Review Casablanca (1983)

[Doctor Omega]

You can never remake Casablanca... Never!

Well, perhaps not...

But you can make a prequel series starring David Soul as Rick and Scatman Crothers as Sam!

It'll get cancelled after just a few episodes mind you!

Is it fair to castigate this show though?

 

[Amyghost]

The series just proved that Casablanca: The Classic Movie wouldn't have been a classic movie without the magic of that particular conjunction of cast members. Without them, you end up with something very much like Casablanca: The Not So Classic Television Series. Much as I like Hector Elizondo elsewhere, and he did his best here he was no fit for Claude Rains' shoes, and the rest of the cast didn't even come close. This one might be worth preserving the few episodes on a box set of short-run television curios, but all in all, it was an idea whose time hadn't come, and probably never will.

 

[Gavin]

The series just proved that Casablanca: The Classic Movie wouldn't have been a classic movie without the magic of that particular conjunction of cast members.

I think that's true of a lot of movies. There are plenty of classics that are really only classic because of a particular conjunction of the right cast with the right script at the right time. Change just one of those aspects and the classic loses its appeal. And too often movie producers fail to recognise that and think that nostalgia for a classic will result in a remake/sequel being successful.