From Daniel Cauthorn, Brooklyn, NY:

I really don’t understand the sizeable uproar regarding the idea that Claude Rains’ inspector was in love with Rick in Casablanca. Do we still live in such a puritanical country that saying there is a sexual dimension to a legendary male friendship provokes outrage? I’m really hoping that this is simply a case of “extremists tend to send more emails” and not the possibility that we live in a nation that is no longer “the land of the free, home of the brave”, but more “land of the intolerant, home of the terrified.”

When Rains said in the movie “If I was a woman, I would be in love with Rick,” (yes, folks he did say it) I’m not really sure that makes Rains gay, but it sure makes his character more interesting, and the movie is better as a result.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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