Why America Fell for Casablanca, and Why the Classic Film Is Losing its Hold on Movie Lovers.

Slate ^ | FEB. 27 2017 | Laura Miller

[IrishBrigade]

And at 2 hours and 41 minutes - I’m not going to find out if it gets any better.

it doesn’t...

[otness_e]

You should see Everybody Comes to Rick’s (the actual basis for Casablanca), or at the very least read its script. It’s better, and I can definitely confirm that him running guns for Ethiopia or his involvement in the Spanish Civil War was NEVER in the play at all and was exclusive to the film. In the play’s equivalent to that scene, Rinaldo simply mentioned Rick’s full name, Richard Blaine, his nationality, his age (which was given discreetly), that he was formerly a successful attorney in Paris, was formerly married to the daughter of Alexander Kirby, had two children with her, had left Paris in 1937 for undisclosed reasons (whatever caused him to leave was apparently serious enough that Rick tensed up at Rinaldo even mentioning the event he left Paris in passing, causing him to wisely skip over that), and that he ended up divorcing his wife at Reno, with the latter keeping custody of his children (Rinaldo’s “shall I go on” after that suggests there’s more to it that was unrevealed). Most likely, the Spain bit and Ethiopia was added in by that screen writer you alluded to, Howard Koch, as a subtle attempt at promoting solidarity with the Communists.

If you don’t believe me, you can see for yourself: http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~ina22/splaylib/Screenplay-Everybody_Comes_to_Rick’s.pdf I will warn you that Page I-17 is unfortunately largely obscured.

It was purely anti-Nazi, with Communism not even being a factor into it (and good thing too, because I have respect for those who are both anti-Nazi and anti-Communist, and do not like people who condemn Nazism yet promote Communism, or for that matter people who condemn Communism yet promote Nazism.).

I do wonder what you mean by the Marx Brothers having a huge following with 60s college radicals, though. Other than their sharing the same last name as Karl Marx, I fail to see what ties them in to student radicals. They’re just a comedy group, and don’t seem to have any ties to socialism or communism or anything like that (at most, they might have a passing tie to the New Deal).