Casablanca

We asked our intended speakers to defer to a later date and planned this as a purely social meeting. In the event our member Francis Whitbread (pictured) stepped in to talk about one of his favourite films, Casablanca.He had actually spoken about it before but still had more information to impart.

Casablanca was filmed entirely in the United States and released in 1942. The two stars, Humphrey Bogard and Ingrid Berman, were not the first choices for the roles. (The actor originally approached to play the part of Rick didn’t want to do it.)

One scene shows a group of Germans singing a German song when a group of Frenchmen start singing La Marseillaise. Gradually the sound of the Marseillaise drowns out the Germans. Apparently many of those taking part found this very emotional and ended up in tears.

Casablanca gave rise to a number of quotes. “Play it again, Sam” was not actually one of them; it was not said in the film.