World Socialist Web Site wsws.org 75 years since the release of Hollywood classic Casablanca “And what if you track down these men and kill them? ... Even Nazis can’t kill that fast” By Joanne Laurier 22 November 2017 As part of the celebration of 75 years since the premiere of Michael and Helmut Dantine, who had actually spent time in a concentration camp Curtiz’s classic and beloved melodrama, Casablanca, in New York City in Austria, is a casino patron. on November 26, 1942, the film was recently shown in select cinemas in Tellingly, only three of the credited cast members were born in the US. the US. This was made possible by Turner Classic Movies, Warner Bros. The themes of sacrifice, nobility and love in the face of tyranny Entertainment and TCM Big Screen Classics Fathom Events. continue to inspire and move audiences. The extraordinary artistic Still enormously popular to this day, the movie is an elegant, textured traditions and level of skill embodied in the director, crew (more about tale of World War II political intrigue, featuring an iconic love triangle. that below), writers and almost miraculous cast, coupled with their depth Starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid and Claude of feeling about Hitlerism, helped create one of the 20th century’s most Rains, Casablanca was nominated for eight Academy Awards. remarkable works of popular culture. The final script for Curtiz’s work, labored on by numerous individuals Casablanca begins in 1942 with credits displayed over a map of Africa. (including Julius Epstein, Philip Epstein, Howard E. Koch and the A voice-over explains: “With the coming of the Second World War, uncredited Casey Robinson, among others), is responsible of course for a many eyes in imprisoned Europe turned hopefully, or desperately, toward number of Hollywood’s most memorable lines. the freedom of the Americas. Lisbon became the great embarkation point. Bogart plays a nightclub-casino owner in the North African city of But not everybody could get to Lisbon directly, and so, a tortuous, Casablanca, then under the control of Vichy France, who is drawn into roundabout refugee trail sprang up. Paris to Marseilles, across the anti-Nazi efforts after his great love (Bergman) shows up at his Mediterranean to Oran, then by train, or auto, or foot, across the rim of establishment. Africa to Casablanca in French Morocco. The film began life as an unproduced play by Murray Burnett and Joan “Here, the fortunate ones, through money, or influence, or luck, might Alison, Everybody Comes to Rick’s, written in 1940. Burnett, an English obtain exit visas and scurry to Lisbon, and from Lisbon to the New World. teacher at a Manhattan high school, visited Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938 But the others wait in Casablanca—and wait—and wait—and wait.” and was horrified by the fascist criminality and persecution of the Jews. Exit visas are therefore at a premium. Two German couriers carrying Warner Brothers bought the rights to the play in December 1941 for letters of transit are murdered. At Rick’s Café Américain, a stylish $20,000. In fact, the studio received the manuscript for consideration one nightclub and casino owned by American expatriate Rick Blaine (Bogart), day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. The entry of the Ugarte (Lorre), a petty criminal, approaches Rick, and asks if he will hold US into the Second World War opened the floodgates in Hollywood for some letters of transit for him. anti-Nazi films. Rick makes the connection to the murdered couriers, but accepts them This is not to diminish the genuine depth of the film’s sentiments and anyway, hiding them in the piano played by his house musician, Sam those of its creators. A number of its performers were themselves refugees (Dooley Wilson, who in real life was a drummer). Rick, having once from fascism and political reaction generally in Europe. One of the three fought on the side of the anti-Franco Loyalists during the Spanish Civil lead actors, Paul Henreid, was an outspoken opponent of the Nazis. He War, has now become cynical (“I stick my neck out for nobody”). helped a Jewish comedian friend escape from Berlin. The Los Angeles German Major Strasser (Veidt) is welcomed to Casablanca by Louis Times noted in an obituary that “for that and other anti-Nazi actions, Renault (Rains), the city’s prefect of police. Henreid was designated ‘official enemy of the Third Reich’ and all his Renault: You may find the climate of Casablanca a trifle warm, Major. assets were seized.” Strasser: Oh, we Germans must get used to all climates, from Russia to The Berlin-born Conrad Veidt, who plays a Nazi officer, was a refugee the Sahara. But perhaps you were not referring to the weather. from Hitler, as was Peter Lorre, born in Austria-Hungary. The Both men are eager to track down the letters of transit, lest they fall into Jewish-Hungarian S. Z. Sakall (wrongly credited as S. K. Sakall) appears the hands of Victor Laszlo (Henreid), a renowned Czech anti-Nazi in the film, as Carl the waiter. He had been forced to leave Germany in partisan, who is reputed to be on his way to Casablanca. One of the 1939. His three sisters all died in concentration camps. The principal sources of Rick’s bitterness comes to light when Victor and his German-Jewish Curt Bois (the pickpocket in Casablanca ), who ended up wife Ilsa Lund (Bergman) step into Rick’s café. having an eight-decade acting career, was also a refugee from the Nazis. Ilsa asks Sam to play “As Time Goes By,” for“ old times’ sake.” A Marcel Dalio, the Romanian-Jewish star of French cinema before the fall flashback reveals a brief but intense romance between Rick and Ilsa in of France (especially in the films of Jean Renoir), appears as a croupier, Paris just as the Nazis prepare to occupy the city. At that point Ilsa © World Socialist Web Site believes that Victor, her husband, has died in a concentration camp. Rick of Robin Hood, Four Daughters, Angels with Dirty Faces, The Private is unaware of Victor, as Ilsa’s marriage was kept secret for her protection. Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, The Sea Hawk, Mildred Pierce, Flamingo Ilsa to Rick: “I love you so much, and I hate this war so much.” Road, Bright Leaf, The Breaking Point, The Scarlet Hour and The Helen It is only at the moment when she and Rick are preparing to flee Paris Morgan Story. that she learns that Victor is alive. She sends Rick a brief “goodbye Then, of course, there was Bogart, at the time a man of the left; Ingrid forever” note, and for reasons that involve the security of Victor, Ilsa and Bergman from Sweden, with her refinement and artistry; Henreid, born in Rick, she cannot fully explain matters, leaving Rick to think the worst. Trieste, then part of Austria-Hungary, and later blacklisted in the 1950s; In the present, in Casablanca, Strasser closes in on Victor: Rains, one of the greatest figures of the British stage in the 1920s; Lorre, Strasser: “You know the leaders of the underground movement in Paris, a former member of Bertolt Brecht’s acting troupe; cowriter, Howard E. in Prague, in Brussels, in Amsterdam, in Oslo, in Belgrade, in Athens.” Koch, who was in the Communist Party and later blacklisted; and Laszlo: “Even in Berlin.” composer Max Steiner, who had studied with Gustav Mahler, written for Strasser: “Yes, even in Berlin. If you will furnish me with their names the theater and emigrated to the US along with Erich Wolfgang Korngold and their exact whereabouts, you will have your visa in the morning.” and numerous other composers. Renault: “And the honor of having served the Third Reich.” Additionally, Australian-American Orry-Kelly was responsible for the Laszlo:“ I was in a German concentration camp for a year. That’s costume design. Casablanca’s cameraman Arthur Edeson was one of 15 honor enough for a lifetime.” people who founded the American Society of Cinematographers in 1919. To escape from Casablanca and rejoin the resistance, Victor first He worked extensively with Raoul Walsh, James Whale, John Huston and approaches Signor Ferrari (Sydney Greenstreet), a major figure in the Jean Negulesco. The film’s art director was Carl Jules Weyl, a Moroccan city’s black market. When the latter cannot help, the partisan German-born architect, responsible for a number of significant buildings leader must turn to Rick for the letters of transit. in the Los Angeles area. Laszlo: “My friends in the underground tell me that you have quite a Casablanca is a quasi-phenomenon. Criticism almost seems beside the record. You ran guns to Ethiopia. You fought against the fascists in Spain. point. Nonetheless, one could point to its flaws: its popular front politics, ” its belief in the “democratic powers,” including the US. But Rick is not inclined to help Victor, until he realizes the painful One also always has the right to be skeptical about the products and circumstances that prompted Ilsa to abandon him at the railroad station in machinations of the mercenary and shortsighted commercial film Paris and learns of her enduring love for him. Casablanca’s concluding industry. Not one to beat about the bush, studio head Jack L. Warner sequences, in a fogbound airport, where Rick demonstrates that he has wrote Curtiz in May 1942, on the eve of shooting, “These are turbulent recaptured his spirit of resistance, are legendary by now. days and I know you will finish Casablanca in top seven weeks.” New It is an astonishing work in many ways.