Everybody knows Casablanca is a great work of art (and a great work of art generated by a Cornellian, at that). Everybody knows, too, that Casablanca was embedded in a particular historical moment, too – it served to vindicate the recent, necessarily wrenching American volte-face1 on the subject of Europeans and their war.
History also bled through to the screen in the movie’s best scene – the singing of the “Marseillaise”:
Casablanca was shot in 1941 during the German occupation of France, at a point where many questioned whether or not the United States would ever step in to help, [UPDATED: Not true. Though the play was written before US involvement.] when nobody knew how the whole thing was going to turn out.
And the scene included actors who, in real life, had a lot at stake. To shoot Casablanca as a believable port town, producers brought together one of the most ethnically diverse casts in film history, and a lot of these extras turned out to be Europeans who had fled to America to escape the Nazis — that is, they were basically real-life refugees. They had left homes, friends and families behind, and at this point really didn’t know if things could ever return to normal. Which makes us wonder if the director didn’t stage the whole war just to get that scene.
It’s the scene that makes Laszlo believable as a resistance leader: in front of the singing Nazis he orders the band, “Play the ‘Marseillaise’. Play it.” It’s the scene that justifies Rick’s decision at the end, which is based in part on self-knowledge – when Rick snaps “Play it,” it’s so he can wallow in nostalgia; when Laszlo snaps “Play it,” it’s so people will kill Nazis.
Casablanca: one of those rare things that’s really as good as everyone says it is.
1If I can’t use French in a post about Casablanca when can I?
The Edge of the American West 
28 comments
March 9, 2012 at 3:01 pm
rea
It’s the scene that justifies Rick’s decision at the end, which is based in part on self-knowledge – when Rick snaps “Play it,” it’s so he can wallow in nostalgia; when Laszlo snaps “Play it,” it’s so people will kill Nazis.
Although note that when Laszlo snaps, “play it,” nothing happens–it takes Rick’s nod of approval to get things started. That, too, foreshadows the end. Laszlo can’t do it on his own.
March 9, 2012 at 3:08 pm
eric
Absolutely right.
March 9, 2012 at 4:36 pm
Tom
It’s the scene that justifies Rick’s decision at the end, which is based in part on self-knowledge – when Rick snaps “Play it,” it’s so he can wallow in nostalgia; when Laszlo snaps “Play it,” it’s so people will kill Nazis.
I’ve seen this movie many, many times and never made that connection. Nice.
March 9, 2012 at 5:11 pm
TF Smith
Other than that it was actually shot in 1942, apparently.
More than a few histories I’ve read – Rick Atkinson’s “An Army at Dawn” for example – mention the movie coming out AFTER the Allied invasion of French North Africa.
Wikipedia (FWIW) says filming began in May, 1942, and ended in August; after post-production, initial release was in November – after TORCH.
Nice thing about Wikipedia, as opposed to Cracked, is that Wikipedia actually provides a bibliography – the author of the WP article cites Charles Francisco’s 1980 “You Must Remember This: The Filming of Casablanca” published by Prentice Hall. (ISBN 0-13-977058-5.) as the source for the filimin and premiere dates.
That being said, the emotion in the Marsellaise scene is undeniable,
Best,
March 9, 2012 at 5:15 pm
eric
In fairness to Cracked, they link to Harmetz’s book on Casablanca. In which, you’re correct, it’s clear the movie filmed in 1942.
You know, you might have looked it up yourself if you wanted to make a point.
March 9, 2012 at 5:43 pm
TF Smith
I wasn’t aware commentators can post.
As it is, it read incorrectly to me (I remembered having read somewhere that the film was put into initial release to tie to the invasion), so I looked it up in Atkinson, who mentions it on p. 266, in the lead in to his discussion of the Casblanca (ANFA) conference.
Howe doesn’t mention it in “Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West” nor Matloff in “Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare: 1943-44”, but JSD Eisenhower does in “Allies: Pearl Harbor to D-Day” and DK Goodwin in “No Ordinary Time”…in both cases, in reference to a screening at the White House after TORCH but before ANFA.
Nothing in Burns, Friedl or Larrabee (although he does mention Catch 22, of all pop culture references).
Best,
March 9, 2012 at 5:50 pm
eric
I wasn’t aware commentators can post.
Nobody said anything about posting.
March 9, 2012 at 6:02 pm
eric
I’ve seen this movie many, many times and never made that connection. Nice.
Thanks.
March 9, 2012 at 6:09 pm
Kieran
It helps that the Marseillaise is the best national anthem.
March 9, 2012 at 6:10 pm
eric
Musically or lyrically?
March 9, 2012 at 6:15 pm
Kieran
Anthemically!
Musically, I suppose—a proper march without being tinny or fascist, singable, not a dirge, short, bracing, all that good stuff. Just the sort of thing a crowd can get behind at a match. Given all that, the impure blood watering the gutters is all gravy, so to speak. It also helps that it’s geographically adjacent to the objectively worst national anthem.
March 9, 2012 at 6:18 pm
John Haas
Great post about the greatest movie ever.
March 9, 2012 at 6:29 pm
Main Street Muse
The Marseillaise scene (to me) has never been about motivating people to murder the Nazis. It’s more in line with the video of the Chinese man standing up to the tank during the Tianamen Square uprising. The patrons of Rick’s Cafe risked their lives to stand up (sing) against violent oppressors. That’s something most of us in America have not experienced.
That it came out in 1941 or 1942 is less relevant than the fact that it came out well before the outcome of the war had been determined. No one who made that film knew how the war would end. It uses the problems of “three little people” to showcase the larger issues of the war in a way that is immediate, urgent and inspirational.
Its enduring popularity is a tribute to our desire to see “the good guy” win. That and the fact that the luminous beauty of Ingrid Bergman simply lights up the screen whenever she shows up in a scene. And of course, it gives bankers no respect at all. A great film for so many reasons….
March 9, 2012 at 7:16 pm
eric
murder the Nazis
If it’s a war, it’s not murder. Laszlo’s ability to motivate people to stand up and sing is testimony to his ability to lead a resistance. Which will involve killing Nazis.
March 10, 2012 at 5:37 am
Maurice Isserman
There’s another dimension to this scene worth noting. Rick, as Victor Laszlo and others constantly remind him, fought in Spain — which, to an audience in 1942, was the same as saying, Rick was a Red, or at least somewhere on the Left. The Marseillaise isn’t simply a national anthem, it’s also a song associated with revolution. The singular political circumstances of the war years allowed a parable for Americans rejecting isolationism to be entwined with a parable about revolutionary commitment. Rick’s nod to the band to play the song doesn’t suggest nostalgia as much as the conflict between his present and inauthentic stance of indifference to the struggle (“I’m a saloon keeper…”) and his genuine, if momentarily sidelined, dedication to the cause of anti-fascism and humanity (“I’m no good at being noble, but…”)
March 10, 2012 at 5:39 am
Dave
In comparison to what the generation immortalised in this film, and others like it, suffered and achieved, we have nothing to offer except shame. We, and our parents, have pissed their legacy up a wall.
March 10, 2012 at 7:09 am
Main Street Muse
To Eric – agree “murder” was wrong word choice. And yes, Nazis would be killed by those who resisted their rule.
But still feel this scene is about more than Lazlo’s ability to lead a resistance. It’s about the resistance overall against Vichy rule – which was beginning to sweep up even the cynical, anti-political American owner of the cafe. Some in Rick’s Cafe Americain may have eventually heeded the call to arms, but many would not. However, all who sang the Marseillaise in VIchy France put their lives at risk by doing so.
Again, risking lives to take a stand is something most Americans have not experienced, though we admire the idea of it very much.
Maurice’s comment is excellent and beautifully expressed. We were, in 1942, still moving away from isolationism, and had not yet reached/accepted our superpower status. The film’s power is that it does provide “a parable for Americans rejecting isolationism to be entwined with a parable about revolutionary commitment.” I remain astonished that this film was made during the war, without the benefit of hindsight or knowledge of who would eventually win.
March 10, 2012 at 8:22 am
kevin
We were, in 1942, still moving away from isolationism
True, but we were moving away with incredible speed. Some (though not all) polls in mid-1941 had Americans leaning fairly heavily to involvement, and soon after Pearl Harbor isolationism was dead and buried.
March 10, 2012 at 8:41 am
eric
Rick’s nod to the band to play the song doesn’t suggest nostalgia
Right – Maurice, I didn’t mean Rick was nostalgic in this scene. I meant he was nostalgic in the scene when he says, “Play it.” Both Rick and Laszlo have the line “Play it” in the movie. Rick says it to Sam, to get him to play “As Time Goes By”. Laszlo says it here, to get the band to play the “Marseillaise”. I thought it was an interesting contrast.
March 10, 2012 at 9:19 am
Maurice Isserman
My bad. I should have followed the link.
March 10, 2012 at 10:13 am
TF Smith
Sorry, I was trying to figure out what “you might have looked it up yourself if you wanted to make a point” meant, since I did, in fact, look it up.
And sure, there was a lot of blood and treasure to be expended between 1942 and 1945, but after the US entry into the war, I have seen little evidence that most Americans, Britons, and (presumably) Russians didn’t expect it to end in an Allied victory; when three of the top four manufacturing economies in the world were in alliance against the fourth, hard to see it otherwise.
Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin certainly do not appear to have had many doubts from 1942-45.
And of the three Allied powers, interestingly enough, the US was the one that had firmly moved from the defensive to the offensive by the summer of 1942, certainly in the Pacific, although it can be argued the 1942 phase of BOLERO was close to the equivalent on a grand strategy level in the ETO; the British were still on the defensive in the Mediterranean against the Axis (1st Alamein, Alam Halfa, and 2nd Alamein presumably mark the transition) and in SEAC against the Japanese (1st Arakan), as were the Soviets (where Stalingrad is the demarcation).
Best,
March 10, 2012 at 2:50 pm
eric
TF, as seems often to be the case, you’re making at some length a point that’s peripheral to the post. You were in the first instance correct: the scene wasn’t filmed in 1941. It was filmed in 1942.
But take away the first paragraph in the block quote, and you have no complaints; the rest of the post, whose main point is the reading of the contrast between Rick and Laszlo as revealed in the scene, stands.
Your contention in this most recent comment goes beyond peripheral into irrelevant. The Cracked writer says the actors “really didn’t know if things could ever return to normal”. This is different from wondering if the Allies would win, and is incontestable.
Please, give it a rest. And when I say that, I mean it.
March 10, 2012 at 4:18 pm
kevin
Seconded.
March 10, 2012 at 11:23 pm
TF Smith
Tre bien
March 12, 2012 at 7:34 am
Ralph Hitchens
Indeed a great scene in a great movie. The historical critic in me has always wondered, however, if the Nazi’s reach did in fact extend as far as a remote city in French North Africa. Would the Vichy regime object to people singing the Marseillaise under any circumstances?
So much came out of that movie….. “the usual suspects,” “I am shocked, shocked!,” “we’ll always have Paris.” And just what IS a Letter of Transit, anyway?
March 14, 2012 at 2:29 am
Peter T
OT. One anecdote that still moves me is of a truckload of French Jewish women singing the Marseillaise en route to the chamber. It’s an anthem that speaks up for popular defiance of oppression.
March 14, 2012 at 5:02 am
Dave
A letter of transit is like a passport, really – or perhaps more like what a passport used to be in pre-C20 days – it requires the authorities to let you pass, upon the sanction of a higher authority..
And if you want to know how Vichy got on with the Germans, you can read one interesting view in the work of Simon Kitson: http://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/438931.html Vichy really was ‘neutral’ in a legal sense, and very keen on enforcing the distinction between its de facto subordination and any appearance of simple subjection.
March 15, 2012 at 6:36 pm
John Haas
I’ve always loved that they used genetically short people (sometimes called midgets or dwarves) to film the last scene with the airplane.