Casablanca

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I can’t believe I’ve come this far without mentioning Casablanca.

Casablanca. There I’ve done it.

Casablanca really captured my imagination in my teens. I don’t know why, after all it was made in 1942, in black and white, and Humphrey Bogart died (January 14th, 1957) a couple of months before I was born. But it totally captivated me.

At thirteen I’d seen it maybe a dozen times, by the time I was eighteen I was Rick Blaine. I attended my college interview wearing a fedora hat and trench coat – well at least they remembered me, and I got in. There was no video back then but I had a frame by frame book of the film with full dialogue - at one point I could almost ‘do’ the whole movie line by line… and of course there was that attitude thing, Rick Blaine’s attitude thing.

I was the most world-weary, cynical, nothing much matters, ‘I never drink with the customers’ teenager you could ever wish not to meet. And to this day I still blame my ever-so-slightly cynical nature on Rick Blaine and Casablanca – although these days I think I have more in common with the Sidney Greenstreet character, Signor Ferrari.

My favourite line in the films is when Rick says to Ugarte ‘I don’t mind a parasite. I object to a cut rate one.’ Now that cuts, but the film is full of one-liners like that and I’ve spent quite a bit of my life insulting family and friends by using them on them.

Here's another favourite that I've used at every opportunity in lots of circumstances and variations...

Ugarte - 'You despise me, don't you?'
Rick - 'If I gave you any thought I probably would. '

Ouch!

Don’t worry, I won’t quote them all to you (if you are interested here’s the complete SCRIPT but Rick never did say ‘Play it again Sam.’ He did say ‘Play it, Sam. Play "As Time Goes By."’ Nor did he say ‘Of all the bars, in all the towns, in all the world.’ But he did say ‘Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.’

Sometimes I use Casablanca as a way to fall asleep when I’m having a bad night. I play the film in my head starting with the opening credits and running through the movie scene by scene. I think the furthest I’ve ever got before falling asleep is Rick at the train station in Paris – all misty edged frames, steam, and rain, rain, and more rain... and she never showed - poor Bogey.

Sometimes when I do this I cast people I know in the roles of characters in Casablanca. I used to imagine myself as Rick – well why not – but I found that I could no longer fit into my white tuxedo and had to move on.

How about this for a cast?

Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) – Rick Shore (It's in the stare)

Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) – Nicki Cupman (Flutter those eyelashes)

Victor Laslo (Paul Heinreid) – Steve Wilson (Smile)

Signor Ferrari (Sidney Greenstreet) – Me (Yes, I’ve finally hung up my Bogart hat)

Ugarte (Peter Lorre) – Chris Southall (All nervous energy)

Yvonne (Madeleine Lebeau) – Vicky Holder (You do sultry so well)

Sam (Dooley Wilson) – Glynne Kirkham (It’s the grin that does it)

Captain Renault (Claude Rains) – Phil Heslehurst (Well, who else?)

Major Strausser (Conrad Veidt) – Scott Mitchell (Blonde hair, blue eyes)

Carl (S.Z. Sakall) – Malcolm Chorley – (You are the right age - more or less)

So you still don’t have a clue what I’m going on about eh?

Give yourself a treat. Buy a bottle of wine, close the curtains, get a big box of tissues – and watch the movie.

Get a taste for it HERE. Start with the Casablanca Movie Trailer - it sets the scene.

You’ll see what I mean.

And… Sorry if you are reading this and don’t know who the people in my cast list are. They are my old team and they will live forever in the Casablanca that plays nightly in my mind. If you do know them though – have fun fitting them into character.

Here's looking at you kids.