With Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, George Tyne, John Ireland, Lloyd Bridges, Sterling Holloway, Norman Lloyd, Herbert Rudley, and Richard Benedict.

For more information about this piece, please click here; A Walk In The Sun

Alongside larger-scaled epics, this 1945 drama looks modest, but director Lewis Milestone achieves a gritty realism that is ultimately closer to the truth of combat. A World War I veteran, Milestone had already created a classic war film--and powerful antiwar statement--in 1930's All Quiet on the Western Front, focusing on German troops in the trenches during "the Great War."

For obvious reasons, A Walk in the Sun views the action from the perspective of American troops, but Milestone and a strong cast headed by Dana Andrews and Richard Conte prove remarkably clear-eyed in this chronicle of a platoon moving through the Italian countryside following the successful, but bloody, invasion of Italy. There's little of the cheerleading fervor or reflexive demonizing of the enemy visible in other films from the period; instead, the men's treacherous odyssey captures the sense of random chaos as their bucolic trek is interrupted by sudden skirmishes.

We're shown the deep bonds forged between the soldiers, the loss of innocence that is the inevitable price of combat experience, and the capricious fates that can spare one soldier while exterminating another. Milestone would extend his mastery of wartime fiction to include the Korean War, captured in the equally fine, equally sobering Pork Chop Hill.

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Casablanca with Autographs of Bogart, Henreid, Bergman and Rains.
Mounted with story and 11" x14" picture.

For detailed information about his item please click here; Casablanca

 The classic and much-loved romantic melodrama Casablanca (1942), always found on top-ten lists of films, is a masterful tale of two men vying for the same woman's love in a love triangle. The story of political and romantic espionage is set against the backdrop of the wartime conflict between democracy and totalitarianism. [The date given for the film is often given as either 1942 and 1943. That is because its limited premiere was in 1942, but the film did not play nationally, or in Los Angeles, until 1943.]

With rich and smoky atmosphere, anti-Nazi propaganda, Max Steiner's superb musical score, suspense, unforgettable characters (supposedly 34 nationalities are included in its cast) and memorable lines of dialogue (e.g., "Here's lookin' at you, kid," and the inaccurately-quoted "Play it again, Sam"), it is one of the most popular, magical (and flawless) films of all time - focused on the themes of lost love, honor and duty, self-sacrifice and romance within a chaotic world.

Directed by the talented Hungarian-accented Michael Curtiz and shot almost entirely on studio sets, the film moves quickly through a surprisingly tightly constructed plot, even though the script was written from day to day as the filming progressed and no one knew how the film would end - who would use the two exit visas? [Would Ilsa, Rick's lover from a past romance in Paris, depart with him or leave with her husband Victor, the leader of the underground resistance movement?] And three weeks after shooting ended, producer Hal Wallis contributed the film's famous final line - delivered on a fog-shrouded runway.

The sentimental story, originally structured as a one-set play, was based on an unproduced play entitled Everybody Comes to Rick's by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison - the film's original title. Its collaborative screenplay was mainly the result of the efforts of Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch. In all, six writers took the play's script, and with the models of Algiers (1938) and Only Angels Have Wings (1939) to follow, they transformed the romantic tale into this quintessential classic that samples almost every film genre.

Except for the initial airport sequence, the entire studio-oriented film was shot in a Warner Bros. Hollywood/Burbank studio. Many other 40s stars were considered for the lead roles; Hedy Lamarr, Ann Sheridan, French actress Michele Morgan, and George Raft.

[It's an 'urban legend' that Ronald Reagan was seriously considered for a role in the film. The Warner Bros. publicity office famously planted a pre-production press release in The Hollywood Reporter on January 5, 1942 (it was also released to dozens of newspapers across the country two days later), stating that Reagan would co-star with Ann Sheridan for the third time in Casablanca (1942) - in order to actually encourage support for the soon-to-be-released film Kings Row (1942) with the two stars.]

And pianist Sam's role (portrayed by "Dooley" Wilson - who was actually a drummer) was originally to be taken by a female (either Hazel Scott, Lena Horne, or Ella Fitzgerald). The lead male part went to Humphrey Bogart in his first romantic lead as the tough and cynical on-the-outside, morally-principled, sentimental on-the-inside cafe owner in Casablanca, Morocco. His appearance with co-star Ingrid Bergman was their first - and last. As a hardened American expatriate, Bogart runs a bar/casino (Rick's Cafe Americain) - a way-station to freedom in WWII French-occupied Morocco, where a former lover (Bergman) who previously 'jilted' him comes back into his life. She is married to a heroic French Resistance leader (Henreid). Stubbornly isolationist, the hero is inspired to support the Resistance movement and give up personal happiness with his past love.

The Hollywood fairy-tale was actually filmed during a time of US ties with Vichy France when President Roosevelt equivocated and vacillated between pro-Vichy or pro-Gaullist support. And it was rushed into general release almost three weeks after the Allied landing at the Axis-occupied, North African city of Casablanca, when Eisenhower's forces marched into the African city. Due to the military action, Warner Bros. Studios was able to capitalize on the free publicity and the nation's familiarity with the city's name when the film opened.

It played first as a pre-release engagement on Thanksgiving Day, 1942 at the Hollywood Theater in New York. [On the last day of 1942, Roosevelt actually screened the film at the White House.] It's strategic timing was further enhanced at the time of its general release in early 1943 by the January 14-24, 1943 Casablanca Conference (a summit meeting in which Roosevelt broke US-Vichy relations) in the Moroccan city with Churchill, Roosevelt, and two French leaders - DeGaulle (the charismatic Free French leader) and General Henri Giraud (supportive of Marshal Petain). [Note; Stalin declined the invitation to attend the so-called 'Big Three' Conference.]

The big-budget film (of slightly less than $1 million), took in box-office of slightly more than $4 million. It was considered for eight Academy Awards for the year 1943. [Actually, it should have competed against Mrs. Miniver (1942) (the Best Picture winner in the previous year), since it premiered in New York in November of that year. However, because it didn't show in Los Angeles until its general release that January, it was ineligible for awards in 1942, and competed in 1943.] The nominations included Best Actor (Humphrey Bogart), Best Supporting Actor (Claude Rains), Best B/W Cinematography (Arthur Edeson, known for The Maltese Falcon (1941)), Best Score (Max Steiner, known for Gone With the Wind (1939)), and Best Film Editing (Owen Marks). The dark-horse film won three awards (presented in early March of 1944); Best Picture (producer Hal B. Wallis), Best Director, and Best Screenplay.

Bogart lost to Paul Lukas for his role in Watch on the Rhine. And Bergman wasn't even nominated for this film, but instead was nominated for Best Actress for For Whom The Bell Tolls (and she lost to Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette). Bogart had made three other films in 1943; Sahara, Action in the North Atlantic, and Thank Your Lucky Stars.

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Errol Flynn

For more information about this piece please click here; The Prince and Pauper

Mark Twain's classic tale of a pair of look-alike boys in 16th century England is given the glossy Hollywood treatment in this very entertaining effort. Billy and Bobby Mauch, 12 year old twin brothers, star, one as the heir to the throne of England and the other as a street urchin. By accident, each is mistaken for the other and when the king dies, the pauper may be crowned instead of the rightful prince.

Claude Rains is his usual steady self as the traitorous wretch who realizes his chance to seize power with the pauper in charge. Errol Flynn may be billed as the star, but he does not appear until halfway through the film. He becomes the prince's protector. Of course, he does not know that the young beggar is the prince. Flynn is good as always in this fun filled film.

These signatures have been documented as authenticate

Key Largo with Bogart, Bacall, Robinson and Barrymore.

For a complete description and sizes please click here; Key Largo

Key Largo was first a play written in blank verse by Maxwell Anderson. On stage, Paul Muni played a veteran of the Spanish Civil War who deserted under fire and redeems himself in death, defending the family of a true war hero. John Huston was in a rage over the HUAC hearings and didn't want to adapt a play by a reactionary who hated Roosevelt, in poetry, yet. For the proper atmosphere, he and Richard Brooks were hammering out a script in the only hotel in Key Largo, deserted in the off season.

Their script was saturated with post-war disillusionment. The criminal boss, Johnny Rocco, was modeled on real-life gangster Lucky Luciano, who had just been deported to Cuba, followed by his loyal mistress, Gaye Orlova. The play's ending was thrown out and a new one was added from Hemingway's To Have and Have Not, since Howard Hawks' film of that name had previously thrown out Hemingway's ending.

Huston's last film, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, had been filmed on location and had gone over budget, so Jack Warner insisted that Key Largo be filmed on the studio sound stage. Cinematographer Karl Freund compensated by using his camera expressively to negate the impression of staginess as much as possible. The cast rehearsed as if for a play, which resulted in an ease with the material, and Bogart and Robinson in particular enjoyed the professional give and take as they created their characters.

This was the fifth film that Robinson and Bogart made together. Robinson said, "When I was the reigning star, Bogie would be slain first and I'd live out another reel before I got it. As the years passed, and Bogart became the reigning star and I was demoted to character roles, I'd get the bullet first and Bogie would live out another reel." Bogart may have eclipsed Robinson at the box office, but he insisted that Robinson get star treatment on the set. And Huston devised a fabulous entrance for him, hot and sweaty, smoking a cigar and wallowing in a bathtub, like "like a crustacean with its shell off." It's hard to believe that Huston's first choice for the part of Johnny Rocco was Charles Boyer.

Key Largo is just one of John Huston's many memorable films that somehow always seem to transcend the intention--the Hollywood intention being to make a few bucks--and to this day still plays very well and indeed appears as something close to a work of art. It features what I think is one of Edward G. Robinson's finest performances as Johnny Rocco, a sociopathic gangster holding the off-season personnel of a seaside hotel hostage as he concludes a counterfeit money deal.

The story begins as Major Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart) pays a visit to the family of one of his G.I. buddies who was killed in Italy during WWII. He finds the welcome from the hotel's only "guests" chilly except for Gaye Dawn (a funny and perhaps prescient Hollywood stage name) played by Claire Trevor who is drunk and befriends him. After a bit McCloud discovers that the hotel's owner Nora Temple (Lauren Bacall) and her invalid father-in-law James Temple (Lionel Barrymore) have been tricked into allowing Rocco's gang to stay and now, as a tropical storm begins to blow, are being held at gunpoint. McCloud's delicate task is to keep the megalomaniac and murderous personality of Rocco under some control so that he doesn't murder everyone.

Note that this is a splendid cast, and they all do a good job. Note too that Huston adapted this from a play by the versatile American playwright Maxwell Anderson. So the ingredients for a good film are clearly in place; and aside from some self-conscious mishmash with the Seminoles of Florida, this is a success. Anderson's desire to explore the psychopathic personality (some years later he adapted William March's novel The Bad Seed into a stage play) finds realization in Huston's direction and especially in Robinson's indelible performance.

The utter disregard for the lives of others and the obsessive love of self that characterize the sociopath reek from the snares and callous laughter of the very sick Johnny Rocco. I especially liked the crazed and thrilled grin on his face when he emerges from the hold of the boat in the climactic scene, gun in hand, imagining that he has once again fooled his adversaries and is about to delightfully shoot Humphrey Bogart to death.

What I loved about this scene was that Huston did not think it necessary to contrive a fight in which the good guy (Bogart) beats the bad guy by fighting fair. What happens is exactly what should happen, and without regard for the fine points of Marquis of Queensberry-type rules. Also good is Rocco beginning to sweat in fear of his life as the storm moves in while Bogey gives us his famous laugh and grin as he assesses the essential cowardice of the petty gangster.

Lauren Bacall, in one of her more modest roles, does a lot without saying much, and Lionel Barrymore is very good as the cantankerous old guy in a wheelchair. Claire Trevor actually won an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress for her work, and she was good as the alcoholic moll with a heart of gold. Robinson won nothing, but he really dominated the picture and demonstrated why he was one of Hollywood's greatest stars.

This was the last of the Bogart-Bacall films. Bacall was still unsure of herself as an actress, and this part was considerably more drab than any of the others she'd played thus far. Bogart was an acting mentor to her, but never gave her advice in front of anyone else. He cautioned her against overplaying, which he hated. "The audience is always a little ahead of you. If a guy points a gun at you, the audience knows you're afraid, you don't have to make faces."

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