A-Z GUIDE TO MOVIES AND TV SHOWS PARODIED BY MAD, CRACKED, CRAZY, ETC. UP TO 1996. THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. SPOILERS AND OTHER NON-SEQUITURS, TOO. SOMETIMES THESE THINGS HAVE WORDS OR SITUATIONS WE DON'T USE ANYMORE. YOU KNOW, 'CAUSE THEY'RE OLD.
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Monday, March 29, 2021
CASABONKERS
CASABLANCA (1941)
dir: Michael Curtiz
MAD #300, January 1991
w: Arnie Kogen
a: Mort Drucker
Part of their 300th anniversary issue, where instead of parodying current movies, they did several of what were considered the most famous movies of all time.
Rick (Humphrey Bogart) owns a casino and bar in Casablanca during the beginning of World War II. People from all sides come into his club and he turns and blind eye when people commit questionable activities there, such as Signor Ferreari (Sydney Greenstreet).
Ugarte (Peter Lorre) has come into the club with passports that he has stolen and plans to sell. They would allow anyone who owned them to travel freely throughout Europe. He has asked Rick to hold on to them before his contract comes, but is arrested before that can happen.
Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) enters Rick's place with her husband Victor Lazlo (Paul Henreid), a Czech resistance fighter. They were the ones to have gotten the passports so he can continue his work in America. She notices Sam (Dooley Wilson), a person for her past, is there and asks him to play “As Time Goes By” for her. Rick hears this, and having asked before that it never be played again, sees she is in the bar now.
After the bar closes and everyone leaves, Rick drowns his sorrows and requests the song (with the most famous and most misquoted lines in all moviedom) and we find out why it was so special. Flashback to better times. Rick and Ilsa were lovers in the past and once lived in Paris.
When news hits that the Germans are invading Paris, they decide to meet at the train station that night. When they do, he gets a note from her saying she can't come with him and can't explain exactly why.
Strasse (Conrad Veidt), who was sent by Germany to make sure Lazlo doesn't get the tickets, starts singing the German anthem in the bar. It is drowned out by the French, using the house band to play La Marsellaise. Renault (Claude Rains), a corrupt police officer, closes the bar on the pretense that there is illegal gambling in the club.
After the place is evacuated, Ilsa confronts Rick about the tickets. He still refuses to hand them over until she pulls out a gun. She can't go through with shooting him because she's still in love with him. Back when they were in Paris, she was still married to Victor but thought he was dead. At the last minute, she found out he was still alive.
Knowing this he has a change of heart, deciding to help Lazlo with his work for the Resistance, and making her think she will stay with him and they will continue their life together.
Rick arranges to have Lazlo released with the aid of Renault in exchange for setting him up with possession of the tickets. At the last minute, Rick does a switcheroo on all of them in one of the all-time most famous movie endings.
It then ends open-endedly, with Renault suggesting the two of them leave Casablanca and join the Resistance themselves.
from MAD #285, March 1989 Recasting Old Movies With Today's Famous Wrestlers by J. Prete (John Ficarra) and Sam Viviano.
In the background of page 1, the guy with Pepe written on his lapel is Charles Boyer, once again presented by Drucker in a caricature he swiped from Al Hirschfeld. The reference is to a movie called Algiers, which came out a few years before Casablanca. Boyer's suavity in the film was often parodied; it inspired Chuck Jones to create Pepe Le Pew.
The joke at the end of the parody had actually happened, of course. Media mogul Ted Turner colorized Casablanca in the late '80s, along with a handful of other classics like The Maltese Falcon and It's A Wonderful Life. He reveled in the outrage that resulted, but had to give up the project not long after due to the expense.
In the background of page 1, the guy with Pepe written on his lapel is Charles Boyer, once again presented by Drucker in a caricature he swiped from Al Hirschfeld. The reference is to a movie called Algiers, which came out a few years before Casablanca. Boyer's suavity in the film was often parodied; it inspired Chuck Jones to create Pepe Le Pew.
ReplyDeleteThe joke at the end of the parody had actually happened, of course. Media mogul Ted Turner colorized Casablanca in the late '80s, along with a handful of other classics like The Maltese Falcon and It's A Wonderful Life. He reveled in the outrage that resulted, but had to give up the project not long after due to the expense.