Here's looking at you, kid

It was 70 years ago today that one of the all-time classics of romance, wartime intrigue and just sheer verve premiered. Casablanca opened at the Hollywood Theater in NYC on 26 November 1942. Since it was a film about the fragile encrustation of normalcy plastered over the underlying desperation and fear in Vichy North Africa, its premiere was moved up from Spring of 1943 to coincide with the Allied invasion of that territory in November.

Casablanca did well both critically and at the box office, right from the beginning. It’s consistently ranked amongst the greatest films of all time on any number of such lists. I myself watch it at least a couple of times a year—sadly, no longer with a bottle of Cordon Rouge (which is what Rick & Ilsa drank at La Belle Aurore to keep the invading Germans from getting it in 1940), but maybe with a glass of Mumm Cuvée Napa. & I find new aspects to enjoy every time.

When you think you’ve memorized every possible interaction between Rick, Ilsa & Renault, there’s still plenty to explore. I especially get a kick out of the minor characters—many of whom were played by European actors who fled the Nazis in their respective countries. Carl the waiter (S.K. Sakall), Sascha the bartender (Leonid Kinskey), the Leuchtags (Ludwig Stössel & Ilka Grüning) on their way to America. (Perhaps most ironic: Conrad Veidt as Major Strasser.) Watching them in little vignettes gives me something new to discover every time. The expression on Sascha’s face when Rick tells him to take the drunken Yvonne home—and come right back; Carl pulling an extra cordial glass out of his pocket—along with the best brandy—having anticipated that he’d be invited to share; the Leuchtags practicing their conversational English.

I also really love the music war—“Die Wacht am Rhein” vs “La Marseillaise”. It’s symbolically heavy-handed, but, damn, does it have style. That’s worth the price of admission right there.

If you want to revisit Casablanca, TCM will be showing it on 6 December. Set your DVR, put a bottle of bubbly on ice & settle back to enjoy.