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Factoids

Scattered throughout Casablanca Film Trivia: Here’s Looking at You, Kid! there are more than 100 factoids—interesting tidbits of information about all aspects of Casablanca.

The following are examples of factoids that are in the book:

Factoid:   No one ever says, “Play it Again Sam” in the film. The closest to this line is when Humphrey Bogart says to Sam, “You played it for her you can play it for me…. If she can stand it, I can. Play it!”

Factoid:   Bogart’s signature line, “Here’s looking at you, kid!” was originally in the script as “Here’s good luck to you, kid,” until he changed it. His new line never appears in the script.

Factoid: The entire film except for the opening airport scene filmed at the Van Nuys municipal airport was filmed at the Warner Bros. sound stage in Burbank, California.

Factoid: The reason that the play was renamed Casablanca by Hal Wallis was because of the success of the Charles Boyer film Algiers. Wallis wanted to capitalize on the current popularity of a film named after a North African city.

Factoid: The Angriff that the member of the Deutchesbank is going to report Rick to, is a German newspaper started by Joseph Goebbels in 1927 that preached the Nazi line and denounced Jews, Communists, and anyone else the Germans did not like.

Factoid: Despite winning at roulette, the odds on Jan and Annina getting to America were slim, as the U.S. quota system established by the Immigration Act of 1924 only allowed 100 Bulgarians a year to enter the U.S. and the wait for one of these spots was often years.

Factoid: The most obvious goof or mistake in the film occurs as Rick is getting soaked in the rain at the Paris train station but when he actually boards the train his raincoat is dry.

Factoid: Ingrid Bergman was disappointed by Humphrey Bogart’s standoffishness and said of their working relationship, “I kissed him but I never knew him.”

Factoid: Because of the war and the blackouts in Los Angeles, the summer shooting day for Casablanca ended by 6:30 so everyone could get home before it was dark.

Factoid: Casablanca cost $878,000 and came in about 8% over budget, primarily because Paul Henreid was held up for a month in finishing Now Voyager, which disrupted the shooting schedule.

Factoid: Ingrid Bergman’s costumes, which would have normally been made of silk or wool, were made of cotton because of war -time restrictions and rationing.

Factoid: According to War Limitation Orders M73 and L75 the motion picture industry had to eliminate from its films, pleats, patch pockets, cloth covered buttons, cuffs on pants, and lapels for woolen suit. Casablanca became the first all cotton film.

Factoid: Casablanca went into general release on January 23rd 1943, just as Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were finishing their famous conference in the city of Casablanca.

Factoid: Actor Peter Lorre, who played Ugarte, had been born in the Hungarian part of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. His birth city is a part of Slovakia today. He was born to Jewish and German parents. This is why his origins have been variously described as German, Austrian, Jewish, and Hungarian. In the future he might be called Slovakian.

Factoid: The idea of taking the Clipper to America that Renault alludes to was a reality, the Pan American flight of a Boeing 314 luxury plane flew from Lisbon to Bolama in Portuguise Guinea, and then across the Atlantic to Port of Spain Trinidad, San Juan, Miami, and finally ended at LaGuardia in New York City. Because of the favorable prevailing winds the return trip was direct from New York to Lisbon.

Factoid: In writing a prequel to Casablanca, Michael Walsh mentioned Sean Penn and Julia Roberts for the roles of Rick and Ilsa.

Factoid: Upon reading the play, "Everybody Comes to Rick’s", writer Robert Buckner derided Rick’s character as being “two parts Hemingway, one-part Scott Fitzgerald, and a dash of café Christ.”

Factoid: The myth that Ronald Reagan was seriously considered for the role of Rick came from an announcement in the Hollywood Reporter on January 5, 1942 which said “Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan will be teamed by Warner Bros. for the third time in Casablanca, a story about war refugees in French Morocco.” Dennis Morgan was also mentioned as one of the leads. There is no evidence that Reagan was ever considered and he was never approached for the role. The most likely explanation is that the announcement was a publicity stunt to keep Warner Bros. stars in the public eye.

Factoid: In 1982, film writer Chuck Ross retyped the screenplay to Casablanca, titled it “Everybody Comes to Rick’s,” and submitted it to 217 agencies dealing with film scripts. Of the 85 who read the material and responded, only 33 recognized the script; 38 rejected it; eight thought it sounded an awful lot like Casablanca; only three thought they could sell it; and one suggested turning it into a novel.

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Here's looking at you, kid!