The Bottom Line: One of the most popular and highly regarded films ever made, Casablanca is unavoidable for anyone with even the slightest interest in classic films. It is nearly perfect.
On the much promoted American Film Institute list of the top 100 films, Casablanca came in second, behind only Citizen Kane. Casablanca is undoubtedly the most popular 'classic' film, defined here as the era prior to the introduction of the film rating system (PG, etc.) in 1967.
With repeated viewings, one continues to admire Casablanca, even as its trivial flaws become more apparent. There is the Bulgarian woman who speaks English as if she was raised in Kansas. Men have been assigned to tail Laszlo, but we are to believe that they retire for the night once Laszlo turns off his house lights. Conrad Veidt plays an ugly, humorless, stereotyped Nazi.
Claude Rains' character changes from a latent homosexual into a serial seducer of attractive women in need of letters of transit. The characters of Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund are also in flux. While this is partly by design, adding suspense to the story, it is also a product of the script being a work in progress during the filming.
But any frustration with Casablanca is only because we have raised expectations impossibly high. As with Citizen Kane, we are often informed that it is the greatest film of all time. When it turns out to 'only' be one of the greatest, disappointment can set in.
But a film should be celebrated for what it is, and not for what it is claimed to be. Casablanca is an outstanding film in every category. It is a well-rounded masterpiece with a script loaded with memorable lines. It has one of the most famous of all film stories, and characters from the leads to the most minor supporting players are expertly cast and developed.
Today, it is hard to believe that Humphrey Bogart was not the first choice for Rick Blaine, the cynical saloon owner who loves Casablanca for its intrigue and characters. Ronald Reagan was to have been the lead, a damaging choice which probably would have transformed the film into more of an unintentional comedy.
Ingrid Bergman, the classy and radiant beauty playing his long-lost love interest, was not the first choice for the role either. Her character was to have been played by Anne Sheridan, a talented actress best known for musicals and comedies. While lacking the soft, angelic quality that Bergman had, Sheridan would have given the character more fire. It would have been interesting to see Sheridan in the role, although given the film's near perfection as it is, Bergman was undeniably right for the part.
Bergman and especially Bogart are excellent, but the supporting cast gives the film much of its strength. Peter Lorre is always welcome as a conniving black marketeer, while unheralded Dooley Wilson has a moving turn as Bogart's lesser partner. Wilson's soulful jazz singing is somewhere between the polish of Nat King Cole, and the graininess of Louis Armstrong. Sidney Greenstreet and of course the chimerical Claude Rains also are memorable.
Not as fortunate are Conrad Veidt and Paul Henreid, who play humorless and obsessive characters. Their personalities are so similar that they could only exist together in the same film with polar opposite political ideologies. Henreid is so cold that it takes the warmth of Ingrid Bergman by his side to make him seem like a human being.
While I seemingly am criticizing the characters played by Veidt and Henreid, they are the principals behind my favorite scene of the film. In Rick's nightclub, Veidt leads his hated Nazis into a boorish singing of a Nazi propaganda song. Henreid in turn instructs the house band to play the French national anthem, humiliating the Germans with the audience's emotions of French patriotism.
On the other hand, the weakest scenes in the movie (weak only as compared with the rest of the film) are the flashback scenes of Rick and Ilsa in Paris. Bogart seems out of place as a starry-eyed lover, with only the bleak scene in the train station suiting his persona.
Unlike Citizen Kane, Casablanca was a favorite with the public from its initial release. It was a box office success, and was nominated for eight Academy Awards. It won three of the most important: Best Picture, Best Director (Michael Curtiz), and Best Screenplay (twins Julius and Philip Epstein, Howard Koch). Also nominated was Bogart for Best Actor, Claude Rains for Best Supporting Actor, Arthur Edeson for the cinematography, Max Steiner for the score and Owen Marks for his film editing.
It was The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca that established the film personality of Humphrey Bogart, as an opportunist with a heart of gold. He was previously well known as a supporting actor playing gangsters, as in Dead End (1937), Angels with Dirty Wings (1938), The Petrified Forest (1936) and The Roaring Twenties (1939). After Casablanca, Bogart continued to frequently play tough guy heroes, particularly in his films with eventual wife Lauren Bacall. (99/100)
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