Casablanca
“Remember this gun is pointed right at your heart” “That is my least vulnerable spot”. Renault in Casablanca
A few months ago I caught a two part re-run of Magnum
P.I. (the old Tom Selleck version). In
the episode Magnum’s wife Michelle, who Magnum thought was killed during the
Vietnam War turns up alive in Hawaii.
Michelle is with her first husband who had also been thought dead when
she married Magnum. Michelle had
discovered her husband was alive, faked her death so Magnum would leave
Vietnam, gone back to him and is working with her husband on a vital mission. Michelle’s heart still belongs to Magnum but
after a reunion and a dramatic showdown at the end of the episode she and
Magnum say goodbye so Michelle can continue to help her husband. There are repeated flashbacks to Michelle and
Magnum’s short but passionate marriage.
Magnum is badly wounded at the end of the episode both physically (he is
shot through the shoulder during the climax) and emotionally but looks to
slowly be mending.
When I watched Casablanca for the first time about a
month later the story beats seemed quite familiar. I had known it was a wartime story in which
the main characters who had had an affair in Paris are reunited and but
separate at the end of the film. I had
heard most of the classic lines. But I did not
realize what an influence it has and continues to be. Now Frank Drebin’s joke about the “hill of
beans” in The Naked Gun makes sense to me.
Even Mission Impossible Fallout borrowed some of these elements in the
third act.
As the titles came up that I realized that I had no idea
who directed the film. Usually classic
films are identified with their director (a la John Ford, The Searchers, or
Frank Capra, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, or the many Orson Welles and
Hitchcock films). Michael Curtiz, I have
since discovered, directed several other classics, such as The Adventures
of Robin Hood (which I also enjoyed) and Yankee Doodle Dandy. Curtiz was a studio employee who was assigned
projects rather than an auteur who developed his own like the others I
mentioned. However Curtiz won an Oscar
for Casablanca which the far more independent minded Hitchcock nor Welles ever
did. Casablanca also won best picture.
I found Casablanca to be immediately engrossing. The story for the uninitiated, takes place
around 1941 in Casablanca, which at that time was one of few places near Europe
that was relatively neutral during the early stages of World War II. Victor Lazlo, a leader of the Czech Resistance
and his wife, Ilsa, are in Casablanca trying to get some letters which will allow them to get
to Lisbon to then eventually get to America.
Lazlo had escaped from a concentration camp and the Nazis who control the
local police want to get him back. While
Lazlo was captured and presumed dead Ilsa, who was in Paris, had a relationship
with Rick (Humphrey Bogart) an American living abroad. When Ilsa found out Lazlo was alive she left
Rick without telling him why in June 1940 when the Nazis invaded Paris. Rick, who became cynical and disillusioned
after having his heart broken, went to Casablanca and opened up Rick’s Café Americain which is where most of the action takes place.
As soon as I saw that most of the film was set in Rick’s
Cafe Americain I could tell that it was based on a play (I missed it in the opening credits) though apparently it
was un-produced at the time. Rick’s is
quite a big place and seems to be the go to spot for European ex-patriots.
This is the first film I have seen with Humphrey
Bogart. His entrance in the film is much
like Sean Connery’s in Dr No with a shot of his hands first and then a close up
of him smoking a cigarette. The white dinner
jacket is similar to Connery’s in the pre-title sequence Goldfinger. Bogart is not classically handsome but has
large eyes that cannot hide his feelings.
Bogart’s raspy voice is especially effective in the first half of the
film. Rick was not only heartbroken but
humiliated and seems determined to not let that happen again and deliberately
tries to keep himself at a distance.
Rick nearly perfectly maneuvers the delicate balance of keeping a
nightclub open to both sides of the conflict by working with the openly corrupt
police captain Renault, played by Claude Rains (who a few years later was
married to Bergman’s character in Notorious).
Although the film is most known for its love story I was
less invested in seeing Rick and Ilsa together than in them coming to terms
with their separation. This may be in part because I knew about the famous final scene. The least
interesting scenes are the flashbacks with them together in Paris, though I feel that they are necessary. Rick’s journey from embittered
character to one who makes a sacrifice for a cause led by a man he has come to
respect is the thrust of the film.
Bergman’s Ilsa is caught between her head and her heart. Ilsa knows that Victor depends on her and she
wants to do right by him but she had also moved on from his death and never
quite came back to him afterwards. Ilsa
probably admires Victor more than she loves him. Paul Henreid’s Victor would be the hero of
another film and Rick would be the sidekick whose club provides him some
cover. Victor is brave and a gentleman
and is willing to sacrifice his life with Ilsa if it makes her happy and could
keep her safe. Victor becomes aware of the
relationship between Rick and Ilsa and yet never confronts Ilsa directly about
it, recognizing the uniqueness of the situation. Victor is also most interested in his cause
and which ends up inspiring Rick.
There are other character dynamics at work. Rick’s turning point comes when he has the
chance to save the marriage of the young couple who are trying to make it to
America, which probably would not have survived the wife having an affair with
Renault. By doing so Rick endangers his
precarious set up with Renault. Rick’s
protection of Sam when he sells the business to Ferrari is also
noteworthy. The most moving touch to me
is Rick’s gesture to Lazlo when he tells him that Ilsa only pretended to still
love him so Lazlo could keep his dignity.
Lazlo may or may not believe it but he accepts it.
Rains is delicious in his shameless working of both sides
and Peter Lorre adds some nice color in a small role early in the story as the
man with the story’s MacGuffin, the letters.
Utlimately all the main characters, Rick, Ilsa, Victor and even Renault,
behave like adults and make responsible decisions. Rick sacrifices his club and his love. As the club was a coping mechanism for his
love I sensed Rick was fine with it since he was moving on. Renault sacrifices
his career and decides to help his fellow Frenchmen instead of looking out for
himself. Ilsa sacrifices her love and
possible long term happiness. Victor
gets to stay with his wife but may have doubts about how she feels about
him. Strasser sacrifices his life but we
don’t care about him since he is a Nazi.
Bogart and Bergman are believable as a long lost couple
though it had only been a year and a half since their separation. Their first scene together when Bogart enters
first irritated by hearing a song that reminds him of Ilsa and then shocked to
actually see her is both moving and frustrating since the setting does not
allow them to speak right away.
Bergman’s desire to see Rick even knowing how he might react is
sweet. Ilsa seems to want to access some
of those old feelings. The use of As
Time Goes By to bring them into the same space is both an emotional touch and
an effective narrative tool.
The final scene in the airport is poignant but also make
Ilsa a passive figure who has a man tell her what is best for her. Otherwise I like the use of the fog (which
apparently disguised the fact that the airplane was a model) which serves a
metaphor for their opaque futures. The
fog is enhanced by the black and white cinematography.
Is Casablanca the greatest love story ever told? I don’t
think so but it is a good one. I found
myself humming As Time Goes By for a couple of days after seeing it. It is sad the main couple does not end up
together but it also would have felt a little wrong for Rick to end up with
another man’s wife. The outside factors
are greater than the couple throughout the film. Although they look blissfully in love during
the Paris scenes the reality of the war catching up with them is impossible to
ignore. Rick clearly represents the
U.S.’ ultimately failed attempt to stay out of the war and once he commits to
it, as the U.S. did, as Laslo says, “This time I know we will win”. I also think that although the film was produced
about halfway through the war it had a strong sense of the environment.
One of the few critiques I have it for a film that with
both Casablanca as its title and setting, there are preciously few Morrocans in
the story.
In the end I enjoyed Casablanca and I think modern
audiences would as well. It moves fairly
quickly with sharp dialogue and well defined characters and is only about 100
minutes long. ****
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