10 Great Screenplays: #1 Casablanca (1942)

For the final and crowning entry in my list of top screenplays I have no choice but to throw in the classic cop-out in this field--Casablanca. It is the definitive Humphrey Bogart film and could even be called the definitive Pre to Early-WWII American movie. Everything fits perfectly into place and waltzed into the higher eschelons of filmmaking.

Why is Sam playing that again?

The screenplay, written by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch and based on an unproduced play called Everybody Comes to Rick's, involves Nazis, refugees, and a bar owner who wants nothing but to stay out of the way. This owner, an American named Rick, is however thrown quickly into the fray by a conniving crook who gives him ownership of two very important documents, letters of transit that will allow any of the numerous refugees in Casablanca to leave behind the Nazi controlled city without being contested. Everyone wants those letters, except Rick, and they are willing to do whatever it takes to get them.

One pair of pursuers, a couple, walk into the bar one night. The man, Victor Laszlo, is wanted by the Nazis as he is the head of a resistance movement who has escaped their grasp various times. His wife, Ilsa, proves to be more interesting to Rick though. He has a past with her, a romantic fling in Paris that he once thought was the real thing. This stirs up many painful memories for Rick, ones he thought he had killed and buried deep inside him.

Why is a woman so hard to forget?

Eventually, as the Nazis zero in on Rick and close him down for allowing Laszlo to incite an open display of anti-Nazism, Ilsa is able to crack Rick's hardened defenses. They are able to find at least a little of what they had in Paris, forcind Rick into a very difficult position. How to use the letters? For himself or for the greater good of everyone involved? The answer, as many of you know, produces a legendary ending. One of the best ever committed to film.

Now, for some interesting and juicy details regarding the screenplay. Apparently, activity on the set of Casablanca called for the writers to basically write scenes as they were filming. That is why, if you want to read the thing, it lacks any of the true elements regarding a screenplay (The exact screenplay has never truly been reproduced, just estimated). Also, according to Julius Epstein, the ending was ruined, altered by the producers and directors. He said there was one line that would have tied everything together beautifully, but it was not to be. In spite of these difficulties and unwanted changes, the result is nothing short of brilliant. It is every screenwriter's dream: dramatic, carries importance, ironic, and has a solid share of laughter. A masterpiece of a mixture more than deserving of its reverential place as the best screenplay that has yet been written.

The beginning of a beautiful friendship and the end of a wonderful film.