A small circle of key individuals were heavily involved in the creative production process of Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942). The idea of the executive producer, producer(s), and director having almost an equal amount of creative control was commonplace throughout the Golden Age of Hollywood, and this became known as the ‘studio auteur’. Below is a list of these individuals, explaining the roles they played throughout the production process of Casablanca.
Executive Producer: Jack Warner
Jack Leonard Warner was a Canadian-American film executive, being the president and figurehead of the Warner Brothers’ Burbank Studio. With a career spanning forty five years, Warner became known for his incisive judgement and confidence, inciting a steep level of fear within many of his employees.
He both acquired Warner Brothers’ impressive ‘stable’ of film stars and also promoted the gritty social dramas that the studio was later characterised by. Warner’s primary duties involved overseeing the films produced by the studio, and making suggestions that he believed would enhance the film. His primary agenda involved accurate representations of cultural customs and atmospheres, and this can be vividly observed throughout Casablanca.
Producer: Hal B. Wallis
Harold Brent Wallis was a Warner Bros. film producer, best known for producing Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, 1938), and True Grit (Henry Hathaway, 1969). Throughout his career as a producer, Wallis received 19 Best Picture nominations. After Warner Bros., Wallis was affiliated with Paramount Pictures during which he oversaw films starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, and Elvis Presley.
In late 1941, Wallis became fascinated by an unproduced stage play called Everybody Comes to Rick’s. In late December of that same year he bought the film rights for $20,000 and changed the title to Casablanca. Wallis also wrote the famous final line of the film: “This could be the start of a beautiful friendship.”
During the 1943 Academy Awards, Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1943) won the award for Best Picture. Upon being announced, Hal B. Wallis got up to accept the award, only to find that Jack Warner had rushed onstage “with a broad, flashing smile and a look of great self-satisfaction”. Wallis later recalled that “I couldn’t believe it was happening. Casablanca had been my creation; Jack had absolutely nothing to do with it. As the audience gasped, I tried to get out of the row of seats and into the aisle, but the entire Warner family sat blocking me. I had no alternative but to sit down again, humiliated and furious. … Almost forty years later, I still haven’t recovered from the shock.” This dispute demonstrates the contention of the true ownership of the film, as Jack Warner believed that he was in the right to claim all the glory, merely due to him being the figurehead of the studio.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz was a Hungarian-American director who became the head of Warner Brothers’ Burbank studio. Curtiz’ filmography is vast, spanning over 100 films, the majority of which were released under Warner Brothers. Within Hollywood, Curtiz pioneered the utilisation of: lighting to create a particular aesthetic, fluid camera movements, high crane shots, alongside the use of unusual camera angles.
Curtiz is considered a highly versatile director, handling an eclectic range of genres throughout his time at Warner Bros, including the likes of: comedy, romance, film noir, musicals, Westerns, and horror. Curtiz believed that the “human and fundamental problems of real people” were integral to creating gripping drama, and often based his films on the foundation of this precept.
Curtiz’s vast body of work is greatly outshined by Casablanca, being a cornerstone of the entire Golden Age era. It is a key exemplar of the ‘studio auteur’ style of filmmaking that dominated the cinematic landscape of the Golden Age, epitomising all of the tropes that the Classic Hollywood style would later be known for.
Cinematographer: Arthur Edeson
Arthur Edeson was a cinematographer whose career ran through both the Golden Age of Hollywood – including both the Silent and Sound Eras. He worked on many landmarks of the era, namely All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930) and of course, Casablanca. Co-founding the American Society of Cinematographers, Edeson’s style was built on the influence of German Expressionism brought to America through German cinematographers during the 1920s, whilst also keeping to the style of gritty realism popular within the Hollywood studio system.
Composer: Max Steiner
Maximilian Raoul Steiner was an Austrian composer and conductor who, after emigrating to America in 1914, became a renowned composer for Hollywood. He composed over 300 film scores with both RKO and Warner Bros., being nominated for 24 Academy Awards.
Steiner’s score is an integral component in Casablanca’s long-lasting legacy, providing a rich romantic evocation that serves to accentuate the relationship between Rick and Ilsa that lies at the heart of the film.
Otis Morley’s A-Level Film Studies Blog 