CASABLANCA

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: implied adultery

Rated:

When one mentions "romantic tragedy," two titles come to mind. One is Gone With the Wind, which has had a select place on my shelf ever since I was first allowed to view it as a teenager. The other is Casablanca, a later film but with just as much notoriety. The two premises are simple, and yet these films are inevitably linked. Why? Because of a sense of moralistic society binding each couple in a promise to do right, whether or not it's dictated by their hearts. With an engaging plot, excellent acting by all involved, and a climatic ending, Casablanca made film history and became one of the most beloved classics of the golden era of filmmaking.

Rick (Humphrey Bogart) is a cynical, often blunt and overly self-centered man who owns a successful nightclub and bar in Casablanca during WWII. He's toe to toe with the local German prefix of police, Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains), and yet half the men in his bar are anti-German spies. Rick follows a simple code of order at his nightclub... he never drinks with clients and never "sticks his neck out for anybody." But a time is coming when he may be asked to challenge his moral code and risk everything to save someone's life. Two German couriers, carrying secret documents and valid passes to go anywhere they please in a Nazi-invaded Europe have been murdered. Not coincidentally, if one believes in fate, the murderer, a weasel of a man by the name of Ugarte, winds up in Rick's bar, hoping to sell the visas to two wealthy people passing through Casablanca on their way to America. 

The buyer is Victor Laszlo, a former newspaper man with ties to the underground rebellion with a price on his head. Scandinavian by descent, Parisian by origin, and influential in every sense of the word, he's escaped from a concentration camp, eluded the Third Right, and now desires a free passage unhindered to New York. Ugarte, fearing he will be caught and searched by Captain Louis' men, leaves the prized visas with Rick. He's apprehended and murdered and Louis believes Rick has fallen into possession of the documents. Fortunately the corrupted official is a friend of Rick's, in part to Rick's allowing him to win at the Backgammon tables. He's after Victor Laszlo but has nothing to pin on him. Rick could care less... until an old flame comes into his bar on Laszlo's arm (Ingrid Bergman). They spent several wonderful weeks together in Paris and she left without a word of explanation.

Torn between his desire for revenge and his yearning to know the truth, Rick will be forced to evaluate every sense of forgotten high morality, both in ethics and matters of the heart, to decide where his loyalties will lie. In this, Casablanca is a masterpiece, for it shows us the shadows and light which equally permeate the human heart. We believe Rick to be a rake at first, a careless man with few scruples, but through the course of the film we realize what a kind and goodhearted man he truly is. Oh, he plays to both sides... he is entirely human and therefore fallible. Yet one cannot help but like him even in the darkest of circumstances; two scenes stand out above all the rest. Captain Louis is a notorious ladies' man, we learn through word-of-mouth and some subtle flirting (remember, this was made in 1940). At one point a young woman only of seventeen years of age comes to Rick and asks him if Louis is a man of his word. 

With some prying, Rick discovers she and her husband have been promised visas to leave the country by the captain. Due to their lack of funds a certain "favor" will be imposed on her without her husband's knowledge. Through our initial shock at the low depravity of what Louis will sink to, we find ourselves rooting for Rick as he makes other arrangements and removes her from a potentially explosive situation. Later, though we fear he may allow morality and decency to slide in regards to his now-married former flame, Rick does the right thing and places his own life at risk to see it through. The ending has a surprising twist, and the colorized version is well-done, returning a sense of glamour to the old black and white film. But still audiences are forced to reckon with the idea of adultery. Although a plot twist can be foreseen early, Ilsa and Rick consider leaving Victor behind and escaping to America together. What makes Rick change his mind, I'll leave you to discover. 

Content-wise, there is some adulterous kissing. Rick and Isla allude to a past spent together in Paris, though one never learns how far this romance went. The heroine is lovely and yet unlikable merely due to her code of moral ethics. In some way all the characters are corrupted, from the man at the bar to the innkeeper down the street and even the local police. There is some violence but nothing particularly graphic and no blood. All problematic elements are hinted at rather than shown, which is a credit to early Hollywood censors. Drinking and smoking are shown at an excess. 

It's a film that -- much like its fellow pillow mate Gone With the Wind -- treads on thin ice. At times the ice cracks, at others it supports the full weight of characters and situations. If you enjoyed the latter, you may also find Casablanca an intriguing way to spend two hours. But if even hints toward marital infidelity concern you, you may want to pass this over.

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