Casablanca It is a mythical film that belongs to both the history of cinema and the collective memory of the spectators. Even those who are not very fond of iconic scenes, famous phrases or the melody of the song As time goes by. It was a award -winning movie, even with the Oscar a Michael Curtiza director who did not have a similar success. It was included in many of the lists of the best films in history.
The way to tell a story and the performance of both Bogart and Bergaman and secondary actors and Paul Henreid, Peter Lorre o Claude Rains. Of course, the critics who wanted to disagree have not lacked and understood that the characters were built more with gestures than with psychological depth. The love story framed in a concrete political situation has, without a doubt, a great emotional and cinematographic attraction.
Photogram of the movie ‘Casablanca’. In the photo Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey BogartGTRES
The long march towards the exile of people fleeing the Nazis who occupied Europe left a succession of stories of effort, penalties, betrayals and generosities that constituted an appreciable source of fictions. And this knew how to take advantage of Curtiz, thanks to the support of producer Hal B. Wallis and the effective script by Julius J. and Phillip G. Epstein and Howard Koch.
Juan Simeón Vidarte He was a Spanish socialist in the Second Republic. Born in Llerena, in Extremadura, he was Deputy secretary General of the PSOE, secretary of the Congress of Deputies and occupy some important positions in the Republican Administration. when the Civil War opted to the factor of the Francoist side, Vidarte had to assume some commissions to facilitate exile, such as those made in Mexico against Cárdenas.
-José Prat appointed him, at the end of the contest, Consul in Tangier With the same goal. There he remained until the Republic was defeated. Then he had to undertake a long journey through Africa prayed to find a transport that took him to Mexico. His adventures were collected in a novel book: Storm in Africa. Of Gaulle against Petain (Mexico 1941, reissued in the same city in 1973).
Vidarte maintained throughout his life that the film’s argument was based on what was told in the book, that is, in his own life. Even He submitted a lawsuit against the producer Warner Brosthat had no judicial tour. It is true that Vidarte toured a long road until he reached Algiers, that he had to wait for favorable conditions to cross Africa and reach Freetown, where he managed to embark to the United States and Mexico. An experience similar to that of Victor Laszlo In the movie. Counted in detail in your book.
In the movie there is a scene full of feeling. When in the Rick’s coffee a uniform Nazis group begins to sing The watch on the RhineVictor asks the musicians to touch The Marseillaise. Rick, the old combatant in Spain, gives them permission with a slight head gesture and the parishioners of coffee, including those who supported the Vichy regime that administered French Africa, sang with emotion until they silence the Germans. That scene was lived at the Arlequín Hotel de Algelin a similar situation. His daughter told him and Felipe Traseira explains in his doctoral thesis.
It is true that the vital adventation of Vidarte is coinciding with the argument of the film and that the Extremaduran He proudly assumed the role of fighter against fascism. But it is no less true that these kinds of situations occurred for tens among the thousands of refugees trying to escape Nazi power in Europe. The song of The Marseillaise To silence Nazis hymns could have occurred more than one occasion, or it could have been an occurrence of writers. It is not something that an extraordinary imagination is required.
Vidarte fought for the originality of the idea. But the authors of the play on which the script was based, Murray Burnett and Joan Alison, recognize having heard similar stories when they traveled to Europe during World War II. The film was shot in Hollywood and in the referred scene, many of the figures that made the clientele of coffee were European refugees who had abandoned their countries for opposing Nazism. Many of them had similar vital experiences. It is difficult to argue that Curtiz will copy Vidar you.
