Capitalizing on Casablanca

Flashbacks are considered to be cheap gimmicks in screenwriting. In modern movies there the technique is rarely applied. But in the movies of classic Hollywood, the flashback was an effective storytelling technique. One that some writers and producers fell too much in love with. A movie that employs the flashback to death is Passage to Marseille (1944).

The story begins with Claude Rains showing a group of English reporters around the English countryside. Or at least what looks like the English countryside during the day. At night all the livestock, hay and shrubbery is moved to create a miniature airbase in which Free French fighters fly missions to defeat the Nazis. Of course the reporters want to know how this all started and who is involved. So Rains starts off in flashback.

We are taken to a passenger ship in which Rains is traveling. Another traveler on the ship is the Pro-Vichy Major Duval, played by Sydney Greenstreet. On the way the ship picks up five convicts who have escaped from the French prison colony at Cayenne. Of course everyone knows they are dangerous criminals and Greenstreet is opposed to allowing them on. Rains says they should listen to the stories of the prisoners and if they are alright then they should be kept on.

So we go to another flashback. Each prisoner gets his story told. We learn that all the prisoners have special skills and because of those special skills they were able to escape the colony.

The star of the movie is Humphrey Bogart, so his story is told in the most detail. It is also told in flashback, but not by Bogie himself. It is the Peter Lorre character, Marius, who does the honors. We learn that Bogie ran a small newspaper that was anti-Nazi. When the Nazi’s invaded France the Vichy government cracked down on all opposition. So the paper run by Bogie was shut down and Bogie was framed for murder. He was sent to the prison colony at Cayenne. He had been well known in Paris and was well respected in the colony.

As we return from this flashback we are back on the ship. The ship is raided from the air by German planes. Of course Greenstreet is happy about this, but Bogie and friends come to the rescue of the ship. They shoot down the Nazi plane and Greenstreet. Everything seems great as we return to the present and Rains says the flyers are due to land soon.

When the reporters arrive, every plane has come in except for Bogie’s. The plane has been shot at and labors to the ground. There the pilot gets out, but not Bogie. Bogie has died and everyone becomes sad. The movie ends with Rains giving a patriotic eulogy.

What is more interesting than this movie is the story behind it. Of course having Claude Rains, Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre in the movie mean that Warner Brothers wanted to capture the chemistry of Casablanca (1942). Hal B. Wallis was brought in to produce. Michael Curtiz was brought in to direct. The costumes and lighting were done by the same people who worked on Casablanca. This movie doesn’t work though because the story is nowhere near as good as that of Casablanca.

Politics at the studio was also involved. Wallis and Jack L. Warner were on bad terms after the Casablanca episode described in one of my earlier posts. Wallis had a deal where he could produce any story he wanted and have full control over that production. He wanted to do Passage to Marseille with Humphrey Bogart. Bogie said alright, but Warner wanted him to do Conflict (1945) before that. Bogie didn’t want to do it. After threatening their biggest star and using him as a pawn in their own political game, it took death for Bogie to accept Warner’s movie.

Leslie Howard was a huge influence on Bogie. Bogie credited him for giving him the chance to break into movies. The two actors had the utmost respect for each other and kept in frequent contact. One day in 1943, on his way home from Lisbon, Howard’s plane was shot down. Everyone aboard died. Through the death of his friend, Bogie learned that movies are just movies and anyone is fine. He accepted his roles in Conflict and Passage to Marseille and did the best he could with those characters.