Casablanca (1942) PG
Play Casablanca again, for old times' sake.
There's a reason American film critic and film historian, Leonard Maltin, calls Casablanca "The best Hollywood movie of all time." The cast and crew is a veritable who's who of Hollywood: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre. Produced in 1942, Casablanca won three Oscars: Best Original Picture, Best Director (Michael Curtiz) and Best Screenplay (Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch). Bogey was nominated for Best Actor, Rains for Best Supporting Actor, and it received three other nominations. Ironically, when Casablanca was produced, no one in the production expected it to be anything out of the ordinary - especially Curtiz. It was just one of dozens of pictures being churned out by Hollywood. But Casablanca grew in popularity and - "as time goes by" - its characters, dialogue and music have become iconic.
Hundreds of movies and televisions shows contain Casablanca quotes and references. The movie's line, "Round up the usual suspects," was voted as the #32 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100). One of my favorite references is from When Harry Met Sally with Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal discuss Casablanca's ending:
Sally: You're wrong.
Harry: ...he wants her to leave that's why he puts her on the plane.
Sally: I don't think she wants to stay.
Harry: Of course she wants to stay. Wouldn't you rather be with Humphrey Bogart than the other guy?
Sally: I don't want to spend the rest of my life in Casablanca married to a man who runs a bar. I probably sound very snobbish to you but I don't.
Harry: You'd rather be in a passionless marriage.
Sally: And be the first lady of Czechoslovakia...
Casablanca was billed as a romance (the tagline was "They had a date with fate in Casablanca!"), but it's got plenty of war action. As the narrator begins, "With the coming of the Second World War, many eyes in imprisoned Europe turned hopefully, or desperately, toward the freedom of the Americas. Lisbon became the great embarkation point. But, not everybody could get to Lisbon directly, and so a tortuous, roundabout refugee trail sprang up - Paris to Marseilles..." and so it continues. Casablanca was easy to enter, but harder to leave if you were on the Nazis' most-wanted list, where Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) resided. The leader of the Czech Resistance, Laszlo's only hope of getting out of Casablanca is Rick Blaine (Bogart), a cynical American who "sticks his neck out for no one." Heartbroken by Laszlo's wife, Ilsa (Bergman), Rick has to decide what's more important - his own happiness of the countless lives that hang in the balance.
The film's end has long been a debate of movie lovers: what if Ilsa had stayed with Rick? What if Rick and Captain Renault (Rains) had been arrested by the Nazis? We'll never know, though the last scene gave rise to yet another famous line by Rick, "This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Oddly enough, the film's memorable airport ending was written and conceived just shortly before filming wrapped up, with neither Bergman nor Bogart knowing whether or not she would leave him for her husband. Who knows, a sequel could have brought us a new First Lady of Czechoslovakia..."
You must remember this: Casablanca is one of the best - and most beloved - films of all time.
By Sara-Lynn White
