какой.
Happy.
Good evening. And what a good evening this one is. Casablanca. You know they can parody
Casablanca, they can send it up, they can make fun of it, they can satirize it in any
way you like, in music, in plays, in sketches, in review, anything you like. And the magic
is there I think as soon as the film begins, or as soon as you remember, as time goes by.
A song forgotten from the early 1930s and revived into immortality by producer Hal B.
Wallace and of course director Michael Curtiz and composer Max Steiner for Casablanca.
The cast of Casablanca, well I ask you, could they need any introduction? But just let us
look through some of them. Humphrey Bogart of course, is it true of him or is it not?
What Pauline Kael said, there isn't an actor in American films today with anything like
his assurance, his magnetism or his style. How true. Paul Henry, Ingrid Bergman and Claude
Rains. In this shot and the next one I'm showing you, Claude Rains creates I think one of the
most interesting characters in the film. As a matter of fact, in many times that I saw
the film with audiences, Claude Rains was the character that everybody loved most of
all and I'm sure you will tonight. He is magnificent. Also in the cast of Casablanca and of more
than passing interest, Peter Lorry. But you know, the strange thing is that Peter Lorry's
role like that of Sydney Green Street is very very minor indeed in the plot of Casablanca.
An actor for whom I had great admiration, he died sadly during World War II and made
some great movies in America and of course in Europe and England. Conrad Veidt as Major
Strasser. Originally of course, Hal Wallace the producer had wanted Otto Preminger to
play the part of Major Strasser. Thank goodness it was Conrad Veidt. I think he is superb.
Another member of the cast of more than passing interest in this shot and the next is Dooley
Wilson and here's an irony for you about Dooley Wilson. He was borrowed from Paramount. Ingrid
Bergman was borrowed from David O. Selznick to appear at Warner Brothers in Casablanca.
Would you believe that Dooley Wilson cost Warner Brothers $3,500 a week on loan from
Paramount which was nearly $400 more than they paid for Ingrid Bergman to be in the
picture. Now that's one of the ironies of Casablanca and yet it's probably Dooley Wilson
as much as Ingrid Bergman or Humphrey Bogart have helped to make this film so immortal.
One final point. Listen to the music. Max Steiner looked after the score. He uses familiar
themes brilliantly. From the moment the film starts I think the opening credits are very
exciting in sound going right into a special effect that I think is very good and of course
the magnificent As Time Goes By. I hope you love it. Just half as much as I do and you
really adore Casablanca.
So much artistry you know and yet Howard Koch who worked on the screenplay of the film with
or apart from the Epstein's who were on the credits said and I quote, we were in a Pirandello
situation six characters in search of a story. When shooting commenced on Casablanca I had
half the script completed. The race was on between my pencil and the camera and the actors
some of them have said in interviews in recent years that they did not know how the film
was going to end or what they were going to be doing the next day. But one of the things
that Casey Robinson did, the late Casey Robinson who lived in Australia for many years until
his death and one of my favourite screenwriters he did The Old Maid, Now Voyager, Adventures
of Mark Twain, a great screenwriter, oh she knows Kilimanjaro, a passage to my say as
well. Casey Robinson also participated in the writing of the script of Casablanca and
his job was mainly concerned with building up the character played by Paul Henry who
wasn't very happy about his character in the script because he thought it was straight
out of musical comedy. So there we are several writers working on it and working on it like
the scene the day before it was due to be shot. It must have been quite hectic the making
of Casablanca but the magic of course was there. Here are a couple of photographs I
thought you might like to see. These are not scenes from the film they're just posed publicity
shots but rather delightful I think with Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henry and Humphrey Bogart in
this particular shot and in the next one we have the four leads. Claude Rains of course
is magnificent isn't he, a super performance, a super characterisation. Well need I ask
are you enjoying it? I'm sure you are and we shall return to Casablanca in a few moments
time. What a wonderful film. There's nothing about it, the magic is still there. I've read
Casablanca, I've seen Casablanca so many times I think some of those scenes I know by heart
but it doesn't matter how often you see a film that's of this nature each time it seems
to come as fresh and exciting as ever. I think Casablanca has now gone beyond mere criticism
into that area of super movies like Waterloo Bridge, Gone with the Wind of course, The
Wizard of Oz, so many of these, that few great movies that have just become I don't know
very much part of the fabric of the most loved entertainments of the 20th century. I hope
you've enjoyed Casablanca and I hope you've enjoyed Casablanca.