History Headscratchers / Casablanca

** This troper always assumed he'd been deep undercover for the Resistance from the start; he plays [[LightNovel/{{Slayers}} Xellos to everyone's Lina]] throughout the story because cynicism is the easiest disguise for idealism (see also: Rick). And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the WildMassGuessing page.

** According to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, ''nobody'' knew how the film would end till a few days before shooting -- the original play ends with Rick ushering Laszlo and Ilsa out of the cafe on their way to the airport, and then waiting for the Nazis who are about to come in to arrest everybody. Not even Bogie, Bergman, Heinreid, Raines and Veidt knew the ending till they got the script pages on the day of shooting. Add in to the fact that Operation Torch had occurred during filming (the producers had planned a scene after the ending we know showing Rick and Louis in a invasion boat about to fight the Nazis, but Claude Raines wasn't available and they decided the scene would be pointless anyway), and you see why they had to go ahead and give Renault his great HeelFaceTurn.

** Getting to Portugal is only the first step. Sure, they all could have gotten on the plane, but that would leave two of the three men without appropriate papers for where they were when they got off. And it would be much more difficult to get forged papers in Portugal than it would be in Casablanca, which was under a comparatively loose rein by the Nazis.

** Furthermore, while I've no doubt that Strasser would very much ''like'' to just stitch Laszlo up on some trumped up false charges and get him out of the way, the situation is pretty touchy. He's popular and well-liked, there's clearly a very powerful undercurrent of pro-resistance, anti-Vichy / Nazi sentiment among the populace of Casablanca, and remember that Casablanca (as with the rest of Morocco / Vichy) is officially neutral; he's a wanted man in German-occupied territory, but while he's in Casablanca technically Laszlo has as much right to be freely walking around there as Strasser does as long as he obeys the law. Overplaying their hand and arresting Laszlo on charges that are too-obviously trumped up and falsified risks risks backfiring on them and creating a civil unrest that would at least take men and resources to put down, and at worst might create an unstable situation that the Allies would no doubt be all-too-willing to exploit to cause trouble for the Axis Powers.

** Furthermore, while I've no doubt that Strasser would very much ''like'' to just stitch Laszlo up on some trumped up false charges and get him out of the way, the situation is pretty touchy. He's popular and well-liked, there's clearly a very powerful undercurrent of pro-resistance, anti-Vichy / Nazi sentiment among the populace of Casablanca, and remember that Casablanca (as with the rest of Morocco / Vichy) is officially neutral; he's a wanted man in German-occupied territory, but while he's in Casablanca technically Laszlo has as much right to be freely walking around there as Strasser does as long as he obeys the law. Overplaying their hand and arresting Laszlo on charges that are too-obviously trumped up and falsified risks risks backfiring on them and creating a civil unrest that would at least take men and resources to put down, and at worst might create an unstable situation that the Allies would no doubt be all-too-willing to exploit to cause trouble for the Axis Powers.

*** Regarding the dialogue, It's almost certainly "Weygand" -- the letters of transit, when finally seen late in the film (Rick takes them out and inspects them in a quiet scene just prior to arriving at the airport), are marked with "Etat Francais" (French State), the legal name of Vichy France. There's no way Vichy would have a (to them) traitor general signing their official documents.

** It's almost certainly "Weygand" -- the letters of transit, when finally seen late in the film, are marked with "Etat Francais" (French State), the legal name of Vichy France.

* There's a lot of discussion I've read about why Major Strasser has some but not a lot of authority in Casablanca. Many people refer Casablanca as Vichy, but in the film it's said multiple times that Casablanca is "Unoccupied France". What exactly does that mean? It's not Free France as people have to meet in secret and Germans are welcome to come and go. But it's not Vichy either since it's said not to be and Strasser can't just walk in and run the show. There's also debate over whether Lorry says "DeGaul" or "Weygand". If this is Unoccupied France, then the first makes sense.

** The Germans never actually invaded Morocco (most of the North African campaign was centred around Libya and Egypt until the Allies invaded Morocco in 1942). Morocco, and by extension Casablanca, was under the control of the Vichy French government, since it was a French colony and the Vichy government claimed jurisdiction over international French possessions, and Vichy France was technically independent from direct German control until late 1942 (ironically just after the Allied invasion of Morocco). So technically Strasser ''isn't'' in charge, Louis is. Of course, in practice Strasser can push Louis around to a certain degree because Louis is taking orders from his bosses in France, who are in turn pretty much being bossed around by the Germans, but he still has to officially defer to Louis because he has no official power in Casablanca and there's no Germany military presence backing him up, so he can't throw his weight too much and still has to put up an official facade of deference to Louis' authority. He can't just order Laszlo kidnapped or arrested or executed because officially he's not actually in charge and has no agents directly under his control to obey such order. Furthermore, in practice Casablanca is ''also'' a long way from Vichy or Berlin, Louis is clearly corrupt, and if Strasser crosses the line too far there's little stopping Louis from having him filled with lead and his death blamed on "the usual suspects" (as eventually happens), so Strasser has less direct authority than he'd perhaps like in the situation.
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** The Germans never actually invaded Morocco (most of the North African campaign was centred around Libya and Egypt until the Allies invaded Morocco in 1942). Casablanca was under the control of the Vichy French government, since it was a French colony and the Vichy government claimed jurisdiction over international French possessions, and Vichy France was technically independent from direct German control until late 1942 (ironically just after the Allied invasion of Morocco). So technically Strasser ''isn't'' in charge, Louis is. Of course, in practice Strasser can push Louis around to a certain degree because Louis is taking orders from his bosses in France, who are in turn pretty much being bossed around by the Germans, but he still has to officially defer to Louis because he has no official power in Casablanca and there's no Germany military presence backing him up, so he can't throw his weight too much and still has to put up an official facade of deference to Louis' authority. He can't just order Laszlo kidnapped or arrested or executed because officially he's not actually in charge and has no agents directly under his control to obey such order. Furthermore, in practice Casablanca is ''also'' a long way from Vichy or Berlin, Louis is clearly corrupt, and if Strasser crosses the line too far there's little stopping Louis from having him filled with lead and his death blamed on "the usual suspects" (as eventually happens), so Strasser has less direct authority than he'd perhaps like in the situation.

** The Germans never actually invaded Morocco (most of the North African campaign was centred around Libya and Egypt until the Allies invaded Morocco in 1942). Casablanca was under the control of the Vichy French government, since it was a French colony and the Vichy government claimed jurisdiction over international French possessions, and Vichy France was technically independent from direct German control until late 1942 (ironically just after the Allied invasion of Morocco). So technically Strasser ''isn't'' in charge, Louis is. Of course, in practice Strasser can push Louis around to a certain degree because Louis is taking orders from his bosses in France, who are in turn pretty much being bossed around by the Germans, but he still has to officially defer to Louis because he has no official power in Casablanca and there's no Germany military presence backing him up, so he can't throw his weight too much and still has to put up an official facade of deference to Louis' authority. He can't just order Laszlo kidnapped or arrested or executed because officially he's not actually in charge and has no agents directly under his control to obey such orders, and in practice Casablanca is ''also'' a long way from Vichy or Berlin, so he has less direct authority than he'd perhaps like in the situation.

** It's not Vichy France in the sense that it's not France at all - it's a nominally independent kingdom of Morocco. The real power, however, was held by Vichy government. And "unoccupied France" at the time was an official term for Vichy France - that is, roughly speaking, southern part of the country - since, unlike in the north, there were no German troops stationed Vichy-controlled territory until the very time the film was released.

** It's not Vichy France in the sense that it's not France at all - it's a nominally independent kingdom of Morocco. The real power, however, was held by Vichy government. And "unoccupied France" is Vichy France, since there were no German troops stationed in its territory until the very time the film was released.

*** So to add one more, this time a bit Meta: Vichy government in North Africa never felt really secure in the first place. This, in fact, was the very reason why just a few days prior to the film's release it was almost effortlessly defeated by the Allies in the course of Operation Torch, with lots of former collaborators defecting to Free French forces. And this is December 1941 already. Rick may pathetically declare that America is still asleep, but lots of people already sensed that US entry into the war is only a matter of time really - and with Battle of Britain lost by Nazis, it was becoming more and more obvious that Morocco was strategically vulnerable to the Allied attack, regardless of possible German successes in the East. So we can say that Renault was just more insightful (by virtue of his position at the very least) than your average Vichy guy.

** It's not Vichy France in the sense that it's not France at all - it's a technically independent kingdom of Morocco. The real power, however, was held by Vichy government.

*** So to add one more, this time a bit Meta: Vichy government in North Africa never felt really secure in the first place. This, in fact, was the very reason why just a few days prior to the film's release it was almost effortlessly defeated by the Allies in the course of Operation Torch, with lots of former collaborators defecting to Free French forces. So we can say that Renault was just a little bit more insightful (by virtue of his position at the very least) than your average Vichy guy.

*** So to add one more, this time a bit Meta: Vichy government in North Africa never felt really secure in the first place. This, in fact, was the very reason why just a few days prior to the film's release it was almost effortlessly defeated by the Allies in the course of Operation Torch, with lots of former collaborators defecting to Free French forces. So we can say that Renault was just a little bit more insightful (by virtue of his poition at the very least) than your average Vichy guy.