Casablanca

You might have been wondering when my namesake would finally make its appearance. The reasoning behind making "Casablanca" my fourth post and not my inagural one is this: movies to me are entertainment first and anything else they might be considered second. While I find "Casablanca" extremely entertaining, my overall interest and respect for it lies more in the realm of academic. "Casablanca" is, in my opinion, the greatest produced screenplay ever. Meaning pound for pound, frame for frame, what the Epstein brothers wrote, to what made it to the screen, is the greatest piece of cinematic synergy ever. Movies like"Ben-Hur", "Gone With the Wind", and "Singin' in the Rain" are more about the "show", they represent movie making spectacle, but mostly lack the intimacy that a smoky, black and white image can convey. "Casablanca" has become the definition of sophisticated Hollywood movie making. Because it lacks the spectacle and grandeur of movies like "Gone With the Wind" or "Ben-Hur", or even the cinematic sense of realism (i.e. the lack of any) of films like "Singin' in the Rain", "Casablanca" is the epitome of what could be produced on the backlot of a studio: pure magic. Just a great script, a talented director, and an amazing cast, nothing flashy, nothing big. Align these necessary ingredients and everything else, lavish costumes, sets, and colors, they just do not compare when you have a great story being told by a great cast and crew.

However the movie many regard today as the greatest piece of Hollywood entertainment almost did not happen. When discussing a movie like "Casablanca", which is as much a piece of Hollywood mythology as it is a tangible piece of cinema from 1942, it is nearly as enjoyable to simply get caught up in the behind-the-scenes lore, and "Casablanca", much like "Gone With the Wind", has nearly the same stranger than fiction story of its days in pre-production. Take for instance the original cast of Ronald Reagen, Ann Sheridan and George Raft as the three members of the central love triangle, Rick, Ilsa and Victor, respectively; a cast indicative of the B movie, conveyor belt aura that surrounded the film before the A list trio of Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid stepped in. Or the fact that the script, now regarded as one of the greatest ever, was written almost entirely on the fly, with the actors getting that day's lines when they came to the set each morning. All that is fine, and makes the finished product even more remarkable, but when the finished product is "the greatest piece of cinematic synergy ever" it warrants mentioning too. (and yes, I just quoted myself) Initially Jack Warner envisioned the film to be one of many cheaply made studio films cashing in on current events, in this case Nazi occupied North Africa. The film was to be done quickly with a talented, but unheralded and distinctly non-star trio. However producer Hal B. Wallis, possessed with the same sense of scope as David O. Selznick, slowly convinced Warner to make "Casablanca" a priority, and as the budget increased, so did the star quality. Wallis even secured Selznick's star actress Ingrid Bergman for the role of Ilsa, proving that great minds think alike. All this, and yet not one mention of the actual film itself!

The first 20 minutes or so don't prepare you for what actually is to come. With the great, but completely unrelated opening score (a pulsing, pounding theme more suited to a jungle adventure, about a million miles away from 'As Time Goes By', the unofficial, but entirely apropos "Casablanca" theme) and a chase/shootout with the great Peter Lorre, the movie then down shifts dramatically to what it really is, a melancholy, bittersweet love story. The movie is almost Shakespearian in its dramatic intensity. Burned out cynic Rick Blaine, owner of the Cafe Americain, who "sticks his neck out for no one", is confronted with a dilemma he never expected: Ilsa, the woman who broke his heart, has come back into his life, with her freedom fighter husband, Victor Lazlo, whom both thought dead during their time together in Paris, and need his help. Rick does a lot of playing tough, playing indifferent, and playing depressed, but when push comes to shove, and Rick is forced to "stick his neck out" for someone other than himself, he does so, in spades, killing the Nazi Colonel Strasser and giving two priceless exit visas to Ilsa and Victor so they can get out of Nazi occupied Casablanca and back to Europe. In between is some of the best stuff Hollywood has ever put forth, including 102 minutes of classic dialouge (6 quotes from this appeared on the AFI's list of the top 100 all time), and 'As Time Goes By', sung by Dooley Wilson, which became a classic in its own right. And of course, the unforgettable ending: watching Ilsa leave his life for a second time, Rick and Louis, the cheerfully corrupt French lieutenant, walk off into the fog as Rick comments on the "beginning of their beautiful friendship"; really, the ending of a perfect movie.