I'm not sure why I never sat through it before, as I was very much aware of its reputation.Certainly 11 pm on a school/work night was not the best time to sit down and make up for lost time but I'm glad I did.
It more or less lived up to its hype, which pleased me greatly. I loved Claude Raine's character, and Ferrari. It's amazing to see just how many everyday quotes come from that movie. "Here's looking at you kid" ,"this is the start of a beautiful friendship", etc.
Heck, the only bad part was the begining naration and cheap map of Africa.
My favorite scene is not one that I've heard discussed before. A young woman from Bulgaria approaches Rick. She wants to know if Claude Raines would keep his word and get her and her newlywed husband out of Cassablanca if she would sleep with him, tho' of course given the censorship of the day it's never spelled out in black and white. Rick blows her off, but a moment later walks over to the roulette wheel and rigs it for the young husband to win, giving him the money to bypass the twisted arrangement.
I loved that scene.
4 stars for the movie classic
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SPOILERS AHEAD!
I recently finished Hell House by Richard Matheson. Stephen King calls it 'the' masterpiece of haunted house fiction, but I don't agree. I'm not sure what book is (The Shining?) but it isn't this one.
Still a fun read, and genuinely scary at parts, but c'mon! You are about to spend 7 days in a famously haunted house that has killed groups of paranormal investigators in the past. So . . you all decide to take seperate overnight rooms, take time to brush your teeth, wander around alone and after your husband is bashed to bits and dragged to his doom in a swimming pool and you escape YOU GO BACK FOR HIS 'THINGS'.
Mister, I don't care if I left the Hope Diamond behind, I'm not going back in.
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