"Casablanca" Deserves Cinematic Immortality!

Rating: 10/10 (15 June 2008)

What can anybody say about this classic film that hasn't been said? Okay, it isn't my favorite World War II Warner Brothers film, but it is a grand movie. Yes, "Casablanca" is worth watching, and I've lost track of the number of times that I have seen this splendidly made black & white film. Undoubtedly, the Warner Brothers film Casablanca ranks as one of the most famous and most written about commercial films that the studio produced during World War II. Aljean Harmetz dedicated an entire book to this classic romantic melodrama, "Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of Casablanca." Her work is the seminal account about the production of the film. Ironically, according to Harmetz, MGM producer Sam Marx wanted to buy the unproduced play "Everybody Comes to Rick's" by Murray Burnett and Joan Allison, which was the basis of the movie, but MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer "didn't think it was worth the money."
Warner Brothers wound up buying the Burnett and Alison play for $20,000 on December 8, 1941. The studio assigned brothers Philip and Julius Epstein to write the script for this "A" budgeted picture, which they began on March 17, 1942. Howard Koch signed on later to rewrite their material.
The American Film Institute noted that the studio hired Robert Aisner as technical adviser, because he had "served on the Maginot Line and escaped from a concentration camp by way of Casablanca." According to Harmetz, Koch--not the Epstein brothers--provided the protagonist, Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart of "High Sierra"), with the controversial background of running guns to Ethiopia. "Casablanca" concerns a saloonkeeper in Casablanca and Ilsa, the wife of Czech resistance leader Victor Lazlo trying to escape to Lisbon. A flashback revealed that Rick and Ilsa had met in Paris and fallen in love. When Hitler's troops entered the city, Rick waited for Ilsa at the train depot, but she did not join him. Instead, Sam, Rick's piano-playing friend, brings a note from Ilsa to Rick. In the note, Ilsa says that she loves him but cannot go with him. Rick is devastated. He and Sam escape from the Nazis, and Rick opens "Rick's Café Americain," a bar and restaurant in Casablanca. The establishment has illicit gambling tables in the back. He befriends the womanizing Prefect of Police, Captain Renault (Claude Rains of "Now, Voyager"), and lets him win at his roulette wheel. Rick's refusal to leave Casablanca when he could easily arrange his own departure puzzles the inquisitive Renault. Rick minds his own business. A rival café owner, Ferrari, who dabbles in the black market, chides him about such a shortsighted attitude. "My dear Rick," Ferrari observes, "when will you realize that in this world, today, isolationism is no longer a practical policy?" In another scene with Renault, Rick replies when Renault cautions him about warning a man Renault plans to arrest with Rick's by now signature line of dialogue, "I stick my neck out for nobody." Renault congratulates him for his stance and confides in him that he has never arrested him because Rick does mind his own business. Meanwhile, thousands of refugees from war-torn Europe stream into Casablanca searching for some way to reach neutral Lisbon. Before people can leave French-ruled Morocco, they must show an exit visa signed by a French authority. A smalltime thief named Ugarte (Peter Lorre of "M") has slain two German couriers and stolen two letters of transit signed by General de Gaulle. Actually, the letters of transit served as a plot device that the Epstein brothers contributed to the screenplay. No such letters of transit existed in real life. Anyway, Ugarte entrusted the exit visas to Rick for safekeeping. In search of the visas, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman of "Spellbound") and her husband, Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid of "Now, Voyager"), walk into Rick's bar. Ilsa recognizes Sam and persuades him to play an old tune "As Time Goes By." Reluctantly, Sam plays it, only to have an outraged Rick storm in and reprimand him for playing the song that he had ordered Sam never to play again. Ilsa intervenes, but Rick wants nothing to do with her, not after the way she deserted him in Paris. Rick is surprised when he learns from Ilsa that she had been married before they met, but she had believed at the time that her husband had died in a Nazi concentration camp. She explains that her spouse's surprise appearance prompted her to break her date with Rick. Ilsa tells Rick that Victor and she are desperate to reach Lisbon, but they lack exit visas. German Major Strasser threatens to arrest Victor. The resistance leader reminds him, "You won't dare to interfere with me here. This is still unoccupied France." Ilsa suspects that Rick has the letters of transit. Desperately, she threatens him with a gun, but knowing she could not shoot him, he ignores the gun. Later, Rick forces Renault to come to the airport where Ilsa and Victor appear. Forcing Renault to cooperate, Rick gives the letters of transit to Victor and Ilsa. At the last minute, Strasser appears at the airport and tries to detain Ilsa and Victor. Rick shoots Strasser. "Well, Rick," Renault observes, "you're not only a sentimentalist, but you've become a patriot." He and Rick watch as the plane lifts off with Ilsa and Victor on board. The film ends as Renault and Rick walk off into the fog, and Rick says, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Director Michael Curtiz never lets the action slacken. He stages everything with this customary efficiency. His use of shadows is good. The only flaw in "Casablanca" is the treatment of Sam. Spike Lee could rattle some cages over Sam's treatment. Rick sells the club without a word with Sam.