Film: Casablanca
Director: Michael Curtiz
Country: USA
Released: November 1942
Runtime: 102 minutes
Genre: Drama
Studio: Warner Bros
Influenced: Marx Brothers, Terry Gilliam, Woody Allen, Robert Zemeckis, Damian Chazelle
WWII newsreel footage opens the film, and also appears midway through, a clear nod to Citizen Kane. We then see a Nazi high ranking officer arrive by plane in Casablanca, and the French and Italian officers vie for his attention but get ignored – in the eyes of American audiences, they are figures of ridicule. Just like the posh English couple who have the money to travel to North Africa to escape the war effort.
Humphrey Bogart (as Rick), Peter Lorre (as Ugarte) and Sydney Greenstreet (as Ferrari) reignite the wonderful on-screen chemistry they first concocted on the set of The Maltese Falcon, coming together again early in this film in the Café Americain, Rick's undergound bar and nightclub in Casablanca. This is also where we first lay eyes on Ilsa Lund (played by the smouldering Ingrid Bergman), on the run with Czech resistance fighter and fugitive Victor Laszlo (played by Paul Henreid).
The cast is truly international, reflecting the film's cosmopolitan setting, including Marcel Dalio (star of Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion and La Règle du Jeu) as the croupier Emil. Casablanca is also one of the earliest films – along with Gone With The Wind – to feature a black actor, Dooley Wilson (Sam), in a prominent role. "What do you want for Sam?", asks Ferrari. "I don't buy or sell human beings", says Rick.
Rick plays the apparent neutral with effortless cool under intense Nazi questioning. We find out he's 37 and from New York. Later that night, after Ilsa has turned up again in his life, we see him start to lose that cool. We're left wondering why Ilsa wants to hear Sam play As Time Goes By and Rick doesn't, until we see the flashback of them together in Paris.
Casablanca is full of great one-liners, a notable one being Rick's reply, "I'm a drunkard", to the question from the Nazi officer, "What is your nationality?". Memorable quotes from the film abound – "play it again, Sam", "here's looking at you, kid", "we'll always have Paris", "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" – but it also has a few corny lines too, notably: "Was that cannon fire? Or was it my heart pounding?"
One of the film's iconic moments is the duel of the anthems, when Rick's house band plays La Marseillaise over the Nazi anthem. It's an emotional scene, and apparently many of the extras were real refugees who couldn't help but shed a tear as the scene unfolded. In this scene, we can see all too clearly the influence of French film La Grande Illusion, while Pépé Le Moko (and its American version, Algiers) was a general inspiration for Casablanca's depiction of North Africa.
We find out Rick fought against the fascists in Spain and did some gunrunning in Ethiopia. He liked to fight on the side of the underdog, as the film reveals at the end. Bogart became a towering cinematic figure during the war years, playing rebellious lone wolf characters who defy authority, and this is arguably his defining role. While the film is far from perfect, its emotional power at such a vital time in history, its immortal dialogue and its enduring cultural legacy have made it a firm favourite for decades.
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