. Loew
Starring	Groucho Marx Harpo Marx Chico Marx Charles Drake
Music by	Bert Kalmar Harry Ruby Werner Janssen
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	May 10, 1946 (U.S. release)
Running time	85 min
Language	English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

A Night in Casablanca (1946) was the twelfth Marx Brothers' movie. The film stars Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, and Harpo Marx. It was directed by Archie Mayo and written by Joseph Fields and Roland Kibbee. It is generally considered one of the better of the Marx Brothers's later works. ^[1] Archie Mayo (b. ... Groucho redirects here. ... This article is about Harpo Marx, brother of Groucho et al. ... Leonard Marx, known as Chico, (March 22, 1887 – October 11, 1961) was one of the Marx Brothers. ... Charles Drake (born Charles Ruppert, October 2, 1917 - September 10, American actor. ... Bert Kalmar (16 February 1884 - 18 September 1947) was a popular United States songwriter, born in New York City. ... Harry Ruby (October 29, 1895 – February 23, 1974) was an American songwriter and screenwriter. ... Werner Janssen was an American conductor and composer. ... This article is about the film studio. ... is the 130th day of the year (131st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... See also: 1945 in film 1946 1947 in film 1940s in film years in film film // Events Top grossing films North America The Bells of St. ... This article is about the comedian siblings. ... This article is about motion pictures. ... Groucho redirects here. ... Leonard Marx, known as Chico, (March 22, 1887 – October 11, 1961) was one of the Marx Brothers. ... This article is about Harpo Marx, brother of Groucho et al. ... Archie Mayo (b. ... Joseph Fields (February 21, 1895 - March 3, 1966) was a Tony Award-winning American playwright, theatre director, screenwriter, and film producer. ...

Plot

The story takes place in Casablanca after World War II. Two managers of a hotel have been murdered, Ronald Kornblow (Groucho) is hired to replace them. The villain of the movie is Count Pfefferman, also known as Heinrich Stubel (a Nazi) played by Sig Ruman, (from A Night at the Opera). When a number of priceless objects stolen by the Nazis are hidden there by Nazis, they quickly take full control of the hotel. For other uses, see Casablanca (disambiguation). ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... National Socialism redirects here. ... Sig Ruman (born Siegfried Rumann) (1884-1967) was a German-American actor known for his comic portrayals of pompous villains. ... A Night at the Opera is a 1935 comedy film starring the Marx Brothers. ...

Sheet Music Cover (cropped)

The film contains the song "Who's Sorry Now?" with music by Ted Snyder and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. It is sung in French by Lisette Verea playing the part of Beatrice Rheiner, and then later sung in English (see image). Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 is played twice, once by Chico on piano as an intro to the Beer Barrel Polka, and again by Harpo on the harp. Whos Sorry Now? is a popular song. ... Ted Snyder (August 15, 1881 - July 16, 1965), was a Jewish-American Hall of Fame lyricist and composer. ... Bert Kalmar (16 February 1884 - 18 September 1947) was a popular United States songwriter, born in New York City. ... Harry Ruby (October 29, 1895 – February 23, 1974) was an American songwriter and screenwriter. ... Franz Liszt (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a virtuoso pianist and composer. ... Main Theme from Friska Hungarian Rhapsody Number 2 is the second in a set of 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies by composer Franz Liszt, and is by far the most famous of the set. ... A short grand piano, with the lid up. ... Beer Barrel Polka, also known as Roll Out the Barrel, is a song which became popular world-wide during World War II. The music was originally composed by the Czech musician Jaromír Vejvoda aka Twinkletoes in 1927. ... For other uses, see Harp (disambiguation). ...

Miss Rheiner, as an accomplice of Stubel, is supposed to seduce Groucho. In several scenes the two of them parody Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not, including a scene in which he says "You don't have to sing for me--just whistle." He watches her as she swivels away; then he turns to the camera and says, "That reminds me--I must get my watch fixed." Bogart redirects here. ... Betty Joan Perske (born on September 16, 1924), better known as Lauren Bacall, is a Golden Globe– and Tony Award–winning, as well as Academy Award–nominated, American film and stage actress. ... To Have and Have Not is a 1944 thriller romance war adventure film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall that is nominally based on the novel To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway. ... For other uses, see Watch (disambiguation). ...

As in A Day at the Races, Harpo uses charades to tell Chico about the plot to undermine (or kill in this case) Groucho's character. Code book scene A Day at the Races A Day at the Races (1937) is the seventh movie starring the three Marx Brothers, with Margaret Dumont, Allan Jones and Maureen OSullivan. ... Charades or charade is a word guessing game. ...

Before Stubel can make an escape to the airfield with the loot, Kornblow, his friends, and Miss Rheiner invade his hotel room and sneak from suitcase to closet and back again to unpack his bags, and drive him thoroughly nuts. And at the end, Harpo, having knocked out Stubel's pilot in the plane, actually gets the plane off the ground--before plowing it into the police station, where the brothers expose Stubel as an escaped Nazi and chase Miss Rheiner into the distance! For other uses, see Aviator (disambiguation). ...

Cast

• Groucho Marx as Manager Ronald Kornblow
• Harpo Marx as Rusty
• Chico Marx as Corbaccio
• Sig Ruman as Count Pfferman/Heinrich Stubel
• Charles Drake as Lieutenant Pierre Delmar
• Lois Collier as Annette
• Lisette Verea as Beatrice Reiner
• Lewis L. Russell as Governor Galoux
• Dan Seymour as Prefect of Police Captain Brizzard
• Frederick Giermann as Kurt
• Harro Mellor as Emile
• David Hoffman as Spy
• Paul Harvey as Mr. Smythe

Groucho redirects here. ... This article is about Harpo Marx, brother of Groucho et al. ... Leonard Marx, known as Chico, (March 22, 1887 – October 11, 1961) was one of the Marx Brothers. ... Sig Ruman (born Siegfried Rumann) (1884-1967) was a German-American actor known for his comic portrayals of pompous villains. ... Charles Drake (born Charles Ruppert, October 2, 1917 - September 10, American actor. ... Lois Collier (born Madelyn Jones) (21 March 1919 — 27 October 1999) was an actress born in South Carolina, she was sometimes credited as Lois Collyer. ... Paul Harvey (September 10, 1882 – December 5, 1955) was an American actor who appeared in at least 177 films. ...

Controversy

A popular myth (spread in part by Groucho himself) surrounding the movie is that the Marx Brothers were threatened with a lawsuit by Warner Bros. for the use of the word "Casablanca" in the title, it being an infringement on the company's rights to the 1942 film Casablanca. Groucho responded with a letter asserting that he and his siblings had use of the word "brothers" prior to the establishment of Warner Brothers (and many others had before that), and often the story is told that Groucho threatened a counter-suit based on this assertion. He also mentioned that he would consider further legal action by pointing out to Warners that the title of their current hit film Night and Day infringed on the titles of two Marx Brothers films; A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races. “WB” redirects here. ... This article is about the 1942 film. ... A Night at the Opera as the title of a work of art may refer to: A Night at the Opera (1935 film), a Marx Brothers movie. ... A Day at the Races is a title of several works of film and music: A Day at the Races (movie), a 1937 film featuring the Marx Brothers A Day at the Races (album), a 1976 album by the rock group Queen A Day at the Races, a song appearing...

The true story is that the original storyline for the film was intended to be a direct parody of Casablanca, with characters having similar sounding names to the characters and actors in the 1942 film. Groucho Marx has said that an early draft named his character "Humphrey Bogus", a reference to the leading actor in Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart.^[1] Warner Bros. did not actually sue, or even threaten to, but did issue a formal inquiry to the Marx Brothers concerning the plot and script of the film. ^[2] Bogart redirects here. ...

The Marx Brothers exploited the situation for publicity, making it appear to the public that a frivolous lawsuit was in the works, and Groucho sent several open letters to Warner Bros. to get newspaper coverage. ^[2] These letters were among those donated to the Library of Congress by Groucho, and reprinted in his book The Groucho Letters (1967). ^[3] Construction of the Thomas Jefferson Building, from July 8, 1888 to May 15, 1894. ...

In the end, the matter died without legal action, and the storyline of the film was changed to be a send-up on the genre rather than Casablanca specifically. ^[2] Somewhat ironically, Warner Bros. now owns the distribution rights to this film via Castle Hill Productions. Adolf Hitler - an example of visual irony Irony is a form of speech in which the real meaning is concealed or contradicted by the words used. ...

References

External links

• A Night in Casablanca at the Internet Movie Database
• A Night in Casablanca at the TCM Movie Database
• The Warner Bros. story at snopes.com
• The letter to Warner Bros.