produced in 1942, starred by Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine, Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund; directed by Michael Curtiz, screenplay by Julius Epstein, Philip Epstein, Howard Koch; produced by Hal B Wallis, Jack L Warner; music by Max Steiner;
cinematography by Arthur Edeson; film editing by Owen Marks.
The trailer of a passionate film who show as a dramatic and unforgettable love story that happens on the African continent, in Casablanca during the early years of the Second World War.
Recommendations: romantic, psychological, action
"Rick's Cafe Americain" was modeled after Hotel El Minzah in Tangiers.
Because the film was made during WWII they were not allowed to film at an airport after dark for security reasons. Instead they used a sound stage with a small cardboard cutout airplane and forced perspective. To give the illusion that the plane was full-sized, they used little people to portray the crew preparing the plane for take-off.
Director Michael Curtiz' Hungarian accent often caused confusion on the set. He asked a prop man for a "poodle" to appear in one scene. The prop man searched high and low for a poodle while the entire crew waited. He found one and presented it to Curtiz, who screamed "A poodle! A poodle of water!"
The scene of Major Strasser's arrival was filmed at Metropolitan Airport, now known as Van Nuys Airport, just outside of Los Angeles. At a salary of $25,000 for five weeks' work, Conrad Veidt was the highest-paid actor on the set and on loan from MGM.
S.Z. Sakall (Carl) actually has more screen time than Peter Lorre (Ugarte) or Sydney Greenstreet (Signor Ferrari).
Rick and Ilsa standing over Sam's piano in Paris was the first scene to be shot.
Hal B. Wallis's first choice for director was William Wyler.
It is never revealed why Rick cannot return to America. Julius J. Epstein later said that "My brother and I tried very hard to come up with a reason why Rick couldn't return to America. But nothing seemed right. We finally decided not to give a reason at all.
In the original script for Casablanca (1942), then titled "Everyone Come to Rick's", Ilsa was not a 'virtuous' woman. She was living with an already married American business man. It was Rick who left her when he found out. And when she and Victor come to Casablanca, she is not married to him, either.
Some years ago in a shop dealing with historic documents, a photo still from Casablanca (1942) was found, showing Rick sitting at the chess board. Accompanying the photo was a letter from Humphrey Bogart to a friend in New York, indicating a specific chess move. The document dealer explained that the chess game in the movie was a real game Bogart was playing by mail with his friend during the course of filming.
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