The film premiered in NYC on November 26, 1942so most of it must have been shot earlier that year. But I was arguing with a colleague that the film must have been written well before the US entered World War Two, at least in provisional form because you’d need some time to greenlight the movie, cast it, all the pre-production stuff, then the actual filming and the post-production editing and dubbing, scoring, etc before it could even be scheduled for release.
In the movie, Bogart writes a date on gambling slip a few days before Pearl Harbor, so we know when the film was supposed to be set (presumably, the attack on Pearl Harbor would have been mentioned if any of the film took place after December 7th.) I maintain that the basic plot was designed to make Americans feel that, like Rick, they would need to abandon their sense of self interest (“I stick my neck out for no one”) and understand the problems affecting others, and so engage in the fight against the nazis, but my colleague was maintaining that since the film was mainly being shot and re-written as it was being shot after Pearl Harbor, there would have been little need to motivate Americans as to the nazi threat.
Does anyone know of the status of the production on Pearl Harbor day? Had it been scheduled yet for production? Had the script even been sold to Warner bros.? Had production actually begun yet?
To find filming dates for a film on IMDB, you inexplicably have to go to the Box Office and Business page, where you will discover that it was filmed between May and August of that year. A documentary about it or films of the time that partly resides in my memory corroborates the notion that it was a very quick production.
The Wikipedia page about Casablanca is one of those rare ones that actually cites its sources, so I’ll deem it credible. It says the movie was almost completely based on an unproduced play called “Everybody Comes to Rick’s”, written after a 1938 mercy trip to occupied Vienna.
According to Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of Casablanca (New York: Hyperion, 1992 – ISBN 1-56282-941-6) the first day of shooting was May 25, 1942. With a quick skimming I can’t find when shooting was wrapped up but the book mentions “the ending was completely shot by July 23.” This may have been the last day of shooting as well.
As A.R. Cane mentioned, it was shot in California.
Casablanca is known for the fact that the script was still being written as the film was being made. So the story was created during the summer of 1942.
Thanks, all. I actually knew one of the screenwriters, and knew that improv quality quite well. What I didn’t know, and still don’t, was how much of the plot had been already created by the time Warner Bros had decided to make the film, and when exactly was that? I’ll see if *Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of Casablanca * has info. Thanks, Mycroft, for that lead.
Murray Burnett, an English teacher at a vocational high school, and Joan Alison wrote the play Everybody Comes to Rick’s in the summer of 1940, in which an embittered American who owns a café in Morocco redeems himself after a reunion with the woman who had broken his heart, by arranging for her and the anti-Nazi newspaper editor who accompanies her to escape to Lisbon.
Casablanca officially entered the studio system on 8 December 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed. Irene Lee, head of Warner Bros.’ story department, had found the unproduced play Everybody Comes to Rick’s on a trip to New York, and now recommended it to Hal Wallis, head of production at Warner Bros. On 22 December 1941, Wallis sent out copies of the play to producers at the studio to see if they saw it feasible as movie, before he bought the rights. On 27 December 1941, Wallis purchased the rights. Three days later he changed the title to Casablanca, and the process of finding a screenwriter began.*
In January, Hall Wallis formed Hal Wallis Productions, an independent production unit in association with Warner Bros.
Casablanca began filming on 25 May 1942. It ended production on 3 August 1942, eleven days behind schedule, on its 59th day of shooting, with Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid performing a page and a quarter of dialogue.
The movie had originally been scheduled for a spring 1943 release, but it opened in New York on 25 November 1942, Thanksgiving Day, to take advantage of the fact that American troops had landed in North Africa. It did not open in Los Angeles until 23 January 1943, which is why it won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1943.
Screenwriter Robert Buckner sent it back with the note, “I don’t believe the story or the characters. Its main situations and the basic relations of the principals are completely censorable and messy, its big moment is sheer hokum melodrama . . . and this guy Rick is two-parts Hemingway, one-part Scott Fitzgerald, and a dash of café Christ.”
Back in the 80s, some prankster sent the original script (with the original title) around to various studios, presumably to punk them for their lack of awareness of their artistic roots. One of the replies said said “Love the script! Have some great ideas for casting! Unfortunately, all the actors are dead…”
One legend is that two endings were planned, with the director to pick the one that worked best on film. The other, never shot because the airport scene worked so well, had Rick killing Renault as well as Strasser, keeping the other letter of transit, and flying off to Lisbon with Ilsa.
Legend is right. Neither of the two histories of Casablanca that I’ve read mention such an ending. The Production Code would never have allowed Rick to fly off with another man’s wife.
The wiki link I provided, which cites Mycroft H.'s book, claims, as do some other, non-citing sources, that the basic plot (i.e. embittered cafe owner in Morocco must decide whether to help his ex and her new love) was present in the original 1938 play.
You are most welcome. It may also help if I mention that the author was Aljean Harmetz. (You may already know that if you’ve checked bookfinder.com. Lots of copies available.) It has been a while since I read the book, but do recall that it was very enjoyable and skimming through it again it appears to give more detail than one could imagine, including a lot of background on the studios, actors, reactions to the movie, etc. A must for one who loves the movie (such as I do) and enjoys learning about the background. I’ve decided it’s worth reading again.
In re-reading the thread I also see that I neglected to actually answer the OP. :smack: Thank goodness we have people such as Little Nemo, Walloon (what a post!) and others to successfully accomplish the task.
The allies had actually captured Casablanca by November 12, 1942. In a Hedda Hopper column the next day, she said a print of the film was being rushed to New York for showing. In a column the previous week, Hopper mentioned that Twentieth Century was rushing a movie to be called Oran into production. The allies had just taken Oran a few days before Casablanca.
And we think that rushing “made for tv movies” about current topics is a new thing. :smack: