Casablanca: Whom Did Ilsa Really Desire?

Daily Beast ^ | Michael Tomasky

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Let's stop arguing about Mitt Romney and argue about something else for a couple hours. I'm presently in a discussion with some friends about whether Isla Lund really wanted to end up with Rick Blaine or Victor Laszlo. If you need to Google these names, skip this post.

I say she wanted to be with Rick. The explication here begins in the scene where she shows up at Rick's apartment holding a gun at him, and he says, "Go ahead and shoot; you'll be doing me a favor." Got it? Okay.

When she got there, she demanded the letters of transit for herself and Victor. That's when she pulled the heat. But she couldn't shoot. She melted into his arms and said roughly: Richard, you have to do the thinking for both of us. All I know is I love you and have always loved you.

At that point, I think it's clear she's flipped over to Rick. I think she even says to him, you will help Victor now, if I stay with you. Then Victor shows up, and then Capt. Renault. And then comes The Moment.

It's when Rick instructs Renault to sign the letters of transit--"in the names of Ilsa Lund and Victor Laszlo." The camera cuts to Ilsa at that moment, and there is clear shock on her face, and the violins go, da-DUM. I could go on, but that is the key moment. She is obviously shocked that Rick is sending her off with Victor.

The opposite case, near as I can approximate it, is that yes, she had the hots for Rick, but she really loved Victor, and she used Rick...Let's hear what you think.

[ArmstedFragg]

Many years ago, there was a review that suggested a future where Victor would be teaching college and chasing coeds while Ilsa was involved in a “special friendship” with their pool boy. Rick, on the other hand would be operating a casino with the captain, happily unwed and grateful for how things turned out. Sam would have finally learned the intro of “As Time Goes By”.

[Vision]

Why would anyone think she was into Rick more? Makes no sense.

[minnesota_bound]

Rick: There’s something you should know before you leave.
Laszlo: Mr. Blaine, I don’t ask you to explain anything.
Rick: I’m going to anyway because it may make a difference to you later on. You said you knew about Ilsa and me.
Laszlo: Yes.
Rick: What you didn’t know was that she was at my place last night when you were. She came there for the letters of transit. Isn’t that true, Ilsa?
Ilsa: Yes.
Rick: She tried everything to get them and nothing worked. She did her best to convince me she was still in love with me but that was over long ago. For your sake she pretended it wasn’t and I let her pretend.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Casablanca_(film)

Ilsa: I wasn’t sure you were the same. Let’s see, the last time we met was...
Rick: La Belle Aurore.
Ilsa: How nice, you remembered. But of course, that was the day the Germans marched into Paris.
Rick: Not an easy day to forget.
Ilsa: No.
Rick: I remember every detail. The Germans wore gray, you wore blue.

[ArmstedFragg]

Yep. Pure MacGuffin.

[Steve_Seattle]

Laszlo. She had made her decision, and was sticking with it.

[MeganC]

“She’s a terribly written, wishy-washy character.”

So are most people.

[Macoozie]

Rick for the D*ck & Party.
Victor for the Bling & Ring.

Since time immemorial, it has ever been thus.

[Liz]

Rick reads Ilsa's note---she wont be coming.

[Steve_Seattle]

"He slowly changes over the course of the movie as people tug at his past working in the Spanish revolution and how he did care once."

To me, that was the main off-note in the whole movie, one of the earliest signs of communist influence in Hollywood.

[Hatteras]

She wanted me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t even a gleam in daddy’s eye at the time. But, wow, she was a beautiful gal...

[A strike]

It has always been interesting/intriguing to watch Bogart trying to smile in movies, almost like it's not in his nature (although with L.B. that would hard to be the case).

[MrEdd]

Though they were before my time, I thought of those old Captain Midnight serials when I saw "Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow. "

[Cecily]

Ingrid played Golda Meir in “A Woman Called Golda.” I believe it was filmed in Israel, but Ingrid would have been older (not so young and beautiful) when that film was made.

[William Tell]

"Rick comes back to the US in 1945 at the end of the war, finds that Victor has been run over by a drunk driver, so he and Ilsa live happily ever after."

A hit-and-run, no doubt. And Rick has an airtight alibi. He was with Sam and Louis all night playing poker.

[Terry L Smith]

She loved Lazlo and his work, until the Nazis grabbed him.
She was married, to a possoble ghost, with no means to declare the end of the marriage, without messing her own life. She then met Rick, and got in deep, until that day she got word on Laszlo. Then it all had to change, dump Rick!

[basalt]

i still say Rocky died like they said...”a yellah rat”.....

[A strike]

You got that right!

[Liz]

Playing chess between scenes-----that's director Curtiz on the right, I believe.

[spel_grammer_an_punct_polise]

“and can recite most of it.”

And here I thought that I was alone! LOL

[JeanLM]

Rick but it broke his heart to see her leave so he changed his name to Allnut sold the bar and moved to the jungle with a boat he named the African Queen (Ilsa). But that was another war I guess.