Casablanca (film) - Wikipedia. Casablanca is a 1. American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and based on Murray Burnett and Joan Alison's unproduced stage play Everybody Comes to Rick's. The film stars Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid; it also features Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Dooley Wilson. Set during World War II, it focuses on an American expatriate who must choose between his love for a woman and helping her Czech Resistance leader husband escape the Vichy- controlled city of Casablanca to continue his fight against the Nazis. Story editor Irene Diamond convinced producer Hal B. Wallis to purchase the film rights to the play in January 1. Brothers Julius and Philip G. Epstein were initially assigned to write the script. However, despite studio resistance, they left to work on Frank Capra's Why We Fight series early in 1. Koch was assigned to the screenplay until the Epsteins returned a month later. Casey Robinson assisted with three weeks of rewrites, but his work would later go uncredited. Wallis chose Curtiz to direct the film after his first choice, William Wyler, became unavailable. Principal photography began on May 2. August 3; the film was shot entirely at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, with the exception of one sequence at Van Nuys Airport in Van Nuys, Los Angeles. Although Casablanca was an A- list film with established stars and first- rate writers, no one involved with its production expected it to be anything out of the ordinary. Casablanca was rushed into release to take advantage of the publicity from the Allied invasion of North Africa a few weeks earlier. Introduction Japanese Planning The Americans Prepare The Opening Moves: 3 June 1942 Battle is Joined: 4 June 1942 Nemesis After the Battle Conclusion. The film was a solid if unspectacular success in its initial run. Casablanca did account for three Academy Awards . Although Rick professes to be neutral in all matters, it is later revealed he ran guns to Ethiopia during its war with Italy and fought on the Loyalist side in the Spanish Civil War. The papers allow the bearers to travel freely around German- controlled Europe and to neutral Portugal, and are thus almost priceless to the refugees stranded in Casablanca. Ugarte plans to sell them at the club that night, and asks Rick to hold them. Before he can meet his contact, he is intercepted by the local police under the command of Captain Louis Renault, an unabashedly corrupt Vichy official. Ugarte dies in custody without revealing that he entrusted the letters to Rick. At this point, the reason for Rick's bitterness. Upon spotting Rick's friend and house pianist, Sam, Ilsa asks him to play . She is accompanied by her husband, Victor Laszlo, a renowned fugitive Czech Resistance leader. They need the letters to escape to America to continue his work. German Major Strasser has come to Casablanca to see that Laszlo does not succeed. When Laszlo makes inquiries, Ferrari, a major underworld figure and Rick's friendly business rival, divulges his suspicion that Rick has the letters. In private, Rick refuses to sell at any price, telling Laszlo to ask his wife the reason. They are interrupted when Strasser leads a group of officers in singing . Laszlo starts singing, alone at first, then patriotic fervor grips the crowd and everyone joins in, drowning out the Germans. In retaliation, Strasser has Renault close the club. That night, Ilsa confronts Rick in the deserted caf. When he refuses to give her the letters, she threatens him with a gun, but then confesses that she still loves him. She explains that when they met and fell in love in Paris in 1. Later, while preparing to flee with Rick from the imminent fall of the city to the German army, she learned that Laszlo was alive and in hiding. She left Rick without explanation to nurse her sick husband. Rick's bitterness dissolves. He agrees to help, letting her believe that she will stay with him when Laszlo leaves. When Laszlo unexpectedly shows up, having narrowly escaped a police raid on a Resistance meeting, Rick has waiter Carl spirit Ilsa away. Laszlo, aware of Rick's love for Ilsa, tries to persuade him to use the letters to take her to safety. When the police arrest Laszlo on a minor, trumped- up charge, Rick persuades Renault to release him by promising to set him up for a much more serious crime: possession of the letters. To allay Renault's suspicions, Rick explains that he and Ilsa will be leaving for America. When Renault tries to arrest Laszlo as arranged, Rick forces him at gunpoint to assist in their escape. At the last moment, Rick makes Ilsa board the plane to Lisbon with her husband, telling her that she would regret it if she stayed.
Rick kills him when he tries to intervene. When policemen arrive, Renault pauses, then orders them to . As they walk away into the fog, Rick says, . The top- billed actors are: Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine. Rick was his first truly romantic role. Just after midnight on the morning of June 13, 1942, twenty-one-year-old coastguardsman John Cullen was beginning his foot patrol along the coast of Long Island, New. Chris: Prepare to have your minds blown, ComicsAlliance readers: This movie isn’t just the best of the four we’ve watched, it’s a legitimate hoot. Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund. Bergman's official website calls Ilsa her . Film critic Roger Ebert called her . Other actresses considered for the role of Ilsa included Ann Sheridan, Hedy Lamarr, Luise Rainer and Mich. Producer Hal Wallis obtained the services of Bergman, who was contracted to David O. Selznick, by lending Olivia de Havilland in exchange. Henreid, an Austrian actor who had emigrated in 1. Nazi persecution, was reluctant to take the role (it . Henreid did not get on well with his fellow actors; he considered Bogart . Bois was a German- Jewish actor and refugee. He had one of the longest careers in film, making his first appearance in 1. Leonid Kinskey as Sascha, the Russian bartender infatuated with Yvonne. He was born into a Jewish family in Russia and had immigrated to the United States. He told Aljean Harmetz, author of Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of Casablanca, that he was cast because he was Bogart's drinking buddy. The French actress was married to fellow Casablanca performer Marcel Dalio until their divorce in 1. She was the last surviving cast member at her death on May 1, 2. The third credited American, she was the stepdaughter of Jack L. Warner, the studio head. John Qualen as Berger, Laszlo's Resistance contact. He was born in Canada, but grew up in the United States. He appeared in many of John Ford's films. S. Sakall (credited as S. Sakall) as Carl, the waiter. The Jewish- Hungarian actor fled Germany in 1. His three sisters later died in a concentration camp. Dooley Wilson as Sam. He was one of the few American members of the cast. A drummer, he had to fake playing the piano. Even after shooting had been completed, producer Wallis considered dubbing over Wilson's voice for the songs. A Russian- American character actor, he appeared in 1. Casablanca was released. He had been a star in French cinema, appearing in Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion and La R. After he fled the fall of France and went to America, he was reduced to bit parts in Hollywood. He had a key role in another of Bogart's films, To Have and Have Not. Helmut Dantine as Jan Brandel, the Bulgarian roulette player married to Annina Brandel. Another Austrian, he had spent time in a concentration camp after the Anschluss, but left Europe after being freed. William Edmunds as a contact man at Rick's. He usually played characters with heavy accents, such as Martini in It's a Wonderful Life (1. Gregory Gaye as the German banker who is refused entry to the casino by Rick. Gaye was a Russian- born actor who went to the United States in 1. Russian Revolution. Torben Meyer as the Dutch banker who runs . Meyer was a Danish actor. George London, one of those who sing . London was a Montreal- born bass- baritone opera singer. He was an American actor who often played villains, including the principal one in To Have and Have Not, and one of the secondary ones in Key Largo, both opposite Bogart. Gerald Oliver Smith as the Englishman whose wallet is stolen. Smith was an English actor. Norma Varden as the Englishwoman whose husband has his wallet stolen. She was a famous English character actress. Jean Del Val as the French police radio announcer who (following the opening montage sequence) reports the news of the murder of the two German couriers. Leo White as the waiter Emile (not to be confused with the croupier Emil), from whom Renault orders a drink when he sits down with the Laszlos. White was a familiar face in many Charlie Chaplin two- reelers in the 1. Frank Puglia as a Moroccan rug merchant. Much of the emotional impact of the film has been attributed to the large proportion of European exiles and refugees who were extras or played minor roles (in addition to leading actors Paul Henried, Conrad Veidt and Peter Lorre): such as Louis V. Arco, Trude Berliner, Ilka Gr. A witness to the filming of the . That's all I can say. It remained on the Warners backlot until the 1. The set for Rick's was built in three unconnected parts, so the internal layout of the building is indeterminate. In a number of scenes, the camera looks through a wall from the cafe area into Rick's office. The background of the final scene, which shows a Lockheed Model 1. Electra Junior airplane with personnel walking around it, was staged using little personextras and a proportionate cardboard plane. She was some two inches (5 cm) taller than Bogart, and claimed Curtiz had Bogart stand on blocks or sit on cushions in their scenes together. It proved too difficult to get Claude Rains for the shoot, and the scene was finally abandoned after David O. In the south of France, they went to a nightclub that had a multinational clientele, among them many exiles and refugees, and the prototype of Sam. To make Rick's motivation more believable, Wallis, Curtiz, and the screenwriters decided to set the film before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Bogart had to be called in a month after the end of filming to dub it. Koch later claimed it was the tension between his own approach and Curtiz's which accounted for this: . But when corn works, there's nothing better.
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