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CHAPTER 9: Casablanca
[Summary: Casablanca is not only a great movie; it is also great art. Movies should be studied and appreciated as total works of art:
characters, story, ideas, images, music. There are two parts to the chapter: (1) the history/making of Casablanca and (2)
analysis/interpretation.]
"Casablanca, great art? Casablanca, ignored? With all due respect, sir, aren't you just using this as an excuse
to talk about your favorite movie? . . ."
-- a friend of the author
Link back to Genius Ignored --Table of Contents
Link back to main page (Humanist Art Homepage)
Casablanca was considered to be a very good movie right from the time of its release in 1942. Since the
1960s it has generally been considered a great movie. But it has not been considered great art. I shall
endeavor to convince you, here and in the succeeding chapter, that not only is Casablanca important as art,
but that movies, in general, are the most important art form of the 20th century.
There is a category of movies which are considered to be art; they are "art films". The very existence of this
term tells us that other films are considered to not be art -- except, perhaps, "popular art". We would do well
in this regard to remember Shakespeare. His plays, containing, in addition to their lofty thoughts, spectacular
and sentimental elements, were extremely popular. Theater (like cinema in our own day) was a relatively new
form. The intellectual elite enjoyed the plays but didn't consider them to be in the same class as the really
great art of Virgil and Horace. The texts of the plays barely escaped oblivion. (An interesting parallel to the
way in which originals of early movies have been allowed to deteriorate.)
It is a mistake to assume that because art is popular it can not be great. Truly great art resonates on a number
of levels.
Part 1: The History/Making of the Casablanca
Most of the art discussed in this book was the work of a single person and, though movies, by their nature,
require collaboration, most great films have a single, powerful director with a clear vision shaping them;
Casablanca did not. The 1940s Warner Bros. studio which made the picture was geared toward cost-efficient,
profitable production. Such production was achieved through carefully-defined responsibility: the music
director created the music; the lighting director lit the set; writers wrote. One of the producer's jobs was to
prevent the general director from tampering excessively with these other people's creations. As we shall see,
Hal Wallis, the producer of Casablanca, did much more than this, playing a very active and important role
personally.
It was Michael Curtiz, the director, and Hal Wallis, the producer, good friends, long-time associates, working
together, who guided Casablanca.
[Michael Curtiz at right, directing Bogart and
Bergman]
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In 1931 a Cornell University senior, Murray
Burnett, played "As Time Goes By", a song
from the then-current Broadway show,
Everybody's Welcome, so often that his
fraternity brothers got sick of it. The song
disappeared from the radio and from the
record stores, but lingered on in Burnett's
memory.
In 1938 Burnett, a Jew, now married, traveled
with his wife to German-occupied Vienna to
help relatives smuggle possessions out of the
country. They were shocked by the hatred
shown toward Jews and terrified by the
direction things seemed to be going.
In 1940 Burnett, collaborating with a friend,
Joan Alison, used his Vienna experience as
the basis for a play, Everybody Comes to
Rick's. The protagonist is a cynical, unhappily
married American expatriate who owns a
nightclub in Casablanca. His former lover
Lois appears at the club with the Resistance
leader, Victor Laszlo. She asks Sam, the black
piano player, to play "As Time Goes By".
Lois' passion for Rick is rekindled. She
decides to stay with him in Casablanca. In
Victor's presence Rick insists that she leave.
Victor, despite having been humiliated by her,
takes her with him.
During 1941 the completed play was circulated to various Hollywood studios. A producer at M-G-M wanted
to buy it for $5000, but his boss objected. Eventually it came to the attention of Irene Lee, head of Warner
Bros. story department. The bombing of Pearl Harbor and the United States' entrance into the war in early
December had made the play more topical and valuable. On December 27, 1941, with Hal Wallis' approval,
she purchased Everybody Comes to Rick's for $20,000.
Harold Brent Wallis had been born in Chicago, Illinois, on September 14, 1899, of Jewish immigrant parents.
Starting in the publicity department at Warner Bros. in 1923, he had worked his way up to producer by 1928
and in 1933 had taken over as chief producer when Darryl Zanuck left to form 20th Century. He was
business-like, quiet, prolific, and underrated. During his tenure, Warner Bros. turned out consistently aboveaverage pictures.
Despite the nonsense which Warner Bros.' publicity department circulated in January, 1942, about Ronald
Reagan starring in the picture, Wallis had Bogart in mind from the start. In December, before the play had
even been purchased, Wallis had received the suggestion from script-reader Stephen Karnot: "A box-office
nautral -- for Bogart, Cagney, or Raft in out-of-the-usual roles." And from fellow producer Jerry Wald: "This
story should make a good vehicle for either Raft or Bogart." On February 14 Hal Wallis told casting director
Steve Trilling that Bogart would star in Casablanca.
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born in New York City on January 23, 1899. His father was a doctor and his
mother, a successful illustrator and commercial artist. In a 1949 magazine article Bogart would claim that he
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never really loved his mother, that he admired her but that 'she was totally incapable of showing affection,'
even to her three children." [quoted in Harmetz, p. 84] He was educated at Trinity School and Phillips
Andover Academy but instead of going to college he enlisted in the Navy, serving for the duration of World
War I. In the 1920s he worked as, first, a stage manager and then as an actor and then decided to try his hand
at movies. His performances in a dozen films in the early '30s were undistinguished. But in 1935-6 he played
the brooding killer Duke Mantee in both the stage and movie versions of The Petrified Forest. After that,
more and more of his roles were variations on this cynical, tough-guy persona. It was not until High Sierra in
1940 and The Maltese Falcon in 1941 that Bogart got starring roles. He brought to these roles the same
exterior toughness, but had the chance to exhibit deeper, more complex emotions on the inside.
In February, 1942, Wallis discussed the play with two of the studio's top writers, the Epstein twins, Julius and
Phil. They were excited. "We thought the play would make a wonderful movie. It had a lot of juice to it. And
we loved Bogart's character." [quoted in Harmetz, p. 43] The Epsteins were known especially for their
"sparkling" dialog. As we shall see, other writers would work on Casablanca, but the Epsteins did most of the
work. They can be credited with:
* the transformation of Captain Renault from a minor, rather unpleasant, womanizer into a superbly witty,
sophisticated friend of Rick;
* the transformation of Rick from a self-pitying, adulterous lawyer into a tough, cynical man with
unsuspected resources of tenderness, consideration, and strength;
* the marvelous banter between Rick and Captain Renault;
* all the scenes which take place before Rick is introduced;
* the humor.
When the Epsteins gave Wallis the first third of the movie in April, Wallis immediately turned around and
gave it to another writer, Howard Koch, for his suggestions, while having the Epsteins continue to work on
Part II. Koch was younger, more political. (Later, during the McCarthy era, he would be blacklisted.) He gave
Wallis 19 pages of "Suggestions for a Revised Story".
"There is also a danger that Rick's sacrifice in the end will seem theatrical and phony unless,
early in the story, we suggest the side of his nature that makes his final decision in character. It
would be interesting to have Renault penetrate the mystery in the first scene with Rick when he
guesses that the cynical American is underneath, a sentimentalist. Rick laughs at the idea, then
Renault produces his record--'ran guns to Ethiopia,' 'fought for the Loyalists in the Spanish War.'
Rick says he got well paid on both occasions. Renault replies that the winning side would have
paid him better. Strange that he always happens to be on the side of the under-dog. Rick
dismisses the implication, but through-out the picture we see evidence of his humanity, which he
does his best to cover up." [quoted in Harmetz, pp. 56-7]
Koch makes the man Rick bars from his gambling room--who was an English cad in the
play--into a representative of the Deutschbank. [Harmetz, p. 57]
. . . Koch solved the unworkable subplot by having Rick allow the young Bulgarian couple to win
at roulette.
In their script of April 2, the Epsteins had incorporated a real-life incident. Phil's wife, Lilian, had
played 25-cent roulette in Palm Springs and lost. "She was moaning and complaining about
losing," says Julie. "Finally the croupier told her put her chips on 22. She won, and he told her to
get out and never come back." The Epsteins created a refugee who had been saving for three
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years enough money to leave Casablanca and was now gambling away his stake. Rick told him to
put his money on 24 [sic], and he won.
. . . Koch zeroed in on this scene as a way of showing Rick's humanity:
"Why not make this a much bigger situation--for instance, it might be the way he rescues Annina
and her husband from Renault? The Prefect has named a price for the visa too high for the
couple to pay. In his most gracious manner, he suggests to Annina that she can pay in another
way. . . . Annina comes for advice to Rick, who enables Jan to win at roulette, thus defeating the
intention of his friend Renault. The Prefect, when he learns, should not resent this action of
Rick's, but accept it as a sporting loss--and also as proof of his argument that Rick is a
sentimentalist." [Harmetz, p. 59]
Koch rewrote the Epsteins to give the movie more weight and significance, and the Epsteins then rewrote
Koch to erase his most ponderous symbols and to lighten his earnestness. [Harmetz, p. 56]
Wallis' first choice for director was William Wyler. When that didn't work out he turned (sometime in
mid-February) to his friend Mike Curtiz. Mihaly Kertesz was born in Hungary on December 24, 1888. By the
time he came to Los Angeles and Warner Bros. from Austria in June, 1926, he had already made sixty-two
silent movies. The studio person assigned the task of meeting him at the train station was publicity man Hal
Wallis. "During the decade between 1930 and 1940, he [Curtiz] directed forty-five talking pictures. They may
have been a goulash of melodramas, horror films, swashbucklers, westerns and gangster movies . . . but his
movies had three things in common. They were brought in on time, they rarely went over budget, and they
almost always made money. . . ." [Harmetz, p. 63]
Mike didn't have much time to think about Casablanca that spring; he was busy finishing Yankee Doodle
Dandy (--not a bad picture in its own right).
In Everybody Comes to Rick's the Ilsa character is "an American tramp named Lois Meredith, whose affair
with Rick ended when she casually cheated on him with another man and whose renewed affair with Rick in
Casablanca emasculates her current lover, Laszlo." [Harmetz, p. 47] Casey Robinson, Wallis' favorite -- and
Warner Bros.' highest paid -- screenwriter had the idea that the heroine should be European. Michele Morgan,
an actress of French descent, and Ingrid Bergman quickly became the two main contenders. They were about
the same age, each had made several successful movies, and they seemed about equally promising. But the
studio would have had to have paid Morgan $55,000, while they could get Bergman for $25,000. The deal
with David O. Selznick/Paramount Studios to lend Ingrid Bergman to Warner Bros. for eight weeks was
finalized in late April.
Ingrid Bergman was born in Sweden, on August 29, 1915. Her mother died when she was three; her father,
when she was twelve. After attending Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theater School for a year, she had been
offered a film contract. David Selznick had seen her in the 1936 Swedish film Intermezzo and, in 1939, had
brought her to America to star in his English-language version. She made several movies in 1940-1 but things
had gone dry by 1942. Her husband, Petter Lindstrom, had been a dentist in Sweden and they were now
living in Rochester, New York, where he was studying to be a neurosurgeon. She was not happy. She wrote to
her friend and dialogue coach Ruth Roberts in January 1942:
". . . Having a home, husband, and child ought to be enough for any woman's life. I mean, that's
what we are meant for, isn't it? But still I think every day is a lost day. As if only half of me is
alive. The other half is pressed down in a bag and suffocated." [quoted in Harmetz, p. 90]
On April 22, after learning she had gotten the role in Casablanca, she again wrote Roberts:
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I was warm and cold at the same time. Then I got such chills I thought I must go to bed and of
course a terrific headache into the bargain. . . . I tried to get drunk for celebration at dinner, but I
could not. I tried to cry. I tried to laugh, but I could do nothing. I went to bed three times and
went down again because Petter couldn't sleep either with me kicking around in bed. But now it
is morning and I am calmed down. The picture is called Casablanca and I really don't know what
it's all about. [quoted in Harmetz, p. 95]
If Humphrey Bogart as Rick and Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa were essential to the success of Casablanca, other
casting decisions were important too.
Though the Epsteins' Captain Renault is a
brilliantly-written character, it's hard to
imagine anyone else delivering these lines as
well as Claude Rains. Peter Lorre and Sydney
Greenstreet are superb in their respective roles
as Ugarte and Senor Ferrari.
Most of the other characters in the film are
also well-realized. Warner Bros. had a wealth
of actors available to them. In particular, there
was a surplus of European refugees well-suited
to playing the European refugees (and German
officials) in Casablanca. Actors who had been
stars in Europe gratefully accepted bit parts in
America.
As the late-May date for the start of
production neared, most of the script was in pretty good shape. But Wallis felt that there were still problems
with the Ilsa character and the ending. He called in Casey Robinson. On May 20, Robinson sent Wallis seven
pages of notes. They began: "Again, as before, my impression about CASABLANCA is that the melodrama is
well done, the humor excellent, but the love story deficient." [quoted in Harmetz, p. 173] A specific example:
In place of this scene, I would play the scene where Ilsa tries to find out from Sam where Rick is.
Think a minute of the facts of the love story and you will see why this scene is necessary. The girl
has just one thing in mind, that she must get to Rick and tell him why she didn't catch the train in
Paris. Loving him as she does, and suspecting what he thinks about her, she must clear this up.
Now, she need not disclose this motive to Sam, in fact, shouldn't but the audience will realize it
later. In the meantime, this business serves as a very good buildup for the love story and will
pique the audience's interest and make the first meeting between Ilsa and Rick tremendously
effective. [quoted in Harmetz, p. 176]
Production of Casablanca commenced on May 25, 1942. The cameraman was Arthur Edeson. One of the
fifteen original members of the American Society of Cinematographers, he had been operating movie cameras
since 1913. He expressed his views on his craft as follows:
The principal factors are always the story and the actors. The picture Maltese Falcon called for
strong, modernistic, eye-arresting camerawork. Other pictures require that the camerawork be as
inconspicuous as possible to heighten the illusion of realism and perhaps keep it from
overpowering a weak story. The best thing is to strive to always keep things as simple as possible
photographically speaking. And if lighting and composition are kept simple and the accent is
placed on the story and actors rather than on the camera, we can't go very far wrong. [quoted in
Harmetz, p. 134]
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After seeing the first scenes from Rick's Cafe, "Wallis asked for more contrast and sent Edeson to examine
tests of Michele Morgan and Jean-Pierre Aumont, which had the look he wanted. 'I am anxious to get real
blacks and whites, with the walls and the backgrounds in shadow, and dim, sketchy lighting.'" [Harmetz, p.
136]
The first couple days on the set were pretty rough. Curtiz was not exactly the easiest guy in the world to work
for and there were other conflicts. But as Francis Scheid, the soundman, later observed, "All the pictures I
worked on where everybody was lovey dovey ended up lousy." [Harmetz, p. 136]
Rewriting continued. "Eight months later, when Jack Warner wanted to complain about out-of-control scripts,
he had Steve Trilling send a memo to all the studio's producers. Casablanca was his major example of scripts
so out of control that the writers had to rewrite while the movie was shooting and, thus, were not available for
any other work." [Harmetz, p. 172]
Generally Curtiz respected the wishes of Wallis and the writers but, of course, they weren't actually on the
set. It was Curtiz who had Ilsa pound the table with her fist, knocking over the wine glass, in the climactic
scene between her and Rick in Paris. Wallis was quite upset about other changes:
The transition from driving down the Champs-Elysees to the country road means nothing because
you left out the dialogue. . . . For the balance of the picture I will greatly appreciate it if you will
call me on the telephone when you drop dialogue out of a scene, or make changes, as it will be
far simpler, and considerably less expensive for us to discuss these things before you do them
than to go back and retake scenes later. [quoted in Harmetz, p. 187]
As we can see, however, these scenes were not re-shot and remained without dialogue.
The line "Here's good luck to you" was changed during shooting to "Here's looking at you, kid" -- apparently
at the suggestion of Bogart himself.
Curtiz was certainly responsible for the breathless pace of the movie. That was his trademark. He lingers over
conversations and activities only when they're essential. Even after repeated viewings, Casablanca is
absolutely riveting.
Despite myths to the contrary, there was never really any question that Casablanca would end with Ilsa
accompanying Victor to Lisbon. The question was how to make it work.
"In Everybody Comes to Rick's, as in Casablanca, Rick tricks Renault into calling off his watchdogs, then
pulls a gun on him in order to allow Laszlo and Lois to escape . . . Just as the Lisbon plane is taking off,
Strasser rushes into the cafe. Rick holds the gun on Strasser as long as necessary, then throws it
contempuously on the table. As he walks out, under arrest, Renault . . . asks, 'Why did you do it, Rick?' Rick
reminds the policeman that he won his bet that Laszlo would escape. 'For the folding money, Luis. You owe
me five thousand francs.'" [Harmetz, p. 230]
With America now at war, an ending in which the Gestapo have any sort of triumph at all was out of the
question. The confrontation was moved to the airport; Strasser draws his gun on Rick and is shot; Renault,
hesitating only an instant, issues the command to "round up the usual suspects".
There was also, however, the equally large problem of making Ilsa's departure with Laszlo believable.
"In the play a thoroughly disagreeable Lois insisted on staying with Rick. 'That, my dear, is entirely up to
you,' a humiliated Laszlo answered. 'Get her out of here, Victor, for God's sake,' said Rick. To add to the
unpalatability, Laszlo was grateful to Rick for giving him a woman who didn't want to be with him."
[Harmetz, p. 230]
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In a July 6 memo to Curtiz, Wallis expresses his frustration:
It was practically impossible to write a convincing scene between the two people in which Rick
could sell Ilsa on the idea of leaving without him. No arguments that Rick could put up would be
sufficient to sway her from her decision to remain, . . . [quoted in Harmetz, p. 234]
But by moving this scene too to the airport and having Laszlo present, Ilsa is taken by surprise and
convincingly overwhelmed.
July 22 was the last day of regular shooting. The movie was turned over to veteran composer Max Steiner to
do the music. He "hated 'As Time Goes By' and persuaded Wallis to allow him to replace it with a love song
of his own. But, lucky accident, Ingrid Bergman had already had her hair cut short for her part in For Whom
the Bell Tolls and could not reshoot the necessary scenes." [Harmetz, p. 7] "Since he was stuck with 'As Time
Goes By,' Steiner did more than give in gracefully. He proceeded to make 'As Time Goes By' the centerpiece
of the score. The song was not only Rick and Ilsa's love theme but Steiner's main connecting device. The song
linked Rick and Ilsa, present and past, the source music to the underscoring, and the audience to the
characters in the movie." [Harmetz, p. 255]
Wallis continued to tinker. In mid-August he added the early scene with the police official announcing (over
police radio) that two German couriers had been murdered. And he had Bogart record an additional line for
the ending: "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
When one looks at the individual elements of the movie -- the script, the acting, the photography, the
direction, the music, the editing -- it's hard to find anything (except, perhaps, the performances of Bogart and
Bergman) that one could call extraordinary, and yet, working together in a beautiful balance, never calling
attention to themselves, a Bach concerto of sorts, they result in a truly extraordinary whole.
The film opened in one New York theater on Thanksgiving Day,
1942, but wasn't generally released until January, 1943. It did
well at the box office, seventh in total receipts for 1943. "A poll
of 439 critics and commentators taken by Film Daily called
Casablanca the fifth-best movie of the year -- behind Random
Harvest, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Yankee Doodle Dandy, and
This Is the Army." [Harmetz, pp. 12-3] Though it was ignored in
the National Board of Review's and the New York Film Critics'
awards, it won the Motion Picture Academy's awards for Best
Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture. After that it faded
from view.
Lauren Bacall describes (her husband) Humphrey Bogart as
being "very pleased the movie was successful, but, mind you, it
wasn't the success in his lifetime that it is now [1992]."
[Harmetz, p. 232] Bogart died in January, 1957. In April of that
same year the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
started playing some of his old movies; Casablanca, first and
foremost. It continued to grow in popularity during the 1960s
and 1970s and has maintained its status as an audience favorite
since then. But it's not considered art. It lacks the
technical/visual virtuosity which would make it of interest to
film students. And, of course, movies are simply not considered
suitable subjects for study of their content, in the way that plays
and novels are -- let alone studied and appreciated as they should be: as total works of art: characters, story,
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ideas, images, music. We're too compartmentalized, can't handle art (or, for that matter, a book about art)
which crosses all these boundaries. . . .
Part 2: Analysis/Interpretation
Casablanca starts as a newsreel: a slowly-turning globe, a documentary-style narrator. The events which
follow are fictitious, but they take place in a real world where things like this really do happen. . . .
War-time Casablanca is a polyglot city of Moors, French, German officials, and refugees from all over
Europe, the latter trying to get to Lisbon and freedom. Tensions are high. We see police shoot a man who
refuses to obey their order to stop. A second later, in a different place, a dark European warns an English
couple of the "scum of Europe", "vultures", -- as he deftly lifts the husband's wallet. Their conversation takes
place at a normal, leisurely pace but the instant it's done we are interrupted by the sound of a plane. Faces
turn skyward: all nationalities and ages; not the faces of actors at all; humble, ordinary faces. We sense that it
is not just this small crowd on a street in Casablanca which is looking at the plane, yearning for freedom, but
humanity as a whole. . . .
A bit overwrought? Perhaps. But consider the context (things its makers didn't feel it was necessary or politic
to mention in that spring and summer of 1942):
* German forces, after a brief setback the previous winter, were once again advancing in Russia; U-boats
sank 900 Allied ships that spring and threatened to cut off Britain; after Russia was conquered the Germans
would be able to turn their full attention to England.
* Rommel's Afrika Korps had driven deep into Egypt; Alexandria, Cairo, and the Suez Canal were
threatened.
* Following Pearl Harbor, the Japanese had conquered Singapore, Burma, and the Philippines;
In retrospect we know that this was the zenith of Axis power -- but for refugees on the streets of Casablanca,
for writers and actors in the Warner Bros.' Hollywood studio, that spring and summer of 1942, no such thing
was clear at all.
Cut to the airport where the plane lands. A German officer, Major Strasser, disembarks. He is greeted by
Captain Louis Renault, Casablanca's Vichy French Prefect of Police. We take Louis right off the bat for the
witty, sophisticated, irrepressibly devilish character that he is, his police cap held at a jaunty angle over his
nicely-styled hair.
Then it's evening. We're at Rick's Cafe Americain. Everybody comes to Rick's.
. . . Rick's is an expensive and chic nightclub which definitely possesses an air of sophistication
and intrigue. . . . There are Europeans in their dinner jackets, their women beautifully
begowned and bejeweled. There are Moroccans in silk robes. Turks wearing fezzes. Levantines.
Naval officers. Members of the Foreign Legion, distinguished by their kepis. [Koch, p. 35]
The dark, busy cafe is filled with smoke, and with people plotting their escape.
. . . In the foreground at the table we see a drink and a man's hand. The overseer places a check
on the table. The man's hand picks up the check and writes on it, in pencil: "Okay-Rick." The
overseer takes the check. The camera pulls back to reveal Rick, sitting at a table alone playing
solitary chess. There is no expression on his face. . . . [Koch, p. 40]
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We recognize him as the tough-guy Bogart has played many times before. He says nothing. Just nods his
approval or disapproval of particular people seeking entrance to the gambling room. When a German official
tries to force his way in, Rick refuses to be intimidated: "Your cash is good at the bar."
A man whose name we later learn is Ugarte comes to
sit at Rick's table. Ugarte is wonderfully slimy,
fawning, nervous. His question to Rick, "You despise
me, don't you?" has no hint of malice or sarcasm in
it. It's as though he is fully aware how contemptible
he is and assumes that honest people will see him as
such. But rather than making us despise him his
question intrigues and saddens us; surely a man with
this much candor is no ordinary man. And then
Ugarte asks Rick to safeguard the letters of transit: "I
have many friends in Casablanca, but somehow, just
because you despise me you're the only one I trust. .
. ." This doesn't make sense, but what does come
across clearly is the fact that Rick is extremely
trustworthy. When they were both sitting down, they seemed pretty much on a par, now as Ugarte gets up to
leave, Rick likewise rises and confronts Ugarte with this serious matter of the murder of the couriers and we
get a sense of Rick's imposing physical presence. <In multimedia version, when we can have full-motion
video interspersed with the text, please insert at this point Rick's entire conversation with Ugarte.>
Rick goes out into the main room where Sam is playing "Knock on Wood". He hides the letters in the piano.
Another man with an imposing physical presence enters the cafe: Signor Ferrari. Two seconds after Sam
finishes, Ferrari is at Rick's side. (There is absolutely no wasted time in this movie.) He wants to buy Rick's
cafe or, failing that, his piano player. Sam's refusal to accept Ferrari's offer of a 100% increase in salary
impresses us. And we feel that a man who can inspire this kind of loyalty must have some very admirable
qualities of his own.
The ensuing business with the beautiful, passionate, drunk Yvonne likewise sheds light on Rick: for such an
attractive woman to be so infatuated with him, he must be pretty special. This leads into a brilliant exchange
between Rick and Captain Renault: <Renault:> "How extravagant you are throwing away women like that.
Someday they may be scarce." (This last sentence was originally "Someday they might be rationed." but
government censors objected and the line was changed.)
<Renault:> "I have often speculated on why you don't return to America. Did you abscond with
the church funds? Did you run off with a senator's wife? I like to think you killed a man. It's the
romantic in me."
<Rick:> still looking in the direction of the airport. "It was a combination of all three."
<Renault:> "And what in heaven's name
brought you to Casablanca?"
<Rick:> "My health. I came to
Casablanca for the waters."
<Renault:> "Waters? What waters?
We're in the desert."
<Rick:> "I was misinformed."
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<Please include the entire outside
conversation between Rick and Renault in
multimedia version.>
When Renault tells Rick that they will be
arresting Ugarte and advises against trying to
warn him, Rick replies, "I stick my neck out
for nobody." When Renault later informs Rick, "There is a man who's arrived in Casablanca on his way to
America. He will offer a fortune to anyone who will furnish him with an exit visa." Rick's response is a flat,
uninterested "Yeah? What's his name?" (No one can do this better than Bogart.) When Renault replies,
"Victor Laszlo" we see a strange expression of discomfort pass across Rick's face -- as though he instinctively
knows that the presence of this great man in Casablanca will somehow affect him too.
A Bogart who inspires trust, loyalty, and passion is perfectly consistent with the tough-guy persona, but this
Rick Blaine who can be so impressed by Victor Laszlo doesn't seem to quite fit. . . . More great dialogue at
this point:
<Renault:> ". . . No matter how clever he is, he still needs an exit visa, or should I say, two."
<Rick:> "Why two?"
<Renault:> "He is traveling with a lady."
<Rick:> "He'll take one."
<Renault:> "I think not. I have seen the lady. . . ."
When the police arrive to arrest Ugarte, we see the latter squirming, terrified, an animal caught in a trap. He
runs to Rick. His pleas for help are desperate, visceral. <Please include clip of entire bravura performance by
Lorre in multimedia version.> We do not fault Rick for failing to help Ugarte. It would have been foolish. He
acts in the tough, rational manner we expect of him.
Captain Renault sits down at Major Strasser's table and then asks Rick to join them. Renault delivers one of
his patented double-entendres: "We are very honored tonight, Rick. Major Strasser is one of the reasons the
Third Reich enjoys the reputation it has today." After Major Strasser probes Rick's background and
allegiances, he confronts Rick with a "complete dossier" they have on him. After glancing at it, Rick responds
with classic-Bogart boldness/impertinence: "Are my eyes really brown?"
and then leaves the table: "You'll excuse me, gentlemen. Your business is politics. Mine is running a saloon."
The camera shifts to the door of the cafe as Victor Laszlo and his companion, Ilsa Lund, enter. His off-white
suit and her elegant but simple white dress are highlighted against the black of the headwaiter's uniform.
There's an air of authority in his statement "I reserved a table. Victor Laszlo." And in the way he walks across
the room. We are inclined to agree with Captain Renault: Laszlo's companion is very beautiful. She keeps
pace with him with surprising ease and slips into her seat gracefully. She's nervous -- apparently because of
the Nazis, but, as we learn later, for another reason too . . . It is she who spots the approaching Captain
Renault and issues a quiet, curt "Victor!" to cut short his conversation with Berger, the Norwegian. Laszlo
towers over Renault as he rises to greet him. When Renault says to Ilsa, "I was informed that you were the
most beautiful woman to ever visit Casablanca. That was a gross understatement." She smiles graciously. No
false modesty, no coy protests, just a simple "You are very kind."
When she asks Captain Renault about Sam, the piano player, Renault responds "He came from Paris with
Rick."
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<Ilsa:> "Rick? Who's he?"
<Renault:> smiling "Mademoiselle, you are in Rick's and Rick is, er . . ."
<Ilsa:> "Is what?"
<Renault:> "Well, Mademoiselle, he's the kind of man that, well, if I were a woman and I . . .
tapping his chest . . . were not around, I should be in love with Rick. But what a fool I am talking
to a beautiful woman about another man."
With this last sentence a faint glimmer appears on her face and quickly blossoms into a beautiful, full-fledged
smile, directed not at Captain Renault but at (the man we later learn is) her husband -- as though he, too,
should take pleasure in the Captain's flattery. (We shouldn't forget how much Ilsa is sacrificing in this 1940s
society by keeping her marriage to Victor a secret; a "companion" was viewed and treated very differently
than a wife. . . .)
When Major Strasser comes to their table, Victor refuses to stand and shake his hand. There is a strong,
mutual, hostility. When Strasser leaves, Victor says to Ilsa, "This time they really mean to stop me." Ilsa
responds, "Victor, I'm afraid for you." She is looking at him intently, not averting her eyes for a second;
dead-serious. Victor leaves to talk with Berger at the bar. Ilsa asks the waiter to have Sam come over. Sam
comes, bringing the piano. They know each other. When Ilsa inquires about Rick, Sam tries to divert her (". . .
he's got a girl up at the Blue Parrot. He goes up there all the time.") Ilsa's expressions are exquisite:
bemusement; hurt; radiant joy at the memory of these songs. Turning away, reaching for her wine glass, she
responds quietly, "You used to be a much better liar, Sam." Brushing aside his ensuing plea ("Leave him
alone, Miss Ilsa. You're bad luck to him."), as though under a spell, she orders him "Play it, Sam. Play, 'As
Time Goes By'." When Sam protests that he can't remember the tune, she says "I'll hum it for you." -- and
does. Throughout this conversation her voice and face are filled with a rapturous beauty.
{ . . . And thereupon
That beautiful, mild woman for whose sake
There's many a one shall find out all heartache
On finding that her voice is sweet and low
Replied . . . (W. B. Yeats, "Adam's Curse")}
Sam starts to play "As Time Goes By". Rick hears it as he comes out of the gambling room and is very
disturbed, "Sam, I thought I told you never to play . . ." There are powerful emotions at work for Rick Blaine
to be so upset by this song, this woman. . . .
It is a brilliant stroke to have Ilsa and Rick interrupted at this point by Renault and Laszlo: our suspense about
their relationship is prolonged and we get to see the interesting puzzlement of the other characters. Rick
shows integrity and generosity by not letting Victor's relation to Ilsa get in the way of his feelings about him:
<Laszlo:> "This is a very interesting cafe. I congratulate you."
<Rick:> "And I congratulate you."
<Laszlo:> "What for?"
<Rick:> "Your work."
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<Laszlo:> "Thank you. I try."
<Rick:> "We all try. You succeed."
Rick and Ilsa's initial probing takes place under the watchful eye of Captain Renault: "I can't get over you
two. She was asking about you earlier, Rick, in a way that made me extremely jealous."
Rick is seething inside, looking darts at this woman, never taking his eyes off her for an instant. She, in
contrast, is flooded with memories of Rick and Paris, unable to suppress a ravishing, radiant smile -- but at the
same time puzzled, fearful of what he must think of her.
Afterwards, outside the cafe, alone with her husband, she assumes an air of nonchalance:
<Laszlo:> "A very puzzling fellow, this Rick. What sort is he?"
Ilsa doesn't look at him.
<Ilsa:> "Oh, I really can't say, though I saw him quite often in Paris."
<Please include entire scene from Ilsa starting to speak with Sam to Ilsa and Victor outside the cafe in
multimedia version.>
Why does Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca seem infinitely more lovely than the fashion models society holds
up as paragons of beauty? . . . I will go out on a limb here: just as we, centuries later, marvel at the beauty of
Michaelangelo's David, the Venus de Milo, and the funerary stele of Hegeso, so people hundreds of years
from now will marvel at the beauty of Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca. Kind Reader! I beg, in advance, your
indulgence of a brief digression on the nature of beauty:
I SAY THERE IS NO PHYSICAL BEAUTY
I say there is no physical beauty.
This skin, this flesh, this bone
are but the clay of which we make our beauty,
the instrument on which we play our beauty.
Witness the failure of funeral directors to please true aesthetes:
the dead Ingrid Bergman lacks the beauty of a living bag lady.
Tennis masters
given K-Mart rackets
win gracefully,
while the high-school violinist
playing a Stradivarius
fails to delight us.
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Thus noses, lips, breasts have no beauty in themselves.
Perfect features are easily distorted by
anger, sloth, irritability, or conceit.
But in a rare few
energy, grace, composure, and sensitivity
are blended in such a quantity
that they overflow
and color with an exquisite beauty every pore of the body,
fill with a subtle music every gesture, every word.
I say there is no physical beauty.
This skin, this flesh, this bone
are but the clay of which we make our beauty,
the instrument on which we play our beauty.
<Link to some of author's other poems >
Intelligence, passion, the unguarded "sorrows of her changing face . . ." Some people would say that Ilsa Lund
lacks warmth, the animal energy of a Sophia Loren or a Susannah York. I don't disagree, but would argue that
there is to the greatest beauty a certain reserve, a certain holding-back; a dignity; a refusal to give one's self
up entirely to the transient and the corporeal; a sensitivity to the basso continuo of mortality, to whose
accompaniment we play our lives. . . .
Later that same night. The streets are deserted. Rick and Sam are alone in the cafe. Rick has been drinking.
He's waiting for Ilsa, convinced she'll be coming back. (Always seemed like kind of a long-shot to me: the
curfew, a woman alone, guys like Ugarte running around . . . ) "As Time Goes By" takes us back to
pre-Occupation Paris. Rick and Ilsa have met and fallen in love. (As we learn later she was, even then,
married to Victor Laszlo but thought he was dead.) Though it's not exactly a strong suit for either of them,
Bogart and Bergman do well as a playful, newly-fallen-in-love couple. Political events intrude: tanks, planes,
Nazis on the outskirts. Rick's anti-Fascist record makes staying in Paris risky.
Though we don't find out until later, Ilsa learns at this moment that Victor is still alive.
There is only a handful of actresses who could make lines like
"With the whole world crumbling, we pick this time to fall in
love." convincing. But a great actress can find the underlying truth
-- yes, it would seem like the world was crumbling; yes, people do
fall in love. . . .
<Ilsa:> "Was that cannon fire, or is it my heart pounding?"
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<Rick:> "Ah, that's the new German 77. And judging by the
sound, only about thirty-five miles away."
Only Bergman and Bogart could have pulled this one off.
As Ilsa speaks what turn out to be her parting words for Rick, we
feel her deep passion: "Oh, it's a crazy world. Anything can
happen. If you shouldn't get away, I mean, if, if something should
keep us apart, wherever they put you and wherever I'll be, I want
you to know that I . . ." The fist knocking over the wine glass
could have been trite, but, because there's real passion here, it's
brilliant; a physical expression of her anger (at fate) -- and of her
strength.
Ilsa does return to the cafe.
<Ilsa:> "Please don't. Don't, Rick! I can understand how you feel."
<Rick:> "Huh! You understand how I feel. How long was it we had, honey?"
<Ilsa:> "I didn't count the days."
<Rick:> "Well, I did. Every one of them. Mostly I remember the last one. A wow finish. A guy
standing on a station platform in the rain with a comical look on his face, because his insides had
been kicked out."
Ilsa, alienated by Rick's drunken rudeness, leaves.
The next morning Victor and Ilsa visit Major Strasser at Captain Renault's office. Strasser summarizes the
situation succinctly: "You are an escaped prisoner of the Reich. So far you have been fortunate enough in
eluding us. You have reached Casablanca. It is my duty to see that you stay in Casablanca." His attempt to
intimidate Victor into giving the names of European resistance leaders seems preposterous -- until he reveals
that Ugarte is dead, apparently executed.
Rick goes to visit Signor Ferrari at the Blue Parrot. Their conversation is a masterpiece of blunt cynicism:
<Ferrari:> chuckling "Carrying charges, my boy, carrying charges. Here, sit down. There's
something I want to talk over with you, anyhow." hailing a waiter "The bourbon." to Rick,
sighing deeply "The news about Ugarte upset me very much."
<Rick:> "You're a fat hypocrite. You don't feel any sorrier for Ugarte than I do."
<Ferrari:> eyes Rick closely "Of course not. What upsets me is the fact that Ugarte is dead and
no one knows where those letters of transit are."
Rick leaves <please include entire scene between Rick and Ferrari in multimedia version>; Victor and Ilsa
come in. When Victor says: "Signor Ferrari thinks it might just be possible to get an exit visa for you." Ilsa's
response, "You mean for me to go on alone?" is spoken with a freshness, a puzzlement, which makes it seem
as though there had never been any scripts or rehearsals, as though she really has just heard this idea for the
first time.
Ferrari can be quite eloquent: shrewdly looking at Ilsa "I observe that you are in one respect a very fortunate
man, M'sieur. I am moved to make one more suggestion, why, I do not know, because it cannot possibly profit
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me, but, have you heard about Signor Ugarte and the letters of transit?" . . .
That evening we're at Rick's again.
Yvonne comes in with a German officer who gets in a fight with a Frenchman; Rick shows strength and
decisiveness in breaking them up.
The Bulgarian girl Annina approaches Rick and starts talking about Captain Renault. Rick, in a very natural
and unselfconscious gesture, rubs his forehead with his index and middle finger -- as though what Annina is
about to say could easily give him a headache. She asks Rick's opinion of Captain Renault's trustworthiness,
"Will he keep his word?". Rick responds honestly, "He always has." But as to the larger question of whether
this (having sex with Captain Renault in exchange for exit visas) is what she should do, Rick is more brutal:
<Rick:> "You want my advice?"
<Annina:> "Oh, yes, please."
<Rick:> "Go back to Bulgaria."
<Annina:> "Oh, but if you knew what it means to us to leave Europe, to get to America! Oh, but
if Jan should find out! He is such a boy. In many ways I am so much older than he is."
<Rick:> "Yes, well, everybody in Casablanca has problems. Yours may work out. You'll excuse
me."
The artificiality of the girl's acting is in marked contrast to that of Ingrid Bergman, but she can be forgiven
much; there's a sweetness, an innocence about her; the actress, Joy Page, was only 17 at the time.
Despite his harsh words, Rick turns around and lets Annina's husband win at roulette, saving her from her
fate. I like his stiffness, discomfort, as he is hugged by Annina -- not something he's used to, these public
displays of affection.
There's something authentically touching about this strong, capable man, professing indifference, giving
several thousand francs to this young couple. It prompts Captain Renault to accuse him of being a "rank
sentimentalist".
At this point Laszlo has a private conversation with Rick, trying to convince him to sell the letters of transit:
<Laszlo:> "You must know it's very important I get out of Casablanca." simply "It's my privilege
to be one of the leaders of a great movement. You know what I have been doing. You know what
it means to the work, to the lives of thousands of people that I be free to reach America and
continue my work."
<Rick:> "I'm not interested in politics. The problems of the world are not in my department. I'm a
saloon keeper."
Rick and Laszlo hear the sound of
male voices singing downstairs.
From the top of the stairs outside the
office Rick sees a group of German
officers around the piano singing the
"Wacht am Rhein." Rick's expression
is dead-pan. Below, at the bar,
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Renault watches with raised eyebrow.
Laszlo has come out of the office.
His lips are very tight as he listens to
the song. He starts down the steps,
passes the table, where Ilsa sits, and
goes straight to the orchestra.
Yvonne, sitting at a table with her
German officer, stares down into her
drink. Laszlo speaks to the orchestra:
'Play the Marseillaise! Play it!' [Koch, p. 175]
No wasted time here: -Bang!- The bandleader looks at Rick. -Bang!- Rick nods. -Bang!- The band starts.
The whole scene is very moving and effective. Some of you may find it rather chauvanistic, melodramatic.
Please remember that the great, proud French nation was now under German dominion. Many of the people
on that cafe set at the Warner Bros.' studio that day had known German dominion first hand.
"Of the seventy-five actors and actresses who had bit parts and larger roles in Casablanca,
almost all were immigrants of one kind or another. . . .
"'If you think of Casablanca and think of all those small roles being played by Hollywood actors
faking accents, the picture wouldn't have had anything like the color and tone it had,' says
Pauline Kael.
"Dan Seymour [guard to the door of Rick's gambling room] remembers looking up during the
singing of the Marseillaise and discovering that half of his fellow actors were crying: 'I suddenly
realized that they were all real refugees,' says Seymour." [Harmetz, pp. 212-3]
The actress who plays Yvonne was French (Madeleine LeBeau). If Victor seems rather wooden at other
times, only half a man, here we see him in his strength. Perhaps the other bar patrons would eventually have
had the courage to defy the Nazis and express their real feelings -- but I doubt it.
Rick and Ilsa do not sing. Ilsa looks at Victor with pride. She believes in the value of freedom, in a world of
"knowledge and thoughts and ideals", as much or more than these other people. It would be the easiest thing
in the world for her to let her voice join that of her husband and his comrades, to join the crowd -- but that's
not her style. . . .
Strasser punishes the cafe's patrons by making Captain Renault find a reason to shut it down. His choice is
blatantly hypocritical:
<Rick:> "How can you close me up? On what grounds?"
<Renault:> "I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
<Croupier:> "Your winnings, sir."
<Renault:> "Oh. Thank you very much." turns to the crowd again "Everybody out at once!"
Strasser, finding Ilsa alone, uses the opportunity to bully her. Ilsa
demonstrates considerable strength and bravery in standing up to him.
His parting shot, "My dear Mademosielle, perhaps you have already
observed that in Casablanca, human life is cheap. Good night,
Mademoiselle." is delivered in a sinister, threatening tone which words
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on a printed page only begin to hint at. <Include entire scene,
Marseillaise through Strasser and Ilsa, in multimedia version.>
When Ilsa and Laszlo have returned to their hotel room, Victor tells
her that Rick has the letters but won't sell them.
<Ilsa:> "Did he give any reason?"
<Laszlo:> "He suggested I ask you."
<Ilsa:> "Ask me?"
<Laszlo:> "Yes. He said, 'Ask your wife.' I don't know why he said that."
Laszlo is surprised that Ricks's relationship with Ilsa is such that it could affect this decision and also that
Rick knows of their marriage. This is supposed to be a secret; apparently Ilsa has told him.
Ilsa realizes that she must go see Rick.
She refuses to tell Victor anything
about him. It seems her relationship
with Victor is lacking in physical
passion and real intimacy. Even at this
critcal point with Ilsa likely to go see
Rick, he can manage nothing more
than a peck on the cheek. Victor
leaves to go to the Resistance meeting;
Ilsa goes to get the letters of transit.
Rick walks up the stairs to his
apartment. It is dark. When the
door opens, light from the hall
reveals a figure in the room.
Rick lights a small lamp. There
is Ilsa facing him, her face
white but determined. Rick
pauses for a moment in
astonishment. [Koch, p. 186]
<Rick:> "Your unexpected visit
isn't connected by any chance
with the letters of transit? It
seems as long as I have those
letters I'll never be lonely."
<Ilsa:> looks at him directly
"You can ask any price you
want, but you must give me
those letters."
<Rick:> "I went through all that
with your husband. It's no deal."
<Ilsa:> "I know how you feel about me, but I'm asking you to put your feelings aside for
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something more important."
<Rick:> "Do I have to hear again what a great man your husband is? What an important cause
he's fighting for?"
<Ilsa:> "It was your cause, too. In your own way, you were fighting for the same thing."
<Rick:> "I'm not fighting for anything anymore, except myself. I'm the only cause I'm interested
in."
A pause. Ilsa deliberately takes a new approach.
<Ilsa:> "Richard, Richard, we loved each other once. If those days meant anything at all to you .
. ."
<Rick:> harshly "I wouldn't bring up Paris if I were you. It's poor salesmanship."
<Ilsa:> "Please. Please listen to me. If you knew what really happened, if you only knew the
truth . . ."
<Rick:> cuts in "I wouldn't believe you, no matter what you told me. You'd say anything now, to
get what you want."
<Ilsa:> her temper flaring, scornful "You want to feel sorry for yourself, don't you? With so
much at stake, all you can think of is your own feeling. One woman has hurt you, and you take
your revenge on the rest of the world. You're a, you're a coward, and a weakling." breaks "No.
Oh, Richard, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but, but you, you are our last hope. If you don't help us, Victor
Laszlo will die in Casablanca."
[Not "Victor". Not "my husband". He means less to her in his capacity as a husband than he does as "Victor
Laszlo", the institution, the political force.]
<Rick:> "What of it? I'm going to die in Casablanca. It's a good spot for it." He turns away to
light a cigarette. Turning back to Ilsa "Now, if you . . ."
He stops short as he sees Ilsa. She is holding a small revolver in her hand.
<Ilsa:> "All right. I tried to reason with you. I tried everything. Now I want those letters." For a
moment a look of admiration comes into Rick's eyes. "Get them for me."
[This is the Rick who responded to Major Strasser's threats with "Are my eyes really brown?" -- a man whose
reaction to this gun pointed at him can be interest and admiration.]
<Rick:> "I don't have to. I got them right here."
<Ilsa:> "Put them on the table."
<Rick> shaking his head "No."
<Ilsa:> "For the last time, put them on the table."
<Rick:> "If Laszlo and the cause mean so much to you, you won't stop at anything. All right, I'll
make it easier for you. Go ahead and shoot. You'll be doing me a favor."
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[Until this last statement, it seems that Rick is saying "I don't believe you. I know you. I don't believe you're
so obsessed that you can kill me." But this "You'll be doing me a favor." is startling; we've seen some self-pity
when he's drunk but no suicidal tendencies . . . Later Rick will say that they had "lost" Paris but through their
experience in Casablanca regained it. But Rick had never really entirely lost Paris. Though Ilsa's actions were
difficult to understand, in her parting note she insisted she still loved him. Really losing Paris would be to
mean so little to her that she could shoot him for some letters of transit. Could he have been so wrong, so
deluded? There's a certain bravado here, but there's also a truth, a feeling that life without love is intolerable.
All of this is beautifully under-played. Bogart's voice is matter-of-fact; his face is expressionless.]
Rick walks toward Ilsa. As he reaches her, her hand drops down.
<Ilsa:> almost hysterical "Richard, I tried to stay away. I thought I would never see you again,
that you were out of my life." [There is no actress in the world, I repeat, there is no actress in the
world who could be so authentically, beautifully, overcome with emotion as Ingrid Bergman is at
this point.] walking to the window "The day you left Paris, if you knew what I went through! If
you knew how much I loved you, how much I still love you!"
Rick has taken Ilsa in his arms. He presses her tight to him and kisses her passionately. She is
lost in his embrace.
In coming here to get the letters, she realized there was a danger of her succumbing to Rick's love, a love
which offers exactly what her marriage lacks: physical passion, real intimacy -- with a man who is, in his own
way, every bit as admirable as Victor Laszlo.
What makes Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund so compelling? On
the surface there's the interest of Ilsa's great passion rubbing
up against Rick's rough matter-of-factness (a combination
we see in more exaggerated form in The African Queen),
but even more compelling is the deathly seriousness
underneath -- two great actors again and again finding in
themselves true feelings which realize the high drama with
which the writers have challenged them.
The story resumes "sometime later" that same evening.
Though they're still fully dressed, the implication is that
there has been some physical intimacy. The production
code of that time would not have permitted -- in view of the
fact that Ilsa was married -- anything more overt.
Ilsa fills Rick in on what was really happening in her life
when they were in Paris. And then
<Rick:> ". . . But it's still a story without an ending."
looks at her directly "What about now?"
<Ilsa:> "Now? I don't know." simply "I know that I'll
never have the strength to leave you again."
<Rick:> "And Laszlo?"
<Ilsa:> "Oh, you'll help him now, Richard, won't you? You'll see that he gets out? Then he'll have
his work, all that he's been living for."
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<Rick:> "All except one. He won't have you."
<Ilsa:> "I can't fight it anymore. I ran away from you once. I can't do it again. Oh, I don't know
what's right any longer. You'll have to think for both of us, for all of us."
<Rick:> "All right, I will. Here's looking at you, kid."
<Ilsa:> "I wish I didn't love you so much."
It's not easy to play a woman who has drawn a gun on a man and moments later doesn't have the strength to
ever leave him again. . . . Her expressions vary rapidly from smiling to serious; she shakes her head
confusedly. <Please include entire scene between Rick and Ilsa in multimedia version.>
The fascinating thing about this situation is the idea that she may, even now, be doing this just to get the
letters for Victor. If she really loves Rick, why did it take the letters to bring her to him? Is she simply
sacrificing herself for Victor, resigned to staying unhappily with Rick in Casablanca, perhaps trying to get out
herself later? Or does she somehow intend to use the second letter herself so that both she and Victor can
escape? (In regard to this latter possibility, I would point out that Ilsa does not continue to seek the letters and
never actually has them in her possession, and that her confusion and regret in the final scene seem perfectly
genuine.)
Laszlo comes to Rick's after the meeting:
<Laszlo:> "I know a good deal more about you than you suspect. I know, for instance, that you
are in love with a woman." smiles just a little "It is perhaps a strange circumstance that we both
should be in love with the same woman. The first evening I came here in this cafe, I knew that
there was something between you and Ilsa. Since no one is to blame, I, I demand no explanation.
I ask only one thing. You won't give me the letters of transit. All right. But I want my wife to be
safe. I ask you as a favor to use the letters to take her away from Casablanca."
Rick looks at Laszlo incredulously.
<Rick:> "You love her that much?"
<Laszlo:> "Apparently you think of me only as the leader of a cause. Well, I am also a human
being." looks away for a moment, then quietly "Yes, I love her that much."
The French police (no doubt at Strasser's instigation) arrest Victor on a petty charge. Rick convinces Renault
that he plans to use the letters of transit to go to Lisbon with Ilsa, and that he wants to help Renault frame
Laszlo on the bigger charge of possessing the letters of transit. Renault will release Laszlo; Rick will lure him
to his cafe where Louis can arrest him.
Victor is freed and comes, with Ilsa, to Rick's at the appointed hour: Victor thinking that he will be buying the
letters for Ilsa and himself to use; Renault thinking that Rick and Ilsa will be using them; and Ilsa thinking that
Victor, alone, will be using them. Renault, lying in wait, jumps out to arrest Laszlo after Rick has given him
the letters.
<Renault:> "Victor Laszlo, you are under arrest on a charge of accessory to the murder of the
couriers from whom these letters were stolen." Ilsa and Laszlo are both caught completely off
guard. They turn toward Rick. Horror is in Ilsa's eyes. Renault takes the letters.
<Renault:> "Oh, you are surprised about my friend, Ricky? The explanation is quite simple.
Love, it seems, has triumphed over virtue. Thank . . ." Obviously, the situation delights Renault.
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He is smiling as he turns toward Rick. Suddenly the smile fades. In Rick's hand is a gun which
he is leveling at Renault.
<Rick:> "Not so fast, Louis. Nobody's going to be arrested. Not for a while yet."
<Renault:> "Have you taken leave of your senses?"
<Rick:> "I have. Sit down over there."
[There's a seriousness to Rick's voice and expression, a hint of the desperation necessary for a sane, feeling
man to take another person's life.]
Rick has Renault call the airport to tell them that there will be passengers using the letters of transit that night
and there's to be no trouble. But Renault only pretends to be calling the airport, instead he dials Major
Strasser, alerting him to the fact that something irregular is going on.
The scene at the airport is a masterpiece of pacing and suspense. The setting is quickly established by the
orderly calling the radio tower with data on visibility, ceiling, etc.
<Rick:> "I'm staying here with him 'til the plane gets safely away."
<Ilsa:> as Rick's intention fully dawns on her "No, Richard, no. What has happened to you? Last
night we said . . ."
<Rick:> "Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us.
Well, I've done a lot since then and it all adds up to one thing. You're getting on that plane with
Victor where you belong."
<Ilsa:> protesting "But Richard, no, I, I . . ."
<Rick:> "Now you've got to listen to me. Do you have any idea what you'd have to look forward
to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten we'd both wind up in a concentration camp. Isn't
that true, Louis?"
<Renault:> as he countersigns the papers "I am afraid that Major Strasser would insist."
<Ilsa:> turns to Rick "You're saying this only to make me go."
<Rick:> "I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us we both know you belong with Victor. You're
part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you're not
with him, you'll regret it."
<Ilsa:> "No."
<Rick:> "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life."
<Ilsa:> "But what about us?"
<Rick:> "We'll always have Paris. We didn't have it, we'd lost it, until you came to Casablanca.
We got it back last night."
<Ilsa:> "And I said I would never leave you!"
<Rick:> "And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going you can't follow.
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What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take
much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy
world. Someday you'll understand that. Not now. Here's looking at you, kid."
video clip
[Louis later calls this a "fairy tale" -- and contends that Ilsa knew he was lying.
Rick's last argument, "You can't go where I'm going", has problems. It seems he has decided to go join the
Resistance but, at this point, is more likely to be going to jail. Before Victor was arrested, Rick could have
quietly given him the letters and avoided this whole situation. Even after, he could have waited until Victor
was released. (As he himself has noted to Louis, "All you can do is fine him a few thousand francs and give
him thirty days.") Thus, leaving himself free to contribute to the Resistance in a way which would not have
precluded Ilsa's being with him.
The second argument, "We'll always have Paris" (and, therefore, won't need to actually be with each other)
shows Rick as the ultimate romantic: it's not the physical presence that matters, but the knowledge of love, its
certainty. There's something to this, especially as it pertains to the highest and most noble natures,-- but one
wonders how well it will wear over time. Perhaps Ilsa will regret her abandonment of Rick more than she
would have ever regretted leaving Victor. . . . "Paris" is a poor substitute for actually being together, and they
both know it.
The first argument, "Victor needs you", is less easily dismissed. It seems that Ilsa is important to Victor -- even
if it's hard to understand just how. And Victor's work is extremely important. If Ilsa adds even moderately to
its success, her action can, in the calculus of war, be justified.]
Laszlo returns and Rick tries to allay the suspicions he assumes Victor has about his relationship with Ilsa.
<Rick:> his voice more harsh, almost brutal "She tried everything to get them, and nothing
worked. She did her best to convince me that she was still in love with me, but that was all over
long ago. For your sake, she pretended it wasn't, and I let her pretend."
[There's a complexity here, a depth to this situation, in that we can't completely discount the possibility that
Ilsa was pretending.]
Major Strasser arrives as the plane is departing. He picks up the phone to call the Radio Tower.
Strasser, his one hand holding the receiver, pulls out a pistol with the other hand and shoots
quickly at Rick. The bullet misses, but Rick's shot has hit Strasser, who crumples to the ground.
A police car speeds up to the hangar. Four gendarmes jump out. In the distance, the plane is
turning onto the runway. The gendarmes run to Renault. Renault turns to them. [Koch, p. 226]
<Gendarme:> "Mon Capitaine!"
<Renault:> "Major Strasser's been shot." pauses as he looks at Rick, then to the gendarmes
"Round up the ususal suspects."
[Louis' words strike us like a thunderbolt. Wasn't it less than ten minutes ago that he insidiously alerted Major
Strasser? Didn't he, just moments before, suggest that he would have to arrest Rick? How can he get away
with it? . . . Then it dawns on us: there are no other witnesses. . . . But why? Isn't he the ultimate pragmatist?
What can he possibly gain from this? . . . It seems that he's undergone a conversion.]
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<Renault:> "Well, Rick, you're not only a sentimentalist, but you've become a patriot."
<Rick:> "Maybe, but it seemed like a good time to start."
<Renault:> "I think perhaps you're right."
Of course he was highly susceptible, having never really been pro-Vichy to begin with. It seems these
dramatic events -- especially Rick's example -- have compelled him to take a stand. They decide to go
together to join the Free French garrison at Brazzaville. "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful
friendship."
Casablanca is about the decision of one particular American to forgo a particular personal relationship for the
good of humanity, to join the fight against Fascism. We have seen throughout, Rick's attempts to deny his
past, to convince himself that "the problems of the world are not in my department" -- though we have also
been prepared (by the Annina/roulette subplot) for how Rick can preach cynicism and practice something
quite different.
And Casablanca is, by extension, also about the decision of Rick's native country, the United States, to join
the fight against Fascism. (At the time Everybody Comes to Rick's was written, the U.S. was not yet in the
war; by the time the filming of Casablanca was completed, official involvement was still less than eight
months old.) And Rick's new-found friendship with Louis has its parallel in the United States' alliance with
France (and with Europe as a whole).
These parallels are interesting and add a certain resonance to the movie, but its heart is in the characters as
individuals, their private lives and the tension between those lives and public obligations.
We live in a gray, uncertain time. We question whether life is really important. Meaningful relationships seem
impossible.
Casablanca is a letter from the past. It says that life is extremely important. And that not only is love possible,
it can reach to the very deepest parts of our being. And how we live (in freedom and under the rule of just
law) is so important that noble people will willingly sacrifice even such deep love for it. . . .
In the darkest hours of World War II, on a Warner Bros.' studio backlot, a hundred people got together to act
out and record what promised to be a fairly standard entertainment of love and intrigue. Somehow, what
resulted was much more: a rich, supremely life-affirming fable of duty and love.
CASABLANCA
Oh Rick, if only things were so simple. . . .
If only there were Nazis shooting children,
bullies like Major Strasser waiting to take over,
women like Ilsa -so beautiful and passionate
that just the memory of their love, just the shadow,
is enough.
We would sing the Marseillaise
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and in the air itself,
just breathing in that hot, dry air,
would find all the meaning we need.
But we live in an everyday world,
with everyday human beings.
And we must start again each morning,
with scraps of faith and feeling,
to make the world's meaning in the foundry of our heart.
References
Harmetz, Aljean. Round Up the Usual Suspects: the Making of Casablanca -- Bogart, Bergman, and World
War II. New York: Hyperion, 1992. ISBN: 1-56282-941-6.
Koch, Howard. Casablanca: Script and Legend. Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1992. ISBN:
0-87951-319-5.
Links to other Casablanca pages:
Vincent's Casablanca Homepage[ The complete Casablanca page: info, reviews, pictures, music/sound,
video clips, links]
Casablanca (1942) [Internet Movie Database: cast/credits; very detailed plot summary and analysis;
Academy Award nominations]
Cyberblanca
Elizabeth's Casablanca page Good general page; good bibliography and links.
The Humphrey Bogart Tribute;... another Bogart page
Ingrid Bergman (Wikipedia) ;... bio (from the Internet Movie Database);
download the script (requires Adobe Acrobat)
Do you know of other art --especially contemporary art available through the Web-- which expresses
genuine feeling? Please email me: [email protected]
Copyright © Lucius Furius 1997; updated:
June, 2002 (added link)
July, 2012 (change to "datarealm.com")
Link back to Genius Ignored --Table of Contents
Link back to main page (Humanist Art Homepage)
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