Casablanca (1942) v. Rear Window (1954)

https://youtu.be/nptMLqvdyl8

Casablanca (1942) Original Episode - #50 (January 6, 2021)

Casablanca (1942) Revisit Episode - #117 (June 15th, 2022)

Casablanca (1942) Re-Revisit ft. Allyson Techmeier - Episode - #174 (August 2, 2023)

Rear Window (1954) ft. VP Morris - Original Episode - #174 (July 31, 2024)

Casablanca (1942) v. Rear Window (1954) (August 12th, 2026)

Casablanca Cast:

• Michael Curtiz, Director

• Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch; Writers

• Arthur Edeson, Cinematography

• Max Steiner, Music

• Owen Marks, Editing

• Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine

• Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund

• Paul Henreid as Victor Laszlo

• Claude Rains as Captain Louis Renault

• Conrad Veidt as Major Heinrich Strasser

• Sydney Greenstreet as Signor Ferrari

• Peter Lorre as Signor Ugarte

• Curt Bois as the Pickpocket

• Leonid Kinskey as Sascha

• Madeleine Lebeau as Yvonne

• Joy Page as Annina Brandel

• S. Z. Sakall (credited as S. K. Sakall) as Carl

• Dooley Wilson as Sam

Casablanca Recognition:

• Casablanca was wide released on January 23, 1943.

• On a budget of roughly $1 million, Casablanca would gross roughly $3.7 million in its initial release.

• Casablanca was nominated for Best Actor (Bogart), Supporting Actor (Rains), Cinematography - Black and White, Film Editing, and Score.

• It won for Best Picture, Director (Curtiz), and Screenplay (Epstein, Esptein, and Koch)

• In 1989, the film was one of the first 25 films selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

• In 2005, it was named one of the 100 greatest films of the last 80 years by Time magazine (the selected films were not ranked).

• Bright Lights Film Journal stated in 2007, "It is one of those rare films from Hollywood's Golden Age which has managed to transcend its era to entertain generations of moviegoers ... Casablanca provides twenty-first-century Americans with an oasis of hope in a desert of arbitrary cruelty and senseless violence."

• The film also ranked at number 28 on Empire's list of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time.

• Screenwriting teacher Robert McKee maintains that the script is "the greatest screenplay of all time".

• In 2006, the Writers Guild of America agreed, voting it the best ever in its list of the 101 greatest screenplays.

• Casablanca has been recognized by the AFI on the following lists:

  • 1998 AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies - #2

  • 2001 AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills - #37

  • 2002 AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions - #1

  • 2003 AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains - #4: Rick Blaine (hero)

  • 2004 AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs - #2: "As Time Goes By"

  • 2005 AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:

    • #5: "Here's looking at you, kid."

    • #20: "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

    • #28: "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By'."

    • #32: "Round up the usual suspects."

    • #43: "We'll always have Paris."

    • #67: "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."

    • These six lines were the most of any film (Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz tied for second with three apiece). Also nominated for the list was "Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world."

  • 2006 AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers - #32

  • 2007 AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - #3

• Casablanca currently holds a 99% among critics on RT, a 100 score on Metacritic, and a 4.3/5 on Letterboxd.

Casablanca Plot Summary: In the exotic melting pot of Casablanca during World War II, Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a jaded and enigmatic American expatriate, runs a swanky nightclub that attracts a colorful cast of characters seeking refuge from the chaos of war.

When a mysterious and beautiful woman from his past, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), walks into his club with her husband, resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), Rick's life takes an unexpected turn. As the flames of romance reignite, Rick finds himself torn between personal desires and a higher sense of duty forcing him to navigate a treacherous web of loyalty, love, and sacrifice.

Casablanca (1942) - The Stanley Rubric:

Original Legacy Score: 9.75

Second Legacy Score: 9.88

New Legacy Score: 9.35

Original Impact/Significance Score: 8.25

Second Impact/Significance Score: 9

New Impact/Significance Score: 9

Original Novelty Score: 7.25

Second Novelty Score: 9

New Novelty Score: 8.5

Original Classicness Score: 9.25

Second Classicness Score: 10

New Classicness Score: 10

Original Rewatchability Score: 9

Second Rewatchability Score: 9.5

New Rewatchability Score: 9

Original Audience Score: 9.5

Second Audience Score: 9.05 (86% Google, 95% RT)

New Audience Score: 8.9 (83% Google, 95% RT)

Original Total Score: 53

Second Total Score: 56.43

New Total Score: 54.75

Rear Window Cast:

• Alfred Hitchcock, Director

• John Michael Hayes, Writer

• Roberts Burks, Cinematography

• Franz Waxman, Music

• George Tomasini, Editing

• James Stewart as L.B. "Jeff" Jefferies

• Grace Kelly as Lisa Fremont

• Wendell Corey as NYPD Det. Lt. Thomas "Tom" J. Doyle

• Thelma Ritter as Stella

• Raymond Burr as Lars Thorwald

• Judith Evelyn as Miss Lonelyhearts

• Ross Bagdasarian as the songwriter

• Georgine Darcy as Miss Torso

• Sara Berner and Frank Cady as the couple living above the Thorwalds

Rear Window Recognition:

• Rear Window was released on August 4, 1954.

• It garnered widespread critical acclaim even ranking fifth on Cahiers du Cinéma's Top 10 Films of the Year List in 1955.

• On a budget of roughly $1 million, the film would gross $37 million over its total box office run and earning the #4 spot in the 1954 box office.

• Rear Window would receive 4 Oscar nominations: Best Director (Hitchcock), Adapted Screenplay (Hayes), Cinematography - Color, and Sound-Recording.

• In 1998, Time Out magazine conducted a poll and Rear Window was voted the 21st greatest film of all time. In 2022, Time Out magazine ranked the film at No. 26 on their list of "The 100 best thriller films of all time".

• In the British Film Institute's 2012 Sight & Sound polls of the greatest films ever made, Rear Window was ranked 53rd among critics and 48th among directors. In the 2022 edition of the magazine's Greatest films of all time list the film ranked 38th in the critics poll.

• In 2017, Empire magazine's readers' poll ranked Rear Window at No. 72 on its list of The 100 Greatest Movies.

• Rear Window has been recognized by the AFI on the following lists:

  • At number 42 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies

  • At number 14 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills

  • At number 48 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)

  • At number 3 in AFI's 10 Top 10 (Mysteries)

• Rear Window currently holds a 99% among critics on RT, a 100 score on Metacritic, and a 4.4/5 on Letterboxd.

Rear Window Plot Summary: In Rear Window, we find ourselves confined within the claustrophobic confines of a Greenwich Village apartment, peering through the lens of LB Jefferies (James Stewart), a wheelchair-bound photographer. His summer pastime is a voyeuristic venture into the lives of his neighbors, a cross-section of urban archetypes played out in the building's courtyard. Each window frames a fragment of humanity, from the lonely Miss Lonelyhearts to the tantalizing Miss Torso.

The plot pivots on Jeff's suspicion that a neighbor, Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr), has murdered his wife. This suspicion, shared and fueled by his glamorous girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) and his nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter), drives the narrative forward. Hitchcock masterfully crafts tension not through action, but through the act of watching—turning the audience into voyeurs complicit in Jeff's obsessions.

Rear Window (1954) - The Stanley Rubric:

Legacy: 9.17

Impact/Significance: 8.33

Novelty: 8.83

Classic-ness: 9.67

Rewatchability: 9.5

Audience Score: 9.25 (90% Google, 95% RT)

Total: 54.75

Stanley Rubric Tiebreaker:

Legacy Rankings:

1. Casablanca (1942)

2. Rear Window (1954)

Impact/Significance Rankings:

1. Rear Window (1954)

2. Casablanca (1942)

Novelty Rankings:

1. Rear Window (1954)

2. Casablanca (1942)

Classicness Rankings:

1. Casablanca (1942)

2. Rear Window (1954)

Rewatchability Rankings:

1. Casablanca (1942)

2. Rear Window (1954)

Audience Score Rankings:

1. Casablanca - 9.0 (8.5 IMDB, 95% RT)

2. Rear Window - 8.95 (8.4 IMDB, 95% RT)

Final Tiebreaker Rankings:

1. Casablanca (1942)

2. Rear Window (1954)

In Memoriam:

• Vincent Pastore, 80, American actor (The Sopranos, Gotti, Shark Tale).

• Scott Hylands, 83, Canadian actor (Night Heat, Daddy's Gone A-Hunting, The Boys in Company C)

• Arlene Smith, 84, American singer (The Chantels)