That is when an attachment in one of the characters comes to arise in almost all, and it is easy to explain the popularity of “Casablanca”. Its story focuses on two people in love, who have to abandon their love for the sake of a greater cause. This is tremendously appealing, it is one thing to fantasize over the possibility of winning the ardor of the likes of Humphrey Bogart or Ingrid Bergman, and surrendering such love for the noble cause of overcoming the Nazis, is another.
None of the participants in the production of “Casablanca” had the least idea that such a great film was being made. It was just an ordinary Warner Bros release. It was in fact an A list picture (there was never better cast of supporting actors than this. Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet, Claude Rains and Dooley Wilson, not counting the star trio Bogart, Bergman and Paul Henreid). Though it was done in the A list budget, it was poorly distributed. The reason was that everyone who was to involved in the film had been, and was going to be, in scores of other films produced on the same lines and ‘greatness’ in ‘Casablanca’ was due to pure luck.
The screenplay was based on a fairly inconsequential stage play, the memoirs recount how jottings with some of the dialogue were hurriedly taken to the set. Most probably it helped that the writers were so well aware of the characteristics of the imaginary characters, who were so much like the actors that it was very difficult to miss the tone of the dialogue.
In his film career, Humphrey Bogart knew how to play strong positive characters, but very often he was more successful in the image of a broken, resentful, and hopeless warrior. Remember him in ‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’ where he knows they all are planning to take his gold away. In ‘Casablanca’, he plays the character of Rick Blaine, an American who owns a thriving nightclub in Casablanca full of spies, traitors, Nazis, and the French Resistance.
The comic prelude is vigorous, the repartee is a mixture of bitter and tired, of jocular and aphoristic. It is already apparent that Rick is quite comfortable in the made world, ‘What is your nationality?’ a German called Strasser questions. To which, he reverts, ‘I’m a drunkard.’ He coined it, ‘I stick my neck out for nobody.’ Exhibiting, ‘of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine. Let it be heard, That is Ilse Lund (Bergman), the woman that rick fell in love within Paris years back. During the regime of occupation by the Germans, he was able to plan their safe passage out of the city but is of the opinion that she betrayed him left him cold and drenched in the rain waiting at the train station for her with gay and beautiful travel tickets in hand. She is now married to Victor Lazslo (Henreid) one of the most prominent French resistance leaders.
Almost all of that is accomplished in only a few shots with, so far as I am concerned, a degree of emotion moving effect that very rarely is observed in any cinematic scene, even after numerous viewings. Sam (Wilson) is their friend and a pianist at the bar, but when he notices her, he looks perplexed. She tells him to perform ‘As Time Goes By,’ the motif of their romance, that she had with Rick. He doesn’t want to, but he does. And then it’s Rick coming briskly through the back where he’d been angrily amusing himself with “I thought I told you never to play that song!” Then Ilsa occurs and a sudden musical change gives us their close up shots and this scene is characterized by bitterness, sorrow and remembrance of a real love that was shared. (This scene is not strong on the first viewing as on subsequent viewings as the first time you wait to watch the movie you do not know what the relationship between Rick and Ilsa in Paris is). In fact the more one sees it the more the entire film becomes resonant.
Falling for a damsel in distress is cliche, although, as the tagline suggests, there is an imagined border to Casablanca that prevents them from escaping (this circumstance does arise later on). It is something that even the awkward plot serves, hence there is no surprise that two oil laden individuals would melt their hearts for each other. As flimsy as the emotional support is, the story revolves around letters that would permit two individuals to exit Casablanca in this case, one for Portugal, where it seems, freedom awaits.
The letters were secured from the wheeler-dealer Ugarte served by Peter Lorre. The old wounds resurfaced when Ilsa’s image returned back to his life and the illusion of neutrality and apathy that he had purposely constructed was shattered. It is in this moment he realizes that it is not the case, she has always been in love with him, when he hears her tale. But now she is with Laszlo. Rick has realistic purposely convertible letters, this time to the more reasonable intents fleeing with Ilsa. But then, in a long uninterrupted portion combining tension, romance and humor like very few things have combined on film, much to his frustrations, he creates a scenario in which Ilsa and Laszlo escape leaving him and his policeman friend (Claude Rains) high and dry of any Godfathership conspiring predicaments. (“Round up the usual suspects.”) What is intriguing is that none of the major characters is bad. Overally some of them are cynical, some lie, others murder, yet they all escape unscathed in the end. If you think that it was quite so easy for Rick to part with his affection for Ilsa-the lover and consider the fight against the Nazism More value, Remember the words of Forster ‘If i am put into a dilemma of loyalty and my friend then i pray that i will choose my friend’ such a question would pose here in the film. From a modern perspective, the film raises interesting notions.
Ilsa Lund is something of a consort and a sidekick to a venerable man, the only hitch is that, which venerable man should she be bedding. There really is no reason why Laszlo cannot get on that plane himself and leave Ilsa with Rick in Casablanca and that too was one of the endings that was drafted for a while. But that would all be wrong, the so called “happy” ending would be marred by self interest and the ending we have does not allow anybody to selfinterest himself, rather, Rick could put on a larger than life persona, wants to be noble. And more significantly, in a dramatic sense and persecution in a heroic sense; allow us all this which we sought for at the theatre.
As for the particulars of this scene, Bergman is tortured, or to put it another way, she is suffering from some form of confusion. Why wouldn’t she have been confused since not even she or anyone on the film knew until the very last day who would be boarding the plane. Bergman was in the picture through out without a clue of the ending, and this aspect beneficially affected all her shots making them believable as the leaning queen couldn’t lean but against her.
The film is actually quite competent, which is more of an achievement than brilliance, in terms of the Hollywood studio design. As the writer, Michael Curtiz was nominated for an Oscar and so were Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch. One of the main thrusts of their participation was to show us that Rick, Ilsa and their other cohorts lived through turbulent times but in geography. The depth of the side characters (Greenstreet the corrupt club owner, Lorre the cowardly fraudster, Rains the effeminate police chief and even the young wife of the soldier who is ready to prostrate herself for her husband’s well being) framed the ethical context for the actions of the protagonists. This plot was revamped by Hollywood again in the year of our lord, one thousand and nine hundred and ninety as “Havana”. The cowdie Chris o’real played by rob lass lays out those obnoxious economic practices American filmmakers ought to rub shoulders with all the elements especially the hard whips to put closing scenes demands featuring the major flimister stars rob redford, lena olin and the munch suffered as a consequence no sense that they were simply lovers then than heroes.
Each time, looking back on the film’s production over and over again over the years, it never seems to wear itself out. It feels as if one is listening to an already adored record, the more one is aware of it, the more soothing it becomes. The consideration of fashion may include dress codes in movies that are presumably based on situational plots. The witty writing of the characters makes the film at no time dated. Etching just the picture is boring without a gives context piece of material that stirs emotions. Most of the emotional impact in “Casablanca” is derived from showing rather than telling; as we walk out of the cinema, we are left with no doubt that the world’s sanity is only maintained with the knowledge, concern and ideas of not more than three small people after all the fuss is over.
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