Casablanca
When Burnett and Alison failed to find a Broadway producer, they sold the play to Warner Brothers for $20,000, considered a record for an unproduced play, especially by two unknown writers. A story analyst had read it in manuscript in New York, and recommended it for “sophisticated hokum.”
Warner Brothers gave the script for adaptation first to the screenwriter Casey Robinson, who worked on the romantic pairing of Rick and Ilse; the twin brothers Julius and Philip Epstein worked on the overall structure and dialogue, and Howard Koch worked on the politics. Only Koch was with the project during filming, when he continued to write new dialog and scenes. The title was changed to Casablanca.
The inclusion of "As Time Goes By" came from Burnett and Alison's play. The song, from 1931, had been Burnett's favorite when he was a student at Cornell. "As Time Goes By," written by Herman Hupfeld, was first performed by Frances Williams in the musical comedy, Everybody's Welcome, which played on Broadway from October 1931 to February 1932.
Character comparison in Play v. Film
| Name in Play | Name in Film | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Rick Blaine | Rick Blaine | |
| Lois Meredith | Ilsa Lund | changed nationality (USA-> Norway) |
| Luis Rinaldo | Louis Renault | |
| The 'Rabbit' | Sam | |
| Victor Laszlo | Victor Laszlo | |
| Senor Martinez | Signor Ferrari | nationality (changed to Italian) |
| Guillermo Ugarte | Ugarte | nationality (changed to Italian) |
Read more about this topic: Everybody Comes To Rick's