They can't all be winners
You know how I am with Peter Lorre. You know I'm the same way with Conrad Veidt. Not to mention Humphrey Bogart. Lucky for me, they're all in Casablanca. Today I happened to discovered that they all starred in a movie called All Through the Night the year before, and it turned out to be easy enough to pirate get hold of.
And God knows I've seen all kinds of Bogie movies, but this is the first time I've seen one that is sort of laughably bad. Oh God.
It's a movie that wants to be a film noir, a gangster flick, and a chest-pounding "America fuck yeah" soapbox movie at the same time. But most of all it wants to be a comedy. Bad puns abound, our heroes trip over their own feet and take so long to figure out completely obvious plot points you wonder if all that excessive smoking has damaged their brains.
I don't think any other scene is as indicative of the stupidity of this movie as when Bogie, as the most milquetoast gangster boss ever, have infiltrated a Nazi meeting under the guise of being a German scientist, is called upon to give a report. After a lot of um-ing and aah-ing he goes up on the podium and delivers a torrent of silly fake German, ending each point with such a rousing "Sieg Heil" the Nazis in the room apparently forget that they're Germans. Oy. (Their plan to take over America, by the way? Use a small motorboat to blow up a slightly bigger boat. This will apparently drive America to its knees. Deutschland über alles!)
Also there's actually very little shooting.
Though then again it's pretty charming to have Warner Bros. gangsters as the good guys for once (though sadly there's not a tommy gun in sight) - and Conrad Veidt (who of course plays a coldly efficient Nazi - in American movies I think he only ever played Nazis and Arabs) carries around a Dachshund called Hansel at all times; And he (Veidt, not Hansel) and Lorre speak copious amounts of German together. I love hearing Lorre speak German. (As a side note, I think by now I've seen Lorre play every kind of European except Hungarian).
Also I'm still not sure what exactly it is that is supposed to go on "All Through the Night". I suspect it might be the telling of horrible puns. ("Say, there's more here than meets the FBI!")
And God knows I've seen all kinds of Bogie movies, but this is the first time I've seen one that is sort of laughably bad. Oh God.
It's a movie that wants to be a film noir, a gangster flick, and a chest-pounding "America fuck yeah" soapbox movie at the same time. But most of all it wants to be a comedy. Bad puns abound, our heroes trip over their own feet and take so long to figure out completely obvious plot points you wonder if all that excessive smoking has damaged their brains.
I don't think any other scene is as indicative of the stupidity of this movie as when Bogie, as the most milquetoast gangster boss ever, have infiltrated a Nazi meeting under the guise of being a German scientist, is called upon to give a report. After a lot of um-ing and aah-ing he goes up on the podium and delivers a torrent of silly fake German, ending each point with such a rousing "Sieg Heil" the Nazis in the room apparently forget that they're Germans. Oy. (Their plan to take over America, by the way? Use a small motorboat to blow up a slightly bigger boat. This will apparently drive America to its knees. Deutschland über alles!)
Also there's actually very little shooting.
Though then again it's pretty charming to have Warner Bros. gangsters as the good guys for once (though sadly there's not a tommy gun in sight) - and Conrad Veidt (who of course plays a coldly efficient Nazi - in American movies I think he only ever played Nazis and Arabs) carries around a Dachshund called Hansel at all times; And he (Veidt, not Hansel) and Lorre speak copious amounts of German together. I love hearing Lorre speak German. (As a side note, I think by now I've seen Lorre play every kind of European except Hungarian).
Also I'm still not sure what exactly it is that is supposed to go on "All Through the Night". I suspect it might be the telling of horrible puns. ("Say, there's more here than meets the FBI!")