The 1942 Warner Bros. masterpiece starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henried, Conrad Veidt, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, and Sidney Greenstreet was directed in spirited fashion by Michael Curtiz, Warners’ “A” movie director. With a script by Julius and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch, which was very loosely based on a stage play by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison, the plot centers on cynical Rick Blaine (Bogart), an American who, having fled Nazi-occupied Paris, runs a saloon and casino in the Moroccan port of Casablanca, which is under the nominal control of the Vichy government.
The time is December 1940, just before America’s entry into World War II. Rick’s self-involvement seems to echo prewar America’s isolationist mentality. But Rick once was less misanthropic, before his heart was broken by Ilsa Lund (Bergman). When Ilsa, who believes herself to have been widowed, learns unexpectedly that her husband, an anti-Nazi freedom fighter, is alive, she reluctantly abandons the fleeing Rick at a Paris train station. Later, when Ilsa suddenly shows up at Rick’s club and their smouldering passion threatens to erupt anew, Rick is able to set aside his personal feelings and finally join the fight against the Nazis as he helps Ilsa leave for America with her husband, Victor Lazlo (Henried).
The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1942, and Bogart was nominated for Best Actor. But unlike many Oscar winners, Casablanca has withstood the test of time. The vulnerable hero played by Bogart—a man who could be vindictive and self-centered, yet sympathetic to an audience who understood his pain—was a fresh creation. Bogart’s multidimensional portrayal of Rick still seems entirely modern.
Considered a classic Hollywood film, the movie is the perfect amalgamation of music, casting, writing, and direction. The score by Max Steiner had a brooding power, and the Dooley Wilson hit song, “As Time Goes By,” added an extra dimension to the film that made its romanticism all the more effective.
Originally, the movie was slated to star Ronald Reagan and Ann Sheridan. When Bogart was finally handed the lead, Warner Bros. was clearly taking a gamble. He had never played a romantic leading man in the movies, and he was paired with the much younger Ingrid Bergman. Ostensibly, one of the reasons he was given the part was that there were relatively few young men left at Warners, the rest having gone off to war. But Bogart was sensational on his own terms, and it was Casablanca’s huge success that solidified his reputation as a major star.
The making of Casablanca has been well documented. The script was being written even as the film was shooting. None of the actors knew how the story was going to end. For that matter, neither did the writers nor the director. To help them make up their minds, they decided to shoot two endings, one where Bogart and Bergman end up together and the other where Bogart sacrifices his love to send Bergman off with Paul Henreid. They filmed the latter ending first, and they liked it so much they never bothered filming the other version.
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1. Robert Aldrich produced many social and political movies
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