Fascinating Behind-The-Scenes Details From Casablanca

Composer Max Steiner lent his musical talents to Casablanca, having previously worked on Gone With The Wind and King Kong. But he wasn’t exactly a fan of the song “As Time Goes By” and wanted it cut from the movie. Yet a reshoot wasn’t possible since leading lady Bergman had adopted a completely different look for her next movie — so the song stayed. The track charted for 21 weeks after the film’s release with Steiner conceding it “must have had something to attract so much attention.”

“Here’s looking at you, kid” is among the most-quoted lines in movie history. It’s hard to believe, then, that it wasn’t even scripted! Film buffs will recognize the line from Bogart’s 1934 movie, Midnight. He used it in a Casablanca scene set in Paris: it proved so effective he echoed the same line later in the movie, too. Rumors abound that the actor added it to Bergman’s vocabulary while the Swedish actress improved her English during games of poker among the cast.

Censors were busy in Hollywood during that era of movie-making: it was deemed shocking enough when Clark Gable uttered the word “damn” in Gone With The Wind. And you could forget about films portraying divorced women. Screenplay co-writer Julius Epstein later recalled how they tried to beat the censors with harsh language. He said, “I remember after a long time we could finally say ‘Hell.’ But it had to be a sparse use of ‘Hell’. So what we would do was write 50 ‘Hell’s and then bargain with them. We’d say, ‘How about 25?’ We’d wind up with two or three.” Small victories.

More astute Casablanca fans might have noticed that not once throughout the movie does the viewer see a full-length shot of Rick and Isla side by side. That’s because directors wanted to create the illusion that Bogart was taller than Bergman, so they employed certain tricks to keep up the appearance. Bogie would wear platform shoes, while Bergman shot scenes barefoot. He would stand on boxes or sit on cushions to make up for the fact he was 5’8” inches, while she towered over him at 5’10”.

Casablanca, or at least an early version of it, was originally written by Murray Burnett as a Broadway play. Due to the nature of some of its content, though, the production never took off. But according to the History by Day website, the Warner Brothers studio saw enough promise in it that they paid the scriptwriter $20,000 for ownership of the work. That’s the equivalent of more than $400,000 today and set a record at the time.

Bergman thought that if she was to film Casablanca — whose screenplay she saw as “fluff” — she’d miss the chance to star in the harder-hitting For Whom The Bell Tolls. But then she realized the schedules didn’t clash, so took the opportunity to do both. Henreid simply didn’t want to be in the shadows of the two leading actors. Luckily he put his feelings aside and said yes to the role of Victor Laszlo.

It stands at number 28 in the American Film Institute (AFI) list of the 100 top movie quotes. And yet still many people get it wrong. In the iconic scene with Ilsa standing by the piano, she leaned in and said, “Play it once, Sam,” followed by “Play it, Sam.” On another occasion Rick says simply, “Play it.” But not once throughout the movie does any of its characters utter the words, “Play it again, Sam.”

Before the age of smartphones, it was autographs that fans would seek out instead of celebrity selfies. If you’re lucky enough to have Bogie’s name inked on a piece of card, it reportedly could be worth upward of $1,000. To put that into perspective, the only other stars’ names worth that much include Walt Disney and Marilyn Monroe. A comparable name like Clark Gable would be worth just $500.

Bergman was only a rising star when she got the part of Ilsa. And considering how famous she went on to become, she was a bargain at $25,000. But she wasn’t first in line for the role. French actress Michele Morgan was deemed too expensive with the $55,000 fee she demanded. Ann Sheridan and Hedy Lamarr were also in the running before Bergman landed the part.

Casablanca received eight nominations at the 1944 Oscars, including Best Actor for Bogart and Best Supporting Actor for Claude Rains as Captain Louis Renault. The picture took home gongs for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Writing, Screenplay. Although critics believed Bergman’s performance was standout among the cast, she didn’t receive a nomination for Casablanca. She was, though, nominated as Best Actress for her part in For Whom The Bell Tolls that year, but she missed out to Jennifer Jones for The Song of Bernardette.

Even if you’ve never seen Casablanca, it’s likely you’ll have heard one of its memorable quotes. Six of them, more than any other movie, appear on AFI’s all-time “Top 100 film quotes” list. “Here’s looking at you, kid,” places highest at number five. Though the most quoted movie line goes to Gone With The Wind, that film ranks second to Casablanca when it comes to the number of memorable quotes.

When Casablanca was filmed in 1942 World War II was in full swing. Building supplies were being channeled to support war efforts, so with a comparatively small budget of $950,000 the production team were forced to get creative using their allocated Stage 11 lot. Rick’s Café Américain was the only original set in the movie, while others were recycled from earlier films. The Paris train station, for instance, was borrowed from Now, Voyager while street scenes were fulfilled courtesy of the set of The Desert Song.

The production crew only operated during the day for security reasons. So creativity was in order when it came to filming the closing airport scene. It was shot in a sound stage with the craziest of props: a cardboard airplane. But the plane wasn’t built to scale, so ingenious techniques were employed, including the use of little people as airline staff, to make it look realistic. Credit to the director for pulling that off!

It seems World War II was a factor in not only Casablanca’s production, but in its release, too. An opening date was originally scheduled for early 1943 but it was brought forward to November 26, 1942, to coincide with the Allies’ successful capture of the city ten days earlier. On that occasion it premiered in New York. The movie received a wider release two months later, which lined up with the Casablanca Conference, a crucial meeting between then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Casablanca’s crew includes those who are now considered among Hollywood’s best actors, directors, writers and producers of the era. And yet no one anticipated quite how successful the movie would become. It was just thought to be another film churned out by the Hollywood machine upon its release. But its stellar reviews and eight Academy Award nominations in 1944 ensured a bona fide classic for decades to follow.

Pop culture is littered with references to the classic movie, from the Marx Brothers’ A Night In Casablanca through Woody Allen’s Play It Again, Sam to Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects. But Casablanca has never been given the full remake treatment. Pop singer Madonna tried pitching herself as the lead with Ashton Kutcher taking on Bogie’s role. Thankfully the idea was rejected by multiple studios before she gave up on the idea. The reason? The original is widely deemed “untouchable”.

Near the start of the movie, Bogart’s character is shown playing a game of chess, seemingly with himself. But not everything was as it appeared and the actor wasn’t merely shuffling chess pieces around a board for the camera. The game was actually a long-distance one that Bogart was playing with a friend. Apparently, he even sent a still from the movie to his friend detailing a move he had just made!

Director Hal Wallis had wanted to create an authentic Morocco, so he enlisted an international cast. It was this that contributed to one of the movie’s most emotional scenes. As German soldiers initiated chants of their patriotic song “Die Wacht am Rhein,” Rick’s customers retaliated by singing the French national anthem. Considering the actors’ very real experience with the war, it made for an incredibly powerful moment.

We can forgive movies for some inaccuracies: they are works of fiction, after all. And Casablanca is guilty, too — not that you’d necessarily be aware of it. There were no documents permitting free travel to refugees, for one. You wouldn't have seen German soldiers in uniform in Casablanca either. But, these components were integral to the story so we’ll let it go. Also, the movie’s technical adviser Robert Aisner was the only refugee on the movie to leave Germany via Morocco: it was more typical to flee via routes through England, Paris, Vienna and Prague.

That’s right: they were only made privy to the outcome the day the movie wrapped. Co-writer Howard Kock later revealed, “When we began, we didn’t have a finished script. Ingrid Bergman came to me and said, ‘Which man should I love more?’ I said to her, ‘I don’t know, play them both evenly.’ You see, we didn’t have an ending, so we didn’t know what was going to happen!”

An iconic movie is deserving of an iconic poster, right? We've all seen it: Bogie standing front and center wearing a trench coat and fedora. Well, the more eagle-eyed among you might have noticed that this image isn't from Casablanca at all. The shot was actually borrowed from a photo shoot for another Bogart film, Across The Pacific.

Color film was all but non-existent in 1942 so cinematographers brought movies to life with the artistic use of shadows. It was Arthur Edeson — whose earlier work included Frankenstein — who worked his magic. Understandably fans were outraged when a colorized version emerged on WTBS in the 1980s. If ever there was a classic that shouldn’t be colorized it’s Casablanca, surely? There’s something about it being in black-and-white that creates the atmosphere which remains a large part of its appeal.

An enduring classic, Casablanca can still be seen in cinemas across the world 80 years after its original release. Yes, fully 80 years. How many movies can claim that? According to Aljean Harmetz in the 1992 book Round Up The Usual Suspects: The Making Of Casablanca, the movie was the most-played on U.S. TVs. In later years, Bergman said, “I feel about Casablanca that it has a life of its own. There is something mystical about it.”

Sam is seen sitting at two different pianos throughout the movie. The first is in Paris; later in the movie he plays at Rick’s Café Américain which, of course, is in Casablanca. Both pianos were later sold at auction. In 2012 the Paris instrument sold for $600,000 in New York. Two years later the piano from Rick’s went for an impressive $3.4 million. Combined, that was more than quadruple the budget for the whole movie!

Bogart sadly passed away 15 years after the film’s release aged just 57, while Arthur “Dooley” Wilson, who played Sam, passed away at 67 in 1953. Many of its other actors, though, lived to enjoy the longevity of Casablanca’s success. Bergman departed in 1982 aged 67. Henreid left us in 1992, aged 84. The longest living cast member was Rick’s girlfriend, Yvonne, played by Madeleine LeBeau, who passed away as recently as 2016 aged 92.

Despite Casablanca being his most memorable performance, Bogart apparently wasn't a huge fan of the movie at all. In fact, Orson Welles claimed that while he was shooting the film, Bogart had called it the worst film he'd ever made! Then again, Welles was notorious for having a lot to say about his Hollywood contemporaries...

Audiences had grown used to Bogie in tough-guy gangster roles, so it came as a pleasant surprise when Casablanca unveiled the romantic hidden beneath those heavy-lidded eyes. This tender side was all too familiar to his future wife, Lauren Bacall, of course.

You fake it until you make it in show biz. Playing piano man Sam in Casablanca was the biggest role of Dooley Wilson’s career. He was a trained musician in real life. And yet although he sang and played the drums, he didn't know how to play the piano. So all the tinkling of the ivories you see is pure pretend!

It's believed that Warner Bros. considered actor George Raft for the part of Rick. A frequent co-star of Bogart's, Raft is actually said to have turned down many of the roles that made Bogie famous. The leads in The Maltese Falcon and High Sierra were also offered to Raft before Bogart took them.

Bogart's trademark lisp has become one of his many calling cards, though the impediment nearly affected his career early on. In fact, Warner Bros. studio head Jack Warner actually hesitated to cast him in major roles because of it. Apparently, the lisp wasn't very manly, which was a problem in Hollywood back then.

There are many conflicting theories about the cause of the scar on Bogart's mouth that resulted in his lisp. Several stories attribute the injury to his time in the U.S. Navy. After being expelled from the prestigious Phillips Academy, Bogart joined the Navy in the spring of 1918. Though his time serving was short, Bogie actually went on to play a naval captain in 1954's The Caine Mutiny.

For his role in 1951's The African Queen, Bogart was asked to do a cockney English accent. But when it was revealed that he couldn't, the filmmakers had to work around it. His character ended up being switched to a Canadian instead. The more you know!

Though the "Rat Pack" moniker is often associated with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, Bogie was actually the famous group's first leader. The term was incidentally coined by his wife, Lauren Bacall, who called the group "a damn rat pack" after a night of heavy drinking once.

Bogart was born the eldest child of Belmont DeForest Bogart, a cardiovascular surgeon, and Maud Humphrey, a commercial illustrator. As such, his family was incredibly well off. But his parents are said to have fought often and rarely showed emotion toward their children. The future actor also reportedly experienced bullying as a child.

While shooting 1948's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Bogart was routinely taking hormone shots in the hope of conceiving a child with Bacall. Unfortunately, the shots made his hair fall out, forcing him to wear a wig throughout the production.

In 1989 — 32 years after his death — Bogart made his final acting appearance. It was in an episode of horror show Tales From the Crypt episode entitled "You, Murderer." Using unreleased footage, CGI, and a celebrity impressionist, Bogie was remarkably brought back from the dead for one final, poignant performance.

Believe it or not, Bogie actually had a bit of royalty in his blood. Through American colonialist Thomas Woodford, Bogart and Princess Diana of Wales were very distant cousins! As it turns out, Lady Di was also thought to be related to King Charles II, Audrey Hepburn, and Rudolph Valentino — among a slew of other famous people.

Despite 1944's To Have and Have Not marking the start of Bogart's relationship with Lauren Bacall, tensions with director Howard Hanks nearly ruined the love affair. Hanks, who'd also fallen for Bacall, tried everything to ruin the relationship until Jack Warner ultimately intervened.

For years, a prevalent rumor asserted that Bogart's recorded birthday, December 25, was a creation of studio executives and that his real birthday was actually January 23rd. But though no birth certificate was ever publicized, this proved just a rumor, and Bogart celebrated his birthday on Christmas Day for his entire life.

The cast and crew of 1951’s The African Queen filmed on location, which meant they had to be very careful about drinking contaminated water. Even with purification tabs and boiled H2O many cast and crew members — including Katharine Hepburn — got dysentery. But Bogart was supposedly able to side-step the infection because he only drank scotch on set!