282 Casablanca (1942)
Description
This article is from the Movie Trivia, by Murray Chapman muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au with numerous contributions by others.
282 Casablanca (1942)
- ``Rick Blaine's'' was modelled after Hotel El Minzah in Tanger.
- Rick never says ``Play it again, Sam.'' He says: ``You played
it for her, you can play it for me. Play it!''. Ilsa says ``Play it, Sam.
Play `As Time Goes By'''.
- 'Dooley Wilson' (qv) (Sam) was a professional drummer who faked playing the
piano. As the music was recorded at the same time as the film, the piano
playing was actually a recording of a performance by 'Elliot Carpenter' (qv),
being played behind a curtain.
- Producer 'Hal B. Wallis' (qv) nearly made the character Sam a female.
'Hazel Scott' (qv), 'Lena Horne' (qv), and 'Ella Fitzgerald' (qv) were
tested for the role.
- 'Humphrey Bogart' (qv)'s wife continually accused him of having an affair
with 'Ingrid Bergman' (qv), often confronting him in his dressing room
before a shot. Bogart would come onto the set in a rage.
- Wallis originally had 'Ronald Reagan' (qv) and 'Ann Sheridan' (qv) in mind
for the lead roles. 'Pan Brennan' (qv), another producer, then said he
thought Bogart was the most appealing of all Warners' stars to women.
Meanwhile 'George Raft' (qv) was angling for the part with
'Jack Warner' (qv), but Wallis eventually chose Bogart.
- 'Paul Heinreid' (qv) was loaned to Warner's for the role of Victor Lazlo by
Selznick International pictures against his will. He was concerned that
playing a secondar y character would ruin his career as a leading romantic
lead.
- Bergman complained that she didn't know who her character was supposed to be
in love with.
- Two contradicting endings were scheduled to be filmed, but the first one
worked so well that they used it.
- The budget was so small they couldn't use a real plane in the back ground at
the airport. Instead, it is a small cardboard cutout. To give the illusion
that the plane was full-sized, they used midgets to portray the crew
preparing the plane for take-off.
- This film was rewritten daily during filming, made on a shoestring budget,
hastily released, and expected to bomb.
- Many of the actors who played the Nazis were Jewish.
- The timely real-life invasion of Casablanca was used to promote this film,
and undoubtedly contributed to its success.
- Many of the shadows were painted onto the set. [rumor]
- Based on the play ``Everybody Comes to Rick's'' by 'Murray [???]' (qv), it
was renamed to ``Casablanca'', hoping to emulate the success of the recently
released "Algiers (1938)" (qv).
- Wallis thought of the film's last line 3 weeks after shooting ended, and
Bogart was called back to dub it.
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