"A Night In Casablanca," With the Marx Brothers

While many people do not consider this movie to be one of the classics of the Marx Brothers, I disagree, and when I first saw it many years ago, I laughed so hard at a couple of scenes, I actually got sick. The Marx Brothers were a family comedy act born in New York City to German Jewish immigrants in the latter part of the 1800s, although one, Herbert, known by his stage nickname of "Zeppo," was born in 1901. In the history of American comedy, the Marx Brothers rank right up at or near the top, depending upon who is doing the ranking. In their early film career Groucho, Chico (pronounced "chicko," not "cheeko"), Harpo and Zeppo appeared together, but from the mid 1930s on, it was Groucho, Chico and Harpo. "A Night in Casablanca" was their next to last film together and it was made just after the end of World War Two. Thereafter, Groucho remained very much in the public eye with a radio show which then was transferred to television on NBC. It was a game show called, "You Bet Your Life," and to this day I remember watching that show as a child with my grandmother way back in the 1950s, when all such shows were in black and white.

"A Night in Casablanca" centers around a hotel in Casablanca, Morocco managed by Ronald Kornblow (played by Groucho), whose recent predecessors had died at the hands of Nazis staying at the hotel. The Nazis are trying to get artworks and other treasures pillaged by the Nazis in Europe during the war, but hidden in a remote storage room in the hotel. The head Nazi goes by a fake name, as he is really being hunted as a Nazi war criminal. His valet is "Rusty" (played by Harpo). Rusty is good friends with "Corbaccio" (played by Chico),  who does some work for the hotel, as well as owning a camel rental/ taxi service, called the "Yellow Camel Company," with his competitor being the "Checkerboard Camel Company." As with the previous hotel managers, the Nazis plan to kill Kornblow, but Rusty finds out their plan and goes to Corbaccio to "tell" him. For those unaware, as part of his act, Harpo Marx did not speak, so when he "tells" Corbaccio, it is by a number of gestures, body movements and whistles, and Corbaccio must then figure out what Rusty is trying to tell him. It is a hysterical scene!

I will not go further, so as not to spoil the movie for anyone who has not seen it, but there are other hilarious scenes, including, among others, Groucho being constantly interrupted while he is trying to make out with a woman (actually a Nazi accomplice), the Marx Brothers hiding in the same room where the Nazis are trying to pack as they prepare to flee, and Harpo piloting the Nazi getaway plane! Further, you will be treated to a popular song of that era, "Who's Sorry Now," and also Harpo playing Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2 on his harp, as well as Chico playing "The Beer Barrel Polka" on the piano and leading the orchestra in the hotel nightclub. Do yourself a favor and see this movie!

The photo is from the Warner Home Video DVD from 2004. 

    
WORD HISTORY:
Loot-This word comes in a noun version, meaning "items and valuables taken by plunder or theft, with some type of violence usually implied, often conquest," and also, "money," a meaning which seems to have developed in American English, perhaps from underworld slang in the 1920s. It also has a verb form which means "to plunder, to rob." It goes back to Sanskrit "lunt," which meant "to plunder." Exactly where Sanskrit got the word is uncertain. This produced Sanskrit "luntam," a noun meaning "plundered goods."  This gave Hindi "lut" with the same meaning. English borrowed the word in the late 1700s from Hindi.