#46 Casablanca

February 13, 2021
Casablanca (1942) ****
Secret Movie Club Drive-In
$37 (double feature with When Harry Met Sally)
Wildcard

“If it’s December 1941 in Casablanca, what time is it in New York?”
“Uh, my watch stopped.”
“I bet they’re asleep in New York. I bet they’re asleep all over America.”

This was supposed to be a double feature with When Harry Met Sally, but unfortunately, due to high winds that made Rick and Ilsa look as though they were underwater on the blow-up screen, When Harry Met Sally was canceled.

The funny thing is, I might not have gone to see this movie if it was just Casablanca, because I kind of take Casablanca for granted. Like so many of the big classic films, you know they’re great, you’ve seen them, they are famous for a reason, but it is as though they are preserved in amber. Casablanca is famous and great, and we don’t have to see it again because we know it’s famous and great.

But it really is famous and great for a reason. Watching it this time, I realized just what a vital, living film it is, and that we are seeing these actors say these iconic quotes for the first time, not knowing that they would be iconic quotes.

When a movie is adapted from a famous book or play, often the most famous lines are already known, everybody knew Rhett Butler was going to say “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” before Clark Gable even opened his mouth, but Casablanca was adapted from an unproduced play, and famously was shooting without a finished script, so nobody knew what it would become.

Another thing, which I only realized when it was pointed out to me several years ago, when this movie about WWII was made, the war was still on and nobody knew how it would end.

The play was bought by Warner Brothers in January 1942, Pearl Harbor was attacked in December 1941, so America was barely in the war. There was a time, you see, when it was extremely possible that the Axis powers would win, and this film was made when everything was still fluid and uncertain. It is a film about the now that was then.

The people in this film, some of whom were refugees who had fled Europe, did not know if they would see their homes again, if the families they left behind would survive. And you can feel all this when you watch the film, especially, famously, the Marseillaise scene.

It seems silly to say, “Hey, Casablanca is really good!” because everyone knows that. The real thing is that Casablanca is a splendid movie to watch just for the sake of enjoyment, and if you haven’t seen it in a while, give yourself a treat and watch it again.