As I noted in the previous Marx Brothers’ movie review that I wrote for The Legionnaire, that being Horse Feathers (1932), as long as Amazon Prime keeps suggesting their films to me, I will continue watching them.  Still, I had to look up which one I had last discussed.  As much as I love their brand of humor, which is great for a Catholic cinephile tired of the crude, lewd, and/or rude bent of modern comedy, the Marx Brothers’ stuff can be a little repetitive.  I will not enumerate them all here, but there are a couple of common traits throughout their body of work.  There are instances of off-color jokes, but they are just that: instances that are here and gone rather than comprising the sole schtick to try to get you to laugh.  One theme to which a Christian can better relate, and this becomes more common in their later work like A Night in Casablanca (1946), today’s picture, is their charity.  There is not a lot else to talk about from a Catholic perspective, so standby for that treatment.

Though it is called A Night in Casablanca, the film begins with the daytime murder of the manager of the hotel named after the eponymous Moroccan city.  Watching the poisoned gentleman fall to the ground are Count Max Pfefferman (Sig Ruman) and the establishment’s current lounge singer, Beatrice Reiner (Lisette Verea).  Unlike the other patrons gathering around the corpse, these two do not seem surprised.  Instead, Count Pfefferman goes to Governor Gandaloux (Lewis L. Russell) and the prefect of the police, Captain Brizzard (Dan Seymour), to offer his services as manager of the world-famous resort.  Count Pfefferman’s motivation for doing so is because he is actually Heinrich Stubel, a former Nazi who is after a horde of jewels he had attempted to smuggle out of Germany at the end of World War II.  He is a wanted man, and without a toupee and other forms of disguise, people would recognize him and remand him to the authorities.  We learn this from watching his struggles with his valet, Rusty (Harpo Marx), though the hijinks get Rusty fired.  The last one of these is Rusty sucking Count Pfefferman’s hair piece into a vacuum cleaner without the German noticing where it had gone.  This means that Count Pfefferman cannot meet with Captain Brizzard and Governor Gandaloux.  Instead, Captain Brizzard suggests they look elsewhere for someone to oversee the resort.  They agree to bring in Ronald Kornblow (Groucho Marx), who will overlook the deaths of the three previous people in the same position because being here will be a promotion.  It is always interesting the people God puts into certain situations.  Meanwhile, the toupee is found by the maid staff and brought to Annette Bernard (Lois Collier), secretary to the manager.  She is engaged to Lieutenant Pierre Delmar (Charles Drake), a French pilot who had been coerced into flying Heinrich’s loot to Argentina, but ditched in Casablanca where he has been ever since.  This scandal is preventing him not only from returning to France and working as a pilot, but from marrying Annette.  Yet, when she notices that the fake hair belongs to Heinrich, she believes it to be what they need to clear Lieutenant Delmar’s name.  As they sort through these clues, Heinrich decides to use his ally in Beatrice to retrieve the item that could reveal his identity.  Specifically, he asks Beatrice to woo Ronald into handing over the toupee.  This is accomplished rather easily since Ronald is perfectly willing to be wooed.  Indeed, he develops an attraction to her that Heinrich hopes to further exploit, wanting her to help arrange it so that Heinrich can have Ronald killed.  The first attempt comes after she plans an assignation in another part of town where Heinrich has his henchmen waiting to run Ronald over with a car.  This proves unsuccessful, but Ronald remains blissfully unaware that anything is amiss.  The one who does notice is Corbaccio (Chico Marx), a jack-of-all trades (pretty much literally) hotel employee who decides to make it his duty to protect his boss.  He does not have long to wait as Heinrich convinces Beatrice to lure Ronald up to her room to have the manager shot.  Between Corbaccio’s incessant knocking and her desire for privacy, the party gets moved between hers and Ronald’s room a couple times, meaning Heinrich misses his opportunity.  Then, being invited once more to Beatrice’s quarters, Ronald becomes stuck in the elevator thanks to Rusty’s antics as the lift’s operator.  Again, God knows what He is doing when He places people in certain situations.  This is especially true when Rusty stumbles upon the treasure hidden in the building.  Heinrich then decides to pin the murders on Ronald, with Annette, Corbaccio, and Rusty all named as accomplices.  They are all placed in jail, and control of the hotel is given to Count Pfefferman.  He and his assistant immediately begin packing, but talk about leaving Beatrice behind.  As a result, she helps in getting everyone out from behind bars, and they are able to slow down Heinrich’s escape.  It culminates with a chase to the airfield where Heinrich hopes to fly away with his pilfered goods.  Lieutenant Delmar, who is able to evade his own capture, helps everyone get to the landing strip to prevent the take-off.  Because this is a Marx Brothers’ production, somehow Rusty ends up at the controls of the plane, which promptly crashes into the hotel.  Everyone lives, Annette and Lieutenant Delmar can now be together, and Corbaccio, Ronald, and Rusty chase Beatrice into the closing credits.

As usual, the Marx Brothers behavior in A Night in Casablanca is not in keeping with Christian gentlemanliness, or any kind of gentlemanliness.  Still, it is not done in the over-the-top manner that I described in the introduction.  What I also mentioned in that opening is how other acts they perform are more charitable and Christ-like.  Before continuing, I should emphasize that while they are an improvement, they are still imperfect, to say the least.  At one point, a shady character who overhears Annette and Lieutenant Delmar discussing Heinrich’s toupee tries to entice the young lovers with information about the hairpiece’s owner.  The information this person has is only available at a price.  Being the out-of-work pilot on the run from the law that Lieutenant Delmar is, he does not have the funds for such a transaction.  Seeing his and Annette’s anguish over yet another obstacle to their domestic bliss, Corbaccio and Rusty instantly offer to help get the money.  Corbaccio and Rusty’s solution is to con customers trying to get into the lounge by selling tables to them that quickly fill up the dance floor.  It is not the most noble of efforts, but they promptly hand over the money without a thought of keeping it.  There is comedy in this act, but also a beauty.  Matthew 6:3 quotes Jesus advising his disciples that when they give, “. . . do not let your left hand know what your right is doing.”  He is telling his followers to be unhesitatingly charitable.  Of course, Corbaccio and Rusty are not above dishonestly earning a buck for themselves, but they are also willing to let it go to a good cause just as quickly.  They also take delight in seeing Annette and Lieutenant Delmar kiss in the end, which shows a loving heart.  As I said, it is not perfect, but who among us is?

Once more, with A Night in Casablanca has me recommending a Marx Brothers movie.  I have heard that A Day at the Races (1937) is their most controversial, though I have yet to see that one.  In the meantime, you can always watch A Night in Casablanca.