A Night in Casablanca was the Marx Brothers’ return after the war, with Groucho as the manager of a hotel full of Nazi treasure hunters.
A Night in Casablanca was released in 1946, directed by Archie Mayo. It was set in Casablanca just after the Second World War. Groucho played Ronald Kornblow, the new manager of the Hotel Casablanca, whose predecessors had all been murdered. Chico and Harpo played his helpers, and the plot involved Nazi officers searching for treasure hidden in the hotel.
The film was made after a gap in the brothers’ career, and it returned to the style of their earlier films: a setting that could be disrupted, a villain to be mocked and Groucho at the centre, talking his way through danger. The title played on the success of Casablanca (1942), although the story was entirely different.
A Night in Casablanca was a popular success, and it showed that the Marx Brothers could still work together after the war. It was their first film together since Go West in 1940, and it remains a fondly remembered example of Groucho’s later screen work.