![]() The last surviving member of the cast was Madeleine LeBeau, who played Yvonne, Rick's girlfriend. Qualen died on Septemat the age of 87 in Torrance, California. His family was of Norwegian descent, and Qualen specialized in Scandinavian roles, appearing in The Grapes of Wrath, The Long Voyage Home, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Arabian Nights, Jungle Book and many more. John Qualen, who played Berger - Laszlo's resistance contact - was a Canadian, born in Vancouver and raised in both Vancouver and rural Illinois. in 1926, but some members of his family were refugees from Nazi Europe. Conrad Veidt, who played Major Heinrich Strasser, was a German film star and refugee, and even though he fled the Nazis, he was often cast as a Nazi in American films.ĭirector Michael Curtiz was a Hungarian-Jewish immigrant who had arrived in the U.S. Curt Bois, who played the pickpocket, was a German-Jewish actor and refugee. ![]() Helmut Dantine, who played the Bulgarian roulette player, spent time in a concentration camp and left Europe after being freed. Sakall, who played the waiter Carl, was a Jewish-Hungarian who fled Germany in 1939 and lost his three sisters to a concentration camp. Many of the actors had first-hand experiences of the war and of Nazi brutality. Many of the actors were themselves victims of the war Vancouver-born actor John Qualen played Berger, a jewelry-selling Norwegian resistance member, in Casablanca. The film then went into wide release on January 23, 1943, to coincide with the Casablanca Conference, a high-level meeting between Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Why? The publicity people moved it forward to coincide with the Allied invasion of North Africa and the capture of Casablanca. Originally the film was slated for release in early 1943, but the film premiered at the Hollywood Theater in New York City on November 26, 1942. The release of Casablanca was rushed because of real-life world events. The goal is to restore it and use it as part of a Moroccan-themed restaurant at Van Nuys Airport. Earlier this year it was saved from the wrecking ball and will be moved to the Valley Relics Museum. Incidentally, that famous airplane hangar, which also appeared in the Laurel and Hardy comedy The Flying Deuces, was removed from Van Nuys during renovations in 2007 and moved to a Los Angeles parking lot. The final farewell tarmac scene, however, was filmed at Warner studios in Burbank. There was one exception: the opening scene, which sees Nazi villain Heinrich Strasser flying past an airplane hangar, was shot at Van Nuys Airport in Van Nuys, Los Angeles. It was shot almost entirely in Burbank, CaliforniaĪs exotic as it looks, the entire film was shot at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California. Over the years, Burnett was reportedly approached by many people who wanted to buy the rights to a sequel, among them director John Cassavetes, but the writer turned them all down because he thought Warner Brothers might sue him. ''These characters are part of me, and I have a great regard for them - even Ugarte,'' he said in a 1985 New York Times interview. The studio thought it was a done deal, but in the 1980s, Warner Brothers created a short-lived TV show based on the movie, and Burnett filed a lawsuit claiming he owned the characters even though he had sold the play. (By comparison, the studio paid $8,000 for The Maltese Falcon.) ![]() But Warner Brothers certainly saw its potential: they purchased the script and all rights for a record $20,000. The play was meant for Broadway, but never made it - reportedly in part because of the implication that Ilsa had slept with Rick in order to get letters of transit. Playwright Murray Burnett co-created expat café owner Rick Blaine, piano player Sam, Czech resistance fighter Victor Lazlo and fresh-faced Ilsa Lund when he and his writing partner Joan Alison penned a play called ''Everybody Comes to Rick's" in 1940. Having watched the political change that was sweeping across Europe, the pair intended it as a cautionary tale about the perils of fascism.
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