Program Notes }
Ranked by most film surveys among the
greatest of all American films — in 1998
the American Film Institute placed it at
number two for the entire 20th century
— it is the source of several immortal
lines now part of the English language:
“Round up the usual suspects”; “Of all the
gin joints in all the towns in all the world,
she walks into mine”; “I think this is the
beginning of a beautiful friendship”; and
“Here’s looking at you Kid.” (Incidentally, that last line wasn’t actually in the
script; Humphrey Bogart improvised it in
rehearsal and it was kept in.) One famous
quotation that doesn’t appear in the film
is “Play it again, Sam”; it’s really: “Play it,
Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes by.’”
Casablanca is the most frequently
broadcast film on American television.
As film critic Roger Ebert wrote: “The
dialogue is so spare and cynical it has not
grown old-fashioned.” And Bob Strauss
of the Los Angeles Times summed up
Casablanca’s appeal succinctly: “It is a
near-perfect balance of comedy, romance,
and suspense.”
Creating a Masterpiece
When producer Hal Wal \