Commentary/Analysis  Copyright  Hal  Croasmun,    2014,  all  rights  reserved  

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Casablanca  MM  Analysis  by  Chris  Soth  

CASABLANCA,  written  by  Julius J. Epstein.       Logline:    An  American  saloon  owner  abroad  tries  to  win  the  woman  who  broke  his  heart  back  from  her  new  husband  in  occupied  World  War  Two  North  Africa.       CASABLANCA is THE prototype of the perfect romantic drama and a perfect paradigm of structure, featuring the best of the Hollywood Star System at their peaks of their talents and stardom. It’s also the textbook example of the “bittersweet” ending, featuring a hero who does NOT attain his want, but DOES service and attain his need, nobly putting love aside for a higher purpose in this case. It’s an unquestionable classic, and therefore, not surprising it has a classic structure, visible through the Mini-Movie Method..

MINI-­‐MOVIE  ONE:    Of  all  the  gin  joints  in  all  the  world…   Fade In on Casablanca, in World War Two, a stop along the path to America and safety. The tension is set: WHO will get out…and who will be forced to stay? A pickpocket tells two tourists about how the local police (led by Louie) are corrupt, and because of two recently stolen “letters of transit”, are “rounding up the usual suspects”. Ugarte (Peter Lorre) is the one who stole them and is pursued by the Nazis to — Rick’s Cafe Americain, where he begs Rick to hide him, Rick (Humphrey Bogart) refuses and Ugarte is shot, slipping the transit letters in Rick’s pocket. Rick says “I stick my neck out for no one. Louis, the French police chief (Claude Rains), chides him, and tells Rick that Victor Lazlo, the well-known freedom fighter, is coming to Casablanca, where the Nazis will stop him. Rick knows Lazlo’s reputation, and BETS Louis that Lazlo WILL escape…no sooner is the bet accepted than Lazlo (Paul Henried) and his wife, Ilsa Lund-Lazlo WALK IN TO RICK’S CAFE…Ilsa asks Sam to play As

 

 Commentary/Analysis  Copyright  Hal  Croasmun,    2014,  all  rights  reserved  

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Time Goes By…and Rick hears it…

MINI-­‐MOVIE  TWO:    Play  it,  Sam…   Rick storms out, enraged at Sam…he said never play that song…then he sees Ilsa. Learns she’s married to Lazlo now. Now all Rick wants is for Ilsa to leave Casablanca with him and Lazlo to stay behind…he’s inadvertently bet AGAINST himself. Rick is heart-broken, but puts up a hard front. He and Ilsa have a past, where it seems she broke his heart. Later that night, Ilsa returns to the bar, alone. She tries to explain what happened to Rick, but he’s drunk and angry with her, driving her out into the night…alone again, he asks Sam to play As Time Goes By…and as the music comes up…Rick remembers…

MINI-­‐MOVIE  THREE:    We’ll  always  have  Paris…   …Paris. This entire Mini-Movie is the Paris Flashback, featuring “Here’s looking at you, kid”. Meeting Ilsa. The two of them falling in love, though she seems to have a secret in her past. The Nazis are fast approaching Paris. Rick wants Ilsa to marry him, but when it comes time to leave, she leaves him waiting at the train station…we DISSOLVE back to Rick in Casablanca, now we understand his heartbreak. And on to —

MINI-­‐MOVIE  FOUR:    Come  up  and  see  me  sometime…   So Rick decides…he will take Ilsa back…if only for a night. Lazlo and Ilsa are out, searching for the missing letters of transit, consulting with the Sidney Greenstreet character, a rival club owner to Rick. He tells them Rick may have the letters and warns Lazlo the Nazis have a tail on him. Rick finds Ilsa in the Moroccan Bazaar, and confronts her…she tells him the truth about Paris…she was already married to Victor and thought he was dead, just

 

 Commentary/Analysis  Copyright  Hal  Croasmun,    2014,  all  rights  reserved  

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before she was to leave with Rick, she learned Victor was alive. So, rather than running away with Rick, she stayed with her husband… …pay attention to this SHIFT in viewpoint: Rick has spent the intervening years thinking Ilsa was a cheating heartbreaker…but actually she’s been a faithful wife, but to another man… Rick, nonetheless, makes Ilsa an offer. If she will come to his apartment over the Cafe for a night of passion…he’ll give her and Victor the letters of transit.

MINI-­‐MOVIE  FIVE:    “Play  the  Marseillaise!”       This MM is actually given over to Victor Lazlo, to show him off in a good light, particularly in comparison to Rick. Rick has fallen morally without realizing it, essentially making Ilsa into a prostitute out of his own bitterness…he doesn’t love her anymore, this is vindictive and vengeful. Rick returns to his Cafe that evening, where several subplots and story lines surge to the fore…the French Barfly with her crush on Rick dating a German officer and the resentment of her by Rick’s staff. A young Bulgarian refugee, who Louis ushers in to speak with Rick — Louis has promised her exit from Casablanca for certain favors — and she wants to know if Louis will keep his word — her husband, unaware of this salacious arrangement is trying to win money for their passage in Rick’s casino. In this perfect, one-scene subplot, Rick is confronted with his one need to change — he’s extorting Ilsa, a woman he supposedly loves, just as Louis is extorting the poor refugee. And Rick swings into action, rigging the roulette wheel so the young man wins the money. When he comes out, Victor Lazlo leads the band in playing The Marseillaise, singing down the Germans, and Rick must admit, he’s quite a man. The Nazis are enraged…and shut Rick’s Cafe and casino down.

MINI-­‐MOVIE  SIX:    “Boy  GETS  girl…”   Rick makes his arrangements to leave Casablanca, selling his Cafe to the Sidney Greenstreet character. Lazlo comes to Rick and pleads with him — if Rick won’t give Lazlo the letters of

 

 Commentary/Analysis  Copyright  Hal  Croasmun,    2014,  all  rights  reserved  

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transit, will he take Ilsa out of Casablanca? Rick sends him away. But that night, Ilsa does indeed come to Rick’s rooms over the Cafe…with a gun…she demands the letters of transit for her and Victor. Rick faces her down, he knows she loves him and won’t shoot him. He makes her promise to leave with him, inching closer, then takes the gun and kisses her…as we FADE TO BLACK…we know, Rick has just gotten EVERYTHING he wanted. MINI-MOVIE SEVEN: “You’re gettin’ on that plane” And now it’s ON. Who will leave Casablanca? Rick goes to Louis to get the letters of transit signed and filled in, telling Louis to call ahead to the airport and authorize their departure. But Louis fools Rick and dials Major Strasser, the head of the Nazi occupation instead… The Nazis are on a manhunt for Victor Lazlo, and, Victor, Ilsa, Rick, Louis and the Nazis are all on their way the airport. Ilsa (and every first-time viewer) is sure that Rick will take her away from Victor…Major Strasser arrives to stop Lazlo’s presumed escape and Rick SHOOTS him. The battle is won…

MINI-­‐MOVIE  EIGHT:    “A  beautiful  friendship…”   …and Rick tells Louis to fill in the names on the letters: Mr. and Mrs. Victor Lazlo. Ilsa pleads with Rick, but he tells her he has changed. She should be with Victor and he, Rick, now also has a war to fight. He confesses to Victor the events of the previous night and his love for Victor’s wife, but knows (as Victor always did) that they must put love aside to save the world. Victor and Ilsa board the plane and fly off — — and Louis’ police arrive, seem about to arrest Rick. Until Louis tells them “Major Strasser has been shot…round up the usual suspects.” Louis and Rick walk off into the fog, presumably to take up arms and save Europe and the world. The beginning of a beautiful friendship.