Casablanca (film)

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Movie
German title Casablanca
Original title Casablanca
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1942
length 102 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Michael Curtiz
script Julius J. Epstein ,
Philip G. Epstein ,
Howard Koch
production Hal B. Wallis ,
Jack L. Warner
for Warner Bros.
music Max Steiner
camera Arthur Edeson
cut Owen Marks
occupation
synchronization

Casablanca is an American love story of Michael Curtiz from the year 1942 . He also combines style elements of a melodrama with those of an adventure and crime film . Casablanca was created under the impact of World War II and contains a strong political component through Hollywood's action against Nazi Germany .

Casablanca is a classic of the cinema and is still very popular today. Some quotes from Casablanca are among the most famous in film history. The main actors Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman are mainly associated with their roles in Casablanca today , although both were among the most successful actors of their generation and have worked in numerous major productions before and after. The American Film Institute voted Casablanca the best US romance film of all time in 2002 and the third best US film of all time in 2007.

plot

Casablanca during the Second World War: France has been conquered and partially occupied by the German Wehrmacht , but not the French protectorate of Morocco , which belongs to French North Africa and is thus administered by the Vichy regime . Many flee to Casablanca in order to get hold of a flight to neutral Lisbon , from where they hope to be able to get on to America. Most of them do not get beyond Casablanca, however, as the corrupt French police chief Capitaine Louis Renault , who is responsible for issuing the necessary visas, works with the Germans.

The film begins with the news that two German officers were murdered in North Africa and their transit visas stolen, whereupon the police arrested all suspects (especially refugees and those who emigrated to Casablanca) and examined their papers (the man who appeared in the opening sequence being shot while escaping is not the culprit).

Shortly afterwards, the German major Strasser arrives in Casablanca, who is received by Louis Renault. The reason for his stay is the famous and influential Czechoslovak resistance fighter Victor László , who has escaped the Nazis several times and is now on his way to Casablanca. Strasser wants to prevent László from leaving for America with his wife Ilsa Lund . After Strasser's arrival, Renault informed Strasser that they had already identified the Italian Ugarte as the murderer of the German officers and that they would arrest him that same evening in the Rick's Café Américain nightclub , in front of Strasser's eyes, to demonstrate the efficiency of the police.

The nightclub Rick's Café Américain , run by the American Richard " Rick" Blaine , is a meeting place for many emigrants in Casablanca. Rick smuggled arms for the Italian-attacked Ethiopia in the 1930s and fought on the side of the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. In the meantime, however, he has become a disaffected cynic who, as he says, is no longer interested in turning his head for others. Since Renault only issues transit visas against payment with large sums of money or sex, there are also shady characters like the Italians Ugarte and Ferrari who offer visas on the black market. Shortly before his arrest, Ugarte gave Rick the two transit visas with the request that he keep them for him. Rick hides the documents in his pianist Sam's piano . However, Ugarte is killed by police after he is arrested. Renault suspects that Rick has the two visas, but cannot prove it, and they are not found even in a search of the Café Américain.

In search of useful contacts, László and Ilsa go to Rick's bar, unaware that Ilsa and Rick had a passionate affair with each other in Paris a year earlier , while László was in German captivity. Ilsa recognizes Sam and asks him to play the song As Time Goes By , as he always did for her in Paris. When Rick hears the song he had forbidden Sam to play, he storms in and is shocked by the sight of Ilsa. He had wanted to leave Paris with her when the Germans marched into France, but Ilsa had not appeared at the agreed meeting point and had merely let him know in a letter that she could not go with him.

When Ilsa visits Rick in his nightclub after curfew, he is drunk and cynical and reproachful towards her, so she will leave soon. Ilsa does not want to explain her behavior to Rick the next day either, because he has changed so much that she does not expect any understanding from him.

László is trying to get visas all over Casablanca. When he is advised to try it with Rick, he refuses to help the rival, offended because of Ilsa. He doesn't even give in when Ilsa threatens him late at night with a gun, but turns around when she reveals to him that she still loves him, while on the other hand it turns out that she had already been married to László during the affair in Paris, thought he was dead - on the day of his departure she had found out that László was still alive and had returned to him.

Rick is preparing to leave Casablanca. He sells his café to his competitor Ferrari and offers Renault to deliver László to him with a solid allegation if he and Ilsa are allowed to leave unmolested in return. Renault agrees, especially since he has made a big bet with Rick on whether László will manage to escape. At a bogus meeting, Rick gives László the two transit visas, but when Renault tries to arrest László with them, Rick stops him at gunpoint and drives Renault, Ilsa and László to the airport.

At the airport, Rick urges Ilsa to go with László, who needs her more than himself. Ilsa hesitates, but Rick assures László that the Paris affair is a thing of the past. László and Ilsa get on the plane. As it was just rolling in, Strasser, who had been informed by Renault, arrived at the airport alone and immediately tried by telephone to get the aircraft to be banned from taking off from the tower. Rick, at gunpoint, tells Strasser not to do so, and finally shoots him as Strasser tries to continue to reach the tower. Renault discovers its patriotism and instructs the rushing gendarmes to arrest "the usual suspects" for the murder of Strasser, even though he has seen exactly what happened.

After this affair, Rick also has to go into hiding for a while. Renault offers Rick to issue him a visa. The film ends with the words of Rick, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship".

Historical background 1942

Casablanca (Morocco)
Casablanca (33 ° 35 ′ 13 ″ N, 7 ° 36 ′ 40 ″ W)
Casablanca
Casablanca in North Africa

The Reich Citizenship Act of 1935 made German Jews, as “members of non-racial ethnic groups”, second-class citizens. Up to 300,000 Jews left Germany between 1933 and 1941. The German-Soviet non-aggression pact paralyzed communist resistance across Europe. On January 30, 1939, Hitler threatened the "annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe" in the event of a new world war. During the war, the German occupiers installed puppet regimes in many countries. From autumn 1941 at the latest, Jews were forbidden to leave the country legally. Himmler's deputy, Reinhard Heydrich , had all Jews in Poland deported to ghettos and concentration camps. In occupied Poland , after the Wannsee Conference in 1942, the systematic deportation, enslavement and murder of Jews from all over Europe began. On June 10, 1942, after the Prague assassination attempt on Heydrich, the Czech town of Lidice (German: Liditz) was razed to the ground by the SS .

Paris fell on June 14, 1940. The Blitz threatened London, and on June 22, 1941 , Hitler invaded the Soviet Union . US President Franklin D. Roosevelt was able to end the isolationism deeply rooted in the population after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The American population was attuned to the war situation and the film factories were harnessed for propaganda purposes with the help of the United States Office of War Information . Hitler was still victorious. The British fortress of Tobruk fell in Libya in June . The US increased its aid supplies and sent troops. On November 8, 1942, the Allied invasion of North Africa began . In January 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill met at the Casablanca Conference in the Moroccan port city . At the Tehran Conference in late 1943, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin formed an alliance.

production

template

As a template for the film, the unproduced play served Everybody Comes to Rick's (Everyone goes in Rick's Bar) by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison from the year 1940th

On December 8, 1941, the day the United States entered the war, the stage work was sent to the Warner Bros. production company . The script editor in charge, Stephen Karnot, described it as "demanding kitsch" and predicted that the material had great potential for success. For the main role he suggested Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney or George Raft , who at that time were primarily cast as villains.

On December 22, 1941, Warner Bros. secured the rights to the play. The authors received $ 20,000, an unusually large sum for the time. An offer from the production company MGM for $ 5,000 had previously been rejected.

In a memorandum dated December 31, producer Hal B. Wallis changed the title of the production in Casablanca . Presumably he wanted to build on the success of the United Artists film Algiers from 1938, which was also named after an African city. Wallis said: "This could actually be another Algiers - a romantic story in an exotic setting."

script

The first writers hired to write the script were Eneas MacKenzie and Wally Kline, but they left the project after six weeks. In February 1942, Warner Bros. hired twins Julius and Philip Epstein . They mostly added humorous elements to the story, including most of the dialogues between Rick and Louis. They were also responsible for the beginning of the story.

When the Epsteins had completed the first third of the script in April, the material was forwarded to Howard Koch for revision . This focused more on the political and melodramatic aspects of the plot.

The scenes in which Ilsa and Rick meet alone in the café are mostly from Casey Robinson, who is not mentioned in the opening credits. The director Michael Curtiz made sure that the romance was not neglected and developed, among other things, the scenes that take place in Paris. Individual lines and ideas from the script were also contributed by producer Hal B. Wallis, including the famous closing sentence "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship."

The last scene, which was repeatedly rewritten, caused the authors particularly big problems. The main difficulty was making Rick's decision to let Ilsa go plausible. At times it was even considered whether Victor would die or Ilsa would stay with Rick.

On April 22, 1942, three days before filming began, the Epsteins completed work on their part of the script. Howard Koch didn't finish his part until three weeks later.

The Hays censorship authority objected to some parts of the script . Louis' remark "You enjoy was. I enjoy women " became " You like war. I like women ” changed. The line "Sometimes they [women] might be rationed" was replaced by "Sometimes they might be scarce" . A big point of contention was the affair between Rick and Ilsa in Paris, since Ilsa was already married to Victor at this point. However, since she assumed that he had died in a concentration camp, the scenes in question were ultimately approved.

In order not to interfere with the marketing of the film in other countries, the production company insisted that all unsympathetic characters should belong to warring nations. Therefore Ferrari, Ugarte and the Pickpocket are of Italian origin.

Even years after the publication of Casablanca , there were repeated disputes between the various authors. In 1973, Howard Koch wrote in an article in New York Magazine that he was solely responsible for the script. He later apologized for this claim. Julius Epstein said in the 1970s that Casablanca was one of his worst films and he was tired of talking about it all the time.

Director and camera

Hal B. Wallis' first choice to direct was William Wyler , who was not available. Wallis then turned to his good friend Michael Curtiz, whose fee was around $ 73,000. The recordings of the second unit were made under the direction of the later director Don Siegel .

Arthur Edeson , who had previously worked on films such as Frankenstein and The Trail of the Falcon , was hired as cameraman . A special for the close-ups of Ingrid Bergman used Edeson gauze - filter , the soft, her face "sad, gentle and nostalgic" should it appear. Targeted lighting gave her eyes additional shine. Bergman was mostly picked up from her left side, which she thought was her better. Therefore, it is often on the right side of the picture.

music

The film music was composed by Max Steiner . As Time Goes By by Herman Hupfeld was already used in the Everybody Comes To Rick’s template . Steiner hated the song and said it was far too primitive for a love song. His plan to subsequently replace it with a composition of his own failed because Ingrid Bergman had already cut her hair short for the film Whom the Hour Strikes and therefore re-shooting was no longer an option.

In a 1943 interview, Steiner admitted that As Time Goes By must have something about it because the song was so successful.

Much of the Casablanca film music consists of variations of As Time Goes By and the French national anthem Marseillaise . When the German officers sang the song Die Wacht am Rhein demonstratively in Rick's bar, the band, at László's request and Rick's nod in agreement, uses the Marseillaise, and for a few bars both pieces are played together as a musically skilful Quodlibet . Originally they wanted to use the Horst Wessel song for this scene , which at that time was practically the unofficial German national anthem and therefore had a far greater symbolic power. However, since it was still under copyright protection in some countries , a different decision was made.

Other pieces to be heard in Casablanca include It Had to Be You by Isham Jones , Shine by Ford Dabney and Perfidia by Alberto Domínguez . The only song written specifically for the film is Knock on Wood by Maurice K. Jerome .

occupation

From January to March 1942, test recordings and auditions took place. On January 5, 1942, an article in The Hollywood Reporter magazine announced that Ann Sheridan , Dennis Morgan and Ronald Reagan would star in Casablanca. In retrospect, however, this message turned out to be false. The cast was unusually international for a Hollywood film, only three of the actors mentioned in the opening credits were born in the USA, the country of production. Many of the actors and crew members at Casablanca were of European descent - not just director Mihály Kertész , who moved to Hollywood in 1926 - including Hungarians, Russians, Austrians, French and Swedes. The international character of the cast and the personal fate of the actors gave the film a very authentic note.

Ingrid Bergman

Humphrey Bogart had only become a star a year before with The Trace of the Falcon (1941), after he had previously mostly only been a supporting actor. Rick was Bogart's first romantic role, although in its cynical manner it also shares traits from Bogart's previous gangster roles. Contrary to many rumors, Bogart was the first choice for the role of Rick, even if Jack L. Warner also considered gangster movie star George Raft . On February 14, 1942 it was clear that Bogart would take over the part. His fee was $ 36,667. Also Ingrid Bergman brought a career boost the film like Bogart, though it had come from Sweden to Hollywood in 1939, but she could to Casablanca make little attention. In addition to her, Hedy Lamarr and Michèle Morgan were also shortlisted for the role of Ilsa . Originally, Morgan was supposed to take on the role. When she asked for $ 55,000, however, they chose Ingrid Bergman instead, who took on the role for $ 25,000. Bergman was under contract with MGM at the time and was loaned out by Warner Bros. in exchange with Olivia de Havilland . On April 22, 1942, after she got the part, she wrote to her friend Ruth Roberts: “I was warm and cold at the same time. (...) The film is called Casablanca and I really have no idea what it's about. "

Paul Henreid was cast as Victor Laszlo, Ilsa's husband and freedom fighter against the National Socialists. The Austrian Henreid was initially against accepting the role of Victor László because he feared he would be pigeonholed. Only when he was assured of third place in the opening credits and a fee of $ 25,000 did he consent on May 1, 1942. Before it became available, Herbert Marshall , Dean Jagger and Joseph Cotten, among others, were considered for the part . Henreid got on well neither with Ingrid Bergman nor with Humphrey Bogart, the latter he described as a mediocre actor. Claude Rains , one of the most popular character actors in Hollywood at the time, was cast as Captain Renault . In other supporting roles also play Peter Lorre as Signor Ugarte and Sydney Greenstreet as Signor Ferrari, the most frequently encountered each other in movies and as Bogart's opponent in The Maltese Falcon were seen. Pianist Sam was played by Dooley Wilson . He was the only actor in the film who had ever been to Casablanca. Since he was a drummer, he couldn't really play the piano. Hal Wallis originally considered giving the role of Sam to an actress. Hazel Scott , Lena Horne and Ella Fitzgerald were shortlisted. After the Casablanca release , Wilson received 5,000 fan letters a week.

The actors in minor supporting roles include Dan Seymour as Abdul (bouncer of Ricks Cafe); Gregory Gaye (German banker in Ricks Cafe), Leo White , Gino Corrado and Paul Panzer as waiters in Ricks Cafe; Norma Varden as the wife of the Englishman; Olaf Hytten as the robbed man in Rick's Cafe, Torben Meyer as the bank president from Amsterdam; William Edmunds as a seedy smuggler in the cafe; Frank Puglia as an Arab trader, as well as George Meeker and the former silent film stars Monte Blue and Creighton Hale . The Canadian bass-baritone singer George London also makes a small appearance as the singer of the Marseillaise . The Mexican singer Corinna Mura plays the song Tango Delle Rose on her guitar . Allegedly, celebrity comedian Jack Benny is said to have a cameo as an extra, but this is considered controversial.

Personal fates

Conrad Veidt

Many of the crew members were of Jewish origin, including director Curtiz, three screenwriters and composer Max Steiner. Many of the actors had also fled Europe:

  • Paul Henreid as Victor László. The young Austrian fled during Austrofascism and the later annexation of Austria to the Third Reich. First in Great Britain and later in Hollywood, he was able to establish himself as a film star, unlike most of the emigrated actors.
  • Conrad Veidt as Major Heinrich Strasser. Veidt was through Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari became a German film star in 1920 and was one of the highest paid actors at UFA . Because his wife was Jewish, he had left Germany in 1933 and gone to Hollywood, where he regularly played Nazis. He got the role of Major Strasser because he was asking $ 2,000 less per week than the originally planned Austrian Otto Preminger . It was his penultimate film, as he died unexpectedly of a heart attack the next year.
  • Peter Lorre as Signore Ugarte, who deals in Visa on the black market. Because of his Jewish descent, the Austrian emigrated to the USA. He became world famous as the murderer in German crime classic M .
  • SZ Sakall as Carl, the head waiter in Rick's Cafe. The Hungarian Jew fled Germany in 1939. His three sisters later died in concentration camps.
  • Madeleine Lebeau as Yvonne, Rick's neglected lover; and Marcel Dalio as Emil, croupier in Ricks Café. The couple Lebeau and Dalio left France because of Dalio's Jewish origins. The flight from France to the USA was headlong during the war. Dalio had previously been a well-known actor in French films, but because of his accent he was only offered smaller roles in Hollywood for the most part. His family, whom he had left behind in France, perished in the Nazi concentration camps. Dalio filed for divorce from Lebeau while filming was still in progress. As the last member of the cast, Lebeau died in Spain in 2016.
  • Curt Bois as the pickpocket. Even as a child, the Jewish Bois was a successful actor. After fleeing the Hitler regime, he had to make ends meet in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s, mostly with minor roles. He later returned to Germany.
  • Helmut Dantine as the Bulgarian Jan Brandel, who tries to earn money for visas for his wife (played by Joy Page ) and at the roulette table . Dantine was the son of Jewish parents who joined an anti-Nazi movement and was imprisoned in an internment camp for three months . Shortly afterwards he emigrated to the United States to live with an acquaintance of his parents. You yourself perished in the concentration camp during the Nazi regime . In 1943 he became a US citizen and was drafted into the army.
  • Lutz Altschul as a refugee in Rick's café. Shortly after the annexation of Austria , the Jewish actor fled to the USA and changed his name to Louis V. Arco .
  • Trude Berliner as a baccarat player in Rick's Cafe. In 1933 she emigrated to the Netherlands via Prague, Vienna and Paris. There she met Rudolf Nelson, who had also emigrated, and played in his theater. When the Wehrmacht invaded in 1940, they fled to the USA via Lisbon. She appeared here, among other things, in a cabaret in New York and received a few small roles in films.
  • Lotte Palfi-Andor as the woman in Rick's Cafe who has to sell her diamonds. Lotte Mosbacher, who comes from a middle-class Jewish family, worked as an aspiring stage actress in Darmstadt, among other places. She and her first husband, film editor Viktor Palfi , fled to the United States via France and Spain in 1934 . The couple later separated. Her mother Betty, née Katzenstein, died in 1942 in the Litzmannstadt ghetto . In the United States, Palfi-Andor initially found no work and temporarily had to stay afloat as a cook and butler. She made her Hollywood debut in 1939. She married Wolfgang Zilzer in 1943, who also played in Casablanca .
  • Wolfgang Zilzer as the man with the expired papers who is shot in the opening scene of the film. In 1937 he left Germany final and he was born in the United States, he was automatically owned by the local citizenship . For appearances in anti-Nazi strips, Zilzer initially chose the pseudonym John Voight (also Voigt ) so as not to endanger his father, who was still living in Berlin. Nevertheless , at the beginning of the Second World War , his father Max Zilzer , also an actor, was confronted with photos of his son from the anti-Nazi film Confessions of a Nazi Spy during a Gestapo interrogation . Wolfgang Zilzer married Lotte Andor in 1943, who also starred in the film.
Ilka Grüning in 1898
  • Ilka Grüning as Frau Leuchtag, a refugee in Rick's café. The Jewess was considered an important theater and film actress in Germany, who at times ran her own drama school. She fled Germany in 1938 in the direction of France and emigrated to the USA in early February 1939. There, however, she had to be content with small film roles.
  • Ludwig Stössel as Mr. Leuchtag, the husband of Mrs. Leuchtag. After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, the Jewish actor went to Vienna and worked there at the Raimund Theater. After the annexation of Austria, he emigrated with his wife Lore Birn via Paris to London, where he took part in two British film productions. In 1939 he came to the USA and got his first film role there in 1940.
  • Richard Révy as Strasser's companion, Captain Heinze. He was an Austrian Jew.
  • Hans Heinrich von Twardowski as the German officer who visits Ricks café with Yvonne. The homosexual actor left Germany in 1930.

Filming

The shooting of Casablanca (production number 410) began on May 25, 1942. At this point the script was still not ready; Michael Curtiz worked so quickly that he soon caught up with the writers.

The scenes in Paris were the first to be shot. Most of the recordings took place in the studio. Rick's Café was modeled after the El Minzah Hotel in Tangier and was priced at $ 9,200. Many of the sets, such as the Paris train station, were from old Warner Bros. productions, including The Desert Song from 1929.

With the United States at war, filming at the airport was banned after dark and the tarmac had to be recreated in the studio. The speech sequences in the last scene were therefore shot in the studio in front of scaled-down balsa wood models of the aircraft. In order to hide this fact, the background was wrapped in artificial fog , while the mechanics were represented by small extras. The engine start sequence and the take-off flight sequence were filmed in one night with a real Lockheed Model 12 at the then city airport of Los Angeles (now Van Nuys Airport ) due to an agreement with the 4th interception squadron of the US Air Force . The scene with Major Strasser's arrival at the airport was also shot at Van Nuys Airport.

In order to compensate for the difference in size between Ingrid Bergman and the five centimeter smaller Humphrey Bogart, the director placed Bogart on a box or in seated scenes on cushions in many scenes.

Dooley Wilson , who played Sam, was a trained drummer and singer. He had to learn to play the piano extra for his role; Songs were originally sung by him.

Some of the film's best-known dialogues emerged during the shooting. The line “Here's looking at you, kid” (in the German dubbed version “I see you in the eyes, little one” ), a toast, was improvised by Humphrey Bogart (the script read: “Here's good luck to you” ). He had said that sentence eight years earlier in Midnight . Michael Curtiz liked the phrase so much that he used it a lot. The last line of the film "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" was added at the suggestion of producer Hal B. Wallis. Bogart recorded it in a recording studio after filming was finished. "Louis, I begin to see a reason for your sudden attack of patriotism. While you defend your country you also protect your investment ” , “ If you ever die a hero's death, Heaven protect the angels ” and “ Louis, I might have known you'd mix your patriotism with a little larceny ” were alternative suggestions that were not were used.

Filming was completed on August 3, 1942. It premiered on November 26, 1942 at the Warner Hollywood Theater in New York.

Film budget and box office income

The script grew with the filming. The cost was $ 950,000. Bergman was loaned out by MGM studios to save costs on stars that would have been more expensive.

A number of emigrants played in the film, some of whom took on extra roles. The roles of the emigrants, be they extras or actors, were often completely contrary to their own fate, as was the case with Conrad Veidt in the role of the German major Strasser.

The box office results are said to have brought in 3.5 or 4 million US dollars when they were first exploited. Secondary radio exploitations and several reprints followed.

reception

In the United States

Warner promoted Casablanca as "the greatest and most contemporary film ever seen" . You can already see from the cast how important it is. Two test screenings were held in Huntington Park and Pasadena , California on September 22, 1942 . The audience reactions were consistently positive. The film premiered on November 26, 1942 at the Hollywood Theater in New York . Only a few days earlier, the city of Casablanca had been liberated by Allied forces.

On January 14, 1943, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt met in Casablanca for a conference in which they determined the further conduct of the war. Warner Bros. used this promotional circumstance for marketing purposes. On January 23, 1943, Casablanca was released in cinemas across the country.

The film was a commercial success, grossing $ 3.7 million in the United States alone. However, this made it only the seventh most successful production of 1943. Casablanca received mostly positive reviews from the critics . The journal Variety described it as great propaganda against the Axis powers , whereas the New Yorker found the film only "quite passable" . In a survey of 439 film critics carried out by Film Daily magazine in late 1943, Casablanca was ranked fifth among the best films of the year.

The song As Time Goes By , which had already been composed in 1931, achieved subsequent fame through Casablanca and stayed in the charts for 21 weeks. At the Academy Awards in 1943, the film won three Academy Awards.

Casablanca's popularity has remained unbroken to this day. In the United States, the film is televised more than any other. During the 1950s, the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, USA , began holding a Casablanca screening in the final week of exams at Harvard University . This tradition continues to this day and has also been adopted by other universities. Casablanca is also considered to be one of the most widely published films and which, even after more than 60 years, continues to be the subject of a large number of new publications.

Howard Koch tried to explain the success with the fact that the audience needed the film. It was about values ​​that are worth making sacrifices for. And that message was conveyed in a very entertaining way. Murray Burnett, the author of the play, described Casablanca as "true yesterday, true today, true tomorrow" .

In the Federal Republic, German dubbing

When Casablanca was released in German cinemas on August 29, 1952, the film hardly contained any references to the Second World War. All scenes with Major Strasser and other Nazis had been cut out. The scene when the Germans sing Die Wacht am Rhein and are sung down by French patriots with the Marseillaise was also missing. Victor László became Victor Larsen, a Norwegian atomic physicist who discovered the enigmatic delta rays . Capitaine Renault was renamed Monsieur Laporte and was now a member of Interpol .

In this 25-minute shortened version, Casablanca was more of a harmless romance than a propaganda film against the National Socialists and the Vichy regime. It was not until October 5, 1975 that ARD broadcast the unabridged and newly dubbed version, which is known to this day. Wolfgang Schick wrote the German dialogue book and directed the dubbing.

The film was first shown on television in the GDR on September 6, 1983.

role actor Dubbing (1952) Dubbing (1975)
Richard "Rick" Blaine Humphrey Bogart Paul Klinger Joachim Kemmer
Ilsa Lund Ingrid Bergman Marianne Kehlau Rose-Marie Kirstein
Victor Laszlo Paul Henreid Ernst von Klipstein Christian Rode
Captain Louis Renault Claude Rains Ernst Fritz Fürbringer Claus Biederstaedt
Major Heinrich Strasser Conrad Veidt Unavailable Wolfgang Preiss
Signor Ferrari Sydney Greenstreet Wolf Martini Gerhard Geisler
Sam, pianist Dooley Wilson Gerhard Geisler Wolfgang Hess
Carl, head waiter SZ Sakall Bum Kruger Franz Stoss
Guillermo Ugarte Peter Lorre Walter Bluhm Horst Gentzen
Sascha, bartender Leonid Kinskey Anton Reimer Peter Thom
Pickpocket Curt Bois also Anton Reimer Gerd Vespermann
Rejected German banker Gregory Gaye also Anton Reimer Eberhard Mondry
Arab trader Frank Puglia also Anton Reimer Donald Arthur
Robbed Englishman Gerald Oliver Smith also Bum Kruger Paul Bürks
Yvonne, Rick's lover Madeleine Lebeau Heidi Treutler
Berger, underground fighter John torments Horst Raspe
Captain Heinze, Strasser's companion Richard Révy Günter Strack
Abdul, bouncer Dan Seymour also Donald Arthur
Mr. Leuchtag, refugee Ludwig Stössel Leo Bardischewski
German officer with Yvonne Hans Heinrich von Twardowski Holger Hagen
teller Lou Marcelle also Holger Hagen

Film historical reception

In addition to Chaplin's The Great Dictator and Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be , Casablanca is one of the Hollywood films known in German-speaking countries that dealt with National Socialism and were released in cinemas in the early 1940s. While Charlie Chaplin and Ernst Lubitsch chose the comedic approach, Casablanca shows the situation of the refugees as a thriller .

Sources like Norbert F. Pötzl suggest that Casablanca is a propaganda film. Ferrari's response to Rick's refusal to sell the bar with the mention of "isolationism" makes no sense in terms of content. On the other hand, it makes sense when considering the attitude of the USA towards the war in Europe. In order to circumvent the dislike of half of Americans towards Jews, the origin of most of the refugees was never mentioned: the word Jews did not appear in the film.

A well-known scene is the vocal war : in this scene Major Strasser is singing Die Wacht am Rhein at the piano in Rick's bar . The Germans, however, are drowned out by all the other guests in the bar, who, at László's initiative, stand up and sing the republican Marseillaise , which Corinna Mura intoned and supported by the orchestra at Rick's suggestion . The Germans resign. Originally, Warner wanted the Horst Wessel song to be sung as a German Nazi song. But the copyrights were held by a German company and the producers feared it could be used in international film distribution .

The origin of the resistance fighter is also on the agenda - Victor László - a Czechoslovakian with a Hungarian name, who stands for (Central) Europe suffering from fascism and National Socialism. At the beginning the police shoot an undocumented refugee in front of a poster for Marshal Pétain, at the end of the film there is a scene in which police captain Renault throws a bottle of Vichy water into the rubbish bin. Vichy was the seat of the Vichy regime of Field Marshal Pétain , collaborating with the Nazis , whose influence on North Africa was completely unclear at the time.

Media reference effect

Due to its great popularity, entire scenes, individual shots or dialog sentences from Casablanca have been copied, quoted and parodied in numerous other films, television series or songs over the course of time. One of the most famous parodies is One Night in Casablanca by the Marx Brothers (1946). Peter Falk shone in 1978 in Der Schmalspurschnüffler , a Bogart parody that satirized every important scene from Casablanca . The play and film of the same name by Woody Allen Mach’s also deals with Bogart and the film Casablanca , Sam .

Movie reviews

“The exciting, sometimes witty melodrama with a contemporary background is less impressive because of its colportage than because of its optical refinement, representational precision, dramaturgical timing and a dense atmosphere. An evergreen of perfect cinema entertainment. "

- Lexicon of International Films 1987

“Oppressively nobly carried out triangular conflict, not without tension so artfully complicated that all three stay alive: Ingrid Bergman, smiling lovingly as only she can, sometimes dropping a tear; Humphrey Bogart as a bar owner, an American in Casablanca, capable of many things; Paul Henreid as a lamp of the natural sciences at the time a political refugee, Peter Lorre plays a man who murdered. In the leading roles of World War II and Casablanca, transfer quarters for shipwrecked people of all kinds. Better Hollywood clothing. "

- Der Spiegel , September 1952 (based on the disfiguring first German cut version and dubbing)

"Humphrey Bogart is so tough that at one point he looks like Buster Keaton who plays Paul Gauguin."

- Time , November 1942

“Casablanca is a symbol for a place that exists independently of the actual film events and the temporal circumstances, and that makes a film timeless, which for many in the times of war was perhaps above all a romance film and an“ anti-fascist propaganda film ”. It encompasses the feeling of waiting in a world in which horror, horror, despair and death are concentrated in a "social machine" that will seemingly inexorably shatter everything. In this respect, Rick's “Café Américain” is perhaps not just a vanishing point, but also a sign of another world. The characters in this film - apart from Major Strasser, who is nothing but a cog in the machinery - are not just cheaters, loners, thieves, [...] black market traders. They are - apart from all faults, character deficiencies, etc. - connected with one another - contrary to the unscrupulous expectations of their persecutors. "

- Ulrich Behrens : film headquarters

"A love, adventure, espionage, anti-Nazi and nostalgia film that founded the Bogart myth: the cult and kitsch film of the long goodbye."

- Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz : Lexicon "Films on TV" (rating: 3½ stars = exceptional)

"Well played ripper."

- 6000 films. Handbook of Catholic Film Critics.

“There are films based on more famous literary models, of which less language is remembered than of the film 'Casablanca'. Four sentences from this cinematic pleasure have become immortal literature, namely: 'Play it again, Sam' and 'Look me in the eyes, little one' and 'Arrest the usual suspects' and' I think this is the beginning of one wonderful friendship '. Sentences that are used somewhere and at some point are always recognized as quotations from 'Casablanca'. "

- Walter Laufenberg, film review "Casablanca"

“A milestone in cinema history that won three Academy Awards in 1943 (best film, best director, best screenplay). The airport farewell scene with Bogie and Ingrid Bergman will also not be forgotten. "

- prism-online

“[…] 'Casablanca' has definitely become a legend. No other American film has saved its popularity so easily over the decades, […] The dialogues between the two have long been part of American folklore, as has Dooley Wilson's infinitely melancholy song 'As Time Goes By' and the film's final sentence: 'Louis 'I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship [...] Casablanca', still the most impressive example of the vanished virtues of classic American studio cinema, perfectly staged and played in a dreamlike manner [...]. "

- The time June 1974

“Even if you watch the film over and over again year after year, it never becomes too familiar. It's like your favorite music album, the better you get to know it, the more you appreciate it. "

- Roger Ebert : September 1996

“Casablanca is a film with a relationship with the audience that no other film has achieved. It's a 60 year old love affair that's still as fresh as when you first met. Every time you sit down to look it is the beginning of a wonderful friendship "

- Guardian November 2002

Trivia

  • The model for the person of Viktor László was the Czech resistance fighter Jan Smudek , who stayed in Casablanca under the name Charles Legrand on his escape from the fascists.
  • The French-Belgian pop singer Sonia Dronier is named after the resistance fighter from the film Viktor Lazlo .

Awards

Casablanca was nominated for eight Academy Awards in 1944 , including in the categories of Best Actor (Humphrey Bogart), Best Supporting Actor (Claude Rains), Best Black & White Camera (Arthur Edeson), Best Editing (Owen Marks) and Best Film Music (Max Steiner). It won awards for Best Film (Hal B. Wallis), Best Director (Michael Curtiz) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Julius and Philip Epstein, Howard Koch).

When Hal B. Wallis was about to accept the Oscar for Best Picture, Warner Bros. founder Jack L. Warner came before him and went on stage in his place. The incident hit the headlines. Wallis was upset and left Warner Bros. a short time later.

In 1998 the American Film Institute voted Casablanca second and in 2007 third place for the best American films of all time. The film is also represented on other AFI best lists: Casablanca ranks 37th for best thrillers, first place for best love films , fourth place for greatest movie heroes (Rick Blaine), second place for best movie songs (As Time Goes By ) and 32nd place for most inspirational films.

Casablanca is featured six times on the list of the best movie quotes ( “I'll look you in the eye, little one” , 5th place, “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship,” 20th place, “Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By' " , 28th place, " Arrest the usual suspects " , 32nd place, " We'll always stay in Paris " , 43rd place, " Of all the bars around the world it comes to mine , of all places " , 68th place)

In 1989, Casablanca was accepted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress .

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) put Julius Epstein, Philip Epstein, and Howard Koch's script at number one on their list of the 101 Best Screenplays .

Quotes

Many of the quotes from the German dubbed version have become very well known, even among people who have not seen the film or not seen it completely.

  • “Play it again, Sam!” Is - slightly falsified - one of the most famous quotes in film history.
    In the original the scene is:
    Ilsa: Play it once, Sam. For old times' sake.
    Sam: I don't know what you mean, Miss Ilsa.
    Ilsa: Play it, Sam. Play "As Time Goes By".
    The false quote comes from the Marx Brothers parody of 1946 One Night in Casablanca and was mistakenly associated with the original film in the audience's memory. The movie Play it again, Sam! by Woody Allen from 1972 also alludes to this.
    This quote was used in the original wording (in the English original, as in the German dubbed version) in the James Bond film James Bond 007 - Moonraker - Top Secret from 1979:
    James Bond ( Roger Moore ) speaks this sentence with a sarcastic undertone after Drax's henchman Chang ( Toshiro Suga ) in Venice falls through the splintered stained glass window (clock face) or into the concert grand piano of an orchestral group with a singing tenor after a fight in Venice.
  • “Look me in the eye, little one!” This quote comes from the first dubbed version mentioned above. In the newer version , Rick says : “I'll look you in the eye, little one!” In the English original he says “Here's looking at you, kid” twice in Paris and twice in Casablanca, most recently in the farewell scene at the airport. The original quote from the farewell scene reads:
    Ilsa: And I said that I would never leave you!
    Rick: (taking her by the shoulders): And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going you can't follow - what I've got to do you can be no part of. I'm not good at being noble, Ilsa - but it doesn't take too much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Not now. Here's looking at you, kid.
  • “Arrest the usual suspects!” (Round up the usual suspects) gives Police Chief Renault as an instruction to his subordinates to protect Rick, who has just shot Major Strasser. The title of the film The Usual Suspects refers to this quote.
  • "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." ( I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship , two weeks after the end of shooting send synchronized) Closed ambiguous the final dialogue between Rick and Captain Renault and is now happy as an expression of sudden recognition of related interests or goals that were not previously apparent. Here it was ambiguously aimed at the historical alliance situation and a possible follow-up film.
  • “ We'll always have Paris.” (We'll always have Paris.) This sentence from Rick to Ilsa is also part of the farewell scene at the airport.
  • “Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and then for the rest of your life.” (Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life) . With these words, Rick warns Ilsa urgently on the tarmac that she will regret it if she does not leave the country with László now.
  • "I'm a drinker." Major Strasser tells Rick what information he has about him and what is still missing:
    Major Strasser : What is your nationality?
    Rick : I'm a drunkard.
    Police chief Renault : That makes Rick a citizen of the world.

When the American Film Institute drew up a list of the “Top 100” film quotes from 100 years of American film history in 2005, “Here's looking at you, kid” (5th place), “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship ”(20),“ Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By' "(28)," Round up the usual suspects "(32)," We'll always have Paris "(43) and" Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine ”(67) six Casablanca quotes on the list - more than from any other film (followed by three quotes each with Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz ).

Sequels and other versions

Shortly after the release of Casablanca , Warner Bros. started thinking about a sequel. A planned second part entitled Brazzaville (relating to the Franco-Congolese city mentioned in the last scene) was never shot.

On April 26, 1943, an American radio station broadcast a radio play in which Bogart, Bergman and Henreid took over their roles again. A second radio adaptation of the film aired in January 1944, this time starring Alan Ladd , Hedy Lamarr and John Loder.

The scriptwriter Julius Epstein's plans to produce a Casablanca musical did not materialize. The play Everybody Comes To Rick’s , which served as a model for the film, premiered in Newport in 1946 . It was re-staged in London in April 1991, but canceled after just a month.

In 1955, Warner Bros. and ABC produced a television series based on Casablanca that dealt with the prehistory of the film. Charles McGraw took on the role of Rick, Marcel Dalio, who had also participated in the original, played Captain Renault. In 1983 NBC ran another short-lived series with David Soul as Rick, Hector Elizondo as Renault and Scatman Crothers as Sam. It was also set before the film.

In 1974, the French director François Truffaut received an offer to make a remake, but he turned it down.

David Thomson , British film critic, published the novel Suspects in 1985 . 1998 appeared As Time Goes By by Michael Walsh . Both books represent a literary continuation of the history of Casablanca . A colored version of the film was made in the 1980s and was first shown on Australian television in 1988. The Brazilian Joao Luiz Albuquerque made a new cut of the original in 1987, in which Ilsa decided on Rick in the end. This version was shown at the Rio Film Festival .

There are sometimes serious differences between the different language versions of the film: In the Spanish version, which was made during the Franco era, all references to Rick's commitment to the socialists in the Spanish Civil War were cut out. In the original Renault mentions in one scene that Rick smuggled weapons into Ethiopia in the 1930s (an allusion to the Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935). In the Italian translation, China is mentioned at this point. However, the largest interventions were carried out in Germany. (see The reception of the film in the Federal Republic )

There is also a comic adaptation by Giorgio Cavazzano with Mickey Mouse , Minnie Mouse , Goofy , Kater Karlo , Commissioner Hunter and other well-known characters in the lead roles. Created in 1987, it was only published in Germany in 2007 as part of the LTB edition 40 YEARS LTB under the title Cusubluncu .

The 6th part of the 2nd season of the series Mini-Max is a clear parody of the film. Among other things, Agent 86 says to a piano player in Casablanca: "Please play that again, Sam!" However, he replies: "My name is not Sam!"

As part of the Bugs Bunny cartoons, the episode Carrotblanca was created in 1995 with the Looney Tunes characters Bugs Bunny (Rick), Penelope Pussycat (Ilsa), Sylvester (Victor László), Yosemite Sam (Major Strasser), Tweety (Ugarte) and Daffy Duck (Sam).

literature

  • Hanspeter Born: Casablanca. Wonderful nonsense. Sixty years ago, "Casablanca" came into the cinemas: From the birth pangs of an indestructible cinema classic. In: Weltwoche . No. 3, Zurich 2003, ISSN  0043-2660 .
  • Michael Braun: " The beginning of a wonderful friendship". Comedy in cult films: "Casablanca" (1942). In: Michael Braun et al. (Ed.): Comedy in film. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-8260-6401-2 , pp. 245-262.
  • Umberto Eco : Casablanca or the rebirth of the gods. In: About God and the World. Carl Hanser, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-446-13933-8 .
  • Umberto Eco: "Casablanca": Cult Movies and Intertextual Collage . In: SubStance , Volume 14, No. 2, Issue 47, 1985, pp. 3–12 ( JSTOR )
  • Aljean Harmetz: Arrest the usual suspects: how Casablanca was made. Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-8270-0329-6 .
  • Ulrich Hoppe: Casablanca. Heyne, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-453-86062-4 .
  • Noah Isenberg: We'll always have Casablanca. The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie WW Norton, New York, 2017
  • Michaela Krützen : classic, modern, post-modern. A film story. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2015., ISBN 978-3-10-040504-3 , pp. 35-232.
  • Hans-Jürgen Kubiak: The Oscar Films. The best films from 1927/28 to 2004. The best non-English language films from 1947 to 2004. The best animated films from 2001 to 2004. Schüren, Marburg 2005, ISBN 3-89472-386-6 .
  • Andreas Missler-Morell: I'll look you in the eye, little one - Casablanca. The cult film. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-14148-2 .
  • Kim Newman : Casablanca (1942). In: Steven Jay Schneider (Ed.): 1001 films. Edition Olms, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-283-00497-8 , pp. 184f.
  • Norbert F. Pötzl: Casablanca 1943. The secret meeting, the film and the turning point of the war. Siedler Verlag, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-8275-0088-5 .
  • James F. Pontuso (Ed.): Political Philosophy Comes to Rick's: Casablanca and American Civic Culture . Lexington Books, 2005, ISBN 978-0-7391-1113-0 .
  • Lawrence J. Quirk : Ingrid Bergman and Her Films. Translated from American English by Marie Margarete Giese. Goldmann, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-442-10214-6 , pp. 64-67.

Web links

Commons : Casablanca (film)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Casablanca  - Quotes

Individual evidence

Main sources for this article were the book Arrest the Usual Suspects: How Casablanca Was Made by Aljean Harmetz.

  1. ↑ Casablanca is the most beautiful Schnulze on Spiegel Online from June 12, 2002.
  2. ↑ a b c d Casablanca Timeline .
  3. ↑ Editors Guild Magazine ( Memento of 23 February 2007 at the Internet Archive ).
  4. ↑ a b c d Internet Movie Database: Trivia .
  5. ^ Image of the original memorandum .
  6. ^ German Hollywood .
  7. ↑ a b Hollywood Lost and Found: Making Casablanca .
  8. ^ A b The History / Making of Casablanca .
  9. ^ German Hollywood: The Casablanca Connection .
  10. ↑ Roger Ebert's audio commentary on the Casablanca DVD.
  11. ↑ a b c Reel Classics .
  12. ↑ The template for the vocal duel between the Germans and the band conducted by Lazlo is a scene from Dostoyevsky's demons (Part 2, Chapter 5), see also A note on a source of the Marseillaise scene in Casablanca . Dostojewskij is said to have used verses from Pan Tadeusz as a template , see Wasław Lednicki: Russia, Poland and The West . Hutchinson, London 1950, pp. 306 .
  13. ↑ Bogart and Bergman dance in Paris to an orchestral version of Perfidia (cf. Perfidia ); Harlan Lebo: Casablanca: Behind the Scenes , New York 1992, p. 72
  14. ↑ Nils Daniel Peiler: Play it, Sam, play it from celluloid
  15. ^ The Alternative Cast .
  16. ↑ Article on Jack Benny in Casablanca
  17. ↑ We'll always have 'Casablanca'  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / jstandard.com  
  18. ↑ Harlan Lebo: Casablanca: Behind the Scenes. Simon and Schuster 1992.
  19. ↑ yesterland.com
  20. ↑ Cult of Rick . In: The mirror . No. 31 , 1973, p. 88 ( online ).
  21. ↑ a b Hans C. Blumenberg : Already a legend . In: The time . No. 24/1974.
  22. ↑ Martin Wiegers: Champagne in mind. In: The time . No. 15, 1992.
  23. ^ Synchronous database : Casablanca, 1952 ( Memento of September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
  24. ^ Synchronous database : Casablanca, 1975 ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
  25. ↑ Casablanca (Release Info)
  26. ↑ Wolfram Knorr: Hollywood at War , Weltwoche 41/2018, page 54ff with reference to Norbert F. Pötzl: Casablanca 1943: The secret meeting, the film and the turning point of the war
  27. ↑ A Night in Casablanca in the IMDb .
  28. ↑ The Cheap Detective in the IMDb .
  29. ^ Time, 1942 .
  30. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon "Films on TV" (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 120.
  31. ↑ 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958. Handbook V of the Catholic film criticism, 3rd edition. Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 59.
  32. ↑ netzine.de .
  33. ↑ https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-casablanca-1942 (accessed August 18, 2008).
  34. ↑ Martin Smith: The history of a beautiful friendship at guardian.co.uk on November 28, 2002.
  35. ↑ http://www.obec-dily.cz/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/dilcak_2009-03.pdf Monograph on Jan Smudek, Czech, p. 10.
  36. ↑ Frankfurter Rundschau, April 11, 2006.
  37. ↑ Authors choose "Casablanca" for the over-screenplay on Spiegel Online from April 8, 2006.
  38. ↑ Major Strasser: What is your nationality? Rick: I'm a drunkard. Captain Renault: That makes Rick a citizen of the world. Accessed November 21, 2019 .
  39. ↑ afi.com .
  40. ↑ Carrotblanca. In: bcdb.com. The Big Cartoon DataBase , accessed September 9, 2020 .