Casablanca
So maybe I've been living under a rock my whole life, but I finally saw Casablanca for the first time last night. Aside from it being a brilliant drama with outstanding cinematography, it also threw something else into sharp relief: Grim Fandango. If you loved Grim Fandango and haven't seen Casablanca, see it!! It will add a whole new level to your understanding and appreciation of the brilliance of Tim Schafer and the genius work that went into realizing Grim Fandango. While there are a lot of elements in GF that you could say he ripped off from Casablanca, I think it's exactly the opposite. He found a way to weave story threads from Mexican folk lore into film noir for one massive, brilliant homage. So, Tim Shafer is a genius and Grim Fandango is better now that I ever realized it to be.

I've just been playing GF funny enough, and altho its a very long time since i saw Casablanca i can see some of the connections GF has been very frustrating, i have heard it was a tad buggy and on Vista its proving to be a nightmare, i stopped playing it when he got stuck on the staircase where the slotmachines are? and i hadn't saved it since getting off the island at the end of the earth lol

I love Casablanca. Bogarts Character is full of flaws, as every man, but how he does the right thing although he's broken hearted ... a real man :) did you look out for Peter Lorre? Great uh ;)

Funny, I never really knew Bogart before. I had, of course, seen him before and heard of him my whole life, but I've never connected the name and the face. He's fantastic. Talk about a man of the era! And yes, I jumped as soon as I saw Peter Lorre's name in the credits. Unfortunately he only has a small role, but he was still brilliant as usual! I'd still have to say that my favorite Peter Lorre role ever would be him as Dr. Herman Einstein in the 1944 production of Arsenic and Old Lace (starring Carey Grant). Matt, if you've never seen that movie I'd highly recommend it. It's incredibly funny in a very dark way.

Yes, I love Arsenic and Old Lace :) Those nice old ladies helping these poor and lonely elder men. And Cary Grant is really cool, too.

Yeh, when I finally got round to seeing Casablanca a few years ago I spent the entire time going 'so THATS where thats from!'... like the amount of cliches and one-liners that film started.. amazing. It really is a great film, made me realise theres a reason the old classics are classics! Like, I can't put my finger on why, cus its cheesy and stupid in parts, but theres just some magic to it that makes it work. I also think its fascinating that it was made during the war... so its not like war films made since where we already know who won... when it was being made in 1942 they really didnt know what way things would go! And yeah, Bogarts the man.