Reflections of a Baby Boomer

It’s been over thirty years since I last watched it, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to watch it again last night.  Casablanca.

It is the greatest cinematic love story of all time, combining romantic love in a triangle and patriotic love of freedom and country.  Rick, Ilsa and Victor, caught in the struggle of Nazi oppression in “unoccupied France” (Morocco) in the city of Casablanca.

I thought I was watching a two-hour Rich Little show, the great impressionist of twentieth century stars.  Humphrey Bogart, Claude Raines, Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet were all in Little’s stable of characters.  And, of course, the great one-liners that have become famous: “Here’s looking at you, kid,” “We’ll always have Paris,” “Round up the usual suspects,” “Play it again, Sam,” (thought not actually said in the film), “In all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she has to come into this one,” and “This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” 

Although slow paced at first, the emotional impact reaches a fever pitch in the scene where Nazi officers begin singing a German tune in the cafe, Die Wacht am Rhein, but are drowned out when Victor summons the band to play La Marseillaise, and every French man and woman in the place stands and sings loudly and passionately. 

I may not be able to wait another thirty years before watching it again.  You shouldn’t either. You played it for her; you can play it for me. Play it again, Bogie.