Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid have a date with fate in “Casablanca”

Casablanca, the 1942 classic directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid is the third film to be shown in this continuing monthly series. Winner of three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Casablanca has become part of the American consciousness, its dialogue (“Here's looking at you kid.”) part of our lexicon.

Just another movie?

What started as just another movie during Hollywood’s golden age became an instant classic. It made  Bogart a credible leading man and pushed him out of the shadows of fellow contract players James Cagney, George Raft, and Edward G. Robinson. In only her fourth American film, Bergman became a superstar and one of the most popular movie actresses of the 1940s. For Hungarian-born director Curtiz, Casablanca was his only Best Director win in a career that spanned more than four decades.

Michael Curtiz (1886 -1962) was a Hungarian-American film director who worked during Hollywood’s Golden age, directing some of the best loved classics from that era including The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) Casablanca (1942), and Mildred Pierce (1945). He directed James Cagney and Joan Crawford to Best Actor/Actress Oscar wins; he put Doris Day and John Garfield on the screen for the first time, making them major movie stars in the process. He’s also responsible for the pairing of Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, one of Hollywood’s most famous screen teams. Other films directed by Curtiz include Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), The Sea Wolf (1941), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942),  Life with Father (1947), and White Christmas (1954).

Humphrey Bogart (1899 – 1957) was an American film and stage actor. He is one of the most famous and popular movie stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Nicknamed Bogie, the actor toiled in supporting roles in both A and B pictures for a decade before his breakout role as Roy Earle in High Sierra (1941). Many more film roles followed including The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), Key Largo (1948), and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). His career continued with good roles in films like In a Lonely Place (1950), The Caine Mutiny (1954), and Sabrina (1954) co-starring William Holden and Audrey Hepburn. Bogart died from cancer in 1957.

Ingrid Bergman (1915 – 1982) was a Swedish actress who became an international star upon her Hollywood debut in Intermezzo (1939). Few actresses were as popular as Bergman during the 1940s. In fact, she was the number two box office draw (after Bing Crosby) in 1946. She starred opposite Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) opposite Gary Cooper, Gaslight (1944) for which she won the Best Actress Academy Award. She starred opposite newcomer Gregory Peck in Spellbound (1945) which was her first collaboration with director Alfred Hitchcock. Bergman would go on to win another Best Actress Academy Award for Anastasia (1956) and a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Murder on the Orient Express (1974).

Paul Henreid (1909 - 1992) was an Austrian-British-American actor, producer, writer, and director. Henreid is probably best known for two films released in 1942: Casablanca and Now, Voyager. Henreid was under contract with Warner Bros. where he was a popular leading man starring opposite the studio's top actresses including Bette Davis, Ida Lupino, and Eleanor Parker. After he left Warner Bros. Henreid made a series of adventure films. He later directed films and television shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Maverick, and The Big Valley.

Casablanca trivia

• Many of the actors playing Nazis were German Jews who escaped Nazi Germany.
• The tears in the eyes of the extras singing “La Marseillaise” were real; many of them had escaped Nazi occupied Europe.
• Stars Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid didn’t want to make Casablanca. Bogart and Bergman were unhappy with a script that wasn’t completed before filming, and Henreid who had a big success starring opposite Bette Davis in Now, Voyager (1942) didn’t want to be the second male lead.
• Bergman was desperate to play Maria in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943). Bergman got the role and a Best Actress nod. Bergman thought this would be the role that moviegoers would remember her for. Even though the film was a bigger box office hit than Casablanca, it hasn’t the reputation of that classic.
• The movie was filmed entirely on the Warner Bros. sound stages and backlot.

Click HERE to watch the film on YouTube.

 

Click HERE to join the discussion on December 18, 2023, 6:30 p.m. Central Time. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation and a link to join the discussion on Zoom.

 

Discussion questions

1. What is the basic plot of Casablanca? What is the central conflict? How is this conflict established?
2. What is the tone of the film? How is that tone established? What are some of the major themes of this film?
3. What role does music play? How do the attitudes of jazz fit into Rick’s club, and what we know about his character?
4. How are the characters framed in the film? What “tricks” does the director use to introduce characters, reveal their motives, or present their conflicts? How is this explored through lighting and camera angles?
5. What make this film timeless?