We’ll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood’s Most Beloved Movie

Isenberg (Edgar G. Ulmer: A Filmmaker at the Margins) has created a thorough and impassioned account of the making of the 1942 Hollywood classic starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. He begins with Casablanca’s modest origins in an unproduced three-act play and ends with its lasting cultural impact. Along the way, he makes a strong case for the film as an ideal example of studio collaboration. Isenberg emphasizes the contributions of nearly everyone at Warner Brothers, including producer Hal B. Wallis, director Michael Curtiz, screenwriters Julius and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch, and some of the studio’s best contract players (Sydney Greenstreet, Paul Henreid, Peter Lorre, and Claude Rains). Diligently researched and incorporating extensive interviews and documentation, the book is commendable for its attention to the most mundane details of filmmaking. Nevertheless, readers expecting a critical study might find the author’s exhaustive admiration for his subject a bit wearing. As Irish film critic Paul Whitington astutely observes in the book’s introduction, “Maybe there are better films than Casablanca, but there are probably none better loved.” Agent: Zoe Pagnamenta, Zoe Pagnamenta Agency. (Feb.)