Hollywood Germans tended to be anti-Nazis in real life (e.g. Paul Henreid, who played a villain in the 1940 "Night Train to Munich" ) for obvious reasons :-)
Casablanca is deservedly famous for its script; I'm glad they didn't go for the easy Hollywood ending, as I think would almost certainly happen if the story were made today, but I'm not sure it was meant to be seen as a 'happy ending', just as doing the right thing.
It's been too long since I saw most of the Cagney or Bogart films for me to retain a very clear idea of most of them (it's a very long time since I saw "The Barefoot Contessa", which was one of the first 'vintage' films I happened across) or to be able to rank them well. I did like "The African Queen" very much, as a story of the heroic little boat and the loyal companions making it through against all obstacles -- I confess I like the film version of the story better than C.S.Forester's original, which is tinged with his habitual bitterness and irony (if you think Hornblower is self-flagellating, you should see the author's other stuff, which specialises in downbeat endings).
I know what you mean about comedies; there are few that I find actually funny, given that I don't enjoy slapstick or humiliation as entertainment. (Have you come across "Champagne for Caesar"? I remember finding Vincent Price hysterically funny in that.) What I enjoy is wordplay and taking the viewer unawares, so that you're set up to expect one thing and then the unexpected happens.
I like most of the "Ealing comedies", although they're not all that ha-ha funny; more comedy as in 'not serious realistic gloomy drama', where they take an improbable premise (the London Borough of Pimlico declares independence, or a Ruritanian monarchy wins a war by mistake) and take the side of the little man against the system.
I scrapped an entire chapter-and-a-bit's worth of Plot Point Fifteen, including a lot of Raoul-suffering (what I believe is known technically as 'whump'). I've rewritten it up to the point where Christine comes bursting in and Erik collapses, having scrapped the sub-plot that was supposed to keep her credibly occupied while Raoul had an improbably prolonged struggle with Erik, and then on impulse restored a very short struggle with Erik instead.
Rewriting is hell. The only bits I vaguely enjoy are the bits where I'm introducing some previously unthought-of inspiration (which would be an argument for discarding the entire scene and doing something different, except for the trivial matter that this is a pivotal part of the entire plot -- so, no pressure, then).
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Date: 2019-12-01 03:14 pm (UTC)Casablanca is deservedly famous for its script; I'm glad they didn't go for the easy Hollywood ending, as I think would almost certainly happen if the story were made today, but I'm not sure it was meant to be seen as a 'happy ending', just as doing the right thing.
It's been too long since I saw most of the Cagney or Bogart films for me to retain a very clear idea of most of them (it's a very long time since I saw "The Barefoot Contessa", which was one of the first 'vintage' films I happened across) or to be able to rank them well. I did like "The African Queen" very much, as a story of the heroic little boat and the loyal companions making it through against all obstacles -- I confess I like the film version of the story better than C.S.Forester's original, which is tinged with his habitual bitterness and irony (if you think Hornblower is self-flagellating, you should see the author's other stuff, which specialises in downbeat endings).
I know what you mean about comedies; there are few that I find actually funny, given that I don't enjoy slapstick or humiliation as entertainment. (Have you come across "Champagne for Caesar"? I remember finding Vincent Price hysterically funny in that.) What I enjoy is wordplay and taking the viewer unawares, so that you're set up to expect one thing and then the unexpected happens.
I like most of the "Ealing comedies", although they're not all that ha-ha funny; more comedy as in 'not serious realistic gloomy drama', where they take an improbable premise (the London Borough of Pimlico declares independence, or a Ruritanian monarchy wins a war by mistake) and take the side of the little man against the system.
I scrapped an entire chapter-and-a-bit's worth of Plot Point Fifteen, including a lot of Raoul-suffering (what I believe is known technically as 'whump'). I've rewritten it up to the point where Christine comes bursting in and Erik collapses, having scrapped the sub-plot that was supposed to keep her credibly occupied while Raoul had an improbably prolonged struggle with Erik, and then on impulse restored a very short struggle with Erik instead.
Rewriting is hell. The only bits I vaguely enjoy are the bits where I'm introducing some previously unthought-of inspiration (which would be an argument for discarding the entire scene and doing something different, except for the trivial matter that this is a pivotal part of the entire plot -- so, no pressure, then).