TITLE: Archive Review: Casablanca (1942) AUTHOR: Joe Johnson DATE: 6:45:00 AM ----- BODY:
After reviewing Bogart and Bacall on our Howard Hawks WTD episode, I thought it would be worthwhile to look at another Bogart pairing from a few years earlier.

Dir: Michael Curtiz

Surely there are over-rated classics: movies that are listed as important but seem dated by contemporary standards. Casablanca is not one of those. It continues to stand as a fascinating piece of filmmaking that is safely positioned to endure long after most films of the twentieth-century drift into nostalgia and neglect.

At the beginning, there is little sign of the promise this movie holds. There are moments of cinemagraphic greatness, but nothing so stark and visual as Citizen Kane or a David Lean film. The opening titles and expositional voice over seem in keeping with small budget war pictures that were being pumped out of the studios during that time. But ultimately, this film is not about a beginning. It is about the ending.

The whole story primarily takes place at “Rick’s Cafe Americain” - the restaurant/club owned by Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine. For drama, rather than draw in the establishing allure of the location, Curtiz relies on the sheer presence of Bogart and Bergman, and a beautifully composed supporting cast that includes Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet and Claude Rains. Bogart is making his breakout in this role. He finds himself as the center of the entire story, being forced to confront a buried past and choose a side - not only politically, but morally. In the 100 minutes of screen time, we watch a man define himself.

Bogart is most convincing when he’s strong. The scenes in which he buries his head, apparently weeping, seem somehow overacted. But there is always a sense of power and weakness in Bogart. He is strong because he is unpredictable and angular though not physically overwhelming. There is also a desperation in his manners and stature. He could easily drift into being a pathetic man suffering from a mid-life crisis. Perhaps this makes his tenderness towards Ilsa some of the most dangerous work Bogart took on as an actor. It was a hint of what was to come much later in his career with his brilliant performance in The Caine Mutiny.

When first introduced to Rick there is a sense of new charisma and possibility entering the film, something Curtiz emphasizes by his gradual rising pan, tracing Bogart’s hands and moving toward his face. However, the real magic of the movie is Ingrid Bergman cast against him. She glows with a transcendent depth that makes the Moroccan context seem tame. In flashback scenes, she has a youthful luster that is almost a last chance to see her as girlish - something which will soon disappear in the darker roles that mark her later career. Bogart attempts to be carefree and passionate, but it isn’t always convincing. Bergman, however, appears to be in a very different place when we view her in the Paris flashbacks and the conflicted world of Casablanca.

The film grows in intensity, building to the famous ending that could have very well gone another way. But one almost has a palpable sense of danger as the Germans become more territorial and Rick realizes that there no one can save Ilsa and Lazlo but him. Rick is a man with a past and a story, apparently as a mercenary and warrior. But weapons have little place in this warfare, and it is only through diplomacy, deceit and desire that he can choose: to save a good man and lose Ilsa, or allow him to be arrested by the Germans and regain the happiness he knew in Paris.

Casablanca is nearly a perfect film. It is modest but satisfying in length. The characters are unforgettable and endearing without being typical or overly safe. Dialogue is simultaneously natural and poetic, and the story is as timeless as any told by Shakespeare. There is something about this film that could never have been predicted, and could never be duplicated. Casablanca is the convergence of story and talent, heart and ambiguity that forms a greatness far above all but a few films.

***** of *****

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