Casablanca 1942

     The screenplay film was adapted from a play.  The setting is the beginning of WWII.  Casablanca, Morocco is a transit point for refugees hoping to escape to America.  Rick’s Café is a place where sometimes exit letters can be obtained.  Ilsa and Rick met in Paris and fell in love but she didn’t show up when they were supposed to leave France together.  She comes to the Café one day with her husband Victor Laszlo.  They are trying to get exit letters to leave Casablanca.  Ilsa didn’t know she would be seeing Rick again and she didn’t tell him she was married when they were in Paris.

      The German military have arrived in Casablanca and they are controlling who can leave for America.  They don’t care if Ilsa leaves but they definitely don’t want Victor to leave.  He knows the names of people they would like to pressure.  They would like to make Victor tell them but he wouldn’t talk in a concentration camp so why would he talk now?  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)

102 min, Drama directed by Michael Curtiz with Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, S.Z. Sakall, Madeleine Lebeau, Dooley Wilson, Joy Page.

Note:  Imdb 8.5 out of 10, 97% critic 95% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 4*, Amazon 4.8* out of 5* with 2891 reviews, slantmagazine 4* out of 4*, Metacritic 100 out of 100 with 18 critics 9.3 out of 10 with 35 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Flagstaff and Yuma, Arizona; Burbank and Los Angeles, California.  Many of the extras singing Marseillaise in the Cafe had real tears in their eyes.  Many of them were actual refugees from Nazi persecution in Germany and Europe.  In mid 2000, Madonna approached every studio about a remake of Casablanca with her in the role of Ilsa and Aston Kutcher in the role of Rick.  Everyone turned down Madonna.  Since the film was made during WWII, the crew was not allowed to film at the airport after dark for security reasons.  Bogart wore platform shoes in scenes alongside Bergman to compensate for their differences in height.  Letter of transit did not exist in Vichy-controlled France but they were used as a plot device.  Both Bogart and Bergman wanted to leave the movie during production.  They thought the dialogue was ridiculous and the situations were unbelievable.  Warner Bros. was open about their opposition to the Nazi regime and Confessions of a Nazi Spy was made in 1939.