A Night in Casablanca

A Night in Casablanca.
1946 United Artists & Castle Hill Productions; released to DVD via Turner Entertainment & Warner Home Video.
Starring: The Marx Brothers (Groucho, Harpo, Chico), Sig Ruman, Charles Drake, Lois Collier
Director: Archie Mayo
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or as part of the Marx Brothers Collection.

The brothers Marx return to the big screen following a five-year absence in an independently produced film that was originally intended to be a parody of Casablanca, but was retooled into a spoof of wartime melodramas.

The Hotel Casablanca keeps seeing its managers being murdered, and the escaped Nazi war criminal Heinrich Stubel, disguised as Count Pfefferman (Ruman) is responsible. Stubel is after stolen art treasures that he hid in a secret room somewhere in the hotel, and the only way he can do this without arousing suspicion is to take over the building himself. Stubel has a mute valet named Rusty (Harpo), who accidentally destroys Stubel's hairpiece, which means the former Nazi can't go out in public because of a conspicuous scar.

The hotel's new manager is Ronald Kornblow (Groucho), who doesn't realize that he's been hired only because no one else will take the job, but that doesn't stop him from taking over in a truly inept fashion. Corbacchio (Chico), owner of the Yellow Camel company, appoints himself as Kornblow's bodyguard after overhearing a murder plot, and he receives aid from Rusty.

Can Kornblow and his friends outwit Stubel?

Not bad, but obviously not the best film the Marx Brothers ever made. It's also notable for a series of exchanges between Groucho and Warner Bros., as the studio allegedly threatened to sue the brothers for using the name "Casablanca" in the title. Groucho fired back by threatening to sue the studio for using the word "Brothers". This is simply an urban legend; the studio just inquired about the story of the film to ensure there was no copyright infringement. Groucho capitalized on the rumors to attract more publicity for the movie, which included a series of hilarious letters to Warner Bros.

Recommended if you've never seen it before, or if there's nothing else on that day.