‘Casablanca’ had a rocky start. Its stars never expected it to become a classic.

Krogen said:
Perhaps the second on my list is The Big Sleep. No, I don't understand it to this day.
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By all reports, neither did Raymond Chandler...He wrote it in such a hurry some details were lost in the telling...And William Faulkner's screenplay treatment did not help my limited understanding...I've seen it (and all the other Bogart films many times) and I agree the ending was blurry and open to interpretation...I also like the 1978 Robert Mitchum version just as well, and the ending made much more sense...:confused:...Ben
 
I recently watched a documentary about what made this movie so good. I didn't read all the comments so this might be redundant. Some of it's success was timing with current affairs. And it's amazing that it was filmed entirely on a Hollywood lot and used something like the Burbank, CA. airport for the ending.
Here it is here...EDIT: I cannot see the video I posted here. Please let me know if you can. I'll try to repost it.
What's So Great About Casablanca? Ask a Film Professor. - YouTube
 
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What makes it good was a good script (written the night before scenes were filmed in some cases), good actors, and just the right amount of witty dialogue to break the tension. It's a compelling love story set in the background of war.

BTW, the scenes filmed with the plane in the background and ground crew moving around utilized midgets to make it look like they were further away than they actually were.

Just some Hollywood magic.

For the record, I've seen the movie four times since mid November and probably 25 times over the years.

Wyatt Burp said:
I recently watched a documentary about what made this movie so good. I didn't read all the comments so this might be redundant. Some of it's success was timing with current affairs. And it's amazing that it was filmed entirely on a Hollywood lot and used something like the Burbank, CA. airport for the ending.
Here it is here...
What's So Great About Casablanca? Ask a Film Professor. - YouTube
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GaryS said:
What makes it good was a good script (written the night before scenes were filmed in some cases), good actors, and just the right amount of witty dialogue to break the tension. It's a compelling love story set in the background of war.

BTW, the scenes filmed with the plane in the background and ground crew moving around utilized midgets to make it look like they were further away than they actually were.

Just some Hollywood magic.

For the record, I've seen the movie four times since mid November and probably 25 times over the years.
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This is from the Trivia at IMDb. More info than you ever wanted to know....

"The entire picture was shot in the studio, except for the sequence showing Maj. Strasser's arrival, which was filmed at Van Nuys Airport, and a few short clips of stock footage views of Paris."

"The "Casablanca Hangar" at the Van Nuys Airport, built in 1928, was demolished in 2007."

"The rear half of the movie prop plane that Ilsa and Victor flew out of Casablanca can be seen as plane wreckage on the Jungle Cruise ride at Walt Disney World."

"The facade of the arched hanger featured in the film had previously been seen in the Laurel and Hardy film The Flying Deuces (1939). It had been built 2 months before the original Metropolitan Airport opened in 1928. In 2007 it was bought by Jim Dunn who had it moved and re erected at his Airtel Plaza Hotel."

"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 somewhat unconvincing appearance. Nevertheless, Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park in Orlando, FL, purchased a Lockheed 12A for its Great Movie Ride attraction, and initially claimed that it was the actual plane used in the film."

"The airplane leaving for Lisbon at the end of the film is of Air France. Twice, their logo, the winged seahorse, is shown on the plane's fuselage."

Casablanca (1942) - Trivia - IMDb
 
Cinematography schools are still using Casablanca as a reference tool to teach how diffused lighting, filters, washed shadows, camera angles and set design can convey suspense even with still shots.

Solid entertainment.
 
DWalt said:
Somewhere I have a book which I don't remember the title of, which was a very good biography of Humphrey Bogart. One chapter of it was devoted to the making of Casablanca and why it became so popular. It was indeed an ad hoc production, and often pages of the script were rushed to the players immediately before a scene was filmed so there was no time to do even a rudimentary rehearsal first. A big contributor to its box office success was that it was released about the same time as the Allied North Africa invasion occurred, so the name "Casablanca" was in the headlines, and people rushed to see it. All through the production it was never expected that it would be a blockbuster hit, just another low budget grade B potboiler romance.

Bogart was a couple of inches shorter than Ingrid Bergman, so most of the side-by-side scenes were made with Bogart standing on a box so he appeared taller than her.

Some might remember there was a Casablanca TV series back in the 1980s. I think I saw a few episodes, didn't think much of it. Another thing was that I remember that Ted Turner had it colorized for TCM, also back in the 1980s. It was highly criticized by many as sacrilege. I believe that the colorized version was aired only a few times.

One other thing I remember was that the set used for the on-screen scenes inside Rick's Cafe Americain was recycled from an earlier Warner Brothers movie which was shot several years earlier.

I also once read a book which was both a prequel and a sequel to the movie that explained how and why Rick got to Casablanca, and what happened to him and the other characters after the movie ended. I don't remember its title or the author, but it was really pretty good and would probably have made a good movie itself.
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This is that book
https://www.amazon.com/As-Time-Goes-Novel-Casablanca/dp/0446519006
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I think I'd like to leave the prequel and sequel to my imagination.

BTW I absolutely love Casablanca. The thought of Madonna putting her filthy paws on this story makes me want to puke.

Glad that idea died a well deserved death.
 
DWalt said:
And then there is always a controversy about what the "Letters of Transit" were and who signed them. Also, what is the new "German 77"?
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IIRC in WWI the Germans had 77mm guns. But they would have been old in 1940.
 

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I like all the Bogart movies (well, perhaps Virginia City-where Bogie is a Mexican bandit is a bit of a stretch) but Casa Blanca is one of my favs.

I'm an action movie guy, a Cavalry vs the Indians guy and love stories-well, the Hallmark Channel can go far, far away as far as I am concerned.

But Casa Blanca is a great love story and it has the world champion scene stealer, Claude Rains, as the cop.

Great movie! Great cast!

Bob
 
Rudi said:
IIRC in WWI the Germans had 77mm guns. But they would have been old in 1940.
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That is true. But I have understood that later on, some of the old 77s were converted to 88s. True or not, even if the Germans were firing on Paris with 77s, they would not have been new.
 
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What would be the incentive to go as it shows up on TCM 3 -4 times per year anyway and probably 90% of the population has already seen it at least once? Unless it is purely for the experience of seeing it on a large screen in a theater.
 
DWalt said:
What would be the incentive to go as it shows up on TCM 3 -4 times per year anyway and probably 90% of the population has already seen it at least once? Unless it is purely for the experience of seeing it on a large screen in a theater.
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There's a great deal going on in the scenes that don't show up on a small screen. I was astounded when I first watched Casblanca on my new Sony OLED TV. I have not seen it in a theatre, but would jump at the chance.
 
Krogen said:
There's a great deal going on in the scenes that don't show up on a small screen. I was astounded when I first watched Casblanca on my new Sony OLED TV. I have not seen it in a theatre, but would jump at the chance.
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I would agree after seeing it on a 65 inch screen as compared to a 26 inch screen. Picked up on quite a few different things. I can watch a movie several times and find things that I did not see before.
 
Krogen said:
There's a great deal going on in the scenes that don't show up on a small screen. I was astounded when I first watched Casblanca on my new Sony OLED TV. I have not seen it in a theatre, but would jump at the chance.
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There is nothing quite like the big screen, sub woofer, theater experience.

My hips and back no longer permit me to go but I do miss it.
 
Rustyt1953 said:
There is nothing quite like the big screen, sub woofer, theater experience.
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After watching "It's a Wonderful Life" on TV over the years, I finally got a chance to see it on the big screen at the theater in downtown Gettysburg. I was amazed how much I saw from seeing the movie in a theater setting, even after seeing it on TV so many times before.
 
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