Casablanca: The History behind the Movie
"With the coming of the Second World War, many eyes in imprisoned Europe turned hopefully or desperately to the freedom of the Americas. Lisbon became the great embarkation point, but not everyone could get to Lisbon directly, and so a turtuous, round about refugee trail sprang up. Paris to Marsialles, across the mediteranian to Oran, then by train, or auto, or foot across the rim of Africa to Casablanca in French Morocco. Here, the fortunate ones, through money or influence or luck, might obtain exit visas and scurry to Lisbon and from Lisbon to the New World. But the others wait in Casablanca and wait and wait and wait..."
Warner Brothers read the script for Casablanca on the same day that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. By the time filming began on the movie Casablanca on May 25, 1942, the U.S. was less than sucessful on both fronts. They had just taken a beating from the Japanese, although they gave it right back at the battle of Midway. In Europe, the combined American and British forces fought night and day to keep England - it was their only chance to be with in range to bomb Axis troops in France and, later, Germany. On November 8, 1942, the Allies invaded North Africa. Their victory was the first against the Nazis and therefore recieved lots of press. On November 26, less than 20 days later, Casablanca opened. Only fate could have planned better timing. Audiences flocked to see a movie that seemed to them have been filmed in just days. If someone had asked the average American two months ago where Casablanca, Morocco was, they probably wouldn't have known. But, Casablanca soon joined the long string of cities throughout the world that were front page news during WWII - places like Anzio, Normandy, Iwo Jima.
Like many other movies that were being churned out of Hollywood during the war, Casablanca was a little bit of a propaganda film. The original play was lacking much of the political view point that the movie emphasized. Names were changed so that all the "bad guys" were obviously Axis, and all the "good guys" were Allied.
Historically, Casablanca's plot is not without flaws, although, most of these are probably due to the need to contrive a few plot lines to pass through the censors unscrupulous eyes. The movie is set in December of 1941, the same month that the U.S. dove into World War II, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. It's implied that the Americans have already joined the war effort, although that is not perfectly clear, because if America had already declared war on Germany (which Roosevelt did on December 8th, 1941), Rick would have been an enemy of Germany, and could have been arrested as a traitor or spy simply for being there.
Ticket to Freedom or Bad Plot Device? The facts about the 2 exit visas seem to have as many holes as Major Strasser's dead body. The exit visas were not only signed by a leader that was no longer in power, but there was no such thing as a visa which guaranteed free passage during Hitler's Reich. The Nazi's sent millions to their death. Why would they let a little piece of paper stop them from killing Victor and Ilsa?