CASABLANCA
anthems, and Rick must choose
sides. He allows the band to
play the Marseillaise to drown
out the Germans. At the very time
Casablanca was being filmed, a
previously neutral US joined the
fight against Germany and Japan,
and, as it premiered in New York in
November 1942, the Allies were
advancing on the Axis powers to
capture Casablanca for real.
When Ilsa arrives at his club,
Rick is decidedly cool toward her,
commenting wryly: “Of all the gin
joints in all the towns in all the
world, she walks into mine.”
But Ilsa still loves Rick. Her
Resistance-fighter husband,
Victor Laszlo (Henreid), turned
up alive when she believed
him to be dead, and
that is why sheabandoned Rick. When Rick
discovers that Ilsa and Laszlo need
his help, he is forced to make a
choice. Does he keep the papers
they need, and so keep Ilsa, or does
he let her go? In the end, Rick does
the noble thing, and puts Ilsa on a
plane to freedom with Laszlo. In
a heartrending parting, as they
stand by the plane, he explains
why she would regret it if she
stayed with him: “Maybe not today,
maybe not tomorrow,
but soon and for
the rest of
your life.”
It’s aRick tells Ilsa at the airport that
she must get on the plane with her
Resistance-fighter husband,
Victor Laszlo.
74
You’re getting on that plane with
Victor where you belong.
Rick / Casablanca