What Should’ve Won That Could’ve Won: 1943

The Year: 1943

What the Nominees Were: Casablanca, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Heaven Can Wait, The Human Comedy, In Which We Serve, Madame Curie, The More the Merrier, The Ox-Bow Incident, The Song of Bernadette, Watch on the Rhine
Other Movies That Should Have Been Considered: One of Hitchcock’s great masterpieces, Shadow of a Doubt

What Should’ve Won and Did Win: Casablanca
How Hard Was the Decision: Surprisingly hard, because I really love Shadow of a Doubt, but c’mon, you can’t dethrone Casablanca. I seriously considered moving Casablanca back to 1942 (when it was actually released) to free this spot up for Hitchcock, but I decided that would be too counterfactual.

Director: Michael Curtiz
Writers: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch, based on the play “Everybody Comes to Rick’s” by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison
Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre

The Story: Cynical American Rick Blaine runs a nightclub in Nazi-occupied Morocco but comes into possession of some letters of transit that could get him back home. Just then, who should show up but his old lover Ilsa, now married to a resistance leader. Rick rediscovers his patriotism and reluctantly sends the lovers off together.

Any Nominations or Wins: It won Picture, Director and Screenplay, and lost for Actor, Supporting Actor for Rains, Cinematography, Editing and Scoring.

Why It Won:

1. The thing you always have to remind yourself of when watching movies made during the war is that they had no idea who was going to win the war. By the time the movie was released, then the ominous questions, “Can you imagine us in London?” and “How about New York?” might not be so speculative. The tremendous courage that it takes to make a movie like this cannot be overstated.
   
2. You might have noticed that, despite having this legendary movie on their resume, those are not legendary screenwriters, and indeed this movie was written by the seat of its pants, constantly being rewritten on set, buried in notes from producer Hal Wallis. So how on earth did it turn out so perfect? For once, the studio notes were spot-on, and the malleable screenwriters were right to take them. A strange alchemy resulted, the likes of which would rarely be seen again.
3. This movie is a great example of the power of reversible behavior to craft a great character. Before we ever meet Rick, we hear two times that he never drinks with his customers under any circumstances. When we meet him, we see him refuse again. Then Ilsa comes in and he instantly breaks his rule, shocking everyone. This sets us up for the bigger reversal: He has twice stated “I stick my neck out for no one” but in the end he ends up saying, “It doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.”
   
   
   
4. It’s also a great example of writing a strong personality: Bogart’s default argument tactic is just to blandly lie. Just one example: Captain Renault asks, “What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?” Rick responds, “My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.” “The waters? What waters? We're in the desert.” “I was misinformed.” It’s a slap in the face to be lied to so blatantly, but Renault is simply amused.
5. (I should point out that Citizen Kane spoiled me, and now I watch every other movie and ask “Where are the ceilings??”)

Ah, 1943: