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Which is also why the Germans can’t “rescind” the letters. There’s no way to communicate to every border guard to tell them to be suspicious about a couple letters of transit. Especially when there could well be hundreds of other (non-stolen) letters of t.
Well, as Rick himself says, “So long as I’ve got those letters, I’ll never be lonely.”
Classic Maguffin.
DD
You know, I saw the movie dozens of time and never once thought Lorre said anything other than “Weygand” in a German accent. The word sounds nothing like “de Gaulle,” and it’s clear that those to mondegrened “de Gaulle” didn’t know anything about WWII history.
Yes, the letters are a maguffin, but they’re a well-constructed one. They cannot be rescinded. That’s a given, so there’s no point in asking why.
And, of course, the Nazis had no jurisdiction in Casablanca, so they couldn’t arrest anyone. Yes, IRL, they probably would have just scooped him up, but this is a movie, not real life. The reason why they didn’t do it was given by the same genius that gave us the term “macguffin”: “Because that would be dull.”
Would you prefer dull and hyperrealistic (to current eyes) or a good movie that doesn’t sweat the small stuff?
“that those to mondegrened” 
He meant “those who Mondegreened …” That is, those who misheard it as “de Gaulle.”
Casablanca seems to always be good for a nice thread. Thanks everybody here! I guess I just accept it.
(And it really isn’t a bad movie…)
Roger Ebert notes that, once Major Strasser is dead, there is absolutely nothing to keep Rick and Captain Renalt from boarding the plane and going to Lisbon with Ilsa and Victor. Certainly the Portugese authorities have no interest in whether or not the travellers have the letters of transit.
But it would have spoiled a beautiful closing line…
Heh, it turns out “Weygand” doesn’t necessarily make any sense either. General Weygand had already been forcibly retired by the time Casablanca went before the cameras in the summer of 1942. (Weygand retired November 1941, then was arrested by the SS in November 1942 for recommending France fight against Nazi Germany after he had been briefly recalled by Petain that same month.)
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FRweygand.htm
I guess you could argue that the movie is set somewhere between July and November of 1941, though it would have been awfully odd for the menacing-but-punctilious Major Strasser to make that crack about invading New York while the US and Germany were still at peace. Still, I can’t thing of anything in the movie that would prohibit it being set in the second half of 1941.
As for the plane, well, who’s to say it wasn’t simply fully booked? Plus it’s already on the runway by the time Major Strasser bites it.
I’m sure Renault would have wanted to collect some of his ill-gotten gains before going anywhere (“I’m only a poor, corrupt official.”) After all, it’s not like Rick told him they were going on a little trip before he pointed a gun at him.
Available seats? Airfare? Or maybe Rick was so focused on getting Ilsa onto the plane that it never occurred to him. Months later, in a concentration camp, Rick says to Renault:
“You know, we COULD have just gotten on the plane…”
About the timing of the events in the film:
According to the trivia section of the IMDB entry for Casablanca,
about 9 min. into the film, Rick signs a credit slip with a date of Dec. 2, 1941.
BrotherCadfael:
Why would they want to? Lisbon is of no interest except as a way station to the U.S., and Rick can’t return to the U.S. and Renault has no reason to want to.
They’re going off to join the Free French garrison because they’ve decided it’s the right thing to do, not because it’s the only option open to them.
Wumpus, in addition to the credit slip Fish42 mentioned, in the scene where Rick got drunk in the cafe after hours he says to Sam
So the timing of the movie is pretty well fixed in December of 1941.
Close – The slip is dated December 2nd, but no year is specified (I just looked at the DVD).
If the movie is in fact set in 1941, then Weygand would have lost his post two weeks before the movie began and already be en route back to France.
We’re probably looking a mite bit too hard at the man behind the curtain, though, given the clearly magical nature of the letters of transit. They’re blank checks with no names or dates specified, and they cannot be rescinded, “not even questioned,” which is a pretty neat trick.
Doh, yes, I forgot about the line to Sam. So December 1941 it is.
On the recently issued 2-DVD “Special Edition”, in the commentary track, film historian Rudy Behlmer says that there is no such thing as a “letter of transit.” It was a plot gimmick, “concocted out of thin air,” that was different from the exit visas that Renault (Claude Reins) could issue.