Happy Bastille Day!

Yeah SparkS, most older movies were always shot on a sound stage, and most scenes in modern movies still use the concept. Great story about the pool table, but are we sure the tiger didn't shoot first? GGGGG

A great scene from a great movie.

For a long time I had believed it was filmed at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. I had read that some where. If not mistaken there are some signed photographs of the actors hanging on the walls in the bar. So when I wound up at Singapore once I had to go to Raffles and have a Singapore Sling. It was invented there. Recently I have found that the movie was not filmed there after all. CRUD. It was a nice idea even if not true.

The hotel used to stand at the edge of the jungle. One night a tiger wandered into the bar and was shot by the bartender under a pool table. Then again it was probably a billiards table knowing the Brits and all.

@Dorkafork--let's give credit where it is due. Not only were many of the extras displaced, but so were many of the supporting actors: S.Z. Sakall (who played "Carl") was away from his native Hungary because of the Nazi occupation and lost 3 of his sisters in concentration camps.

It was inspiring to the French and other Europeans in Casablanca (and at Rick's) who knew their own countries were occupied by the same German armies making life difficult in Africa. The Germans were Nationalists (Nazi) but somehow forgot that the countries they occupied did not belong to the Germans.

Odd, that.

I love Casablanca, and have seen it so many times that I can recite much of the dialogue. But, I have always been uncomfortable with the colonial aspect. Why exactly should the singing of the Marseillais be inspiring to the Moroccans? Yeah, yeah, I know it's a movie. Yeah, yeah, it was 1942. But still...