26 November: Casablanca

On this date in 1942, the movie Casablanca premièred in New York. Here are ten things you might not know about this classic film.

1. The film was based on a play called Everybody Comes to Rick's by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison, which, at the time the film was made, had never been produced. When Warner Brothers offered them $20,000 for the rights to the story and the characters they jumped at it, only to change their minds 40 years later and try to sue Warner Brothers to get their characters back. They failed, but Warner Brothers did give them more money ($100,000 each).
2. They also got the right to produce their play, Everybody Comes to Rick's, which was produced in 1991 in London, but closed after a month. Two TV series in 1955 and 1983 based on the film fared little better.
3. Casablanca has spawned more movie quotes than any other film. The AFI's movie quotes list, compiled in 2005, has six quotes from the film: "Here's looking at you, kid"; "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship"; "Round up the usual suspects"; "We'll always have Paris"; "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world she walks into mine" and "Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By". The words "Play it again, Sam" are not uttered by any character at any point in the film.
4. Before the film was released there were a number of rumours circulating about the cast and crew, which weren't true. Ingrid Bergman was teachinig Humphrey Bogart to speak Swedish; Paul Henreid had adopted to little girls who were refugees from Europe; and at one point it was rumoured that Ronald Reagan was going to play Rick.
5. Humphrey Bogart, at 5'8", was two inches shorter than his co-star, Ingrid Bergman. Hence he had to film several scenes standing on boxes or sitting on cushions so he'd appear taller.
6. Sam isn't actually playing the Piano. The actor who played him, Dooley Wilson, was a drummer, not a pianist. The music in the film was recorded by someone else, and there was someone in Dooley's line of sight who could play and was making the hand movements so Dooley could copy them and look like he was really playing.
7. A number of people in the film, some of the actors playing Nazi soldiers, and many of the extras, had escaped persecution in Nazi Germany in real life.
8. The idea of a sequel or a remake have been pitched on several occasions but none have been made. One of these was by Madonna, who wanted to re-make Casablanca with herself as Ilsa and Ashton Kutcher as Rick. Every studio she pitched it to turned her down on the grounds that "That film is deemed untouchable."
9. The airport scene was filmed on a sound stage using a small cardboard cutout of a plane, with small people playing the crew preparing for take-off. This was because World War II was still going on at the time and so filming at an actual airport at night wasn't allowed.
10. Bergman and Bogart rarely spoke to one another in real life. The only time they really spoke off screen was at a lunch with Geraldine Fitzgerald when they discussed how they could get out of making the film because they didn't like the dialogue or the plot. Their on-screen chemistry, however, was so convincing that Bogart's wife Mayo Methot thought they were having an affair and several times went to Bogart's dressing room and caused a scene, putting Bogart in a bad mood when he arrived on set.

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Golden Thread

Terry Kennedy is inexplicably and inexorably drawn to the small town of Fiveswood as a place to live and work after university. He is sure he has never visited the town before, but when he arrives there, it seems oddly familiar.

Fiveswood has a rich and intriguing history. Local legends speak of giants, angels, wolves, a local Robin Hood, but most of all, a knight in golden armour. Fiveswood's history also has a dark side - mysterious deaths blamed on the plague, a ghostly black panther, and a landslide which buried the smugglers' caves.

Terry buys an apartment in The Heights, a house which has been empty for decades, since the previous owner disappeared. Now he has finally been declared dead, developers have moved in and turned it into six flats. Terry has the odd feeling he has lived in this enigmatic house before. But that is not all. Since childhood, Terry has had recurring, disturbing dreams which have been increasing in frequency so that now, he has them almost every night. To his dismay, the people from his nightmares are his new neighbours.

Except, that is, for Eleanor Millbrook. She is refreshingly unfamiliar. After Terry saves her from a mysterious attacker, they become close. However, Terry's nightmares encroach more and more on his waking life, until they lead him to a devastating discovery about who he really is.

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