Well, he was trying to occupy her territory.
[cough] …Hide the Salami…[cough]
Playboy once published a short story titled “You Must Remember This” which went into great detail about that night.
It’s a common mistake for people to hear “General De Gaulle” when the it’s actually “General Weygand”. See halfway down the IMDb goofs section.
I vote that nothing happened. What is shown on screen is pretty much it. Rick refusing Ilsa’s ploy is a key step of his rehabilitation from self-centered observer to hero. It fits the story arc much better. Having him sleep with Ilsa just for the jollies doesn’t work.
You think Ilsa slept in Sam’s piano? No, they did it. And Yvonne was sobbing, pounding on the door.
Yes, by Robert Coover. I recently read it in this book: http://www.amazon.com/Night-Movies-Must-Remember-This/dp/1564781607/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277734203&sr=1-6. No great shakes as literature, or even as porn, but I suppose any Casablanca fan who has imagined Rick and Ilsa getting hot and heavy will want to have a look.
Until Ilsa said, “Why don’t you let her in? She’s got a hot body and a low self-image, perfect recipe for fun.”
bowp-chica-wah-wow
Michael Walsh wrote a novel that covers the movie, and what happened before and after, called As Time Goes By
In the end, Lazlo dies, Rcik & Ilsa marry, and on their honeymoon “the fundamental things apply”
I’m not buying it. I’ve listened to that particular line dozens of times in detail, including a by-scene analysis with the volume amplified, and Ugarte is very clearly saying, “General De Gaulle”, not “Weygand”; the hard consonant “D” after “General” is distinctly different than the “weh” sound. Maxime Weygand was also in deep trouble with the Vichy regime in the latter half of 1941 and was dismissed from the position of Delegate-General to the North African colonies in November 1941, prior to the events in the film, so his signature on anything at that point would have been worthless. My film prof agreed that it was a factual error in the screenplay, and notwithstanding, that the “letters of transit” serve not only as a MacGuffin, but an ultimately pointless one.
The film has some cracking dialogue, some very memorable secondary characters, and the always enjoyable Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre, but the plot makes about as much sense as playing Scrabble blindfolded.
Stranger
Oh, please. There is no “weh” sound in “Weygand.” It’s pronounced “Vey-gah(n).” There’s nothing even resembling a “d” sound in the way Ugarte pronounces it, the vowel sound in the first syllable is an “ay” (“de Gaulle” has a scwha sound), and it clearly ends with a French nasal sound that doesn’t exist in “de Gaulle.” One would have to be totally ignorant of the actual pronunciation of the two words in order to confuse them.
As for Weygand being on the outs – this was Hollywood. They didn’t care and didn’t worry about trivia like that. The Epsteins just wanted the name of a French General, and that’s the one he picked. If this “disproves” the use of Weygand, then isn’t is even more wrong that they use “Degaulle”? It would not be unreasonable for the Epsteins to not know the current ins and outs of Vichy politics, but it’s a real stretch to think they didn’t know de Gaulle was on the other side.
Come to think of it, I remember reading a book review in the early Eighties, I think it was, of a book that tied together a number of films’ characters from several different genres in a sort of all-embracing “Where are they now?” alternative history. I don’t remember what happened to the other characters, but ISTR that Ilsa ended up dying in the 1961 plane crash that killed UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld.
I don’t know what film you’re watching, but in Casablanca, Ugarte is clearly either speaking of the letters of transit being signed by De Gaulle or mispronouncing the name of a 19th century painter and sculptor.
Although the film is set in December 1941, it was actually drafted in March and April 1942, and filmed in mid-1942, long after Weygand had been very publicly removed from office for speaking negatively about Nazi Germany. If the Epsteins and Koch were conversant enough with Vichy politics to select a public figure it seems more likely that they would have selected Philippe Pétain (Chief of State). It seems far more likely that Ugarte’s character and perhaps even the letters of transit were inserted into the script at some point just prior to or during filming, and the De Gaulle’s name was inserted as an error or a placeholder, and ended up being used for dialogue. Uncredited screenwriter Casey Robinson performed many of the late rewrites, and made a number of errors in regard to French and Vichy politics in the 1944 film Passage to Marseilles, so that may very well be the case here.
Stranger
Considering the fact that in your OP, you show didn’t even know how the word “Weygand” is pronounced, I fail to see how your declaration here carries any weight.
Do you speak any French? If so, why did you even think that “Weygand” started with a “weh” sound? Your entire argument rests of that false assumption.
Circular reasoning. You hear de Gaulle (because you don’t know how Weygand is actually pronounced) and then from that assumption, come up with a strained scenario to show why they might use “de Gaulle” to prove that you heard de Gaulle. Hollywood wasn’t following the ins and outs of Vichy French politics, and just picked the name of the the most prominent Vichy general.
Addendum: I finally deciphered what you meant by the 19th Century painter and sculptor, and now you show you don’t know how “de Gaulle” is pronounced, either. The first syllables of “de Gaulle” and “Degas” are not pronounced the same. Evidently, you don’t know this. So your analysis depends on mispronouncing both “De Gaulle” and “Weygand.”
Dammit, you guys are gonna make me watch this movie again, aren’t you?
I think the whole point of the Bulgarian couple was to show that when push comes to shove, Rick is an honorable gent. (giving the money to the husband to prevent the woman from having to do soemthing horrid.) And to illustrate the kinds of choices that an honorable woman might make in the circumstances of war. I don’t think he slept with Ilsa at all, ever. And I think he “did the right thing” in the context of the times, by sending her on with her husband.
By “we got it back” he means that now he knows she wasn’t just leading him on. that what he felt was real, and shared, and she left him at the station for the same reason that he sent her on from the airport. Using their love as an excuse to do something dishonorable would ultimately destroy it.
That’s so beautiful. I – I have something in my eye.
Oh, okay. It’s a hill of beans. They totally did it.
No, everyone agrees on the important part: Bogie shot first. 
The Epsteins were admirably honest about some of the shortcuts they took. They admitted, for instance, that there was no such thing as a “letter of transit.” It was just a useful plot device.
And Renault was shocked, SHOCKED, to hear about it!