Here looking at you, 80! If Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman were alive today, the “salon keeper” in Casablanca who ran a nightclub and gambling den during World War II would have quipped.
“Here’s Looking at You, Kid” was one of the most memorable lines from the 1942 Hollywood film—which no one thought would even make a wave. But it went on to become an all-time classic, winning an Oscar for Best. This year marks eight decades for the picture and its director Michael Curtiz.
Set against the backdrop of the Great War, the hauntingly beautiful love story between Rick Blaine (Bogart) and Ilsa Lund (Bergman) unfolds in Paris and the North African city of Casablanca, which was then under French rule. It was there that men and women hunted down by Adolf Hitler and other Axis powers made their way in the hopes of buying – at exorbitantly high prices – exit passes that would take them to the New World, America. It was not easy getting on a plane departing once a week from Casablanca.
After a brief but passionate romance in Paris, Ilsa and Rick meet at the train station, hoping to escape the Nazi army. But she never appears. And months later, when she enters Rick’s Cafe America with her husband Viktor László (a Czech resistance fighter essayed by Paul Henreid), and begs pianist Sam to play “As Time Goes By”, Rick is furious. Comes in that the song should have been sung. “I told you never to play again”, he yells at Sam, but calms down upon seeing Ilsa.
Later that night, a completely intoxicated Rick said to Sam: “In all the couples, in all the towns, in all the world he had to walk to me.”
Curtiz and his writers (adapting the film from Everybody Comes to Ricks, an unpublished stage play by Murray Burnett and Joan Ellison) could not decide whether to end Casablanca. And they were in a hurry, and it had to end in time with the Allied invasion of North Africa. Plus, Curtiz kept Bergman in the dark about who she loved – Rick or Victor! Well, the director himself was unaware, and so he created two climaxes. In the first she would leave Casablanca with her husband, and in the second, she would stay back with Rick.
And since the first was ready and there was no time to shoot the second, the team went with what we see in Casablanca.
The end is simply with Rick running into French captain Louis Renault (a brilliant performance by Claude Rains; in fact, it’s easy to forget Henried, not the rain) and telling him, “Louis, that’s the start of a beautiful relationship. ”
I don’t think there was ever an attempt to remake Casablanca (incidentally, there’s still a cafe there and it’s called Rick’s Cafe America, and I’ve seen posters and photos from the movie there)
A new Netflix work, Curtiz, weaves around Casablanca, telling us all about the making of the film. The debut of an elegant monochrome feature by Swiss-Hungarian director Tamas Yvan Topolanzki tries to give us a glimpse into the actual shoot, which takes place not in Casablanca, but in California. Obviously, the production team couldn’t possibly have traveled to Africa in wartime conditions, and in a surprisingly unrealistic scene, we see a giant cardboard plane engulfed in smoke to recreate a foggy night at Casablanca airfield. A unit hand can be heard saying to the other hand that thus one cannot know that it is not a real plane. Some dwarves were even hired to stand around it!
Michael Curtiz (Ferrek Lengyel) is portrayed as arrogant, arrogant, even cruel and above all a feminist. Their estranged daughter, Kitty (Evelyn Dobos), creates more complications on set and gets helmer anger – part of it stems from her lack of appreciation in Hollywood.
The film begins with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and how Curtiz deals with the political interference of Johnson, a US government official who wants the film to follow the country’s ideals. He wants the Nazi SS officer to be killed in Casablanca!
Although Curtiz and others wanted Casablanca to represent hope, they ultimately took ground reality into account. In fact, his fear of losing his sister in battle and his relationship with Kitty influenced how the classic wound ended.
While the film is a great tribute to director Curtiz, lifting him deeply and also to the classical style of Hollywood, I was a little disappointed, as there was very little of the actual shooting in the work. We hardly saw Bogart or Bergman or Rains. Actors could portray these great characters, and Netflix’s offering could have been a far more satisfying watch.
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