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Warner Brothers released “Casablanca” in New York on Nov. 26, 1942, which just happened to be Thanksgiving. But the romantic World War II drama starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid was anything but a turkey. To say the New York Times review was effusive is something of an understatement: “Warners here have a picture which makes the spine tingle and the heart take a leap….And they have so combined sentiment, humor and pathos with taut melodrama and bristling intrigue that the result is a highly entertaining and even inspiring film.”

And critical praise and audiences’ adoration continued when it opened in Los Angeles and nationwide in January 1943. It went on to win three Oscars for Best Picture, director for Michael Curtiz and adapted screenplay for Julius J. and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch. Let’s take a look back on the occasion of the 80th anniversary.

As time has gone by,...

Budd Boetticher’s excellent semi-autobiographical film may be Hollywood’s most uncondescending depiction of high-end Mexican culture. Robert Stack is the pushy Gringo who only slowly understands Latin society’s definitions of loyalty and machismo; his rocky relationship with Joy Page’s cultured señorita is as important as the bullfighting story with Gilbert Roland. It’s Boetticher’s best film, presented for the first time in two encodings, the 87-minute release version and the UCLA Film and TV Archive’s restoration of the full 124-minute seen South of the Border. The extra commentary and featurettes are welcome too.

Bullfighter and the Lady

Region B Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1951 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 124 + 87 min. / Torero, Muerte en la arena, Tarde de toros, L’amante del torero, El torero y la dama, Death in the Sands / Street Date , 2022 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99

Starring: Robert Stack, Joy Page, Gilbert Roland, Virginia Grey,...

Ronald Colman: Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month in two major 1930s classics Updated: Turner Classic Movies' July 2017 Star of the Month is Ronald Colman, one of the finest performers of the studio era. On Thursday night, TCM presented five Colman star vehicles that should be popping up again in the not-too-distant future: A Tale of Two Cities, The Prisoner of Zenda, Kismet, Lucky Partners, and My Life with Caroline. The first two movies are among not only Colman's best, but also among Hollywood's best during its so-called Golden Age. Based on Charles Dickens' classic novel, Jack Conway's Academy Award-nominated A Tale of Two Cities (1936) is a rare Hollywood production indeed: it manages to effectively condense its sprawling source, it boasts first-rate production values, and it features a phenomenal central performance. Ah, it also shows its star without his trademark mustache – about as famous at the time as Clark Gable's. Perhaps...

Ingrid Bergman ca. early 1940s. Ingrid Bergman movies on TCM: From the artificial 'Gaslight' to the magisterial 'Autumn Sonata' Two days ago, Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” series highlighted the film career of Greta Garbo. Today, Aug. 28, '15, TCM is focusing on another Swedish actress, three-time Academy Award winner Ingrid Bergman, who would have turned 100 years old tomorrow. TCM has likely aired most of Bergman's Hollywood films, and at least some of her early Swedish work. As a result, today's only premiere is Fielder Cook's little-seen and little-remembered From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1973), about two bored kids (Sally Prager, Johnny Doran) who run away from home and end up at New York City's Metropolitan Museum. Obviously, this is no A Night at the Museum – and that's a major plus. Bergman plays an elderly art lover who takes an interest in them; her...

The BBC is breaking the bounds of time and space to celebrate 50 years of its cult sci-fi series Doctor Who. On November 23rd, the network will broadcast its anniversary special, "Day of the Doctor," in 75 countries simultaneously (including the U.S., on BBC America). The special will also air in select movie theaters in 3D, and will replay again in theaters on November 25th.

A trailer released on Friday night by the BBC shows current (and outgoing) Doctor Matt Smith teaming up for the first time with the 10th Doctor,...

News Louisa Mellor 6 Nov 2013 - 12:59

The Doctor Who 50th anniversary special will air at 8pm on Saturday the 23rd of November on BBC One...

Write this down, or, you know, make a mental note: The Day Of The Doctor is to air on BBC One (and simultaneously around the world and in selected cinemas) at 8pm on Saturday the 23rd of November.

As predicted by many, the primetime Saturday night 8pm slot has been given over to the fiftieth anniversary episode, meaning more than a few bedtimes are going to require an extension that night (especially in light of the episode's seventy-six minute run-time). Well, if you can't stay up late on Doctor Who's golden jubilee, then when can you?

If you missed it yesterday, here's the BBC's official synopsis for the episode, which features Doctors three, Matt Smith, David Tennant, and John Hurt, alongside Billie Piper, Joanne Page,...

Paul Henreid in ‘Casablanca’: Freedom Fighter on screen, Blacklisted ‘Subversive’ off screen Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month of July 2013, Paul Henreid, bids you farewell this evening. TCM left the most popular, if not exactly the best, for last: Casablanca, Michael Curtiz’s 1943 Best Picture Oscar-winning drama, is showing at 7 p.m. Pt tonight. (Photo: Paul Henreid sings "La Marseillaise" in Casablanca.) One of the best-remembered movies of the studio era, Casablanca — not set in a Spanish or Mexican White House — features Paul Henreid as Czechoslovakian underground leader Victor Laszlo, Ingrid Bergman’s husband but not her True Love. That’s Humphrey Bogart, owner of a cafe in the titular Moroccan city. Henreid’s anti-Nazi hero is generally considered one of least interesting elements in Casablanca, but Alt Film Guide contributor Dan Schneider thinks otherwise. In any case, Victor Laszlo feels like a character made to order for Paul Henreid,...

Eleanor Parker: Palm Springs resident turns 91 today Eleanor Parker turns 91 today. The three-time Oscar nominee (Caged, 1950; Detective Story, 1951; Interrupted Melody, 1955) and Palm Springs resident is Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month of June 2013. Earlier this month, TCM showed a few dozen Eleanor Parker movies, from her days at Warner Bros. in the ’40s to her later career as a top Hollywood supporting player. (Photo: Publicity shot of Eleanor Parker in An American Dream.) Missing from TCM’s movie series, however, was not only Eleanor Parker’s biggest box-office it — The Sound of Music, in which she steals the show from both Julie Andrews and the Alps — but also what according to several sources is her very first movie role: a bit part in Raoul Walsh’s They Died with Their Boots On, a 1941 Western starring Errol Flynn as a dashingly handsome and all-around-good-guy-ish General George Armstrong Custer. Olivia de Havilland...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: July 30, 2013

Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Olive Films

Robert Stack plays to the crowd in Bullfighter and The Lady.

The 1951 film drama-romance Bullfighter and The Lady was the breakthrough movie for filmmaker Budd Boetticher (Seven Men From Now).

Robert Stack (TV’s The Untouchables) stars as Chuck Regan, a brash American skeet shooting champion whose visit to Mexico introduces him to two irresistible forces: the exotic Anita de la Vega (Joy Page) and the lure of the way of the matador. Unflinching in his confidence, Regan sets out to conquer both, learning bullfighting from an icon of the Mexican corrida, Manolo Estrada (Gilbert Roland). But Regan’s headstrong assertiveness and desire to impress Anita gets the best of him when he debuts in the ring and knows there’s only one way and one place he can redeem himself.

Written by James Edward Grant from a story by Boetticher,...

Timothy Spall in The Syndicate. BBC

Kieran Kinsella

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The BBC have commissioned a second season of Kay Mellor’s popular dramedy The Syndicate. Season one aired recently and received rave reviews as fans quickly became caught up in the private lives of a syndicate of grocery store workers who won the National Lottery. The show is produced by Rollem Productions and its six million plus viewers were enough to convince BBC1 Controller Ben Stephenson to order another season of the show.

Harry Potter star Timothy Spall will resume his role as the store manager while Gavin and Stacey’s Joanne Page will also be back for the news series. 2012 has been a good year for the Beeb with 8 new episodes of its other smash...

As I Said Last Week And The Week Before And The Week Before That – Warning: I’m assuming that people reading this have seen the movie and thus will be fine with my discussing elements of the plot. If you’re one of those who haven’t watched the movie, do yourself a favor and Don’T Read This. See the movie instead and have your own experience with it. Trust me. You’ll be glad you did. If you need a plot synopsis, imdb has a good one here.

This is the fourth and final installment in my examination of the classic Warner Bros. film, Casablanca. Not that I couldn’t go on (and on and on) about it further but I figure there are limits to the patience of all of you out there and I thank you for indulging me thus far in looking at one of my own favorite films.

Timothy Spall in The Syndicate. BBC

Kieran Kinsella

Click here to friend Best British TV on Facebook or here to follow us on Twitter.

Tired of 20th century “period pieces” and detective shows? BBC One may be able to help as the network are set to air a quirky new drama starring Harry Potter‘s Timothy Spall. In The Syndicate, Spall plays the manager of a discount grocery store in Leeds. The tough economic climate means that the store is in danger of financial collapse and the panicked assistant manager Stuart (Matthew McNulty) hatches a plan to secure his own financial future. As his colleagues uncover his plot, news breaks that the work place syndicate have won the national lottery. What impact will the 18 million pound cash windfall have on the employees of Right Buy U and how will manager Bob (Timothy Spall) handle the issue with Stuart in light...

Casablanca (1942) Direction: Michael Curtiz Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Conrad Veidt, S. Z. Sakall, Dooley Wilson, Joy Page Screenplay: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch; from Murray Burnett and Joan Alison's unproduced play "Everybody Comes to Rick's" Oscar Movies Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Casablanca By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica: About three years ago, I finally gave in to watch Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946) for the first time. I had hesitated because of the five- and ten-minute snippets of the film I had seen, and for its reputation as a hokey Christmas story "chestnut." Well, was I wrong, for It's a Wonderful Life is a great film — arguably the best Capra ever made. It is also a good example of the auteur theory of filmmaking, in that the film fits remarkably well within the Capra canon. From the...

Casablanca star Joy Page has died following a stroke at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She was 84.

Page, the stepdaughter of movie mogul Jack Warner, was just 17 when she landed the role of desperate Bulgarian refugee Annina Brandel, opposite Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, in the 1943 classic.

It was Page's first film role. She went on to appear in movies like Kismet and Bullfighter + The Lady.

Page, who died on Friday, was remembered at a private service in Los Angeles on Wednesday.