CASABLANCA Movie Review

1942 Michael Curtiz

In the movies, as in the rest of life, timing is everything. On Monday, December 8, 1941, after he'd listened to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt the day before describing the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and demanding that the Congress declare war, Stephen Karnot went back to work in his cubicle. Mr. Karnot was a reader for the Warner Bros. studio. He scanned through novels and stories, anything that might be the basis for a good movie. On his desk was an unproduced play, Everybody Comes to Rick's. He read it and liked it. He thought that the time was right for a story about a cynical American expatriate who moves from careful neutrality to anti-fascist commitment, and he wrote an enthusiastic synopsis. Soon Hal B. Wallis, who had a new arrangement with the studio that allowed him a free hand on projects of his choice, expressed his interest, and the proverbial ball was rolling. Wallis was in the middle of his first film under the new understanding, Now, Voyager, but he saw the potential. First, a title change was in order. How about Casablanca?

Stories about the film's casting are the stuff of Hollywood legend, and they're not really as farfetched as they sometimes sound. George Raft and James Cagney were suggested for the lead, and both of them had been popular in similar roles. But more importantly, earlier in 1941, Humphrey Bogart had found his breakthrough as Sam Spade in John Huston's version of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. His Spade is a suspicious, disillusioned man who lives in a heavily shadowed world of ominous intrigue. From bitter experience he is mistrustful of women though he's strongly attracted to them, the more mysterious the better. Spade is also a dapper dresser, heavy drinker. Hangs out with the likes of Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre.

In casting the female lead, Wallis had another inspiration. He decided to recruit a new kid in town, Ingrid Bergman, who was under contract to David O. Selznick. Realizing how right she was for the part and what it would do for her career, Selznick agreed to loan her out for the film, even though the script wasn't finished.

The play, written by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison, was a one-set piece that would need to be opened up for the screen. The central characters and their conflicts were well established, and despite the contributions of several other writers, did not change much during production. The first to work on it were Julius and Philip Epstein, who wrote the first draft and gave the story many of its cynically smart lines. They had, however, already made a commitment to go to Washington to work with Frank Capra on the Why We Fight documentaries, and so they'd produced only about 40 pages of finished work when the cameras started rolling in May 1942. Howard Koch, who was best known then as the writer of Orson Welles's War of the Worlds, was already at work on the script too. Much of his contribution involved making Rick Blaine's character more mysterious. A sixth writer, Casey Robinson, was responsible for the Paris flashback scene. Somehow, that combination worked. Even though director Michael Curtiz was forced to film the script in order, and even though no one knew how it was going to end, they soldiered on. But story and casting by themselves do not explain the enduring popularity of Casablanca.

Just as much has to do with the film's look—the black-and-white magic that was created by the seasoned Hollywood professionals who worked behind the cameras. For Casablanca, much of the credit goes to cinematographer Arthur Edeson. Wallis asked for him because he had created such a distinctive atmosphere when he photographed The Maltese Falcon, and, perhaps more importantly, he had made Bogart look so attractive. If he could do that with Bogie's world-weary mug, imagine what he could do for Ingrid Bergman. He certainly succeeded in making her a dream woman, and he got considerable help from legendary makeup artist Perc Westmore and Orry-Kelly's gowns. Art decorator Carl Jules Weyl and set decorator George James Hopkins used a few simple props and tricks to turn the Warner Bros. backlot into an exotic desert metropolis where a fantastic story can achieve the necessary degree of verisimilitude.

None of this explains why Casablanca has remained such a popular movie for so long. Along with a mere handful of others—The Wizard of Oz, The Godfather—it's a “classic” that new viewers discover and older fans rewatch again and again, year after year. Nostalgia, romance, glamour—they're part of it, but no one will ever fully explain why we love it. We simply do, and the next time you're in the video store or flipping through the channels and you come across Rick and Ilse and Capt. Renault, you could do worse than settling in for another visit. If it's after dinner, pour youself a brandy—the good stuff—and enjoy.

Cast: Humphrey Bogart (Richard “Rick” Blaine), Ingrid Bergman (Ilsa Lund), Paul Henreid (Victor Laszlo), Claude Rains (Capt. Louis Renault), Peter Lorre (Ugarte), Sydney Greenstreet (Senor Ferrari), Conrad Veidt (Maj. Heinrich Strasser), S.Z. Sakall (Carl, the Head-waiter), Dooley Wilson (Sam), Marcel Dalio (Emil, the croupier), John Qualen (Berger), Helmut Dantine (Jan Brandel), Madeleine LeBeau (Yvonne), Joy Page (Annina Brandel), Leonid Kinskey (Sascha, the bartender), Curt Bois (Pickpocket), Oliver Blake (German banker), Monte Blue (American), Martin Garralaga (Headwaiter), Ilka Gruning (Mrs. Leuchtag), Ludwig Stossel (Mr. Leuchtag), Frank Puglia (Arab vendor); Written by: Julius J. Epstein, Philip C. Epstein, Howard Koch, Casey Robinson; Cinematography by: Arthur Edeson; Music by: Max Steiner. Producer: Hal B. Wallis, Jack L. Warner, Warner Bros. Awards: Academy Awards '43: Best Director (Curtiz), Best Picture, Best Screenplay; American Film Institute (AFI) '98: Top 100, National Film Registry '89; Nominations: Academy Awards '43: Best Actor (Bogart), Best Black and White Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Supporting Actor (Rains), Best Original Dramatic Score. Budget: $950,000. MPAA Rating: PG. Running Time: 102 minutes. Format: VHS, Beta, LV, 8mm, Closed Caption, DVD.