50 Fun Facts About Casablanca

Who plays nightclub owner Rick Blaine?

Studio records show producer Hal Wallis wanted him from the start, despite George Raft's later claim that he turned the part down.

Which Swedish actress plays Ilsa Lund?

Wallis borrowed her from David O. Selznick by lending Olivia de Havilland in exchange.

Which song does Ilsa ask Sam to play when she first walks into the cafe?

Composer Max Steiner disliked the tune and wanted to replace it, but Bergman had already cut her hair for her next film so the scenes could not be reshot.

Which line, closely associated with the film, is never actually spoken in it?

Ilsa says "Play it, Sam," and Rick later demands "Play it!" but the word "again" never appears; Woody Allen borrowed the misquote for a 1972 film title.

Rick's Cafe Americain is located in which country's territory when the film opens in December 1941?

The filmmakers deliberately set the story just before Pearl Harbor to make Rick's neutrality, and his eventual choice, more believable.

Which anthem does Victor Laszlo order the house band to play to drown out the German officers?

The Germans were originally to sing the Horst-Wessel-Lied, but it was still under copyright outside the Allied countries, so Die Wacht am Rhein was used instead.

The Herman Hupfeld song that Ilsa asks Sam to play was written for which 1931 Broadway musical?

Herman Hupfeld wrote it for the Broadway show, where Frances Williams sang it; Rudy Vallee's 1931 recording became a number-one hit eleven years later thanks to the film.

Which document, allowing free travel through occupied Europe, does the whole plot revolve around?

Joan Alison invented them as a MacGuffin for the original play; depending on the listener, Ugarte says they were signed by either General Weygand or General de Gaulle.

Who directed the film?

Wallis's first choice was actually William Wyler, who was unavailable, so he turned to his close friend instead.

The screenplay was adapted from an unproduced stage play with what title?

In the play, the Ilsa character is an American named Lois Meredith and Rick is a lawyer; the whole thing takes place inside the cafe.

How much did Warner Bros. pay for the film rights to the play in January 1942?

At the time it was the most anyone in Hollywood had ever paid for an unproduced play, roughly $330,000 in today's money.

Twin brothers Julius and Philip Epstein shared screenplay credit with which third writer?

The three never worked in the same room; the twins were paid $30,416 while their colleague earned $4,200, and Casey Robinson did three weeks of uncredited rewrites.

The Epstein twins left the script early in 1942 to work on which Frank Capra project?

They left against Warner Bros.' wishes for about a month; when they returned, the studio put them straight back on Casablanca.

Who plays Captain Louis Renault, the corrupt prefect of police?

The role earned him one of his four career nominations for Best Supporting Actor, none of which he won.

Which actor plays the Nazi Major Strasser?

A German refugee who fled the Nazis with his Jewish wife, he was the highest-paid member of the cast and died of a heart attack on a golf course months after the release.

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

He is killed in custody without revealing that Rick has the papers, which is what sets the rest of the story in motion.

Sydney Greenstreet's character Signor Ferrari runs which rival establishment?

Producer Wallis insisted on a real parrot for the bar set, part of the attention to detail Roger Ebert credited him for.

Dooley Wilson, who plays Sam, only mimed the piano. What was his real instrument?

The piano parts were performed by Jean Plummer, and Wallis even considered dubbing over Wilson's singing after shooting wrapped.

Which future US president was falsely rumored, via an early press release, to be cast as Rick?

The studio already knew he was heading into the Army when the release went out, and he was never seriously considered.

Where was the film shot?

The only location work was Strasser's arrival and close-ups of the plane at Van Nuys Airport; the Paris street was a redressed set built for The Desert Song.

How did the crew make the aeroplane in the final scene look full-sized?

The fog was there specifically to hide the unconvincing model.

Bogart's leading lady was taller than him. By roughly how much?

She claimed the director had Bogart stand on blocks or sit on cushions in their scenes together.

The film's premiere was rushed to capitalize on which real-world event?

The premiere was at New York's Hollywood Theater on November 26, 1942, less than three weeks after the landings; the Office of War Information then blocked screenings for troops in North Africa.

The general release on January 23, 1943 was timed to coincide with which meeting in the city?

Churchill and Roosevelt emerged with the demand for unconditional surrender; Stalin stayed home citing the fighting at Stalingrad.

How many Academy Awards did the film win from its eight nominations?

Bogart lost Best Actor and Rains lost Best Supporting Actor; the wins were for the picture, the director and the screenplay.

When Best Picture was announced, who rushed on stage and accepted ahead of producer Hal Wallis?

Wallis was blocked in his row by the studio boss's family and later wrote that forty years on he still had not recovered from the shock; he quit the studio that April.

Which line did Wallis choose to close the film, dubbed by Bogart a month after shooting ended?

The larceny line was the other candidate in Wallis's telegram to editor Owen Marks; he settled the choice two weeks later.

Where does Renault suggest he and Rick go at the end of the film?

The proposed sequel took that city as its title and was to bring back Bogart and Greenstreet, but it was never made.

According to Julius Epstein, where were he and his brother when they hit on the idea of Renault ordering the roundup that resolves the ending?

The Production Code forbade showing a wife leaving her husband for another man, so the question was never whether Ilsa would go with Laszlo, only how.

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.

How many of the film's lines made the AFI's 2005 list of 100 greatest movie quotes, the most of any film?

Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz tied for second with three apiece; the hill-of-beans speech was nominated but did not make the cut.

Where did the film rank on the AFI's original 100 Years...100 Movies list in 1998?

It slipped one place to third in the 2007 tenth-anniversary edition, but topped the AFI's 100 Passions list of great screen romances in 2002.

In which year was the film selected for the inaugural class of the National Film Registry?

It was one of the first 25 films chosen; its US copyright, renewed in 1970, is due to expire at the start of 2038.

Which media mogul's company colorized the film in 1988, sparking outrage from the Directors Guild?

The colorized version drew three million viewers on WTBS; Bogart's son Stephen asked why they didn't also put arms on the Venus de Milo.

How much did American Film Technologies charge to colorize the film in 1988?

The work took two months; the Library of Congress judged the result different enough from the original to grant it a new copyright.

The piano Sam plays in Rick's cafe was auctioned in 2014. What did it fetch?

The smaller piano from the Paris flashback had gone for just over $600,000 at Sotheby's two years earlier.

In the heavily cut 1952 West German release, Victor Laszlo was rewritten as what?

All the Nazi scenes were removed and the cut ran 25 minutes shorter; Germans did not see the real plot until 1975.

Which country banned the film in March 1943 for portraying Vichy France and Nazi Germany as sinister?

The ban was justified under wartime neutrality rules; a version with cuts to Rick and Ilsa's love scenes was finally passed in June 1945.

Which David Soul-led television revival of the story was cancelled after three weeks in 1983?

An earlier ABC version in 1955-56 starred Charles McGraw as Rick and cast Marcel Dalio, the film's croupier, as the police chief.

Which 1938 hit film is the retitling of the play to Casablanca thought to have imitated?

That earlier film was itself a remake of the acclaimed 1937 French film Pepe le Moko.

Which 1995 Warner Bros. cartoon parodied the film with Bugs Bunny?

The Marx Brothers got there first with A Night in Casablanca in 1946.

Under what name was the film's director born in Budapest in 1886?

He was one of the most prolific directors in history, and his Best Director statuette for this film was his only Oscar in that category.

Which title does the real Casablanca hold in Morocco?

Rabat is the capital; Casablanca is the economic and business centre with a stock exchange that ranks third in Africa by market capitalization.

The city's name literally means what?

Portuguese mariners called it Casa Branca; the Arabic name ad-Dar al-Bayda is a direct translation, and the original Berber settlement was called Anfa.

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.

Which French architect designed the giant mosque that rises over the city's Atlantic shore?

He had lived in Morocco, and the building was constructed by the engineering group Bouygues using artisans from across the kingdom.

What policy toward the Axis did Roosevelt announce after meeting Churchill at the Anfa Hotel in January 1943?

The meeting was codenamed SYMBOL and held at the Anfa Hotel; it also fixed the invasion of Sicily as the Allies' next move.

Which sultan rebuilt the town and its port in 1756–90 after the 1755 earthquake?

The same 1755 quake that leveled Lisbon destroyed much of the town; the rebuilt city took its Arabic name from the old Portuguese one.

Which two rival football clubs, both playing at the Stade Mohammed V, call the city home?

One club's symbol is an eagle, the other's a star and crescent; both were founded before Moroccan independence.

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.