The ‘Casablanca’ sequel Humphrey Bogart wanted to make
Michael Curtiz released Casablanca in 1942. The movie was widely regarded as his masterpiece and one of the most iconic wartime movies to grace the screens. Starring the film noir icons Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in roles that consolidated their lofty position in Hollywood, Casablanca stands out as a perfect slice of cinema that demands no rebranding or sequel.
Set against the backdrop of World War II, Casablanca unfurled a gripping tale of romance and moral consternation in the Moroccan city of Casablanca, a haven for refugees and spies in 1941. Bogart excels as the American expatriate Rick Blaine, who must decide between continuing to romance Bergman’s Ilsa Lund and risking life and limb to help her husband escape occupied Casablanca to continue his fight against the Nazis.
With the story set in 1941, Curtiz rushed the movie to completion in November 1942 to coincide with the Allied invasion of North Africa several weeks before. The timing proved successful, boosting morale for the allies and lining the pockets of those involved in the project. A cherry on top came the following year when Casablanca was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning three.
Despite his nomination for ‘Best Actor’, Bogart lost out to James Cagney, who took home an Oscar for his role in Yankee Doodle Dandy. Perhaps encouraged by the success of Casablanca and his near miss at the Academy Awards, Bogart gave his full support to a sequel planned by Warner Bros in 1943.
Blaine famously tells Captain Louis Renault at the end of Casablanca, “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” This line is mildly suggestive of a future, but whether this would grace the audience’s eyes or not was for the Hollywood money printers to decide. Most parties rallying for artistic integrity would naturally err on the side of imagination, but Frederick Stephani, the screenwriter and director behind Flash Gordon, saw green.
Stephani’s proposed sequel, named Brazzaville, after the Free French city to which Claude Rains’s Captain Renault suggests the pair travel in the final scene of Casablanca, was announced in 1943 with Bogart and Sidney Greenstreet confirmed to make a return to the cast.
Picking up where Casablanca left off, Brazzaville would reveal that Captain Renault and Blaine had been secret agents working for the allied forces all along before seeing Blaine and Lund reunite in a Hollywood-friendly ‘Happily Ever After’. Fortunately, Bergman saw the sterile frivolity of such a continuation and distanced herself from the project.
Without the leading lady on board, Warner Bros panned Stephani’s proposal, leaving Casablanca in the purity of isolation. Meanwhile, Bogart reunited with Curitz to make another wartime drama, Passage To Marseille.
Watch the trailer for Casablanca below.
