12. the mess of getting out of the car at the airport

          “At the airport, the outline of the transport plane is barely visible.”

Orderly:       Hello, radio tower? Lisbon plane taking off in ten minutes. East runway. Visibility: one and a half miles. Light ground fog. Depth of fog: approximately 500. Ceiling: unlimited.

He hangs up, and crosses to the car that has just pulled up. Renault gets out, closely followed by Rick, hand in pocket, still covering Renault with a gun. Laszlo and Ilsa come from the rear of the car.”[1]

        July 17. On Warner

Bros.

Stage 1.

the morning was “proceeding smoothly”. Bit

player

Jean De Briac

okeyed to the radio tower the visibility conditions for take-off,

they did some glass-shots,

and then, just

        before lunch,

        the business of the arrival of the car at the airport came up.

        While the orderly reads the report Edeson’s camera picks the vehicle through a window,

as it gets to the front of the hangar.

Captain Renault is driving his car,

with Rick pointing his gun at him from the passenger seat;

at the back, husband-

and-

wife. Claude Reins

had to stop the car at a fixed mark; then

they would all pile out, hit

their individual spots,

dish out their lines. It all “required

a complex set up”. It

flopped. And

flopped.

“…For one reason or another, each take went awry –Rains missed the car’s stop point, passengers exited clumsily, doors were slammed at the wrong moment, or dialogue was garbled…”

        Only after “eight

        lengthy

        takes”

        could they get it

        right.[2]

        It was as if the characters, reluctant to go

        on

        with their parts,

        to play that dumb last scene which would wreck their several lots,

        were trying to baffle the actors embodying

them, and made them

stumble,

in a sort of jittery slapstick.  

---

[1] From the Script.

[2] Lebo (1992: 165 - 168).