Casablanca (1943): trivia & fun facts

Fun facts

• In the final budget for the film, the Epsteins were paid $30,416, (equivalent to $466,755 in 2025) and Koch earned $4,200 (equivalent to $65,346 in 2025).
• Brothers Julius and Philip G. Epstein were initially assigned to write the script.
• The piano Sam "plays" in Rick's Café Américain, put up for auction with other film memorabilia by Turner Classic Movies at Bonhams in New York on November 24, 2014, sold for $3.4 million.
• On March 19, 1943, the film was banned in Ireland for infringing on the Emergency Powers Order preserving wartime neutrality, by portraying Vichy France and Nazi Germany in a "sinister light".
• A version with only one scene cut was passed on July 16, 1974; Irish national broadcaster RTÉ inquired about showing the film on TV, but found it still required a dialogue cut to Ilsa expressing her love for Rick.
• Almost forty years later, I still haven't recovered from the shock.
• The original play was inspired by a trip to Europe made by Murray Burnett and his wife in 1938, during which they visited Vienna shortly after the Anschluss and were affected by the antisemitism they saw.
• In a telegram to film editor Owen Marks on August 7, 1942, Wallis suggested two possible final lines of dialogue for Rick: "Louis, I might have known you'd mix your patriotism with a little larceny" or "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship".
• Wallis's first choice for director was William Wyler, but he was unavailable, so Wallis turned to his close friend Michael Curtiz.
• In 1997, almost 55 years after the film's premiere, Turner Entertainment in collaboration with Rhino Records issued the film's first original soundtrack album for release on compact disc, including original songs and music, spoken dialogue, and alternate takes.
• Warner Bros. story editor Irene Diamond convinced producer Hal B. Wallis to purchase the film rights to the play in January 1942.
• Originally, the opposing piece for this iconic sequence was to be the "Horst-Wessel-Lied", a Nazi anthem, but this was still under international copyright in non-Allied countries.
• Dooley Wilson, who played Sam, was a drummer, not a pianist, so his piano playing was performed by Jean Plummer.
• In 1984, MGM/UA hired Color Systems Technology to colorize the film for $180,000.
• When Ted Turner of Turner Broadcasting System purchased MGM/UA's film library two years later, he canceled the request, before contracting American Film Technologies (AFT) in 1988.

Source: Wikipedia

Play 10 questions. Test yourself on Casablanca and see how everyone else answered.