You Will Remember This

"Casablanca" is one of the most beloved films in the history of cinema. Every key player in this Oscar-winning picture of 1943 is remembered for their part in this unforgettable film. Some people have seen this film so many times, they know every word by heart. On the surface, it's a story of romance and intrigue. On another level, it's a call for the world to set aside their grievances for the greater good. Most situations we encounter are not as black and white as the ones we faced sixty years ago. We could no longer be isolationists. This film tells us we either had to be with the Axis powers, or we had to be against them.

One of the last people on the fence during the conflict in World War II is Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), an American expatriate and owner of Rick's Cafe Americain, where everybody comes to have a good time. They also come to Casablanca to seek passage at any price to America. The most valued form of passage is a pair of exit visas that can neither be rescinded nor questioned. They had been in the possession of two German couriers until they were murdered. Somehow, a black marketer named Ugarte (Peter Lorre) has come into the visas and has asked Rick to hold them while he takes care of some other business.

Before he can conduct it, he is one of the "usual suspects" that the police prefect, Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains), arrests Ugarte, who knows what's coming. He begs Rick for help, but to no avail. Eventually, Ugarte dies in custody under mysterious circumstances. Watching Renault and all Casablanca activities with great interest is the Nazi Major Heinrich Strasser (Conrad Veidt). Upon his arrival in Casablanca, Strasser announces that Germans must get used to all kinds of climates. To impress Strasser, Renault and his men tear up the cafe for the visas, but don't find them.

Strasser and Renault aren't the only ones looking for the visas. As he had said to Rick, Ugarte was there to conduct business, but his clients, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) and Victor Laszlo (Paul Henried) arrive after his arrest. Another cafe owner, Ferrari (Sydney Greenstreet), suspects Rick has the letters of transit. No amount of money and cajoling can get Rick to give them up, not even a past romance in Paris between Rick and Ilsa. As a younger man, Rick was an arms supplier in the conflicts in Spain and Ethiopia. Now all he wants to do is take the exit visas and leave. Rick finds other things, though, that are more important than what he wants.

Anyone who has seen "Casablanca" cannot imagine other people playing the roles (although TV executives have twice tried to turn "Casablanca" into a hit series). However, among the actors who were considered for the lead roles of Rick and Ilsa were Ronald Reagan and Ann Sheridan. They may have done well, but they wouldn't have been perfect. Bogart has a reserved and indifferent look throughout the film, but he's anything but unconcerned. He seldom cracks a smile, once after ensuring that a young Bulgarian couple wins visa money at his roulette table, and again in flashback scenes with Ilsa in the days before the Nazi occupation of Paris. He has the look of the gambler on the verge of the ultimate gamble, deciding when he's going to reveal his hand.

Bergman, often described as the most beautiful woman to ever grace the screen, gives one of her many memorable performances as Ilsa. She's a woman who's in a predicament not of her own doing - a woman who rediscovered love with Rick when she had been told Victor was dead. The beauty of her face is contrasted with the sadness in her eyes and her voice. She longs for something more than a day when the world will no longer be at war, but she also has a war to fight for her heart.

The rest of the cast adds touches as well. Rains is always proper, but slightly corrupt, as Renault. When Strasser orders Rick's closed, he makes gambling the excuse, but takes his winnings, all the same. Henried exemplifies virtue as Victor, and Veidt exemplifies the worst of the Third Reich as Strasser. Greenstreet and Lorre have fun with their unscrupulous characters. Rick's is also staffed by colorful immigrants, such as the head waiter, Carl (S.Z. Sakall), who had left Germany, and the bartender, Sasha (Leonid Kinsky), who once lived in the Soviet Union.

For entertainment, Rick has a piano player named Sam (Dooley Wilson). Wilson has his memorable moment when he sings "As Time Goes By." Although the song had been included in a musical from the thirties, Wilson played it here and made it his own. The song has been covered many times, sometimes very nicely, but they pale in comparison to this man with a gravely voice and only his piano for accompaniment. His delivery is simple, heartfelt, and more urgent than any other version I've heard.

"Casablanca" was based on an unproduced play by Walter Burnett and Joan Alison entitled, "Everybody Comes To Rick's." Screenwriters Philip Epstein, Julius Epstein, and Howard Koch kept writing and rewriting their script throughout the shoot, so the actors never knew their lines until they arrived on the set. That gives the film an air of excitement. It's no mystery what's going to happen, but how it's going to happen. This is the most memorable film in the career of Michael Curtiz, whose career included many other fine films from the thirties until his death in 1961. In addition to winning the Oscar for Best Picture of 1943, the writers and Curtiz won Academy Awards for their efforts.

The names and the places may change, but the message is just as important today as it was in 1943. Like "Casablanca," President Bush has let the world know that they either must be with us, or they are against us in the war on terrorism. The recent horrific acts in the United States prove that somebody is always looking to take all the goodness of our land away from us, so we must never take our freedoms for granted. To put it in Sam's words, "It's still the same old story, a fight for love and glory, a case of do or die."

This is an entry in the Patriotic Write-Off hosted by Pffrdfdus7. Also, be sure to read these essays from my fellow Epinionators: Pffrdfdus7, Gaelkm, pj_the_pug, mike.holmes, ChromeKiller, Lisa_J, artbyjude.

Thank you, Randall. May we all find the strength to do whatever it takes for our country in this time.