A Night in Casablanca (1946)

Director:

Archie Mayo

Writers:

Joseph Fields (writer)
Roland Kibbee (writer)

Release Date:

10 May 1946 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

The Marx Brothers spend...

Plot:

The Marx Brothers are employed at a hotel in postwar Casablanca, where a ring of Nazis is trying to recover a cache of stolen treasure.

Plot Keywords:

Hotel | Nazi | Marx Brothers | North Africa | Post WWII

Cast

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

Also Known As:

Uma Noite em Casablanca (Brazil) (Portugal) [pt]
Eine Nacht in Casablanca (Germany) [de]
Eine Nacht mit Beatrice (Austria) [de]
En nat i Casablanca (Denmark) [da]
En natt i Casablanca (Sweden) [sv]
Marx Brothers - Eine Nacht in Casablanca (West Germany) [de]
Mia nyhta stin Casablanca (Greece) [el]
Noc w Casablance (Poland) [pl]
Thisavroi stin Casablanca (Greece) (reissue title) [el]
Una noche en Casablanca (Spain) [es]
Una notte a Casablanca (Italy) [it]
Une nuit à Casablanca (France) [fr]
Yö Casablancassa (Finland) [fi]

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Hungary:14 | Australia:G | Finland:S | Germany:6 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

General Service Studios - 1040 N. Las Palmas, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Loma Vista Productions

Trivia:

Hoping to take charge of their film careers, the Marxes financed this movie themselves, under the heading of Loma Vista Films. They even did a brief pre-filming tour of scenes from the movie, as they had done with A Night at the Opera (1935) and A Day at the Races (1937), hoping to sharpen the script's comedy.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the police station near the beginning of the film where the murder of the manager has been reported, there is a fan spinning above the officers' heads. Yet when the Marx brothers and Annette sneak in after escaping from the prison cells, the fan has disappeared.

Quotes:

Corbaccio: What you need is a good bodyguard.
Ronald Kornblow: What I need is a good body. The one I've got isn't worth guarding.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Projectionist (1971)

Soundtrack:

Who's Sorry Now?

An absolute classic!

I enjoyed this movie a lot, it took a while to find it in the shops but it was worthwhile looking around for. My favourite scene is definitely the one with Harpo minding Chico's peanut stall with the angry neighbouring stall owner. It makes you laugh for ages! Groucho plays the part of the manager of the Hotel Casablanca because all the previous managers were murdered by ex-Nazis looking for Nazi treasure hidden within the hotel prior to the end of the war. Some of the funniest moments in Marx Brother's history are featured in this movie eg. Harpo holding up a wall, Chico and Harpo rearranging a dance floor that keeps getting smaller and a funny suitcase packing routine towards the end. A very humorous movie and I would definitely recommend it.