11 MARCH 2000, Page 29

Enemy of the good

From Mr David Watkins Sir: Perhaps Casablanca does not deserve its legendary status, but Frank Johnson's only argument (Shared opinion, 4 March) for this view is that in 1943 the film was unenthusiastically reviewed by James Agee and C.A. Lejeune. In 1735 Hamlet was dis- missed as the work of a barbarian by no less than Voltaire. Almost everyone now thinks that Voltaire, mighty genius though he was, was wrong about Hamlet. Couldn't Agee and Lejeune have been just as wrong about Casablanca?

David Watkins

79 Mortimer Road, Cardiff