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Casablanca and the Missing Reference

© Earl Rickard

This holiday season marks sixty years since the premiere, on Thanksgiving Day 1942, of Warner Brother's classic motion picture, Casablanca. Many myths have arisen concerning this classic American movie including the belief that the writers argued over the picture's ending right up to the filming of the final scene. As with most myths there is a kernel of truth: The writers were writing dialogue for the ending while the filming was beyond the half-way point, unusual for a major Hollywood production; but the outcome always had Rick staying behind, as he did in the play from which the script was adapted. Studio head Jack Warner and producer Hal Wallis never seriously considered having Rick leave Casablanca with the letters of transit.

The problem the writers struggled with was character motivation and the believability of their actions. I have always thought that an American movie cliche nearly entered the picture but was luckily left out. Somewhere in those last hectic days of rewrites there may have been a scene where at least one character, Captain Louis Renault, learns about the Pearl Harbor attack. Knowledge of the attack would clarify the captains behavior and dialogue in the final airport scene. Let us first set the time period and then examine Captain Renault's personality.

Humphrey Bogart playing ex-patriot Rick Blaine sets our historical clocks for us during his drunk scene in the closed and darkened cafe: Rick says to Sam the piano player, "If it's December 1941 in Casablanca, what time is it in New York?" Sam says his watch stopped, but Rick continues, "I bet they're asleep in New York. I bet they're asleep all over America." Rick is certainly not making a statement about time zone differences, but rather about America's neutrality and the desire of many Americans to stay out of the war no matter how evil the enemy. Rick's answer that they "are" asleep not "were" asleep proves the Japanese attack has yet to occur. So we know the month is December 1941, sometime between the first and the seventh.

The story plays out over a three day period. What if the writers had at one time planned to end the film on the evening of December seventh? (Because of Western Africa's time zone the first news of Pearl Harbor arrived on the evening of the seventh.) At least three days elapse from the first scene when Major Strasser arrives to the final scene at the airport. Therefore, the writers could have started the story on the afternoon of the fifth and ended on the evening