Recently the American Film Institute in Hollywood conducted a poll for the most popular romantic movie of all time. The movie, which won the first place, was the all time favorite of moviegoers around the world, Casablanca (1943). A memorable milestone movie from the Mecca of Cinema, Hollywood, it was not only a major box-office success but also critically acclaimed winning many awards including the prestigious Oscars (for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay) Whenever a list is made out by a movie magazine about the ten popular films, Casablanca always finds a place almost at the top of the list. Such is the popularity, which has not waned even after sixty long years.

The back-story of its making is interesting.

It reveals the tensions and troubles, stress and struggles, pain and hurt, frustration and feuds in any celluloid creation that one witnessed in Hollywood during its Golden Age. Indeed an excellent book has been written about its making by Aljean Harmetz titled, Round Up The Usual Suspects (The title is one of the many immortal lines of dialogue of the movie.)

In 1938, teacher and playwright, Murray Burnett and his wife visited Europe on holiday when they stopped over in Vienna. Hitler and his men had already made inroads in the city and Burnett saw the growth of Nazism that threatened to destroy mankind and more. Fleeing the city the couple moved fast to France where they went to a nightclub in a small French town. The crowd consisted of men and women of many nations, Germans, French, and refugees seeking to escape the rising scourge of Hitler. And an African-American (then called ‘black’) pianist played jazz music for the motley crowd of patrons. The setting, the people, and the ‘ black’ pianist and all stirred the creative juices of Burnett and he told his wife that it was an excellent backdrop for a play!

Back home he discussed it with his collaborator Joan Alison and early in 1940 the two wrote a play named Everybody Comes to Rick’s. Attempts to produce the play in Broadway, New York failed and the play was offered to Warner Brothers. It found its way to the desk of Hal Wallis who was then a producer at Warners. Though Jack Warner did not react well Wallis bought it for Warners for $20,000, a fortune in early 1940’s!

Unlike the average Hollywood film of the Golden Age of American Cinema Casablanca was being shot without the completed script which was unusual in Hollywood. The director Mike Curtiz had no idea what the scenes would be on a particular day of shooting for the script was being written and the sheets handed over to the director on the set! Neither the director, nor the lead stars Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman had any idea what they were to shoot!

No one knew how the story would end because until the last scenes were shot the writers Epstein Brothers and Howard Koch were still working on the scenes. Indeed it is a matter of wonder that the movie got made at all and yet it went on to create movie history in many ways.

Casablanca, the screen adaptation of the unpublished and unproduced play, Everybody Comes To Rick's had the noted Hungary-born filmmaker Mike Curtiz as its director. The action takes place in a cafe in Casablanca during the early days of the Second World War (1939- 1945,) with America entering the war in December 1941. The cafe which combines a bar and gambling wheel is owned by Ricks (Humphrey Bogart), a tough and seemingly unsentimental guy. He is surprised when his former sweetheart of his happier days in Paris, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) enters this cafe after standing him down in Paris. She had been married when Rick fell in love with her in Paris. She was under the impression that the Germans had killed her husband in prison but in fact he had escaped the Gestapo.

On the day she and Rick were to leave Paris she came to know about her husband being alive and she met him. That's why she did not turn up at the railway station and unaware of it all Rick turns bitter and cynical. Rick has with him two passports, which will enable two persons to get out of Casablanca to freedom in America. Into this unusual love triangle and number of interesting elements were well woven by the screenwriters who worked from day-to-day on the script.