48 Fun Facts About Casablanca

Who plays nightclub owner Rick Blaine in Casablanca?

Humphrey Bogart. George Raft later said he had turned the role down, but studio memos show Raft asked for it and was refused; the producer wanted Bogart all along.

Which Swedish actress plays Ilsa Lund in Casablanca?

Ingrid Bergman. She was under contract to David O. Selznick, and the producer got her only by lending him Olivia de Havilland in exchange.

Which song does Ilsa ask Sam to play when she first walks into Rick's café in Casablanca?

As Time Goes By. Herman Hupfeld wrote it for a 1931 Broadway show, and the film turned the old tune into a bigger hit than it had ever been.

Which famous line associated with Casablanca is never actually spoken in the film?

Play it again, Sam. Ilsa says "Play it once, Sam" and "Play it, Sam"; the misquote stuck anyway, and Woody Allen borrowed it for the title of a 1972 film.

When Casablanca opens in December 1941, Rick's Café Américain stands in which territory?

Vichy French Morocco. France had fallen, but its Vichy government still ran the protectorate, which is why the Nazis in the café must lean on a French police captain.

In Casablanca, which anthem does Victor Laszlo order the house band to play to drown out the German officers?

La Marseillaise. Many of the extras were real refugees from Nazi Europe, and witnesses on the set saw them weeping as they sang.

Which words complete Rick's Casablanca lament, 'Of all the ___ in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine'?

Gin joints. Rick says it drunk at a table after closing time, then makes Sam play the very song he had banned from the café.

In Casablanca, what are the stolen papers that everyone is after called?

Letters of transit. No such documents ever existed: they were invented for the stage play the film is based on, and co-writer Julius Epstein admitted the device was simply made up.

Which Yankee Doodle Dandy director also made Casablanca?

Michael Curtiz. He got the job only after first choice William Wyler proved unavailable; the Hungarian never mastered English, yet was one of Hollywood's most prolific directors.

Casablanca was adapted from an unproduced stage play with what title?

Everybody Comes to Rick's. Its authors sold every right to the story for $20,000, and when they sued decades later to win their characters back, the court ruled against them.

Closing Rick's café in Casablanca on a pretext, Captain Renault declares himself 'shocked, shocked' to find what going on?

Gambling. A croupier promptly hands Renault his winnings, and he pockets them with a thank-you before ordering everybody out.

Which War of the Worlds radio writer shared Casablanca's writing credit with the Epstein twins?

Howard Koch. He and the twins never wrote in the same room: he was hired while they were away in Washington, and in the 1950s Hollywood blacklisted him.

The Epstein twins left the Casablanca script early in 1942 to work on which director's Why We Fight war films?

Frank Capra. The twins went to Washington to write his Army propaganda series, and the Casablanca script was still unfinished when the cameras rolled.

Who plays Captain Louis Renault, Casablanca's cheerfully corrupt prefect of police?

Claude Rains. His Hollywood debut was The Invisible Man, a title role that keeps his face hidden, bandaged or invisible, for almost the whole film.

Which Cabinet of Dr. Caligari star plays Casablanca's Major Strasser?

Conrad Veidt. He had fled Hitler's Germany with his Jewish wife in 1933, and in wartime Hollywood he was cast again and again as a Nazi.

Which Peter Lorre character in Casablanca is arrested after killing two German couriers for the papers?

Ugarte. He dies in police custody without revealing that he left the papers with Rick, which is what puts Rick at the centre of everyone's schemes.

In Casablanca, Sydney Greenstreet's Signor Ferrari runs which rival establishment?

The Blue Parrot. Ferrari opens by offering to buy Rick's café, and Sam along with it, and at the end Rick finally sells him the place.

Dooley Wilson, who plays the pianist Sam in Casablanca, was really a professional on which instrument?

Drums. He could not play a note on the piano, so he mimed at the keyboard while a pianist played off camera.

An early studio press release wrongly announced which actor as a star of Casablanca?

Ronald Reagan. He was already due for Army service and was never a real candidate; the studio's publicists were simply keeping their contract actors' names in print.

Casablanca was filmed almost entirely in which place?

Burbank, California. Even the fog-bound airport farewell was staged on a soundstage; the one trip outside was to Van Nuys Airport, for Major Strasser's arrival.

For Casablanca's foggy final scene, the crew used little people as mechanics beside a scaled-down mock-up of what?

The airplane. It was a small mock-up standing on a studio soundstage, and the little people around it kept it in perspective, so on screen it reads as a full-size airliner.

Resistance leader Victor Laszlo, hunted by the Nazis in Casablanca, comes from which country?

Czechoslovakia. When Laszlo tells Major Strasser he is a Czechoslovakian, the Nazi snaps back that he is now a subject of the German Reich.

Casablanca's premiere was rushed forward to capitalize on which real-world event?

The Allied landings in North Africa. The studio even planned a new final scene showing the invasion; David O. Selznick, shown the film, urged it to leave the ending alone, and it did.

At the end of Casablanca, Ilsa and Victor Laszlo leave for which neutral capital?

Lisbon. Neutral Portugal was the last stop on the refugee trail out of Europe: from its port, the lucky ones could sail on to America.

When Casablanca won Best Picture, which studio boss rushed on stage to accept ahead of producer Hal Wallis?

Jack L. Warner. Wallis, blocked in his row by the mogul's family, could only sit back down; within weeks the furious producer had left the studio.

In Casablanca's closing line, Rick tells Captain Renault 'I think this is the beginning of a beautiful' what?

Friendship. None of the credited writers wrote it: producer Hal Wallis supplied the famous last line himself.

At the end of Casablanca, Renault suggests he and Rick join the Free French in which city?

Brazzaville. It was Free France's headquarters in Africa, and early in 1943 the studio announced a sequel named after it, which was never made.

Renault's file on Rick in Casablanca says he ran guns to Ethiopia and fought for the Loyalists in which war?

The Spanish Civil War. Rick shrugs that he was well paid both times; Renault replies that the winning side would have paid him much better, proof that he is a sentimentalist at heart.

Which 1995 neo-noir film indirectly took its title from Renault's order at the end of the film?

The same line was voted number 32 on the AFI's list of the 100 greatest movie quotes.

Which Casablanca line ranks highest among the AFI's 100 movie quotes?

Here's looking at you, kid. It ranks fifth on the list, yet the toast is probably not the screenwriters' work: the film's star is thought to have brought it to the role himself.

Which film topped the AFI's original 100 Movies list, one place above Casablanca?

Citizen Kane. Orson Welles's film had lost Best Picture in its own year, the prize Casablanca went on to win, yet the AFI's voters put Kane first and Casablanca second.

Which institution picked Casablanca for its first National Film Registry class in 1989?

Library of Congress. Congress created the registry in 1988 after an outcry over the colorizing of black-and-white classics, Casablanca among them.

Which media mogul's company colorized Casablanca in 1988, to the outrage of Hollywood's directors?

Ted Turner. He owned the film because he had bought MGM's library of old movies in 1986, and he colorized its black-and-white classics over a storm of protest.

Asked what brought him to Casablanca, Rick blames his health and says he came for what?

The waters. Told that Casablanca is in the desert, Rick deadpans "I was misinformed"; co-writer Julius Epstein called the exchange his favourite scene.

Which Casablanca prop sold for $3.4 million at a New York auction in 2014?

Sam's piano. In the film it does double duty: while Sam performs, Rick slips the stolen travel papers under its lid for safekeeping.

In which country was Casablanca first released with every Nazi cut and Laszlo turned into a Norwegian physicist?

West Germany. The 1952 dubbed cut ran 25 minutes short and made him an atomic scientist fleeing Interpol; Germans did not see the real story until 1975.

Which neutral country banned Casablanca during the war for showing Nazi Germany in a 'sinister light'?

Ireland. The censor judged it unfit for a neutral country, and when it was finally passed in 1945 he cut lines from Rick and Ilsa's love affair instead.

Which Starsky & Hutch star played Rick in a short-lived 1983 NBC series based on Casablanca?

David Soul. A young Ray Liotta was in the cast too, but NBC took the show off the air after only three episodes.

Which star of Algiers did Casablanca's producer want as Ilsa, until MGM refused to lend her?

Hedy Lamarr. MGM would not release her, but she got to play Ilsa after all, in a 1944 radio version opposite Alan Ladd.

Which Austrian actor plays Resistance hero Victor Laszlo in Casablanca?

Paul Henreid. He was reluctant to play the noble husband and agreed only when he was promised equal billing with the two stars.

Casablanca is Morocco's largest city, but which city is the country's capital?

Rabat. It became the administrative capital under the protectorate of 1912, and independent Morocco kept it as the seat of government.

The name Casablanca means 'white house' in which language?

Spanish. Portuguese settlers first called the town Casa Branca; Spanish merchants who traded there later gave it the form that stuck, and the Arabic name means the same.

Which Atlantic-shore landmark, completed in 1993, then had the world's tallest minaret?

The 210-metre minaret is topped by a laser pointed toward Mecca, and the prayer hall was built partly over the ocean.

In Casablanca, a Resistance contact proves his loyalty with a ring bearing which Free French symbol?

The Cross of Lorraine. Berger, posing as a ring seller, lifts the stone to show de Gaulle's emblem underneath, the sign by which Laszlo knows an ally.

What did Roosevelt announce the Allies would demand of the Axis after meeting Churchill in Casablanca in January 1943?

Unconditional surrender. He announced it at the closing press conference; Stalin had been invited too, but stayed away because of the fighting on the Eastern Front.

Which composer of the Gone with the Wind score wrote the music for Casablanca?

Max Steiner. He thought the film's famous song was trash and asked to replace it, but the leading lady had cut her hair for her next role and the scenes could not be reshot.

Which two rival football clubs share Casablanca's Stade Mohammed V?

Raja and Wydad. Their rivalry runs through one man: Père Jégo coached Wydad to its early titles, then left to build up Raja, the club next door.

Which cinematographer, a veteran of The Maltese Falcon and Frankenstein, shot Casablanca?

Particular care went into photographing Ingrid Bergman, mostly from her preferred left side.