Casablanca Classic Movie DVD - 1946 Film Noir with Humphrey Bogart & Ingrid Bergman | Perfect for Movie Nights & Vintage Film Collections

Growing up in the 1950s and `60s, the Marx Brothers' movies were on TV quite frequently - even their biggest dud, Room Service - but not this one. I only saw this film programmed twice in about 15 years, and both times I was occupied elsewhere and couldn't watch it, but I figured that it was probably just as bad as The Big Store or Love Happy. Imagine my surprise, then, to discover a Marx film almost as good as the classic Paramount pictures of the early 1930s. Yes, they "help" the cute, clean-cut young couple find peace and happiness, as they did in every film from A Night at the Opera onward, but this aspect of the plot is not as prominent as the almost endless flurry of gags. Watching this film, you might almost be fooled into thinking that S.J. Perelman was back writing one-liners for Groucho (watching the femme fatale move her butt from side to side as she leaves the room, he quips, "That reminds me...I must get my watch fixed!") or that Al Boasberg had returned to devise new sight gags (the scene in which Chico and Harpo set up tables for hungry diners, including all over the dance floor, is almost as funny as the stateroom scene in Night at the Opera). Chico doubles in his job as the owner of a Yellow Camel Cab Company ("We also have checkered camels," he tells Groucho, pointing to a dromedary covered with a checkered tablecloth) and as Groucho's bodyguard, and hapless Harpo is again working as a valet for a real meanie (Sig Rumann, who played Herman Gottlieb in Night at the Opera, in an encore performance as a former Nazi). And Lisette Verea, a name unknown to me, is terrific as the femme fatale. One curious feature is the somewhat dark lighting, giving this sparkling comedy a "film noir" look, but you get used to that. It also doesn't hurt that this print is in pristine condition, with nary a dropped frame or skipped line. The Bugs Bunny cartoon used as a filler is cute, but the "Joe McDoakes" film short is rather dumb.