Casablanca

Casablanca (1943)

Timing: 1:42 (102 min)

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All about film

Video 30

Photo 168

Actors and characters

Release date

1943-01-15

Country

United States

Production

Warner Bros. Pictures

Genre

Drama, Romance

Budget

$878 000

Revenue

$10 462 500

Website

Director

Michael Curtiz

Actors

Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, S.Z. Sakall, Madeleine Lebeau, Dooley Wilson
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Hal B. Wallis, Jack L. Warner

Operator

Arthur Edeson

Composer

Max Steiner

Artist

Audition

Editing

Owen Marks
All team (32)

• In 1940, playwright Murray Burnett, together with Joan Allison, wrote the play "Everybody Comes to Rick's," which served as the basis for the film. The play was never staged in the theater.
• The play reached the scenario department of Warner Bros. studio on December 8, 1941, and on December 31, producer Hal B. Wallis gave it a different title – "Casablanca".
• The film's screenwriters, Julius and Philip Epstein, were twin brothers who had not worked together until 1938.
• The third screenwriter, Howard Koch, was the author of the sensational radio production "The War of the Worlds," which caused panic among millions of Americans (who believed that Mars had attacked Earth).
• The Epstein brothers finished working on the script three days before filming began, which director Michael Curtiz started on May 25, 1942. Howard Koch completed his version of the script two weeks after filming began.
• While working on the script, Epshteyn and Koch were in different locations.
• They couldn't come up with the film's ending until the very end of shooting.
• In the 80s, the script was sent to various Hollywood studios and film companies under its original title, just for laughs. Many didn't recognize it as "Casablanca" and considered the script not good enough to make a decent movie.
• The majority of actors who played the roles of Nazis were Jewish.
• Neither Bogart nor Bergman was the director's first choice. Initially, Ronald Reagan – at the height of his Hollywood fame at the time – was planned for the lead role, the future President of the United States. And the leading female role was to be played by actress Michelle Morgan, who demanded a fee of $55,000. The producer refused to pay this amount when it turned out that Ingrid Bergman agreed to half the sum.
• In the film "Black Cat, White Cat" (dir. Emir Kusturica, 1998), the film's protagonist, Grga, repeatedly views the final scenes of "Casablanca" with a phrase he repeats and quotes: "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
• The ironic formulation “the usual suspects,” put into the mouth of Captain Renault, was used as the title of a cult film of the 1990s.
• Paul Henreid, who was cast as Laszlo, did not get along with the other actors; Ingrid Bergman considered him a “prima donna,” and Henreid himself spoke disparagingly about Humphrey Bogart’s acting abilities.
• According to Bergman’s recollections, due to her height, the director made the shorter Bogart stand on boxes or sit on cushions when they filmed scenes together. Immediately after filming wrapped, Bergman had her hair cut short for her next film, which made reshooting certain scenes impossible.
• Composer Max Steiner wrote the music for the film, alternating between motifs of two main melodies – the romantic theme "As Time Goes By" (from the 1931 musical) and the patriotic "La Marseillaise."
• Bogart’s famous final line, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” was written after filming had wrapped and voiced by Bogart approximately a month after work on the film concluded.
• Following the Allied landings in Africa, plans emerged to reshoot a scene with Rick and Renault, but they had to be abandoned due to the actors’ commitments to other projects. In addition, influential producer David O. Selznick opposed the new ending.
• The film’s premiere was timed to coincide with Casablanca appearing on the front pages of American newspapers: in November 1942, Allied forces occupied Casablanca, and in January 1943, the meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill took place there. Considering this, Warner Bros. decided not to postpone the film’s premiere. However, American soldiers in North Africa did not see it: the authorities did not want to provoke the numerous supporters of the Vichy regime in the French colonies.
• Since 1957, many cinemas began to show the film during summer exams, initially at Harvard, and then at other universities. Twenty years later, it was calculated that ‘Casablanca’ was shown on American television more often than any other film. To further facilitate the introduction of new generations of television viewers to the film, Ted Turner financed the colorization of ‘Casablanca’ in the 1980s. This step provoked a mixed reaction among film lovers: Bogart’s son, for example, compared the coloring of the film to attaching hands to the Venus de Milo.
• The script was finished just three days before filming began, and the ending of the film could not be figured out until the last day of shooting. When Ingrid Bergman asked who her character was in love with, director Michael Curtiz suggested she play as if she was hesitant in her feelings between two men.
• In 1940, playwright Murray Burnett, along with Joan Allison, wrote the play "Everybody Comes to Rick's," which served as the basis for the film. The play was never staged in the theater.
• The play arrived at the Warner Bros. story department on December 8, 1941, and on December 31, producer Hal B. Wallis, who would go on to make the film, gave it a different title—"Casablanca."
• The film's screenwriters, Julius and Philip Epstein, were identical twin brothers who had not worked together before 1938.
• The third screenwriter, Howard Koch, was the author of the sensational radio play “The War of the Worlds,” which caused panic among millions of Americans (who believed that Mars had attacked Earth).
• In the film “Black Cat, White Cat” (dir. Emir Kusturica, 1998), the character Grga repeatedly watches the final scenes of “Casablanca” with a phrase he repeats and quotes: “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
• Paul Henreid, who was cast as Laszlo, did not get along with the other actors; Ingrid Bergman considered him a “prima donna,” and Henreid himself spoke disparagingly about Humphrey Bogart’s acting abilities.
• Composer Max Steiner wrote the music for the film, alternating motifs from two main melodies – the romantic theme “As Time Goes By” (from the 1931 musical) and the patriotic “La Marseillaise.”
• Bogart’s famous final line, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” was written after filming was completed and voiced by Bogart approximately a month after work on the film had finished.
• Since 1957, many cinemas began showing the film during summer exams, initially at Harvard, and then at other universities. Twenty years later, it was calculated that “Casablanca” was shown on American television more often than any other film. To further facilitate the introduction of the film to new generations of television viewers, Ted Turner financed the colorization of “Casablanca” in the 1980s. This step provoked a mixed reaction among film buffs: Bogart's son, for example, compared coloring the film to attaching hands to the Venus de Milo.