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When the freedom fighter Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) comes into town, this delicate balance is upset. Victor, accompanied by his beautiful wife Ilsa Lund Laszlo (Ingrid Bergman), desires passage to Lisbon, a move impossible without exit visas. Unfortunately, due to the orders of Major Heinrich Strasser (Conrad Veidt), Renault will not provide these under any circumstances. The aim is to keep Laszlo boxed-in, where he can't cause trouble for the Nazi's. The problem is that even the black-market is closed to Victor. The situation is just too delicate for Senor Ferrari (Sydney Greenstreet), while his cut-price competitor Ugarte (Peter Lorre) becomes "unavailable". So the Laszlo's go to Rick's, where Sam (Dooley Wilson) spots them. He knows the hidden truth here -- that Rick and Ilsa share a past.
The strange thing about Casablanca is that it was never intended to be anything more than a standard "A-list" picture. Based on Everybody Comes to Rick's, a play written by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison, the story linked to events taking place in North Africa. Here, in a moment of chance timing, Allied troops were landing and engaging the enemy. Any story based upon the cosmopolitan flood of people heading south, from Europe, was thus sure to get a lift. Yet even then Warner Bros. was reluctant to release resources to the chosen director, Michael Curtiz. All he had to work with was a minimal budget, an in-progress script and a 59-day shooting schedule. When filming started Curtiz was working on the fly, shaping both the story and individual scenes on a day by day basis. A chaotic situation for the cast and crew, all dependent upon Curtiz's ability to keep everything in order. His success can be gauged by one marker, that of Casablanca itself.
This is, however, not meant to imply that the movie was a one-man show, far from it. Curtiz had one very important element in his favour -- an exceptionally talented main and supporting cast. Positioned as a romantic lead for the very first time, Bogart took the opportunity to show that Rick was his perfect role. A cynical and tough outsider who only looks out for himself, Casablanca's Rick has a warm heart. For all his sharp remarks and hard looks, Bogart never forgets this. Many memorable scenes hint at this dichotomy, though one stands out as an expression of his idealism. When Annina Brandel (Joy Page), a young Bulgarian girl who's been propositioned by Renault comes to Rick for advice, he virtually ignores her pleas. He couldn't care less. Yet, with elaborate care, Rick saunters over to her husband Jan (Helmut Dantine), losing on the roulette wheel. With a quiet word he saves them.
This process of emotion baring comes full circle when Bergman's near, whether the feeling in question is love or hate. Her portrayal of Ilsa is exquisite in its uncertainty; stationed exactly between Rick and Laszlo, Ilsa adores both. When Bogart and Bergman are alone on-screen, their sexual attraction packs a wallop, like you're in the clinch with them. Henreid can't really expect to compete on this level, though he makes up for it with arrow-straight decency and solid conviction. When Rains and Veidt are around the tone undergoes an important shift, becoming tense and wary. Both impose their power on those below them, using it to ruinous purpose, and the populace knows this. In smaller roles, Lorre and Greenstreet provide a touch of class in Casablanca. Superlative performers both, they add to the film in a way far greater than the size of their roles would suggest. All in all Curtiz assembled an excellent cast.
It may be that the actors enjoyed reading their lines, so perfectly weighted is the script. If not, we still get to appreciate the warm, observant and witty result. For sure, Casablanca gives no indication of having been modified on a continuing basis, it hangs together so well. Here the individual elements of the screenplay subsume themselves in the whole, while standing out as magnificent in their own right. The film features an abundance of classic one-line comments and pieces of dialogue, which many a buff can recite in full, yet they mesh together with no detectable join. Even when Casablanca points itself at the American public, hoping to shake them from their protectionist slumber, the calm is barely disturbed.
Despite this compelling evidence, it's still unclear as to why so many people though the decades have reacted to Casablanca with unbridled joy. It's not as if Warner Bros. planned this affection, which is perhaps the point. No one working on the movie tried to make a classic, it's only through good fortune that Casablanca has transcended its expected trajectory. An unlikely alchemy has formed between film and audience, wooing even first-time viewers. Somehow Casablanca has great appeal, like a sick puppy; you've got to have a hard heart not to feel something for this ordinary film made extraordinary.
This film was nominated for review by Terry Arnold.
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