A Night in Casablanca
| A Night in Casablanca | |
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Theatrical release poster.
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| Directed by | Archie Mayo |
| Produced by | David L. Loew |
| Written by |
Joseph Fields Roland Kibbee Frank Tashlin (uncredited) |
| Starring |
Groucho Marx Harpo Marx Chico Marx Charles Drake |
| Music by |
Bert Kalmar Harry Ruby Werner Janssen |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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85 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
A Night in Casablanca is a 1946 film starring the Marx Brothers: Groucho, Chico, and Harpo. The picture was directed by Archie Mayo and written by Joseph Fields and Roland Kibbee.
Set in Casablanca shortly after World War II, escaped Nazi war criminal Heinrich Stubel (Sig Ruman) has steadily murdered three different managers of the Hotel Casablanca. Disguised as a Count Pfferman, Stubel's goal is to reclaim the stolen art treasures that he has hidden in the hotel. However, the only way he can do this undetected is by murdering the hotel's managers and running the hotel himself.
The newest manager of Hotel Casablanca is former motel proprietor Ronald Kornblow (Groucho), who is very much unaware that he has been hired because no one else will dare take the position. Inept Kornblow takes charge of the hotel, and eventually crosses paths with Corbaccio (Chico), owner of the Yellow Camel company, who appoints himself as Kornblow's bodyguard, aided and abetted by Stubel's valet Rusty (Harpo). In his many efforts to murder Kornblow, Stubel sends beautiful Beatrice Reiner (Lisette Verea) to romance the clueless manager.
Before Stubel can make his escape to the airfield with the loot, Kornblow, his friends, and Miss Reiner invade his hotel room and sneak from suitcase to closet and back again to unpack his bags, which serves to drive him thoroughly mad. Arrested on false charges, Kornblow, Corbaccio and Rusty eventually crash Stubel's plane into a police station where the brothers expose Stubel as an escaped Nazi.
A popular myth (spread in part by Groucho himself) surrounding the movie is that the Marx Brothers were threatened with a lawsuit by Warner Bros. for the use of the word "Casablanca" in the title, it being an infringement on the company's rights to the 1942 film Casablanca. Groucho responded with a letter asserting that he and his siblings had use of the word "brothers" prior to the establishment of Warner Brothers (and many others had before that), and often the story is told that Groucho threatened a counter-suit based on this assertion. He also mentioned that he would consider further legal action by pointing out to Warners that the title of their current hit film Night and Day infringed on the titles of two Marx Brothers films; A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races.
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