Rick: It’s funny about your voice, how it hasn’t changed. I can still hear it. "Richard, dear, I’ll go with you anyplace. We’ll get on a train together and never stop - "
Ilsa: Don’t, Rick! I can understand how you feel.
Rick: [scoffs] You understand how I feel. How long was it we had, honey?
Ilsa: [on the verge of tears] I didn’t count the days.
Rick: Well, I did. Every one of 'em. Mostly I remember the last one. The wild finish. A guy standing on a station platform in the rain with a comical look in his face because his insides have been kicked out.
Ilsa: Can I tell you a story, Rick?
Rick: Has it got a wild finish?
With snark like that, I think Rick would have fit in real well around here.
Some all-time greatest tough talk:
Major Strasser: Are you one of those people who cannot imagine the Germans in their beloved Paris?
Rick: It’s not particularly my beloved Paris.
Heinz: Can you imagine us in London?
Rick: When you get there, ask me!
Captain Renault: Hmmh! Diplomatist!
Major Strasser: How about New York?
Rick: Well, there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn’t advise you to try to invade.
Martin Scorsese likes to tell of how, when he saw the movie for the first time as a teenager, he and his friends broke into applause over the last line - he was talking about their neighborhood!
This was one of the first films I remember seeing as a kid on television - my parents were in the next room with the neighbors playing cards and the neighbor girl and I (both of us about 9 years old) watched the film.
I was hooked.
I can watch Casablanca anytime it comes on television and still be spellbound.
Casablanca is the perfect convergence of all things great in a film: story, set, cast, dialogue, music, costumes and some little speck of magic that seems to be the glue that holds it all together. Simply perfect.
I don’t know from Ingrid Bergman’s confusion–that’s nice; just sit there and look gorgeous, honey–but when you view the film from the standpoint of its being a metaphor for the geopolitical situation at the time it takes place, there couldn’t be any question about Ilsa going to Lisbon with Victor. Rick is the personification of American isolationism; if he flies off with Ilsa, he (and by extension, the USA) will just sit tight in the West and do nothing for the imprisoned peoples of Europe; he would have had no reason or motivation to step back into “the fight,” as he does (with Louis in tow) at the film’s end. The ending we got is the only one works as a payoff for everything in the film before it. And remember how many of the film’s cast and crew were refugees from Europe and the Nazi regime; every one of them knew the stakes on the broader stage, so to speak. It’s unthinkable that they could have screwed up the story with any other ending.
As for great dialogue, I too am a fan of “I was misinformed.” It works in so many contexts. And “Captain Renault is getting broad-minded.” Hilarious.
Opening the floor to the cultural influence of Casablanca -
Two quotations from Michael Ondaatje -
"I could write my suite of poems
for Bogart drunk
six months after the departure at Casablanca.
I see him lying under the fan
at the Slavyansky Bazar Hotel
and soon he will see the treth
the stupididy of his gesture
he’ll see it in the space
between the whirling metal
Stupid fucker
he says to himself, stupid fucker
and knocks the bottle leaning againtst his bare stomach
onto the sheet. Gin stems
out like a four leaf clover.
I used to be lucky he says
I had white suits black friends
who played the piano…"
- short excerpt from “Tin Roof”, published in the collection “The Cinnamon Peeler”
“In the movies of my childhood the heroes
after skilled swordplay and moral victories
leave with absolutely nothing
to do for the rest of their lives.”
- from “Late Movies with Skyler”, also published in the collection “The Cinnamon Peeler”. The specific film referred to in the poem is “The Prisoner of Zenda”, but I always think of Casablanca when I read this, despite the lack of swordplay.
For those who divide the world of cinema into guy films/girl films, Casablanca is firmly in the overlap of those two Venn diagrams. I forgot to rent it yesterday, but when I take Coraline back, I shall get it out. My wife gave me permission to buy it (!), saying there was a film she would never have to be talked into watching. And me, neither.
Renault was never loyal to Strasser; Renault was only loyal to Renault. He put up with Strasser because he was surviving. Which makes Bogie’s last line in the movie all that more poignant. Perhaps now Renault will not just look for what’s in it for him when helping others.
This very plothole was addressed by Roger Ebert. Here it is:
Exactly. Renault knew it would not go well for him if Lazlo escaped, so he called Strasser. Once Rick killed Strasser, he knew Lazlo was going to escape anyway (and probably figured he would somehow be held responsible for Strasser’s death as well), so there was no margin in paying lipservice to Vichy.
Makes the room just a tad dusty when I watch it, not in small part due to the fact that the woman crying - a French expat during WWII, as I recall - was not crying fake actress tears.
As I understand, almost all of the actors on screen during that scene were European refugees.
You forgot:
Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Captain Renault: I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
My favorite lines in the entire thing =)
I see three possible ways to look at this.
The first is the obvious one: the story required Strasser to show up at the airport so Renault called him to get him there.
But staying within character, there are two ways to look at it. One is that Renault was playing both sides. Strasser looked like the winning side so he worked with Strasser. After Rick shot Strasser, then Rick showed he was stronger. As Renault said he went which way the wind was blowing.
The other possibility is that Renault listened to Rick’s speech about how people had to sacrifice their personal concerns for the greater good and was converted.
An absolutely glorious scene, and what the hell is wrong with YouTube commentors? I swear, is there an anti-intelligence test you need to pass in order to be allowed to post your thoughts under the videos?
“You know, Rick, I have many a friend in Casablanca, but somehow, just because you despise me, you are the only one I trust.”
To me, Peter Lorre is one of the best parts of the movie…TRM
Great dialog in this movie, and I too am a big fan of the “I was misinformed” line.
However, I have to ask… am I the only one who thought that Paul Henreid was a terrible choice to play Victor Laszlo? He never struck me as anything but a wimp. Everyone else in the picture is perfectly cast, but they could have done so much better with Laszlo.
He was kind of a dishrag, but I assumed that was to show contrast with the dynamic, charismatic Rick. And to emphasize how Ilsa was with him for high moral purposes rather than for personal, emotional reasons…TRM
You despise me, don’t you Rick?
If I gave you any thought I probably would
my favorite line:
It would take a miracle to get you out of Casablanca, and the Germans have outlawed miracles
I use this one a lot, It would take a miracle to make the nine o clock showing of the Dark Knight, and the Germans have outlawed miracles
when in doubt blame zee Germans
“You want my advice? Go back to Bulgaria.”
I think it’s among the funnier lines in the film.
Upon further thinking, the whole incident with the Bulgarian bride (character = Annina Brandel, according to IMDB) is the beginning of the end of Rick’s “I stick my neck out for no man” policy.
In high school French class, our teacher taught us the Marseillaise by replaying that scene from the movie several times.
I liked the scene with Carl and Mr and Mrs. Leuchtag (the European couple who were emigrating to the US and were practicing their English by asking each other what time it is):
(Mr. Leuchtag: Liebchen - Sweetness Heart, what watch?
Mrs. Leuchtag: Ten watch.
Mr. Leuchtag: Such much?
Carl: Hm. You will get along beautiful in America, mm-hmm)
And there was Carl’s line about how the leading banker in Amsterdam is now the pastry chef.
One of my favorite quotes is when the young Bulgarian bride asks Rick “what kind of a man is Captain Renault?” and Rick answers “Just like any other man, only moreso.” Also, the “hill of beans” speech is a classic.
Wonderful, wonderful film.