A Couple of "Casablanca" Books

Regular readers know of my affinity for the movie "Casablanca", and in the last few weeks, I have read a couple of books about the making of this classic film.  

I recently received this book as a gift...

It was published in 2017 to mark the 75th anniversary of the release of the movie in 1942. 

One of the author Noah Isenberg's sources for his book was this book, that was published in 1992 to mark the 50th anniversary of the movie.  (It was originally titled "Round Up The Usual Suspects", by the way.)

Reading the Isenberg book prompted me to seek out and read Aljean Harnetz's book.

Both books cover much of the same ground, but both are worth reading.  When Warner Bros. bought the rights to an unproduced play called "Everybody Comes To Rick's" in 1941, it was felt that it had the makings of a pretty good melodrama, that it might make some money, and it would serve as product to show in the hundreds of theaters that Warner Bros. owned across the country.  It would be just like the hundreds and hundreds of other movies that Hollywood churned out under what is now referred to as the "studio system".  No one, no one knew that they were making a classic, arguably the greatest American movie of all time.

The "Studio System" (and you learn a lot about the studio system when you read these books) operated like factories that produced widgets....Ford made automobiles, General Electric made light bulbs, Warner Bros., MGM, and Paramount made movies.  Many of the writers and technical people that worked on "Casablanca" got the assignment simply because they were available during the time that the movie started shooting. Seven different writers had a hand in fashioning the script.  Ingrid Bergman didn't really want the part of Ilsa, and never considered it her favorite role. In fact, as her life went on, she never could quite understand why "Casablanca" became the beloved movie that it is.  The actors didn't always get along with the director or with each other.  Humphrey Bogart and Bergman, while they didn't dislike each other, they weren't great pals either, and had virtually no interaction with each other except for the scenes that they filmed.  Paul Henreid and Claude Rains didn't much like each other at all, and Rains never, until the day he died, ever actually sat down and watched "Casablanca".

Yet somehow, all worked together to create a classic.

Some interesting points:

• We watch this movie today knowing what happened.  The United States and its Allies won the war, and fascism was defeated.  When the movie was being filmed in 1942, these outcomes were not known, nor were they a sure thing.  Think about that the next time you watch the movie.
• The movie is in large part about refugees fleeing oppression and trying to come to America.  Many of the actors in the movie - Henreid, Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre, S.Z. Sakall and numerous extras actually WERE people who had fled the tyranny of Germany and Nazi oppression.
• Contrary to a popular myth, Ronald Reagan was never considered for the part of Rick Blaine.  Knowing the trajectory  Reagan's life was to take, it's a fun thing to talk about, except it wasn't true.  Warner Bros. did plant in item in the papers that a new production of theirs, "Casablanca", would star Reagan and Ann Sheridan.  This was planted for the sole purpose of providing publicity to another movie being released at the time that did star Reagan and Sheridan.  This was common practice in the days of the Studio System.
• George Raft did want the part and campaigned for it with studio head Jack Warner, but that was quickly nixed by producer Hal Wallis.  He wanted Bogey all along.

If you love the movie - and who doesn't? - I would recommend that you read one or both books.

I will leave with words from the opening paragraph of the Preface to Ms. Harmetz's book:

"Cynicism is a necessary protective cost for those who come close to the film industry's seductively hot center, and I have needed a doubly thick coat.  I grew up on the outskirts of MGM where my mother worked in the wardrobe department, and I later wrote about Hollywood for the New York Times.  But my cynicism dissolves when Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman say goodbye at the airport, and, at least in the dark corner of a movie theater, I am sure that I would be capable of such a sacrifice too."

By the way, the makers of "Casablanca" did toy around with a different ending, a "happy ending" where Victor went off by himself and Ilsa stayed with Rick.  Thank goodness they chose the ending that they did.  Had they gone with the Happy Ending, "Casablanca" would have indeed been just another movie, and would probably be forgotten today.

Here's looking at you, kid.