This article is about the 1942 American film. For the Egyptian film, seeCasablanca (2019 film). For the similarly titled 1951 French film, seeCasabianca (film).
AlthoughCasablanca was anA-list film with established stars and first-rate writers, no one involved with its production expected it to stand out among the many pictures produced byHollywood yearly.[6]Casablanca was rushed into release to take advantage of the publicity from theAllied invasion of North Africa a few weeks earlier.[7] It had its world premiere on November 26, 1942, inNew York City and was released nationally in the United States on January 23, 1943. The film was a solid, if unspectacular, success in its initial run.
Exceeding expectations,Casablanca went on to win theAcademy Award for Best Picture, while Curtiz was selected asBest Director and the Epsteins and Koch were honored forBest Adapted Screenplay. Its reputation has gradually grown, to the point that its lead characters,[8] memorable lines,[9] andpervasive theme song[10] have all become iconic, and it consistently ranks near the top oflists of the greatest films in history. In the inaugural class of 1989, the United StatesLibrary of Congress selected the film as one of the first for preservation in theNational Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".Roger Ebert wrote: "If there is ever a time when they decide that some movies should be spelled with an upper-case M,Casablanca should be voted first on the list of Movies."[11]
Left to right: Henreid, Bergman, Rains and BogartOriginal trailer
In December 1941, Americanexpatriate Rick Blaine owns a nightclub and gambling den inCasablanca. "Rick's Café Américain" attracts a varied clientele, includingVichy French andGerman officials,refugees desperate to reach the still-neutral United States, and those who prey on them. Although Rick professes to be neutral in all matters, heran guns toEthiopia in 1935 and fought on theRepublican side in theSpanish Civil War.
Petty crook Ugarte boasts to Rick of letters of transit obtained by murdering two German couriers. The papers allow the bearers to travel freely aroundGerman-occupied Europe and toneutral Portugal. Ugarte plans to sell them at the club and persuades Rick to hold them for him. However, Ugarte is arrested by the local police under Captain Louis Renault, the unabashedly corruptprefect of police. Ugarte is killed while in custody without revealing that Rick has the letters.
Then, the reason for Rick's cynical nature—former lover Ilsa Lund—enters his establishment. Spotting Rick's friend and house pianist, Sam, Ilsa asks him to play "As Time Goes By". Rick storms over, furious that Sam disobeyed his order never to perform that song again, and is stunned to see Ilsa. She is accompanied by her husband, Victor Laszlo, a renowned fugitiveCzechoslovak Resistance leader. A flashback reveals Ilsa left Rick without explanation when the couple were planning to flee as the German army nearedParis, embittering Rick. Laszlo and Ilsa need the letters to escape, while German Major Strasser arrives in Casablanca to prevent that.
When Laszlo makes inquiries, Signor Ferrari, an underworld figure and Rick's friendly business rival, divulges his suspicion that Rick has the letters. Laszlo returns to Rick's café that night and tries to buy them. Rick refuses to sell, telling Laszlo to ask his wife why. They are interrupted when Strasser leads a group of German officers in singing "Die Wacht am Rhein". Laszlo orders the house band to play "La Marseillaise", and Rick allows it. Patriotism grips the crowd and everyone joins in, drowning out the Germans. Afterwards, Strasser has Renault close the club on a flimsy pretext.
Bogart and Bergman
Later, Ilsa confronts Rick in the deserted café; when he refuses to give her the letters, she threatens him with a gun but then confesses she still loves him. She explains that when they met and fell in love in Paris in 1940, she believed her husband had been killed while attempting to escape from aconcentration camp. When she learned that Laszlo was alive and hiding near Paris, she left Rick without explanation to nurse her sick husband. Rick's bitterness dissolves. He agrees to help, letting Ilsa believe she will stay with him, while Laszlo leaves Casablanca. 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 trumped-up charge, Rick persuades Renault to release him by promising to set Laszlo up for a much more serious crime: possession of the letters. To allay Renault's suspicions, Rick explains that he and Ilsa will use the letters to leave for America. When Renault tries to arrest Laszlo as arranged, however, Rick forces him at gunpoint to assist in their escape. At the last moment, Rick makes Ilsa board the plane toLisbon with Laszlo, telling her that she would regret it if she stayed, "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life." Strasser, tipped off by Renault, drives up alone. Strasser attempts to stop the plane and then draws a gun on Rick; the latter shoots him dead. When policemen arrive, Renault pauses, then orders them to "round up the usual suspects." He suggests to Rick that they join theFree French inBrazzaville. As they walk away into the fog, Rick says, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
Greenstreet and Bogart Dooley Wilson and Humphrey BogartConrad Veidt, as Major Strasser, with Corinna Mura.
The play's cast consisted of 16 speaking parts and several extras; the film script enlarged it to 22 speaking parts and hundreds of extras.[13] The cast is notably international: only three of the credited actors were born in the United States (Bogart, Dooley Wilson, and Joy Page). The top-billed actors are:[14]
Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund. Bergman's official website calls Ilsa her "most famous and enduring role".[15] The Swedish actress's Hollywood debut inIntermezzo had been well received, but her subsequent films were not major successes untilCasablanca. Film criticRoger Ebert called her "luminous", and commented on her chemistry with Bogart: "she paints his face with her eyes".[16] Other actresses considered for the role of Ilsa includedAnn Sheridan,Hedy Lamarr,Luise Rainer, andMichèle Morgan. ProducerHal Wallis obtained the services of Bergman, who was contracted toDavid O. Selznick, by lendingOlivia de Havilland in exchange.[17]
Paul Henreid as Victor Laszlo. Henreid, an Austrian actor who had emigrated in 1935, was reluctant to take the role (it "set [him] as a stiff forever", according toPauline Kael[18]), until he was promised top billing along with Bogart and Bergman. Henreid did not get on well with his fellow actors; he considered Bogart "a mediocre actor"; Bergman called Henreid a "prima donna".[19]
Conrad Veidt as Major Heinrich Strasser. Veidt was a refugee German actor who had fled theNazis with hisJewish wife, but frequently played Nazis in American films. He was the highest-paid member of the cast despite his second billing. He died shortly after the film's release.[20]
Curt Bois as the pickpocket. Bois had one of the longest careers in cinema, spanning over 80 years.
Leonid Kinskey as Sascha, the Russian bartender infatuated with Yvonne. Kinskey toldAljean Harmetz, author ofRound Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of Casablanca, that he was cast because he was Bogart's drinking buddy. He was not the first choice for the role; he replaced Leo Mostovoy, who was deemed not funny enough.[21]
Madeleine Lebeau as Yvonne, Rick's soon-discarded girlfriend. Lebeau was a French refugee who had left Nazi-occupied Europe with her husbandMarcel Dalio, who was a fellowCasablanca performer. She was the last surviving cast member until her death on May 1, 2016.[22]
Norma Varden as the Englishwoman whose husband has his wallet stolen
Much of the emotional impact of the film, for the audience in 1942, 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 Henreid, Conrad Veidt and Peter Lorre), such asLouis V. Arco,Trude Berliner,Ilka Grünig,Ludwig Stössel,Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, andWolfgang Zilzer. A witness to the filming of the "duel of the anthems" sequence said he saw many of the actors crying and "realized that they were all real refugees".[23] Harmetz argues that they "brought to a dozen small roles inCasablanca an understanding and a desperation that could never have come fromCentral Casting".[24] Even though many wereJewish or refugees from the Nazis (or both), they were frequently cast as Nazis in various war films, because of their accents.
Jack Benny may have appeared in an unbilled cameo, as was claimed by a contemporary newspaper advertisement and in theCasablanca press book.[25][26][27] When asked in his column "Movie Answer Man", criticRoger Ebert first replied, "It looks something like him. That's all I can say."[26] In a later column, he responded to a follow-up commenter, "I think you're right. The Jack Benny Fan Club can feel vindicated".[28]
The film was based on Murray Burnett and Joan Alison's unproduced playEverybody Comes to Rick's.[29] TheWarner Bros. story analyst who read the play, Stephen Karnot, called it (approvingly) "sophisticated hokum"[30] and story editorIrene Diamond, who had discovered the script on a trip toNew York in 1941, convinced Hal Wallis to buy the rights in January 1942 for $20,000 (equivalent to $330,000 in 2024),[31] the most anyone in Hollywood had ever paid for an unproduced play.[32] The project was renamedCasablanca, apparently in imitation of the 1938 hitAlgiers.[33]Casablanca also shares many narrative and thematic similarities withAlgiers(1938), which itself is a remake of the acclaimed 1937 French filmPépé le Moko, directed and co-written byJulien Duvivier.[34]
The original play was inspired by a trip to Europe made by Murray Burnett and his wife in 1938, during which they visitedVienna shortly after theAnschluss and were affected by theantisemitism they saw. 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.[35] InThe Guardian, Paul Fairclough wrote thatCinema Vox inTangier "was Africa's biggest when it opened in 1935, with 2,000 seats and a retractable roof. As Tangier wasin Spanish territory, the theatre's wartime bar heaved with spies, refugees and underworld hoods, securing its place in cinematic history as the inspiration for Rick's Café inCasablanca."[36][37] The scene of the singing of "La Marseillaise" in the bar is attributed by the film scholar Julian Jackson as an adaptation of a similar scene fromJean Renoir's filmLa Grande Illusion five years prior.[38]
The first writers assigned to the script were twinsJulius andPhilip Epstein[39] who, against the wishes of Warner Bros., left atFrank Capra's request early in 1942 to work on theWhy We Fight series inWashington, D.C.[40][41] While they were gone, the other credited writer,Howard Koch, was assigned; he produced thirty to forty pages.[41] When the Epstein brothers returned after about a month, they were reassigned toCasablanca and—contrary to what Koch claimed in two published books—his work was not used.[41] The Epstein brothers and Koch never worked in the same room at the same time during the writing of the script. In the final budget for the film, the Epsteins were paid $30,416, (equivalent to $454,089 in 2024) and Koch earned $4,200 (equivalent to $63,572 in 2024).[42]
In the play, the Ilsa character is an American named Lois Meredith; she does not meet Laszlo until after her relationship with Rick in Paris has ended. Rick is a lawyer. The play (set entirely in the café) ends with Rick sending Lois and Laszlo to the airport. To make Rick's motivation more believable, Wallis, Curtiz, and the screenwriters decided to set the film before theattack on Pearl Harbor.[43]
The possibility was discussed of Laszlo being killed in Casablanca, allowing Rick and Ilsa to leave together, but asCasey Robinson wrote to Wallis before filming began, the ending of the film is
set up for a swell twist when Rick sends her away on the plane with Laszlo. For now, in doing so, he is not just solving a love triangle. He is forcing the girl to live up to the idealism of her nature, forcing her to carry on with the work that in these days is far more important than the love of two little people.[44]
It was certainly impossible for Ilsa to leave Laszlo for Rick, as theMotion Picture Production Code forbade showing a woman leaving her husband for another man. The concern was not whether Ilsa would leave with Laszlo, but how this outcome would be engineered.[45] According to Julius Epstein, he and Philip were driving when they simultaneously came up with the idea for Renault to order the roundup of "the usual suspects", after which all the details needed for resolution of the story, including the farewell between Bergman and "a suddenly noble Bogart", were rapidly worked out.[46]
The uncredited Casey Robinson assisted with three weeks of rewrites, including contributing the series of meetings between Rick and Ilsa in the café.[47][48] Koch highlighted the political andmelodramatic elements,[49][50] and Curtiz seems to have favored the romantic parts, insisting on retaining the Paris flashbacks.[51]
In a telegram to film editor Owen Marks on August 7, 1942, Wallis suggested two possible final lines of dialogue for Rick: "Louis, I might have known you'd mix your patriotism with a little larceny" or "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship".[52] Two weeks later, Wallis settled on the latter, which Bogart was recalled to dub a month after shooting had finished.[51]
Bogart's line "Here's looking at you, kid", said four times, was not in the draft screenplays, but has been attributed to a comment he made to Bergman as she played poker with her English coach and hairdresser between takes.[53]
Despite the many writers, the film has what Ebert describes as a "wonderfully unified and consistent" script. Koch later claimed it was the tension between his own approach and Curtiz's that had accounted for this. "Surprisingly, these disparate approaches somehow meshed, and perhaps it was partly this tug of war between Curtiz and me that gave the film a certain balance."[54] Julius Epstein later noted the screenplay contained "more corn than in the states of Kansas and Iowa combined. But when corn works, there's nothing better".[55]
The film ran into some trouble withJoseph Breen of theProduction Code Administration (the Hollywood self-censorship body), who opposed the suggestions that Captain Renault extorted sexual favors from visa applicants, and that Rick and Ilsa had slept together.[56][57] Extensive changes were made, with several lines of dialogue removed or altered. All direct references to sex were deleted; Renault's selling of visas for sex, and Rick and Ilsa's previous sexual relationship were implied elliptically rather than referenced explicitly.[58] Also, in the original script, when Sam plays "As Time Goes By", Rick exclaims, "What the —— are you playing?" This line was altered to "Sam, I thought I told you never to play ..." to conform to Breen's objection to an implied swear word.[59]
Although an initial filming date was selected for April 10, 1942, delays led to production starting on May 25.[60] Filming was completed on August 3. It went $75,000 over budget for a total cost of $1,039,000 (equivalent to $15,727,000 in 2024),[61] above average for the time.[62] Unusually, the film was shot in sequence, mainly because only the first half of the script was ready when filming began.[63]
The entire picture was shot in the studio except for the sequence showing Strasser's arrival and close-ups of the Lockheed Electra (filmed atVan Nuys Airport) and a few short clips of stock footage views of Paris.[64] The street used for the exterior shots had recently been built for another film,The Desert Song,[65] andredressed for the Parisflashbacks.
The film critic Roger Ebert called Wallis the "key creative force" for his attention to the details of production (down to insisting on a real parrot in the Blue Parrot bar).[16]
The difference between Bergman's and Bogart's height caused some problems. She was two inches (5 cm) taller than Bogart, and claimed Curtiz had Bogart stand on blocks or sit on cushions in their scenes together.[66]
Later, there were plans for a further scene, showing Rick, Renault and a detachment of Free French soldiers on a ship, to incorporate the Allies'1942 invasion of North Africa. It proved too difficult to get Claude Rains for the shoot, and the scene was finally abandoned afterDavid O. Selznick judged "it would be a terrible mistake to change the ending".[20][67]
The background of the final scene, which shows aLockheed Model 12 Electra Junior airplane with personnel walking around it, was staged usinglittle personextras and a proportionate cardboard plane.[68] Fog was used to mask the model's unconvincing appearance.[69]
Wallis's first choice for director wasWilliam Wyler, but he was unavailable, so Wallis turned to his close friendMichael Curtiz.[70][20] Roger Ebert has commented that inCasablanca "very few shots ...are memorable as shots", as Curtiz wanted images to express the story rather than to stand alone.[16] He contributed relatively little to development of the plot. Casey Robinson said Curtiz "knew nothing whatever about story ...he saw it in pictures, and you supplied the stories".[71]
CriticAndrew Sarris called the film "the most decisive exception to theauteur theory",[72] of which Sarris was the most prominent proponent in the United States.Aljean Harmetz has responded, "...nearly every Warner Bros. picture was an exception to the auteur theory".[70] Other critics give more credit to Curtiz. Sidney Rosenzweig, in his study of the director's work, sees the film as a typical example of Curtiz's highlighting of moral dilemmas.[73]
Some of the second unitmontages, such as the opening sequence of the refugee trail and the invasion of France, were directed byDon Siegel.[74]
Thecinematographer wasArthur Edeson, a veteran who had previously shotThe Maltese Falcon andFrankenstein. Particular attention was paid to photographing Bergman. She was shot mainly from her preferred left side, often with a softening gauze filter and withcatch lights to make her eyes sparkle; the whole effect was designed to make her face seem "ineffably sad and tender and nostalgic".[16] Bars of shadow across the characters and in the background variously imply imprisonment, theCross of Lorraine—the symbol of theFree French Forces—and emotional turmoil.[16] Darkfilm noir andexpressionist lighting was used in several scenes, particularly towards the end of the picture. Rosenzweig argues these shadow and lighting effects are classic elements of the Curtiz style, along with the fluid camera work and the use of the environment as a framing device.[75]
The music was written byMax Steiner. The song "As Time Goes By" byHerman Hupfeld had been part of the story from the original play; Steiner wanted to write his own composition to replace it, but Bergman had already cut her hair short for her next role (María inFor Whom the Bell Tolls) and could not reshoot the scenes that incorporated the song,[a] so Steiner based the entire score on it and "La Marseillaise", the Frenchnational anthem, transforming them asleitmotifs to reflect changing moods.[76] Even though Steiner disliked "As Time Goes By", he admitted in a 1943 interview that it "must have had something to attract so much attention".[77] Particularly memorable is the "duel of the anthems" between Strasser and Laszlo at Rick's café.[20] In the soundtrack, "La Marseillaise" is played by a full orchestra. Originally, the opposing piece for this iconic sequence was to be the "Horst-Wessel-Lied", aNazi anthem, but this was still under international copyright in non-Allied countries. Instead "Die Wacht am Rhein" was used.[78] The "Deutschlandlied", the national anthem of Germany, is used several times in minor mode as a leitmotif for the German threat, e.g. in the scene in Paris as it is announced that the German army will reach Paris the next day. It is featured in the final scene, giving way to "La Marseillaise" after Strasser is shot.[20][79]
Dooley Wilson, who played Sam, was a drummer, not a pianist, so his piano playing was performed by Jean Plummer.[80] After shooting had been completed, producer Wallis considered dubbing over Wilson's voice for his singing.[81]
Very few films in the early 1940s had portions of the soundtrack released on78 rpm records, andCasablanca was no exception. In 1997, almost 55 years after the film's premiere,Turner Entertainment in collaboration withRhino Records issued the film's first originalsoundtrack album for release oncompact disc, including original songs and music, spoken dialogue, and alternate takes.[82]
The piano featured in the Paris flashback sequences was sold in New York City on December 14, 2012, atSotheby's for more than $600,000 to an anonymous bidder.[83] The piano Sam "plays" in Rick's Café Américain, put up for auction with otherfilm memorabilia byTurner Classic Movies atBonhams in New York on November 24, 2014, sold for $3.4 million.[84][85]
Although an initial release date was anticipated for early 1943,[86]Casablanca premiered at the Hollywood Theater in New York City on November 26, 1942, to capitalize on Operation Torch (the Allied invasion of French North Africa) andthe capture of Casablanca.[7][87] It went into general release on January 23, 1943, to take advantage of theCasablanca Conference, a high-level meeting in the city between Prime MinisterWinston Churchill and PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt. TheOffice of War Information prevented screening of the film to troops in North Africa, believing it would cause resentment among Vichy supporters in the region.[88]
On March 19, 1943, the film was banned inIreland for infringing on theEmergency Powers Order preserving wartime neutrality, by portraying Vichy France andNazi Germany in a "sinister light". It was passed with cuts on June 15, 1945, shortly after the EPO was lifted. The cuts were made to dialogue between Rick and Ilsa referring to their love affair.[89] A version with only one scene cut was passed on July 16, 1974; Irish national broadcasterRTÉ inquired about showing the film on TV, but found it still required a dialogue cut to Ilsa expressing her love for Rick.[90]
Warner Brothers released a heavily edited version ofCasablanca in West Germany in 1952. All scenes with Nazis were removed, along with most references to World War II. Important plot points were altered when the dialogue was dubbed into German. Victor Laszlo was no longer a Resistance fighter who escaped from a Nazi concentration camp. Instead, he became a Norwegian atomic physicist who was being pursued by Interpol after he "broke out of jail". The West German version was 25 minutes shorter than the original cut. A German version ofCasablanca with the original plot was not released until 1975.[91]
Casablanca received "consistently good reviews".[92]Bosley Crowther ofThe New York Times wrote, "The Warners ... have a picture which makes the spine tingle and the heart take a leap." He applauded the combination of "sentiment, humor and pathos with taut melodrama and bristling intrigue." Crowther noted its "devious convolutions of the plot" and praised the screenplay quality as "of the best" and the cast's performances as "all of the first order".[93]
The trade paperVariety commended the film's "combination of fine performances, engrossing story and neat direction" and the "variety of moods, action, suspense, comedy and drama that makesCasablanca an A-1 entry at theb.o."[94] The review observed that the "[f]ilm is splendid anti-Axis propaganda, particularly inasmuch as the propaganda is strictly a by-product of the principal action and contributes to it instead of getting in the way".[94]Variety also applauded the performances of Bergman and Henreid and noted, "Bogart, as might be expected, is more at ease as the bitter and cynical operator of a joint than as a lover, but handles both assignments with superb finesse."[94]
Some reviews were less enthusiastic.The New Yorker ratedCasablanca only "pretty tolerable" and said it was "not quite up toAcross the Pacific, Bogart's last spyfest".[95]
At the 1,500-seat Hollywood Theater, the film grossed $255,000 over ten weeks (equivalent to $3.9 million in 2024).[96] In its initial American release,Casablanca was a substantial, but not spectacular, box-office success, earning $3.7 million (equivalent to $56 million in 2024).[96][97] A 50th-anniversary release grossed$1.5 million in 1992.[98] According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $3,398,000 domestically and $3,461,000 in foreign markets.[3]
In the decades since its release, the film has grown in reputation. Murray Burnett called it "true yesterday, true today, true tomorrow".[99] By 1955, the film had brought in $6.8 million, making it the third-most-successful of Warners' wartime movies, behindShine On, Harvest Moon andThis Is the Army.[100] On April 21, 1957, theBrattle Theater of Cambridge, Massachusetts, showed the film as part of a season of old movies. It proved so popular that a tradition began in whichCasablanca would be screened during the week of final exams atHarvard University.Todd Gitlin, a professor of sociology who had attended one of these screenings, has said that the experience was "the acting out of my own personal rite of passage".[101] The tradition helped the film remain popular while other films that had been famous in the 1940s have faded from popular memory. By 1977,Casablanca had become the most frequently broadcast film on American television.[102]
Ingrid Bergman's portrayal of Ilsa Lund inCasablanca became one of her best-known roles.[103] In later years she said, "I feel aboutCasablanca that it has a life of its own. There is something mystical about it. It seems to have filled a need, a need that was there before the film, a need that the film filled."[104]
On the film's 50th anniversary, theLos Angeles Times calledCasablanca's great strength "the purity of its Golden Age Hollywoodness [and] the enduring craftsmanship of its resonantly hokey dialogue". Bob Strauss wrote in the newspaper that the film achieved a "near-perfect entertainment balance" of comedy, romance, and suspense.[105]
Roger Ebert wrote in 1992:
There are greater movies. More profound movies. Movies of greater artistic vision or artistic originality or political significance. ... But [it is] one of the movies we treasure the most ... This is a movie that has transcended the ordinary categories.[106]
In his opinion, the film is popular because "the people in it are all so good" and it is "a wonderful gem".[16] He said that he had never heard of a negative review of the film, even though individual elements can be criticized, citing unrealisticspecial effects and the stiff character of Laszlo as portrayed by Henreid.[71] Ebert also wrote:
Seeing the film over and over again, year after year, I find it never grows overfamiliar. It plays like a familiar musical album: the more I know it, the more I like it. The black-and-white cinematography has not aged as color would. The dialogue is so spare and cynical it has not grown old-fashioned. Much of the emotional effect ofCasablanca is achieved by indirection. As we leave the theater, we are absolutely convinced that the only thing keeping the world from going crazy is the concerns of three little people who do, after all, amount to more than a hill of beans."[6]
Critic and film historianLeonard Maltin considersCasablanca "the best Hollywood movie of all time".[107]
According toRudy Behlmer, the character of Rick is "not a hero ... not a bad guy" because he does what is necessary to appease the authorities and "sticks his neck out for nobody". Behlmer feels that the other characters are "not cut and dried" and come into their goodness over the course of the film. Renault begins as a collaborator with the Nazis who extorts sexual favors from refugees and has Ugarte killed. Even Ilsa, the least active of the main characters, is "caught in the emotional struggle" over which man she really loves. By the end, however, "everybody is sacrificing".[71] Behlmer also emphasized the variety in the picture. "It's a blend of drama, melodrama, comedy [and] intrigue."[71]
Scott Tobias, writing forThe Guardian on the film's 80th anniversary, calls it "the jewel of Hollywood's Golden Age", and the best example of the system of film-making working: due not to an artistic genius but a combination of talented writing, set design, music, casting, supporting characters, and production.[108]
A few reviewers have expressed reservations. ToPauline Kael, "It's far from a great film, but it has a special appealingly schlocky romanticism ..."[109]Umberto Eco wrote that "by any strict critical standards ...Casablanca is a very mediocre film". He viewed the changes that the characters manifest as inconsistent rather than complex. "It is a comic strip, a hotchpotch, low on psychological credibility, and with little continuity in its dramatic effects." However, he added that because of the presence of multiple archetypes that allow "the power of Narrative in its natural state without Art intervening to discipline it", it is a film reaching "Homeric depths" as a "phenomenon worthy of awe".[110]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 99% of 136 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 9.5/10. The website's consensus reads, "An undisputed masterpiece and perhaps Hollywood's quintessential statement on love and romance, Casablanca has only improved with age, boasting career-defining performances from Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman."[111]OnMetacritic, the film has a perfect score of 100 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[112] It is one of the few films in the site's history to achieve a perfect aggregate score.[113]
In the November/December 1982 issue ofFilm Comment, Chuck Ross wrote that he retyped theCasablanca screenplay, reverting the title toEverybody Comes to Rick's and changing the name of Sam the piano player to Dooley (afterDooley Wilson, who played the character), and submitted it to 217 agencies. The majority of agencies returned the script unread (often because of policies regarding unsolicited screenplays) or did not respond. However, of those which did respond, only 33 specifically recognized it asCasablanca. Eight others observed that it was similar toCasablanca, and 41 agencies rejected the screenplay outright, offering comments such as "Too much dialogue, not enough exposition, the story line was weak, and in general didn't hold my interest." Three agencies offered to represent the screenplay, and one suggested turning it into a novel.[114][115][116]
The film was a plot device in the science-fiction television movieOverdrawn at the Memory Bank (1983), based onJohn Varley's story. The story's protagonist recreates settings from the film inside avirtual reality simulation, including a version of Rick who becomes an advisor and ally (both characters are played by lead actorRaul Julia).
It was referred to inTerry Gilliam'sdystopianBrazil (1985). Warner Bros. produced its own parody:Carrotblanca, a 1995Bugs Bunnycartoon.[121] The film critic Roger Ebert pointed out the plot of the filmBarb Wire (1996) was identical to that ofCasablanca.[122] InCasablanca, a novella by Argentine writerEdgar Brau, the protagonist somehow wanders into Rick's Café Américain and listens to a strange tale related by Sam.[123] The 2016 musical filmLa La Land contains allusions toCasablanca in the imagery, dialogue, and plot.[124]Robert Zemeckis, director ofAllied (2016), which is also set in 1942 Casablanca, studied the film to capture the city's elegance.[125] The 2017 Moroccandrama filmRazzia, directed byNabil Ayouch, is mostly set in the city of Casablanca, and its characters frequently discuss the 1942 film.[126]
Because of its November 1942 release, theNew York Film Critics decided to include the film in its 1942 award season for best picture.Casablanca lost toIn Which We Serve.[96] However, theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences stated that since the film went into national release at the beginning of 1943, it would be included in that year's nominations.[127]Casablanca was nominated for eight Academy Awards, and won three.
As Bogart stepped out of his car at the awards ceremony, "the crowd surged forward, almost engulfing him and his wife,Mayo Methot. It took 12 police officers to rescue the two, and a red-faced, startled, yet smiling Bogart heard a chorus of cries of 'good luck' and 'here's looking at you, kid' as he was rushed into the theater".[128]
When the award for Best Picture was announced, producerHal B. Wallis got up to accept, but studio headJack L. Warner rushed up to the stage "with a broad, flashing smile and a look of great self-satisfaction", Wallis later recalled.
I couldn't believe it was happening.Casablanca had been my creation; Jack had absolutely nothing to do with it. As the audience gasped, I tried to get out of the row of seats and into the aisle, but the entire Warner family sat blocking me. I had no alternative but to sit down again, humiliated and furious ... Almost forty years later, I still haven't recovered from the shock.[128]
This incident led Wallis to leave Warner Bros. in April.[129]
In 1989, the film was one of the first 25 films selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[130][131] In 2005, it was named one of the 100 greatest films of the last 80 years byTime magazine (the selected films were not ranked).[132]Bright Lights Film Journal stated in 2007, "It is one of those rare films from Hollywood's Golden Age which has managed to transcend its era to entertain generations of moviegoers ...Casablanca provides twenty-first-century Americans with an oasis of hope in a desert of arbitrary cruelty and senseless violence."[133]
The film also ranked at number 28 onEmpire's list of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time, which said, "Love, honour, thrills, wisecracks and a hit tune are among the attractions, which also include a perfect supporting cast of villains, sneaks, thieves, refugees and bar staff. But it's Bogart and Bergman's show, entering immortality as screen lovers reunited only to part. The irrefutible [sic] proof that great movies are accidents."[134]
Screenwriting teacherRobert McKee maintains that the script is "the greatest screenplay of all time".[17] In 2006, theWriters Guild of America, West agreed, voting it the best ever in its list of the 101 greatest screenplays.[135]
The film has been selected by theAmerican Film Institute for many of their lists of important American films:
5: "Here's looking at you, kid." 20: "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." 28: "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By'." 32: "Round up the usual suspects." 43: "We'll always have Paris." 67: "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." These six lines are the most of any film (Gone with the Wind andThe Wizard of Oz tied for second with three apiece). Also nominated for the list was, "Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world."[136]
Casablanca has been subjected to many readings;semioticians account for the film's popularity by claiming that its inclusion ofstereotypes paradoxically strengthens the film.[137][138][139][140] Umberto Eco wrote:
ThusCasablanca is not just one film. It is many films, an anthology. Made haphazardly, it probably made itself, if not actually against the will of its authors and actors, then at least beyond their control. And this is the reason it works, in spite of aesthetic theories and theories of film making. For in it there unfolds with almost telluric force the power of Narrative in its natural state, without Art intervening to discipline it ... When all the archetypes burst in shamelessly, we reachHomeric depths. Two clichés make us laugh. A hundred clichés move us. For we sense dimly that the clichés are talking among themselves, and celebrating a reunion.[141]
Eco also singled out sacrifice as a theme: "the myth of sacrifice runs through the whole film".[142] It was this theme that resonated with a wartime audience who were reassured by the idea that painful sacrifice and going off to war could be romantic gestures done for the greater good.[143]
Koch also considered the film a politicalallegory. Rick is compared to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who gambled "on the odds of going to war until circumstance and his own submerged nobility force him to close his casino (partisan politics) and commit himself—first by financing the Side of Right and then by fighting for it". The connection is reinforced by the film's title, which means "white house".[144]
Harvey Greenberg presents aFreudian reading in hisThe Movies on Your Mind, in which the transgressions that prevent Rick from returning to the United States constitute anOedipus complex, which is resolved only when Rick begins to identify with the father figure of Laszlo and the cause that he represents.[145] Sidney Rosenzweig argues that such readings are reductive and that the most important aspect of the film is its ambiguity, above all in the central character of Rick; he cites the different names that each character gives Rick (Richard, Ricky, Mr. Rick, Herr Rick and boss) as evidence of the different meanings that he has for each person.[146]
Casablanca was initially released onBetamax andVHS byMagnetic Video and later byCBS/Fox Video (asUnited Artists owned the distribution rights at the time). In 1989, the Criterion Collection released alaserdisc release sourced from a nitrate print; this includes supplements such as an audio commentary by Ronald Haver, a treatment for an unreleased sequel and wartime footage of the city of Casablanca.[147] Criterion issued a CLV version of this in 1991 with only the film and commentary. It was next released on laserdisc in 1991, and on VHS in 1992—both fromMGM/UA Home Entertainment (distributing forTurner Entertainment Co.), which at the time was distributed byWarner Home Video. It was first released onDVD in 1998 by MGM, containing the trailer and a making-of featurette (Warner Home Video reissued the DVD in 2000). A subsequent two-disc special edition, containing an audio commentary by Roger Ebert, documentaries,Carrotblanca and a newly remastered visual and audio presentation, was released in 2003.[148]
AnHD DVD was released on November 14, 2006, containing the same special features as the 2003 DVD.[149] Reviewers were impressed with the new high-definition transfer of the film.[150]
ABlu-ray release with new special features came out on December 2, 2008; it is also available on DVD.[151] The Blu-ray was initially only released as an expensive gift set with a booklet, a luggage tag and other assorted gift-type items. It was eventually released as a stand-alone Blu-ray in September 2009. On March 27, 2012, Warner released a new 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition Blu-ray/DVD combo set. It includes a brand-new 4K restoration and new bonus material.[152][153] This 4K restoration was completed at Warner Bros. Digital Imaging from a nitrate print, because the original negative no longer exists.[154]
The film was also released onUltra HD Blu-ray in November 8, 2022.
Almost from the momentCasablanca became a hit, talk began of producing a sequel. One titledBrazzaville (in the final scene, Renault recommends fleeing to that Free French-held city) was planned, but never produced.[155] A newspaper article at the time mentioned that Bogart and Greenstreet "will continue their characterizations from the first film, and it's likely thatGeraldine Fitzgerald will have an important role".[156] Since then, no studio has seriously considered filming a sequel or outright remake.
François Truffaut refused an invitation to remake the film in 1974, citing itscult status among American students as his reason.[157] Attempts to recapture the magic ofCasablanca in other settings, such asCaboblanco (1980), "a South American-set retooling ofCasablanca",[158] andHavana (1990),[159] have been poorly received.
Stories of aCasablanca remake or sequel nonetheless persist. In 2008,Madonna was reported to be pursuing a remake set in modern-dayIraq.[160] In 2012, bothThe Daily Telegraph andEntertainment Weekly reported on efforts by Cass Warner, granddaughter ofHarry Warner and friend of the late Howard Koch, to produce a sequel featuring the search by Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund's illegitimate son for the whereabouts of his biological father.[161][162]
Several adaptations of the film were aired onradio. The two best-known are a thirty-minute adaptation onThe Screen Guild Theater on April 26, 1943, starring Bogart, Bergman, and Henreid, and an hour-long version on theLux Radio Theater on January 24, 1944, featuringAlan Ladd as Rick,Hedy Lamarr as Ilsa, andJohn Loder as Laszlo. Two other thirty-minute adaptations were aired, one onPhilip Morris Playhouse on September 3, 1943, and the other onTheater of Romance on December 19, 1944, in which Dooley Wilson reprised his role as Sam.[163]
The novelAs Time Goes By, written byMichael Walsh and published in 1998, was authorized by Warner.[165][166] The novel picks up where the film leaves off, and also tells of Rick's mysterious past in America. The book met with little success.[167]David Thomson provided an unofficial sequel in his 1985 novelSuspects.[168]
Julius Epstein made two attempts to turn the film into aBroadway musical, in 1951 and 1967, but neither made it to the stage.[169] The original play,Everybody Comes to Rick's, was produced inNewport, Rhode Island, in August 1946, and again in London in April 1991, but met with no success.[170] The film was adapted into a musical by theTakarazuka Revue, an all-female Japanese musical theater company, and ran from November 2009 through February 2010.[171]
CasablancaBox, written by Sara Farrington and directed by Reid Farrington, premiered in New York in 2017 and was an imagined "making of" the film. It was nominated for two 2017Drama Desk awards,Unique Theatrical Experience andOutstanding Projection Design. TheNew York Times described it as "a brave, almost foolhardy undertaking, presenting the backstage drama during the making ofCasablanca".[172]
Casablanca was part of thefilm colorization controversy of the 1980s,[173] when a colorized version aired on the television networkWTBS. In 1984,MGM/UA hired Color Systems Technology to colorize the film for $180,000. WhenTed Turner ofTurner Broadcasting System purchased MGM/UA's film library two years later, he canceled the request, before contracting American Film Technologies (AFT) in 1988. AFT completed the colorization in two months at a cost of $450,000. Turner later reacted to criticism of the colorization, saying, "[Casablanca] is one of a handful of films that really doesn't have to be colorized. I did it because I wanted to. All I'm trying to do is protect my investment."[174]
TheLibrary of Congress deemed that the color change differed so much from the original film that it gave a new copyright to Turner Entertainment. When the colorized film debuted on WTBS, it was watched by three million viewers, failing to make the top-ten viewed cable shows for the week. Although Jack Matthews of theLos Angeles Times called the finished product "state of the art", it was mostly met with negative critical reception. It was briefly available on home video. Gary Edgerton, writing for theJournal of Popular Film & Television criticized the colorization, stating that "Casablanca in color ended up being much blander in appearance and, overall, much less visually interesting than its 1942 predecessor."[174] Bogart's son, Stephen, said, "if you're going to colorizeCasablanca, why not put arms on theVenus de Milo?"[157]
Several unfounded rumors and misconceptions have grown around the film, one being thatRonald Reagan was originally chosen to play Rick. This originated in a press release issued by the studio early on in the film's development. By that time the studio already knew that he was going into the Army, and he was never seriously considered.[175]George Raft claimed that he had turned down the lead role but studio records make it clear that Wallis was committed to Bogart from the start.[176]
Another story is that the actors did not know until the last day of shooting how the film was to end. Koch later acknowledged:
When we began, we didn't have a finished script ... Ingrid Bergman came to me and said, "Which man should I love more ...?" I said to her, "I don't know ... play them both evenly." You see we didn't have an ending, so we didn't know what was going to happen![177]
While rewrites did occur during filming, Aljean Harmetz's examination of the scripts has shown that many of the key scenes were shot after Bergman knew how the film would end; any confusion was, according to critic Roger Ebert, "emotional", not "factual".[16]
The film has several logical flaws, one being the "letters of transit" that enable their bearers to leave Vichy French territory. Ugarte says the letters had been signed by (depending on the listener) either Vichy GeneralWeygand or Free French Generalde Gaulle. The French subtitles on the official DVD read Weygand, the English ones de Gaulle. Weygand had been the Vichy delegate-general for theNorth African colonies until November 1941, a month before the film is set. De Gaulle was the head of the Free Frenchgovernment in exile, so a letter signed by him would have provided no benefit.[61] The letters were invented as aMacGuffin by Joan Alison for the original play and never questioned.[178]
In the same vein, though Laszlo asserts that the Nazis cannot arrest him, saying, "This is still unoccupied France; any violation of neutrality would reflect on Captain Renault", Ebert points out, "It makes no sense that he could walk around freely. ... He would be arrested on sight."[16] No uniformed German troops were stationed in Casablanca during World War II, and neither American nor French troops occupied Berlin in 1918, despite Renault's retort to Strasser, who calls Rick a "blundering American".[61]
A line closely associated withCasablanca—"Play it again, Sam"—is not spoken in the film.[179][180] When Ilsa first enters the Café Américain, she spots Sam and asks him, "Play it once, Sam, for old times' sake." After he feigns ignorance, she responds, "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By'." Later that night, alone with Sam, Rick says, "You played it for her, you can play it for me", and "If she can stand it, I can! Play it!"[181]
^Schatz, Thomas (1999).Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s. University of California Press. p. 218.ISBN978-0-520-22130-7.
^abcWarner Bros financial information in "The William Schaefer Ledger". See Appendix 1,Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television (1995) 15:sup 1, 1–31 p. 23doi:10.1080/01439689508604551
^abStein, Eliot (May 1995)."Howard Koch, Julius Epstein, Frank Miller Interview".Vincent's Casablanca.Archived from the original on April 30, 2008. RetrievedJune 11, 2008. Frank Miller: "There was a scene planned, after the ending, that would have shown Rick and Renault on an Allied ship just prior to the landing at Casablanca, but plans to shoot it were scrapped when the marketing department realized they had to get the film out fast to capitalize on the liberation of North Africa."
^abEbert, Roger (December 9, 2009)."Movie Answer Man".Chicago Sun-Times.Archived from the original on July 8, 2014. RetrievedJune 28, 2014. RogerEbert.com
^Ebert, Roger (December 23, 2009)."Movie Answer Man".Chicago Sun-Times.Archived from the original on July 9, 2014. RetrievedJune 28, 2014. RogerEbert.com
^Harmetz 1992, pp. 53–54 -Casablanca – You Must Remember This ... A Tribute to Casablanca (Blu-ray Disc).Warner Home Video. February 2, 2010. Event occurs at 4:36.
^Eco, Umberto (1994). Sonia Maasik; Jack Solomon (eds.).Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. Bedford Books.
^Gabbard, Krin;Gabbard, Glen O. (1990). "Play It Again, Sigmund: Psychoanalysis and the Classical Hollywood Text".Journal of Popular Film and Television.18 (1):6–17.doi:10.1080/01956051.1990.9943650.
^Klinger, Barbara (2015). "Pre-cult: Casablanca, radio adaptation, and transmedia in the 1940s".New Review of Film and Television Studies.13:45–62.doi:10.1080/17400309.2014.982900.S2CID191655019.
Isenberg, Noah (2017).We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.ISBN978-0-393-24312-3.
McGilligan, Pat (1986).Backstory: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood's Golden Age. Berkeley, CA / Los Angeles: University of California Press.ISBN978-0-520-05666-4.
"Casablanca" essay by Jay Carr at National Film Registry
"Casablanca" essay by Daniel Eagan inAmerica's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010ISBN0826429777, pp. 356–358
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