1. Casablanca

2. Famous lines “Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.” “We’ll always have Paris.” “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine”

3. Classic Hollywood • Forward-driving narrative • Love story • Strong, sympathetic characters • An exotic setting and atmosphere • Urgent historical backdrop • MOVIE STARS!!!

4. The Studio System • Mass-produced films through contracted talent • Scriptwriters • Actors with seven-year contracts • Craftspeople and technicians • Even directors • Spacious back lots with sets, costumes, and props

5. Casablanca: the “genius of the system” • Originally scripted as a “B” movie • Exploited America’s entrance into WWII • Original show date was fifteen days after Allied landing in Casablanca, Morocco • Director Michael Curtiz was known for turning out solid romantic melodrama

6. Origins • Adapted from a play called Everybody Comes to Rick’s • Playwrights inspired by travels through Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938 • Epstein brothers – two of the studios best writers – adapted the screenplay with the help of Howard Koch, who completed the script when the Epsteins were on another assignment

7. Rick: The Cynical Sentimentalist • Rick is paralleled with US before entering WWI • Isolationism to active participation • Bond between Rick and Renault = US allliance with unoccupied France • American brand of Independence • Cynical and detached • But self-reliant and free from restricting alliance • Meets the world on his own terms • Principled independence • Bogart is the only American actor

8. Cast of Characters Ingrid Bergmen – from Sweden Claude Rains – from England Peter Lorre – from Hungary Paul Henried – from Austria-Hungary Conrad Veidt – from Germany Made the theme of escape more authentic: Lorre, Henried, and Veidt were all refugees from Hitler’s regime

9. Awards and Honors • Nominated for eight Academy Awards • One Three Oscars • Best Picture • Best Director • Best Screenplay • Regular appearance on Top-Ten Lists • Regularly quoted, misquoted, and parodied

10. Reviews Seeing the film over and over again, year after year, I find it never grows over-familiar. It plays like a favorite musical album; the more I know it, the more I like it. The black-and-white cinematography has not aged as color would. The dialogue is so spare and cynical it has not grown old-fashioned. Much of the emotional effect of “Casablanca” is achieved by indirection; as we leave the theater, we are absolutely convinced that the only thing keeping the world from going crazy is that the problems of three little people do after all amount to more than a hill of beans. ~ Roger Ebert