We’ll Always Have Casablanca

This is a delightful and informative paean to what is probably the best-loved movie of all time. “Casablanca” is one of Hollywood’s greatest products, and Isenberg’s book gives you all the background. The two most interesting chapters had to do with the number of real refugees who were either in the movie or helped make it, and the battles Warner Brothers had to fight with the Production Code Administration over censorship of the movie. And while there was certainly background on Bogart, Bergman, and Henreid, there was plenty of biographical info on the support players – Wilson, Rains, Veidt, Lorre, Greenstreet, Sakall, and Lebeau – that was just as, if not more, interesting than the stories about the main actors. The tortuous history of how the screenplay came to be written is also fascinating.

I admit that I’m a huge Casablanca fan; I’ve seen the movie dozens of times. So my liking of this book was almost certain. For folks who aren’t big fans of the movie (what are those people called? Oh yeah… psychos), then this book might not be all that interesting. Recommended. (And watch the movie first.)

I don’t think that I actually saw Casablanca from beginning to end until I was an adult. And I don’t recall being so enthralled with it the first time around. But over the years it has grown on me and become one of my all time favorite movies. I loved it so much that while taking a graduate level history class on French History, I used the movie as a back drop for a discussion of Vichy France and wrote a paper on the subtle influences of Vichy France in Casablanca. The Professor loved it!

At that time I read several books and article on the movie and really thought that there was not much else to learn. And then I read WE’LL ALWAYS HAVE CASABLANCA. The book relates numerous vignettes about the author, the actors, the making of the movie and its legacy. The book successfully puts the movie and its message into historical context.

What concerns me is a vignette related at the end of the book, where the author talks about a speaker talking to an audience that did know Casablanca. To me such a person is culturally illiterate – but perhaps I should not be so harsh. There are many parts of current culture at I am illiterate about and those people would call me culturally illiterate. I just hope that we don’t lose movies like Casablanca and its message.

This is a very quick read for the movie aficionado and the apprentice alike. It tells the story of a movie that typified a period in American history and conveys a message that should not be lost.

This is not most complete treatment I have ever read about any movie! It not only delves into the origins of the story, the creation of the movie production, the nature of characters, the biographies of actors, but also explores the cultural impact that the movie has had on America (and on that matter the World). The author did a ton of research for this book and his analysis and conclusions are wide ranging. It is a great read not only for movie buffs but for history and sociological buffs as well.

I recently re-watched Casablanca for the first time in a really long while, and I loved it so much. Afterwards, I remembered this book that came out a couple of years ago about the film, so I decided to pick it up too. I definitely wanted to learn more about Casablanca, and just live in that world a little longer. And the book ended up being a good choice it added a lot to my understanding and appreciation of the film. I enjoyed all the detail about, first the writing of the original play, then the various screenplays. And I especially enjoyed the ton of detail about all the supporting actors and bit players in the film, and their histories.

The thing that surprised me most about the book was that it didnt really have much detail about the day to day filming of the movie. Theres a lot about everything that went into preparing the movie, and a lot about peoples reaction to the film over the years, but the book is extremely light on topics like the direction or cinematography, the hard work of actually shooting the film. That was a slight disappointment, but maybe it was just impossible to find that kind of information after all these years.

Another minor disappointment was that occasionally the book repeats small anecdotes, observations or facts. That made me feel like the editing was a bit sloppy. Nothing major, but the book could have been a bit tighter. Also towards the end of the book, as the author describes various revival screenings through the years, various later critics impressions of the film, maybe ten different parodies of the film, including a description of four different episodes of The Simpsons, and even spending some time on the relationships to the film of the grandchildren of people who worked on the script there was definitely too much of this kind of stuff for me, which was far less interesting and coherent than the first eighty percent of the book that was really centered on what went into the making of the film.

Anyhow, these are just nitpicks. If, like me (and like almost everybody who was seen it), you love the film Casablanca, you will mostly enjoy this book and probably get a lot out of it.

My favourite movie and I had read an article about this book, which mainly revealed how many of the cast were real refugees from the war. That human interest aspect is what drew me towards buying the book. However, it is overpriced for such cheap quality of paper and does not feel that it would survive for long – so like real pulp fiction.
Some of the content disappoints, breaking my ideal of how the film came together and was made (no spoilers in this review). Well researched but I got bored by the Afterlife stuff as I really wanted the fullest detail of how it got written, how the studio produced it, the making of and the background of the actors. Good stuff is how the film has a context to the events happening at the time (Allies land in North Africa). A book to give to students on film courses.

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