Awards: Won 3 Oscars. Another 2 wins &
6 nominations
Synopsis: Classic film set in unoccupied
Africa during the early days of World War II: An American expatriate
meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.
The entire picture of
Casablanca was shot in the studio, except for the sequence showing
Major Strasser's arrival, which was filmed at Van Nuys Airport.
The street used for the exterior shots had recently been built for
another film. The set for Rick's was built in three unconnected
parts, so the internal layout of the building is indeterminate. In
a number of scenes, the camera looks through a wall from the cafe
area into Rick's office. The background of the final scene, which
shows a Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior airplane with personnel
walking around it, was staged using midget extras and a
proportionate cardboard plane. Fog was used to mask the model's
unconvincing appearance. Nevertheless, the Disney-MGM Studios
theme park in Orlando, Florida purchased a Lockheed 12A for its
Great Movie Ride attraction, and initially claimed that it was the
actual plane used in the film. Film critic Roger Ebert calls
Wallis the "key creative force" for his attention to the
details of production. Some interesting facts are that the
difference between Bergman's and Bogart's height caused some
problems. She was some two inches (5 cm) taller than Bogart, and
claimed Curtiz had Bogart stand on blocks or sit on cushions in
their scenes together. Particular attention was also paid to
photographing Bergman. She was shot mainly from her preferred left
side, often with a softening gauze filter and with catch lights to
make her eyes sparkle. The whole effect was designed to make her
face seem "ineffably sad and tender and nostalgic Wallis
wrote the final line: "Louis, I think this is the beginning
of a beautiful friendship" after shooting had been completed.
Bogart had to be called in a month after the end of filming to dub
it. Dark film noir and expressionist lighting is used in several
scenes, particularly towards the end of the picture. Rosenzweig
argues these shadow and lighting effects are classic elements of
the Curtiz style, along with the fluid camera work and the use of
the environment as a framing device. Later, there were plans for a
further scene, showing Rick, Renault and a detachment of Free
French soldiers on a ship, to incorporate the Allies' 1942
invasion of North Africa; however it proved too difficult to get
Claude Rains for the shoot, and the scene was finally abandoned
after David O. Selznick judged "it would be a terrible
mistake to change the ending."
