Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of Casablanca--Bogart, Bergman, and World War II

by Aljean Harmetz

It is 50 years since "Casablanca" opened up in America. Little did Humphrey Bogart know when he uttered the final line - "This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship" - that he had just closed what would be one of the most enduring and popular movies ever. Aljean Harmetz believes that "every movie is a creature built from accidents and blind choices - a mechanical monster constructed of camera angles, the chemistry between actors, too little money or too much and a thousand unintended moments". Her portrait of the making of an unmatched classic reveals some of the how the stars of the movie almost weren't Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman; how "As Time Goes By" nearly didn't make it to the final cut.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, History, Media Tie In, World War II, Pop Culture, School

416 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1992

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this book after reading the author’s book on the making of the Wizard of Oz, which was published in 1977. This book follows the same pattern but describes an equally classic and beloved movie, Casablanca. Both movies were made just before or during WWII.

The biggest difference between the books is Harmetz’ Oz book was written in 1977 when many of the cast, crew and executives were still living and could be interviewed. Round Up The Usual Suspects came out in 1992 when many of the people were gone. This left Harmetz to patch together other kinds of research. It’s still a very good book.

My favorite parts dealt with the difficulties posed by the film’s subject before war was declared as opposed to difficulties after Pearl Harbor. There were many restrictions. I also enjoyed hearing about how this movie started as an unwanted orphan but has turned into a lasting film that has struck a chord with audiences.

Harmetz also has a book on the making of Gone With the Wind.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this book before - or at least most of it. It concerns the making of Casablanca, a film that has now become a classic but was at first considered to be just one of the many movies Warner Brothers' factory-like studio turned out by the month in its heyday.
Harmetz has done an enormous amount of research, and it shows. Sometimes there's too much of it for the reader to take in, and some of it, particularly as the book comes to a close, just makes the cake top heavy, but it's a fascinating book full of comments and insights from many of the people who were involved in the movie.
The movie was made at an opportune time: the real Casablanca was in the news shortly after the film's completion, which helped it to sell well. And intriguingly, many of the bit players were not only playing refugees, but were refugees from Germany and other countries under threat. Some would go onto have reasonable careers in the States; others, even though they'd been major stars in their own countries, never managed to make the big time in the New World.

[Paul Ataua · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw that this had been updated in time for the 60th anniversary of the movie, immediately watched, or more like cried my way through the movie, and set about listening to the book. A very enjoyable close up of the studio system, the development of the script, and the shooting of the movie. Money well spent.

[Amanda Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brimming with fascinating information about too many things. Ms. Harmetz doesn't stick to Casablanca, doesn't stick to Bogart and Bergman, doesn't even stick to World War II. The book encompasses many films and many actors, spans full careers, contrasts the practices and environment of Warners to other studios of the time, delves into the politics of moviemaking during the War, reaches into the 1950s to swipe at blacklisting. . . I could go on.

Of course the film wasn't made in a vacuum, and the amount of research evidenced in the text is beyond impressive. Deciding how much the reader needs to know to understand fully how and why Casablanca came to be--this would be a difficult process for any researcher. None of the information presented is useless, but some of the digressions are puzzling as they are not needed to understand the book's stated topics. The thematic (rather than chronological) organization doesn't help. I would love to read this book revised to read chronologically, trimmed to a more focused narrative.

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s no single accounting for Casablanca’s enduring success as a movie, becoming the third greatest movie of all time in the most recent American Film Institute rankings. But Aljean Harmetz makes a thorough accounting in Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of Casablanca—Bogart, Bergman, and World War II.

My main takeaway from Harmetz is that years of good manners toward racism and fascism created a void in U.S. movies, so that when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Warner Brothers with the conscience of Harry Warner in control was the only studio that had a project ready to fill the gap. Casablanca rushed into the breach and has resonated ever since.

Harmetz lays out the chapters according to the pre-digital model of pre-production, principal photography and post-production. The process becomes a kind of a plot, which Harmetz knows how to arrange with flashbacks. For example, Round Up the Usual Suspects positions Warner Bros. between the run-ups to WWII and The Cold War. In 1938, The Breen Office rejected the script for Confessions of a Nazi Spy because “Hitler and his government are unfairly represented”; then in 1947, studio-head Jack Warner names the screenwriters of Casablanca as communist sympathizers before HUAC (243-6). While the general public tends to think of WWII as the “greatest generation,” the studios with the exception of Warner Bros. ignored the human rights abuses against European Jews in the lead up to WWII; then, once the war was over, even Warner Bros. sold-out the very people who made one of the definitive movies of the era. Harmetz lays out the details, but goes easy on indictments.

Casablanca contains its own indictments. Why is Rick an expatriate along with Sam? What did Rick think he could do in Ethiopia or Spain that he couldn’t do in the U.S.? From uncredited Murray Burnett to the Epsteins to Howard Koch, Casablanca was shaped by Jews whose religion or politics made them pre-mature anti-Fascists. Philip Epstein’s enlistment was rejected because he criticized Nazis before doing so became fashionable. Julius Epstein would eventually enlist in the Navy (53). Howard Koch would spend a decade on the blacklist. It’s with bitter irony we listen to Rick say of the impending Nazi invasion, “I’m on their blacklist already, their roll of honor.”

Casablanca’s I-told-you-so lines should make us ask, “How did the screenwriters get so much right so fast?” They were not “pre-mature anti-fascists,” but opponents to fascism’s long tradition. When Ugarte says, “Rick, watching you with The Deutsche Bank just now, one would think you have been doing this all your life." So as the House of Representatives seeks Deutsche Bank records in vain in 2019, another generation sells out once more.

Harmetz follows Casablanca all the way to the cacophony of its highbrow critical theories. Umberto Eco interprets the movie as an “intertextual collage,” “a hodgepodge” of “glorious incoherence” (348-9). J.P. Telotte analyzes the motif of thievery, giving us “the comforting notion that the stolen can eventually be stolen back” (349). Even stolen love, apparently.

After all her research, Harmetz allows herself a personal anecdote about the movies and WWII (353). The anecdote turns back to the “grays” of an ambiguous world. So Laszlo’s Czechoslovakia would fall from German to Soviet influence, and then a year after Harmetz’ book was published, Czechoslovakia would become two different countries. It seems Casablanca needs darkness, so its grays stand out in contrast; and the market for darkness remains strong.

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chose this book because "Casablanca" is one of my all-time favorite films, probably in the Top 5 (along with To Kill A Mockingbird, Gone With The Wind, Schindler's List, but I digress...) The title is one of the film's best lines (there are so many) uttered by Claude Rains (who I think stole the movie with his portrayal of Captain Renault.) The book goes into a lot of depth about the making of films in general, the writers, producers, directors and, of course the actors. I really enjoyed the behind the scenes peak into movie-making, especially the author's insights into the archaic studio system where actors (& writers, directors) were often treated as indentured servants, locked into hard-to- escape contracts, sometimes appearing in or working on films they didn't want to make. I learned a good deal I didn’t know about the film and also enjoyed some rare photos which appeared throughout. One funny anecdote towards the end of the book is credited to Stephen Bogart (Humphrey's son) who was incredulous (rightly so) when Ted Turner bought the rights to Casablanca for TV and decided to colorize it to make it "more appealing". He quipped "Shall we add arms to Venus de Milo to make her more appealing?" If I had a criticism of the book it would be the ending where the author spends more time than I cared for examining various psychological explanations for what the movie meant (I always thought Bogart represented America as an isolationist country at the beginning of WWII, reluctantly but eventually forced to choose to join the war. I never thought Bogart and Rains represented repressed homosexuality or that Rick had an Oedipal complex...it really was a lot of psychobabble in my view.) But don't let that dissuade you from reading this if you are a Casablanca fan (If you haven't even seen the movie don't read this book, but instead immediately correct this gross oversight in your cultural upbringing and find a DVD and enjoy it! And then you can "Play it again, Sam" (I know, I know he never said that!)

[Blaine Welgraven · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Cynicism is a necessary protective coat for those who come close to the film industry's seductively hot center, and I have needed a doubly thick coat. I grew up on the outskirts of M-G-M where my mother worked in the wardrobe department, and I later wrote about Hollywood for the New York Times. But my cynicism dissolves when Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman say goodbye at the airport; and, at least in the dark of the movie theater, I am sure that I would be capable of such a sacrifice too."

--Aljean Harmetz, Round of the Usual Suspects: The Making of Casablanca--Bogart, Bergman, and World War II

The best (and most accurate) book on Casablanca's development from script-to-screen, bar none. While Usual Suspects certainly provides an exquisite chronology of the events surrounding Casablanca's fortuitous development, what truly distinguishes Harmetz's history from prior works is the complete contextualization she provides the film's production, including a thorough analysis of the era's studio system and the filmic impacts of World War II.

Historiographically speaking, Harmetz's use of Warner Brothers’ production notes gives her work source material her predecessors lacked—primary sources that decidedly settle many of the myths surrounding Casablanca's rather typical production. As Harmetz acutely emphasizes, no one saw Casablanca as being anything but ordinary in its day--it was just another Hollywood production. Now, it's considered perhaps the greatest movie of all time--the ultimate testimony to the effectiveness of the studio era. Usual Suspects is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the film industry at the nexus of World War II-era nationalism, FDR's New-Dealism, and Hollywood's Golden Age.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If what you want is an exhaustingly researched book that belabors every single point, that explores the complete lives of everyone involved from Studio bigwigs to bit players to technical staff, that gets side tracked multiple times, then this is the book for you.
I admire the work that Harmetz did but it wasn't what I was looking for when I purchased the book. I was hoping for a nice lucid discussion on the making of Casablanca. I really got more than I bargained for.
Several major problems as far as I was concerned. Harmetz did not follow a chronological order. Rather each chapter was devoted to a different topic. As a result, the Epstein brothers are writing hard on the script in chapter 2 but haven't even started in chapter 6. There are several chapters that could have been left out completely----for example one details the HUAC hearing in Washington that took place in the late 40's. Casablanca was made in 43. Another details discussions of a 1992 Harvard drama class analyzing the movie What did they have to do with "the Making" of the movie?

Also she drops every little tidbit of gossip about the Hollywood of the time of the movie. For example, what did these facts have to do with the situation: Van Johnson became a star at MGM because he was 4-F; Errol Flynn sneaked behind the scenery at least four times in everyone of his movies taking a willing starlet with him; oh and Dennis Morgan loved his part in God is my Co-Pilot
I could go on and on. There was just TOO MUCH in the book. I found the story I wanted but more than half the book was above and beyond that.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

As much about the studio system of WWII-era Hollywood as it is about the making of Casablanca.

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highest Recommendation!

Author Harmetz writes about Casablanca that if the ending of the film weren't perfect it would be forgotten today. And, of course, it's perfect.

A lot of time is spent in this book on the complicated writing history of Casablanca, and it's damned illuminating. So many bad ideas came and went from the script, and even with the studio's insistence on cost cutting and so many cooks up and down the line editing each other, there was, in the end, great care in the crafting of one of the greatest scripts in film history.

Aljean Harmetz has written a masterclass deep dive into this perennial classic, a movie that should be experienced at least once in a theater with an audience. Round Up the Usual Suspects ... is one of the best books I've ever read about the making of a movie. It goes full bore with invaluable interviews while many of the studio flunkies and writers while they were still alive, plunges deep into the studio memos and notes and busts a helluva lot of myths around the complicated making of this legendary and beloved film. Most of the myths are based in truth, and the truth is even more fascinating than the half-truths. This thing fucking MOVES -- no small feat -- and makes sense even when shifting between time spans, backstories, and the labyrinthine politics of a great film studio at the height of its powers, eschewing simplistic "good guys vs. villains" formula, treating every personage with due respect, including Jack Warner; understanding how each cog in the studio machine contributed to a film that has been called the happiest of accidents. It's clear from this that the much-hated producer, Hal Wallis, was a genius in guiding the film, making everything better at all stages. It's also clear that the reviled Production Code actually helped the movie become more romantic and less tawdry; and there's nothing wrong with that. The book gives due credit, finally, to the original play, which substantially survives in the film despite years of lies about it. Howard Koch's and the Epstein brother's contributions to the masterful script have always been a bone of contention, but Harmetz's detective work makes everything crystal clear, and all of them are heroes. The book, if it has any flaws, might be its embarrassment of riches in terms of context. It expounds at great length about the wartime necessities of film making and meeting the various needs of the war office. Some of this goes on a bit -- and as I knew most of this stuff already -- I skimmed these sections. Casablanca was largely forgotten until 1957, when Harvard students revived it and helped usher in the Bogart cult. Its reputation in the pantheon soared after that.

I saw Casablanca twice on the big screen back in the 1980s and the 1990s, at the late lamented Vogue Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky, and both showings were packed to standing-room capacity with enthusiastic audiences that spontaneously erupted in cheers and applause at the finale when Captain Renault (Claude Rains) urges the Nazis to "round up the usual suspects," to save Rick's life, and those were the most moving and powerful moments I've ever felt in a movie house. I cry even now thinking about it. It's sad that people can't see the film, or any of the classics this way anymore -- the right way, on 35 millimeter with a crowd -- to really understand its greatness, but this book does everything the right way in explaining how this magical work of art came to be. Silver Holy Grail Award for this one, easily.

-E/K 2025

Addendum: A very good supplement to this book is a video on the Youtube channel, Moviewise, called, "Why It's a Classic: Casablanca," that goes into superb detail about how Michael Curtiz masterfully choreographed the shots and action of the film; something that Harmetz touches on but not to this extent. Great video.

[Ray Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Making of Casablanca, Aljean Harmetz goes way beyond the story of making the movie to documenting the era. It makes sense that Casablanca happened in the context of World War II. Harmetz making that connection would be expected. However, he goes into the red scare, the Hollywood Ten, the development of HUAC, propaganda films, and training films. The reader who expects this to be a series of steamy back lot romances, rivalries, and gossip will be disappointed.

In this period films were made in a few weeks on sets built on a Hollywood production company’s grounds. Much of the Casablanca set was re-purposed from the last film and then adapted for the next. The actors were on contract or loan from other studios. Harmetz mentions that most of the cast had little use for each other outside of getting the current film made. What makes this book interesting, besides the history, was figuring out what made it one of the great if not the greatest films ever made.

Harmetz certainly covers the original play the movie was based on as well as the writing and production in detail. But ultimately, it was the right story at the right time filmed in a style that became iconic, emblematic of the age, and emotionally resonant to this day. Harmetz analyzes Rick and decides that like Gatsby (my reference), Rick is the embodiment of the American spirit. He is restless, romantic, self-possessed, and self-made. He is also, when pressed, shown to be capable of the highest moral character.

I love the movie and have watched it too many times to count. It really is visually beautiful. There is very little of what we would call action today, but the pace is quick and the wit of the dialogue engaging. Having read Harmetz's work on the subject, I understand why it speaks to me and generations of viewers on such a deep level. This is a very interesting study, and I would recommend it to any fan, or anyone interested in film history.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent and detailed explanation of how the movie "Casablanca" came to be filmed -- and win the 1943 Academy Award for Best Picture (among 3 wins and 8 nominations).

It is an almost incredible tale because of the chaos surrounding filming -- and several accidental choices for participants in the making of the movie. Rewrites of the last half of the movie continued almost to the end of filming. The end itself was left hanging for the actors in the movie: would Ilsa Lund stay with the saloon keeper or leave with the Czech rebel?

Even post-production, there were attempts to meddle and change the movie. Warner Brothers' New York executives wanted the ending changed to take advantage of the allied invasion of North Africa in November, 1942. The new ending would have Claude Rains, Humphrey Bogart and extras wearing Free French uniforms on the deck of a freighter off the coast of Casablanca. But Claude Rains had difficulty getting an airline ticket for the filming and David O. Selznick, a competing producer, had seen the movie and sent a telegram to Hal Wallis saying "it would be a terrible mistake to change the ending."

Harmetz does an excellent job in chapters 16 and 17 of explaining how the U.S. government intruded into movie-making and distribution of propaganda about World War II.

One of the best sections of the book explains how the memorable line of the book -- "Round up the usual suspects" -- came to be. And Harmetz also explains the origin of many other famous lines.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

For many years, if asked, I would claim my favorite movie of all time was "The Godfather" but lately I'm not so sure. I find "Casablanca" so compellingly watchable that any time I run across it on television I can't pull myself away. I think if at this point of my life I had to pick a single desert island movie, it would be "Casablanca". It's as near to a perfect movie as can be. It's full of humor, romance, and suspense. It has some of the most memorable lines in movie history, and it has the perfect ending - the cynical hero performing a selfless act for the greater good. He gives up the girl, and his cynicism, to rejoin the fight. And, of course, it has Bogart, my favorite actor this side of Cary Grant, and Ingrid Bergman, the most radiantly beautiful actress ever. She exuded both innocence and sensuality at the same time. She had a perfect face and a perfect voice. When she is on the screen it's impossible to take your eyes off her.

"The Making of Casablanca" is chock full of interesting nuggets. Ingrid Bergman would apparently fall in love with many of her on-screen lovers during filming (though interestingly Bogart was not one of them.) The book claims she had over a dozen affairs with her costars or her directors. But her love only lasted until the filming was complete:

"[S:]he was happiest when the emotions she was feeling on screen could spill over into real life. Bergman's first husband, Petter Lindstrom, told a biographer that his wife worked best when she was in love with her costar or her director. Whether the love was chaste or carnal, it never lasted beyond the last scene. Of his affair with Bergman on Saratoga Trunk, a bemused Gary Cooper told one journalist, 'In my whole life I never had a woman in love with me as Ingrid was. The day after the picture ended, I couldn't get her on the phone.'"

That story made me laugh out loud. The book contains dozens of other interesting and amusing stories about the making of the movie, the studio system and its workings, the actors and their off-screen personalities and peculiarities. Bogart, for instance, was extremely difficult to get to know. While not a primadonna, he was a loner who would retreat to his trailer once a scene was complete. Bergman summed it up: "I kissed him, but I never knew him."

At any rate, if you love the movie this book will entertain you. If you don't love the movie, well, what's wrong with you?

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is packed with information. The author uses Casablanca as a window on how Warner Brothers Studio operated in the forties, which is an interesting concept. It definitely provided me with more insight into the film and the people involved in it. I wanted to rewatch the film to look for people and things that I hadn’t noticed in previous viewings (the chapter about the score was particularly enlightening for me). The weak point was that to present so much information made the book a bit dry reading. There were so many sidebars into events only tangentially related to the making of Casablanca, like the blacklist, that it lacked driving narrative. Also the attempt to cover so much of Hollywood history meant that a lot of information had to be covered fairly quickly, so, at times, the amount of facts being thrown at you was overwhelming and there was no clear authorial voice the pull you through it. It was a worthy read, but I would rate it higher if it focused more on just Casablanca, rather than trying to provide both an in-depth look at the making of the film and a comprehensive history of Hollywood at and around the time the film was made.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides · Rating 3 out of 5]

This did a very good job of explaining the climate in which Casablanca was made: the studio system, the effects of the war on available labor, the Hayes Code, the HUAC hearings. There was also a lot of detailed research on how Casablanca was made. I think it will enhance my understanding of and appreciation for the movie. What I felt was missing, though, was an exploration of whether the movie was a faithful depiction of life in Casablanca during this time.

There was also a bunch of material that felt somewhat extraneous — lots of time devoted to what happened to the various actors and other personnel who appeared in Casablanca after the film. Plus, I could really have done without the various scholarly interpretations of the film. (Why do people take Freudian/Oedipal criticism seriously. Why.)

[Rich Rosell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a Harmetz book in the early 1980s about the making of 'The Wizard of Oz', and that thing was jam-packed with LOTS OF DETAILS on the studio system, writer/director/producer issues, and literally anything you could want to know about the production of that classic.

Ditto for this - her equally robust look back on the creation of what is considered one of the great films of all time. Harmetz pieces a lot of information (emphasis on A LOT) together to form (to me at least) a ridiculously fascinating look at 1940s Hollywood, the creative teams involved, how 'Casablanca' came to be, and how World War II fit into the way things unfolded.

Recommended if you're into that sort of thing.

Here's looking at you, kid....

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been wanting to read this book for some time now, being that the film Casablanca is one of my all time favourite films. The book dives deep into how the film studio system worked, where all the workers from set and costume designers, to script writers, to publicists, to directors, actors and producers were all tied for long contracts to a particular studio, sometimes hired out to other studios in a tit for tat arrangement between to moguls who ran the studios like kings. And many ways they were kings, as the moguls could make or break stars through their control of the gossip columnists who would report what was given them by the moguls, or withhold unflattering news if the moguls demanded so. But I digress. There is much in the this book that sets about how the film was developed from a stage play "Everybody Comes to Rick's" written by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison - the setting, the characters and even some of the important dialogue. Several script writers worked on the film write through to the end of production. The production started filming without the ending having been written as yet. Also explanations of how certain elements came into the story from the film censors of the day: The Hays Production Code, which insisted that Rick and Ilsa's meeting in Paris had to be explained by way of Ilsa's husband had been reported dead and that she had to abandon Rick in Paris after she received news he was alive, not because she loved him, but rather that is what she had to do. The Code was so strict that the 'sanctity of the institution of marriage and the home shall be upheld'. Adultery was to be punished...Obscenity and profanity was banned including such words as nets, nuts, cripes, fanny (yes indeed), Gawd, hell and hold your hat.
The film began production when the war was going badly and was released just shortly after Casablanca fell to Allied forces and was in production when the Battle of Midway victory became a turning point in the Pacific. For all of his faults, it is pointed out how Jack Warner who ran the studio, was a driving force in taking in refugees and giving them work, urging his fellow moguls to do the same. Many of the extras and workers on the sets were refugees themselves, recently arrived in Los Angeles.
I also learned there was an Australia connection in the film: many of the costumes were designed by Orry-Kelly, born in Australia, who was the major costume designer at Warner Bros. from 1932 to 1943.
I may need to see the film again.

[Nathan Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

It does indeed cover the making of _Casablanca_ in minute detail, but it's more than anything a study of how a Warner Bros. film in the Golden Age got made, from start to finish to legacy, so it's quite valuable. And the point being made is really that a lot of these films were just another few weeks at work for most of the people who made them, and that a lot of the art that came out of the studio system was, however meticulously crafted, somewhat incidental in terms of its longevity. Aljean Harmetz, who also wrote a similar book about _The Wizard of Oz_ that's apparently a classic, shows some healthy skepticism about how much genuine expression was possible in the Hays Code era, but she also surmises correctly that the later blockbuster era made it much harder for idiosyncratic voices to make it to mainstream cinema screens in America; what is Warner Bros. as depicted here if not a motley crew of misfits, weirdos, and yeah, anti-fascists? (That last part played a particularly sizable role in the scriptwriting of this particular film.) I do think Harmetz undersells Curtiz's abilities as a filmmaker a bit, though she correctly notes what a master he was of composition. I don't think you make a film like this if you're not a great director, no matter how much input the producer and studio and writers had. I think also she's a bit short-sighted to ignore the contracted directors like Lubitsch and Sturges at Paramount and Capra at Columbia who managed to carve out an auteurist niche despite the tide of the times. But her observations on the decline of American cinema in general do coalesce all too well with my own feelings about it, even if this does get occasionally commingled with a generally conservative view of art and artists that I find a little tiresome. The problem isn't so much that studios forgot how to make art, it's that they always thought of art as a mere get-rich-quick commodity in the first place.

I also don't really think anything here fully captures the rapturous magic of this particular film. But it's a great film specifically because text can't really pare it down.

Favorite story told herein (actually from the set of a subsequent film, not _Casablanca_): Bogart forgetting his lines on the set, getting defensive about it, and finally admitting he was up till 2am partying with the Rat Pack. Been there, buddy!

[Peter Parziale · Rating 5 out of 5]

The film Casablanca succeeds on so many levels that when a critic referred to this book as a source for his analysis, I wanted to learn more. This book did not disappoint, and I simply cannot provide all (many?) of the facts that author Harmetz unearthed. But I'll give my readers some inkling...

The details regarding the relationship between movie magnate Warner and producer Wallis were fascinating. While she was at it, Harmetz gave some insights into the early Hollywood film industry's history and development. After reading about Hal Wallis, I began to see his fingerprints on other films that I love (e.g. The Sea Hawk). And I similarly began to notice director Michael Curtiz's name on films (e.g. The Sea Hawk, White Christmas, King Creole). The interconnectedness of these key players became more apparent in other films that I like, and Harmetz emphasized that. Also, she wrote about the machinations involved with lining up the actors. Bergman was on loan from another studio when the "studio system" controlled the contracts of actors; Henreid was brought aboard following his popularity of Curtiz's Now Voyager role; Veidt's journey from Germany to Britain to the U.S.

While we're considering the big shots, let's not forget about the actors. Harmetz devotes chapters to Bogart, Bergman, Rains, the role players, ... nearly every extra was an immigrant and many were refugees. And also to the music -- the singing of La Marseillaise was heartfelt, the tears were real -- the writing teams (I began to notice Howard Koch and the Epstein brothers in other films), the script changes, etcetera.

Author Harmetz also places the film in its historical context. The timing of the film's release in 1942-43 coming on the heels of the Allied invasion of north Africa, for example, enhanced its popularity. And that the studios had to compromise and combine their resources due to the war, when materials were in short supply.

I hope that I have conveyed the worth of this book. There might be better books about the film, but I don't know of them.

[Ron Welch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very entertaining book about the making of one of the great films of the '40s. The author provides a clear picture of the egos, accidents and luck of timing that made this movie so successful at the time.

Basically, the film accidentally mirrored the attitude of America in transition from isolationism to commitment into WW II through the character of Rick, played so perfectly by Humphrey Bogart. The author discusses how the studio system worked, providing cogently brief biographies of, conflicts among and competing egos of the major figures behind the scenes, from production head Jack Warner (Warner Bros.) to Hal Wallis, director Michael Curtiz and the screenwriters, the Epstein twins and Howard Koch, all of whom received (or should have in Hal Wallis' case) Academy Awards for their work.

Along with biographies of the main actors the author also provides stories and importance of many of the European refugees, many Jewish, who filled Rick's café and who were genuinely crying during the filming of the unforgettable scene of the dueling anthems. She also provides background to how the studios contributed to the war effort generally.

The last chapter using psychological blather to describe the motives of Rick in particular could have been dispensed with. Otherwise, the book made for both an entertaining and provocative read.

[Julien · Rating 4 out of 5]

How do you write a making-of book about one of the greatest films of all time when, famously, nothing chaotic ever happened on set? You write its biography instead.

Aljean Harmetz has crafted a captivating and thoroughly researched work, not just about the making of Casablanca, but about the people who made it happen. From the producer to the set designer, the sound recordist to the costume team, and of course the director and actors, every layer is explored in depth.

The book is filled with insight, sharp detail, and myth-busting. It reads like a page-turner and brings the era and its people vividly to life. A must-read for any Casablanca lover.

——

Comment écrire un livre sur les coulisses d’un film aussi mythique que Casablanca, quand tout s’est déroulé sans drame majeur sur le plateau ? En racontant sa biographie, tout simplement.

Aljean Harmetz signe une œuvre passionnante et méticuleuse, non seulement sur la fabrication du film, mais sur tous ceux qui l’ont façonné. Du producteur au décorateur, du preneur de son à la costumière, sans oublier le réalisateur et les acteurs, tout le monde a droit à son éclairage.

C’est riche, précis, truffé d’anecdotes et de démystifications. Un vrai page-turner, qui rend hommage à l’un des plus grands films de l’histoire. Indispensable pour les fans de Casablanca.

[Katharine Pelican · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this audiobook! I don’t think it's for everyone, but rather for those like me whose love of Casablanca would propel them to listen to 12+ hours about its production.

I went into it expecting to get a “look behind the camera” into how the writers, producers, and actors came together to make the movie, but this book was SO much more than that. The author zooms out, to show how the global events and social climate of the era shaped the making of the film. I loved learning about WWII through through the lens of the film camera and was shocked at the extent to which the war influenced the movie industry. I was also fascinated learning about the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Hollywood studio system in its heyday.

You can tell that the author was exhaustive in her research; however, the book occasionally felt bogged down by minor or tangential details. To me, the overall quality of the book would’ve been richer had some of the minutiae been “left on the cutting room floor”.

I especially I enjoyed listening to this audiobook because it highlighted the fact that even though Casablanca was filmed nearly 80 years ago, it is still so relevant today. Moviegoers in 2021 are just as likely to relate to the movie's theme of sacrifice and feel Rick's same hopeful cynicism as they did in the 1943. This book was packed with nostalgia, and reminded me why Casablanca lives on as a great American classic, even "as time goes by".

[Noah Goats · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Casablanca and I enjoyed Harmetz's detailed exploration of the making of the film. He tackles seemingly every aspect of the film's creation and uses Casablanca as a case study to explore how WWII affected filmmaking in America.

There is a chapter in the book discussing how many of the actors in the film, particularly those in small roles playing desperate refugees trying to escape Casablanca, actually were refugees from Hitler's war (Conrad Veidt, who played the film's Nazi officer, was also a refugee). One of the actors he mentions is S.Z. Sakall, who was a Hungarian Jew who had been a huge star in both Hungary and Germany before he fled for America where he spent the rest of his career playing small but usually amusing parts. Right after reading that chapter I happened to re-watch The Devil and Miss Jones (which is great) and there Sakall was, in a small and amusing role that he absolutely crushed. I enjoyed knowing a bit more about him.

[Ed Mckeon · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the 75th anniversary of it's release, I went back and read the book written to celebrate the 50th anniversary. Like many, I've been a fan of Casablanca from the first viewing (though I realized that the first Bogart film I saw was the Caine Mutiny). Harmetz does a great job revealing production details, stories about the director, producer, stars, writers and studio, and recounting the milieu (World War II, the studio system, refugee immigration). Harmetz lets us see that Casablanca was a film where the stars (pun intended) aligned - Warner, Wallis, Bogart, Bergman, Koch and the Epsteins. It's a film that has become legendary despite the fact that the final lines were crafted after principal shooting was complete. I look forward to an evening soon when I can sit down and watch the magic happen again with a more complete knowledge of how that magic was made.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, first published in 1992 as Round Up the Usual Suspects, is an exhaustive and well-researched exploration of a movie that has endured and is still beloved almost 80 years later.

There are some amazing anecdotes here, especially because so many of the original participants were still alive to be interviewed by the writer when it was first published. A chronicle of the old movie studio system and how they handled the war years is also fascinating.

The concluding chapter was intriguing. Harmetz ties together all the reasons the movie is still loved and includes the rather dubious psychological perspectives that have been offered. (Oedipal? Latent homosexuality? Just like Rick Blaine, I remain skeptical.)

This is a must-read for any fan of Bogart, the movie, or the "Golden Age" of Hollywood.

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the subtitle, this book is more about the making of the making of Casablanca than it is about the actual making of the film. Very few pages describe anything actually happening on set. Instead there are thematic chapters focusing on the stars, the producer, the director, the script, the extras (many of whom had indeed escaped from central Europe), the music, the Oscars, and so on and so on. Above all this is a movie about the studio system (Warner Bros., in this case). Studios were always mixing and matching their actors, their directors, and their writers in an never-ending stream of decent films. It's no surprise that some cream would rise to the top. This movie is definitely that.

The author seems to have written a similar book on the Wizard of Oz. I might give that a try too--because I'm interested in the MGM machine, not the film!

[Joe Barlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

This excellent, exhaustive look at the creation of one of America's greatest films stumbles badly in its unnecessary final chapter. That's when the author, who had been writing a marvelous fact-based book, turns to a subjective exploration of what the various themes mean: was there a homosexual relationship between Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains' characters? Is Ilsa an appropriate icon in the age of feminism? etc.

While these are questions worth exploring, they have no place in this book, which purports to be about the *making* of the film. It's a jarring change in tone from what came before. Spin the last chapter off into its own book, and remove it from THIS book, and you're left with an absolutely perfect chronicle of how Hollywood accidentally created a masterpiece.

[Dennis Sisterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough account not only of the making of the film but with backgrounds on all the actors and everyone else involved, and the context, from the culture at Warner Brothers to the politics and events of the wider world, especially the timing of the film's creation and release, with the script being bought the same week as Pearl Harbor and the film being released shortly after the allied liberation of the real Casablanca.
I watched the film both before and after reading this and it certainly brought an added dimension to it. It's a dense read though; every paragraph seems to have a lot to take in, making it feel longer than its 360 pages.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite book I have read so far this year. I did not expect that. This book had a far larger scope then I anticipated when I first picked it up. Casablanca is one of my favorite movies and I started this book hoping that it would give me a few bits of trivia about the movie, but what I got was a really interesting examination of the old Hollywood studio system, how the studios interacted with the military during the second world war, an examination of censorship during the war, a look at blacklisting and anti-communism in Hollywood, a sympathetic portrayal and tons of details about the lives of almost every person involved with the making of Casablanca.

Casablanca is an accidental masterpiece. So much of what makes the film great only happened by happenstance. For example, the film's music composer hated "As Time Goes Bye" and wanted to change it. Yet he couldn't because at the time a film wasn't scored until after filming was done and Ingrid Bergman had already had her hair cut short for her next role (For Whom the Bell Tolls) and couldn't do the re-shoots required to make it possible to change the them song. Only a few of the producers even thought they had a masterpiece on their hands when the film was finished. I could go on and on about how fascinating this book is. I really recommend it not only for someone who is a fan of Casablanca but for anyone interested in learning more about how Hollywood operated and films were made and the politics during the Second World War.

[Ray Savarda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a fan of Film Noir, this was a nice look back at the making of the film, all the players, the behind the scenes machinations necessary to get a film made back then.
Interesting to hear about how different it was when the studios "owned" the stars, compared to now, when the stars are independent and represented by agents, and they are so expensive.
And the outsized influence of the studio heads back then.