Sunday Afternoon Tea - Honor, Loyalty, Integrity, Patriotism

There are films I most often watch in the proper season and sometimes with added ambience.  You've got Mail is best in the Fall.  Independence Day on... July 4th.  The Bishop's Wife in December.  But my very favorite movie, Casablanca, is best watched on any blustery and preferably rainy day with candles lit and a hot beverage sitting next to me on the coffee table.  

However, one day last week I noticed it was going to be on Turner Classic Movies that afternoon and being that it was a slow day as far as the To Do list... I had to watch it. Even without wind and rain as a backdrop.

You may know that they colorized it once, along with numerous classic black and white movies.  Which to many of us was akin to messing with Shakespeare or Dickens.  Part of the beauty of those old movies is the way they played with shadows and light.

So why would a movie made before I was born continue to be my favorite of everything I have ever watched?  Possibly because "they don't make them like that, anymore".  The combination of the black and white background, the old movie stars, and the subject matter always make me feel warm and cozy... even if it is about people suffering due to the war.

If you have never seen it, Casablanca takes place in... surprise... Casablanca during WWII. Although it was filmed in the Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank.  The movie, told as a love story, is based on the area being a destination for many refugees fleeing the war.  Most of them were Jewish.

Many of the actors in the movie were actually real life refugees from the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (aka: Nazis).  Remembering that the movie was made while WWII was still in process.  It was a place where many refugees had to wait to find a way to America or other countries where they would find freedom.

Each time I watch the movie, I think of the values it reflects which one rarely sees these days.  Values such as what I listed in the title.... honor, loyalty, integrity, and patriotism.  But it could have been different since the ending was not told to the actors until the very end of shooting the film.

It would have been a such a great movie if it had an ending where honor and integrity were not the decisions of the people involved.  I believe it has made the list of favorite movies for seventy-five years because of the message. People need heroes, those that do the right thing in spite of it being difficult.

If you need a respite from today's unsettling news, may I suggest a trip to Morocco circa 1942?   The background of the war, the uncertainty of the refugees, the humorous lines that lift us from what could have been a very dark plot, the music (As Time Goes By, does it get any better?), the story... they all come together to not only entertain but to remind us of the values that matter.

Mentioned in this Blog Post

Casablanca in DVD here and Casablanca streaming... here.

There is a book called Destination Casablanca, which is about real life Casablanca and Morocco's role as a place for refugees escaping Europe that I have heard is good but I haven't read it, yet.  Info... here.

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