document_title: Safety car

question_text: what is the speed of the nascar pace car

text: Safety car

text: Effect[edit]

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text: The use of a safety car has the effect of bunching up competitors together, such as to eliminate any time and distance advantage that a leading driver may have had over the remaining field of competitors. This effect can make racing more competitive upon full race resumption; conversely, it has also contributed to faster leading drivers being negated just rewards for their efforts prior to the caution period.

text: Subject to the racing regulations in force, it is not uncommon for drivers to be allowed to make pitstops during safety car periods. This situation may provide a strategic advantage since any scheduled refueling, tire change or maintenance may be carried out while other competitors are lapping at lower speed, and the drivers who pit then simply rejoin a queue of cars all running together. During normal racing conditions, such interventions would typically involve losing significant terrain over those drivers that remain on-track.

text: Another notable effect of safety car periods is that racing cars consume less fuel until full race resumption, which can allow competitors to run longer distances on a tank of fuel than would otherwise have been possible and/or reduce the number of pitstops required for the duration of the race.

text: Formula One[edit]

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text: Procedure[edit]

text: In Formula One if an accident or inclement weather (typically, heavy rain) prevents normal racing from continuing safely, the Race Director will call for a "safety car" period, which would see marshals wave yellow flags and hold "SC" boards, pending the car in question entering the track. From 2007, all Formula One cars must have LEDs and/or displays fitted to the steering wheel or cockpit, which inform the driver which flags are being waved. A yellow LED is illuminated when the safety car is deployed.

text: The safety car has both orange and green lights mounted on its roof in the form of a light bar. The green lights are used to signal that it is possible to overtake the safety car; this is only done until the race leader is immediately behind the safety car and at the head of the queue of race cars following.[2]

text: From 2015, the safety car is not required to wait until all backmarkers have caught back up to the queue. When the safety car is ready to leave the circuit, it will turn off its orange lights to indicate that it will enter the pit lane at the end of the lap. Drivers must continue in formation until they cross the first safety car line, where circuit green lights and flags will indicate they are free to race again.[3]

text: The safety car is piloted by professional drivers (since 2000, by Bernd Mayländer) on-board high-powered modified vehicles supplied by Mercedes-Benz,[4] and must maintain a reasonable speed so as to ensure that the competitors' tyres are as close as possible to operating temperature and their engines do not overheat. The driver of the safety car is accompanied by a co-driver to assist with operations and communications.

text: For incidents during the first three laps, the safety car also has an advantage over the traditional red flag; with a red flag, it would take a minimum of fifteen minutes to restart the race, and the two-hour limit would not start until the cars were ready for a second formation lap. With regards to the time limit, the race is being scored and the time is also counting while the safety car is on the track, and the race resumes.

text: History[edit]

text: The first use of a safety car in Formula One is reported to have taken place at the 1973 Canadian Grand Prix, where a yellow Porsche 914[5][6] was called for duty following various incidents under treacherous weather conditions. Controversially, on that occasion, it took several hours after the race to figure out the winner and final results since the safety car driver had placed his car in front of the wrong competitor thus causing part of the field to be one lap down incorrectly.[7]

text: The sport officially introduced safety cars in 1993, after trials were conducted at both the French and British Grands Prix during the preceding 1992 season. Since 1996, as part of promotional arrangements, the supplier of safety cars has been Mercedes-Benz,[4] unlike previous years that have seen cars of different brands being used throughout the season and depending on the track visited (for example, the exotic Lamborghini Countach for the Monaco Grand Prix in the 1980s[6][6][8] to the more mundane Fiat Tempra used at the rain-affected 1993 Brazilian Grand Prix[9] and the high performance version of the Opel Vectra used at the infamous 1994 San Marino Grand Prix[10]).

text: From 2007, new procedures were applied for the first time during the Bahrain Grand Prix. The pit lane was closed immediately upon the deployment of the safety car. No car could enter the pits until all cars on the track had formed up in a line behind the safety car, they passed the pit entrance, and the message "pit lane open" was given. A ten-second stop/go penalty (which must be taken when the race is resumed) was imposed on any driver who entered the pit lane before the pit lane open message is given. However, any car which was in the pit entry or pit lane when the safety car was deployed would not incur a penalty.

text: From 2009, however, this procedure has been dropped, and replaced by software that calculates where a car is on the track and a minimum lap time it should take the car to get to the pits. Cars that enter the pits before this time limit has expired are penalised.

text: When the safety car and the drivers behind it are on the start/finish straight, there is a red light at the exit of the pit lane. Drivers who go past the red light are disqualified from the race. This has happened to several drivers during the years, such as Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa in the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix. At the same race a year later, Lewis Hamilton failed to notice the red light and slammed into the back of the car of Kimi Räikkönen, who was waiting at the end of the pit lane alongside Robert Kubica.

text: From 2010, once cars were lined up behind the safety car, lapped cars were no longer allowed to unlap themselves before the race was restarted.[11] This rule was abandoned from the 2012 season onwards, with cars now allowed to unlap themselves before the race resumes; however, since 2015, the safety car need not wait for the backmarkers to catch up with the leading pack before returning to the pits.

text: Virtual Safety Car (VSC)[edit]

text: Following an accident at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, which saw driver Jules Bianchi suffer a serious head injury which led to his death, the FIA established an Accident Panel to investigate the dynamics of the accident and ways to minimize the risk of a crash during similar circumstances that do not warrant the deployment of a safety car and cannot be simply managed with yellow flags.

text: The Panel recommended the implementation of a "Virtual Safety Car", based on the "slow zone" system used in Le Mans racing. On top of not being allowed to overtake under yellow flag conditions in the affected sector, a "VSC" icon would appear trackside and on the driver's steering display, obliging drivers to not exceed the posted speed limit thus resulting in a 35% speed reduction. The system was similar to the Electro-PACER lights used in the Indianapolis 500 races from 1972 until 1978, except that ECUs were involved and could enforce speed limits under the current system.

text: The VSC was tested over the course of the final three races of the 2014 Formula One season, during parts of free practice sessions.[12][13] The system was evolved taking into account drivers' feedback and was officially introduced for the 2015 season following ratification by the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC).[14] The VSC was officially used for the first time — and for a brief period prior to the deployment of the actual safety car — at the 2015 Monaco Grand Prix, following a crash involving Max Verstappen. The system saw its first extended deployment at the 2015 British Grand Prix after Carlos Sainz, Jr's power unit failed at Club Corner of the Silverstone Circuit.

text: Indianapolis 500[edit]

text: The first use of a pace car in automobile racing was at the inaugural Indy 500 in 1911.[1] The officials at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway have been selecting a pace car and its driver for the Indy 500 each year since that first race. The first pace car was a Stoddard-Dayton driven by Carl G. Fisher. In recent years Chevrolet models have been chosen as the official pace car, owing to the ability for them to be used at both major automobile races at the Speedway (typically Corvette at the 500 and Impala at the 400). The pace car is selected two months before the race runs, allowing the manufacturer of the selected pace car to produce replicas of that year's car, which sell at a marked premium to collectors and race fans. Pace car replicas are often seen on the streets of Indianapolis weeks before the race is actually held, and a celebrity driver is usually used for the start of the race only.

text: Automakers compete for the prestige of having one of their models selected as the year's pace car for the publicity. In 1971, the move backfired as no automakers stepped up to provide a pace car. Instead, local Indianapolis-area Dodge dealers fulfilled the duty. Eldon Palmer, a local dealer, lost control of the Dodge Challenger pace car and crashed into a photography stand, injuring several people. The blame for the crash was never fully determined, as officials realized that an orange cone (or perhaps an orange flag), which was to identify Palmer's braking point, was accidentally removed.

text: In the last 50 years, the Pontiac Trans Am, Chevrolet Camaro, Chevrolet Corvette, Oldsmobile Cutlass, and Ford Mustang are the only models that have been selected as pace cars three or more times.

text: During the IndyCar Series season, however, Johnny Rutherford is the normal driver of the IRL pace car for all events. The pace car is deployed for debris, collision, or weather reasons. Since 1993, upon the waving of the yellow flag, pit road is closed until the pace car picks up the leader and passes the pit entrance the first time, unless track blockage forces the field to drive through pit lane. Another duty of the pace car is to lead the field around the course on parade laps prior to the start of the race. These increase in speed, allowing for a flying start of the race.

text: Furthermore, two other rule changes have been implemented. Since 2000, with one lap to go before going back to green, the pace car pulls off the track in turn one rather than in turn four. The current leader of the race is then assigned the task of pacing the field back to the green flag. After much consideration, this rule was added to prevent a situation much like the one that happened in the 1995 Indianapolis 500, when Scott Goodyear passed the pace car going back to green. In 2002, another rule was added. With one lap to go before the green, the pace car waves by all cars (if there are any) between the pace car and the actual leader of the race. This allows for the leader to control the restart without lapped cars being in front of him. It also creates a strategy for cars to gain laps back, loosely resembling the "Lucky dog" rule. However, the cars who get waved around are not allowed to pit until the green flag restarts the race (so they do not get the advantage of getting their lap back AND a free pit stop).

text: NASCAR[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: In all NASCAR series, if the caution is out for debris, accident, or inclement weather, the flagman will display the yellow caution flag and the pace car [15] will pull out of the pits and turn on the yellow strobes on top and/or behind the car. When race officials are ready to open pit lane, a green light will come on in the rear window of the safety car. One lap before a green flag, the pace car will shut off its lights to signal drivers to line up double file.

text: Unlike most series in motorsport, owing to NASCAR's short-track roots, each track usually offers their own safety car, typically from the manufacturer, but in recent years, it has been a local dealer or association of regional dealerships-provided Safety car. Tracks that use Toyota safety cars will use a Toyota Camry Hybrid, while Ford tracks will use a Ford Mustang, while Chevrolet tracks use a Chevrolet Camaro and most Dodge tracks use a Dodge Challenger. If a manufacturer is promoting a new vehicle, they will often use the new car instead of the standard-specification safety car.

text: For the Camping World Truck Series, often the safety car is a pickup truck, as the series races pickup trucks. Tracks affiliated with a local or regional Chevrolet dealership will use a Chevrolet Silverado, while Chrysler dealership affiliated tracks will use a Ram 1500. Ford-affiliated tracks will often use the F-Series, but Toyota-affiliated tracks are less likely to use the Toyota Tundra, but prefer marketing the Camry Hybrid. However, Ford and Toyota manufacturer sponsored tracks will prefer the Mustang and Camry, respectively, instead of a truck, and occasionally, pickup trucks have been used as pace vehicles for Sprint Cup and Xfinity races.

text: Since NASCAR does not allow speedometers or electronic speed limiting devices, the pace car circles the track at pit road speed during the warm-up laps. This allows each driver to note the RPM at which pit road speed is maintained. Drivers exceeding that speed on pit road will be penalized, typically a "drive-through" or "stop and go" penalty, costing them valuable track position.

text: Since mid-2004, NASCAR official Brett Bodine has driven the vehicle during official race functions during Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races. Other famous NASCAR pace car drivers include Robert "Buster" Auton and Elmo Langley.

text: At many races, NASCAR has an honorary pace car driver that actually drives a car during the parade laps . Depending on the drivers skill, some drivers are allowed to pace the field right up to the dropping of the green flag. Some famous drivers have been Jay Leno, Richard Hammond, Luke Wilson, Rob Gronkowski, Guy Fieri and many others.

text: The beneficiary rule (informally known as the "lucky dog" rule) states once the safety car is deployed, the first car not on the lead lap will regain a lap. The Beneficiary will regain his lap once pit road opens. Bodine will signal that car to pass him through radio contact between NASCAR and that team. The free pass car must pit with the lapped cars.

text: In 2009, NASCAR introduced a new "Double-file restart" rule that lines the field two cars on each row on every restart, similar to the start of the race, instead of lead-lap cars on the outside and lapped cars on the inside. Also, the "wave-around" rule, similar to what is enforced in the Indy Racing League was adopted to ensure the first car on the restart is the leader, and ensure there are no lapped cars ahead of the leader.

text: Incidents with safety cars and other course cars[edit]

text: 2014 Sprint Unlimited[edit]

text: Before the start of the final segment of the Sprint Cup Series' Sprint Unlimited exhibition race at Daytona, the Chevrolet SS pace car caught fire and stopped off the track, delaying the restart. The fire was believed to have started in a trunk-mounted battery pack powering the lights.[16]

text: 2012 Daytona 500[edit]

text: During a safety car situation on Lap 160 of the 2012 Daytona 500, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver Juan Pablo Montoya's car had a suspension part failure, and it lost control on turn 3, sharply veering right into a safety truck and jet dryer trailer, causing a massive diesel/jet fuel fire. As it was seen on video, sparks were seen emanating from Montoya's car right before its hard collision with the jet dryer trailer and left driver's side of the truck. Montoya was treated at the infield care center and released. Montoya's report over the radio after the incident was "I left the pits and felt a really weird vibration and I came back in and checked the rear end and said it was okay and I got into the backstraight and we were are going fourth gear but wasn't going that fast. Every time I got on the gas I could feel the rear squeezing. When I was telling the spotter to have a look how the rear was moving the car just turned right." The driver of the Chevrolet Silverado Crew Cab, Duane Barnes, was taken to a local hospital for observation and was resting comfortably. He was an employee at Michigan International Speedway, a sister track of Daytona. The tracks often share jet dryer equipment on race weekends to help in case of rain such as the case on Sunday, the original scheduled start time of the race. The entire incident took about two hours to clean up before the last 40 (later extended to 42 due to a Green-white-checkered finish) laps were able to be completed.

text: NASCAR subsequently added the use of the second safety car (used during race start situations) to protect the last jet dryer in other safety car situations.

text: 2011 6 Hours of Castellet[edit]

text: The 2011 6 Hours of Castellet got off to a controversial start when the pace car did not return to the pits when the green lights came on. The front running LMPs slowed down but some of the GT cars could not react fast enough, resulting in heavy damage to all three GTE Pro class Porsches which caused them to retire. The GTE Am class IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche and GTE Pro JOTA Aston Martin were also caught up in the carnage.[17]

text: 2009 WTCC Pau[edit]

text: An accident occurred during the 2009 FIA WTCC Race of France in Pau, France. A succession of first-lap accidents caused the safety car to be placed on standby, with yellow flags waving on the start-finish section of the track. The safety car driver then proceeded to drive onto the track at slow speed, without official approval,[18] moving across the pit exit line immediately after exiting the pits, instead of confining to the inside of it until the line ended. Race leader Franz Engstler came through the kink on the start-finish straight and was unable to avoid hitting the side of the pace car.[19] Engstler commented "I saw the safety car coming out from the right and realized that I had no chance to brake... I really do not understand why he was going out of the pits".[20] After this incident, the Portuguese Bruno Correia was appointed as the official safety car driver.[21]

text: 2008 Dutch Supercar Challenge Spa[edit]

text: A safety car caused a crash during the 2008 Dutch Supercar Challenge race at Spa Francorchamps. The Seat Leon was released too late, allowing the leading Marcos LM600 to pass while erroneously identifying the Audi TT DTM in 2nd and Mosler MT900R GT3 in 3rd as 'the leading pack.' Race officials immediately realized their mistake, and the safety car was instructed to slow down and let the entire field pass.

text: As the safety car was exiting turn 11, an approaching Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 drastically reduced its speed in response to the unusually slow safety car. However, a BMW a few seconds behind came around the blind turn at speed, colliding with the Gallardo and safety car. The collision destroyed the Gallardo and sent the BMW into a number of rolls. The safety car was sent off the track into the Armco at great speed. In the chaos, a Marcos LM600 coming around turn 11 locked up its brakes and spun into the wet grass on the inside of the track. Sliding back onto the track, it was hit from the side by a BMW Z3. Furthermore, two E46 BMW M3 GTRs were damaged: one on the outside line hit the rear of the Marcos, and the other, on the inside line, slightly damaged its front right. The second M3 continued around the track, while the first slid into the grass before turn 12. The race was stopped, and there were no serious injuries to any of the drivers.

text: 1971 Indianapolis 500[edit]

text: The pace car of the 1971 Indianapolis 500, an orange Dodge Challenger driven by local auto dealer Eldon Palmer, crashed at the start of the race. As Palmer drove the car off into the pit lane to let the race cars begin the race, he lost control of the car and crashed into a photographer stand.[22] There were no fatalities, and the number of people reported injured has ranged from 18 to 29.[23]


document_title: Interferon

question_text: interferons alpha and beta are effective against viruses

root

text: Interferon

text: Types of interferon[edit]

text: Based on the type of receptor through which they signal, human interferons have been classified into three major types.

tag: p

text:
Interferon type I: All type I IFNs bind to a specific cell surface receptor complex known as the IFN-α/β receptor (IFNAR) that consists of IFNAR1 and IFNAR2 chains.[3] The type I interferons present in humans are IFN-α, IFN-β, IFN-ε, IFN-κ and IFN-ω.[4] In general, type I interferons are produced when the body recognizes a virus has invaded it. They are produced by fibroblasts and monocytes. However, the production of type I IFN-α is prohibited by another cytokine known as Interleukin-10. Once released, type I interferons will activate molecules which prevent the virus from producing and replicating its RNA and DNA. Overall, IFN-α can be used to treat hepatitis B and C infections, while IFN-β can be used to treat multiple sclerosis.[2]
Interferon type II (IFN-γ in humans): This is also known as immune interferon and is activated by Interleukin-12.[2] Furthermore, type II interferons are released by T helper cells, type 1 specifically. However, they block the proliferation of T helper cells type two. The previous results in an inhibition of Th2 immune response and a further induction of Th1 immune response, which leads to the development of debilitating diseases such as multiple sclerosis.[5] IFN type II binds to IFNGR, which consists of IFNGR1 and IFNGR2 chains and has a different receptor than type I IFN.[2]
Interferon type III: Signal through a receptor complex consisting of IL10R2 (also called CRF2-4) and IFNLR1 (also called CRF2-12). Although discovered more recently than type I and type II IFNs,[6] recent information demonstrates the importance of Type III IFNs in some types of virus infections.[7][8]

tag: ul

text: In general, type I and II interferons are responsible for regulating and activating the immune response.[2] Expression of type I and III IFNs can be induced in virtually all cell types upon recognition of viral components, especially nucleic acids, by cytoplasmic and endosomal receptors, whereas type II interferon is induced by cytokines such as IL-12, and its expression is restricted to immune cells such as T cells and NK cells.

text: Function[edit]

text: All interferons share several common effects: they are antiviral agents and they modulate functions of the immune system. Administration of Type I IFN has been shown experimentally to inhibit tumor growth in animals, but the beneficial action in human tumors has not been widely documented. A virus-infected cell releases viral particles that can infect nearby cells. However, the infected cell can prepare neighboring cells against a potential infection by the virus by releasing interferons. In response to interferon, cells produce large amounts of an enzyme known as protein kinase R (PKR). This enzyme phosphorylates a protein known as eIF-2 in response to new viral infections; the phosphorylated eIF-2 forms an inactive complex with another protein, called eIF2B, to reduce protein synthesis within the cell. Another cellular enzyme, RNAse L—also induced by interferon action—destroys RNA within the cells to further reduce protein synthesis of both viral and host genes. Inhibited protein synthesis destroys both the virus and infected host cells. In addition, interferons induce production of hundreds of other proteins—known collectively as interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs)—that have roles in combating viruses and other actions produced by interferon.[9][10] They also limit viral spread by increasing p53 activity, which kills virus-infected cells by promoting apoptosis.[11][12] The effect of IFN on p53 is also linked to its protective role against certain cancers.[11]

text: Another function of interferons is to upregulate major histocompatibility complex molecules, MHC I and MHC II, and increase immunoproteasome activity. Higher MHC I expression increases presentation of viral peptides to cytotoxic T cells, while the immunoproteasome processes viral peptides for loading onto the MHC I molecule, thereby increasing the recognition and killing of infected cells. Higher MHC II expression increases presentation of viral peptides to helper T cells; these cells release cytokines (such as more interferons and interleukins, among others) that signal to and co-ordinate the activity of other immune cells.

text: Interferons, such as interferon gamma, directly activate other immune cells, such as macrophages and natural killer cells.

text: Induction of interferons[edit]

text: Production of interferons occurs mainly in response to microbes, such as viruses and bacteria, and their products. Binding of molecules uniquely found in microbes—viral glycoproteins, viral RNA, bacterial endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide), bacterial flagella, CpG motifs—by pattern recognition receptors, such as membrane bound Toll like receptors or the cytoplasmic receptors RIG-I or MDA5, can trigger release of IFNs. Toll Like Receptor 3 (TLR3) is important for inducing interferons in response to the presence of double-stranded RNA viruses; the ligand for this receptor is double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). After binding dsRNA, this receptor activates the transcription factors IRF3 and NF-κB, which are important for initiating synthesis of many inflammatory proteins. RNA interference technology tools such as siRNA or vector-based reagents can either silence or stimulate interferon pathways.[13] Release of IFN from cells (specifically IFN-γ in lymphoid cells) is also induced by mitogens. Other cytokines, such as interleukin 1, interleukin 2, interleukin-12, tumor necrosis factor and colony-stimulating factor, can also enhance interferon production.[14]

text: Downstream signaling[edit]

text: By interacting with their specific receptors, IFNs activate signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) complexes; STATs are a family of transcription factors that regulate the expression of certain immune system genes. Some STATs are activated by both type I and type II IFNs. However each IFN type can also activate unique STATs.[15]

text: STAT activation initiates the most well-defined cell signaling pathway for all IFNs, the classical Janus kinase-STAT (JAK-STAT) signaling pathway.[15] In this pathway, JAKs associate with IFN receptors and, following receptor engagement with IFN, phosphorylate both STAT1 and STAT2. As a result, an IFN-stimulated gene factor 3 (ISGF3) complex forms—this contains STAT1, STAT2 and a third transcription factor called IRF9—and moves into the cell nucleus. Inside the nucleus, the ISGF3 complex binds to specific nucleotide sequences called IFN-stimulated response elements (ISREs) in the promoters of certain genes, known as IFN stimulated genes ISGs. Binding of ISGF3 and other transcriptional complexes activated by IFN signaling to these specific regulatory elements induces transcription of those genes.[15] A collection of known ISGs is available on Interferome, a curated online database of ISGs (www.interferome.org);[16] Additionally, STAT homodimers or heterodimers form from different combinations of STAT-1, -3, -4, -5, or -6 during IFN signaling; these dimers initiate gene transcription by binding to IFN-activated site (GAS) elements in gene promoters.[15] Type I IFNs can induce expression of genes with either ISRE or GAS elements, but gene induction by type II IFN can occur only in the presence of a GAS element.[15]

text: In addition to the JAK-STAT pathway, IFNs can activate several other signaling cascades. For instance, both type I and type II IFNs activate a member of the CRK family of adaptor proteins called CRKL, a nuclear adaptor for STAT5 that also regulates signaling through the C3G/Rap1 pathway.[15] Type I IFNs further activate p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAP kinase) to induce gene transcription.[15] Antiviral and antiproliferative effects specific to type I IFNs result from p38 MAP kinase signaling. The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway is also regulated by both type I and type II IFNs. PI3K activates P70-S6 Kinase 1, an enzyme that increases protein synthesis and cell proliferation; phosphorylates of ribosomal protein s6, which is involved in protein synthesis; and phosphorylates a translational repressor protein called eukaryotic translation-initiation factor 4E-binding protein 1 (EIF4EBP1) in order to deactivate it.[15]

text: Virus resistance to interferons[edit]

text: Many viruses have evolved mechanisms to resist interferon activity.[17] They circumvent the IFN response by blocking downstream signaling events that occur after the cytokine binds to its receptor, by preventing further IFN production, and by inhibiting the functions of proteins that are induced by IFN.[18] Viruses that inhibit IFN signaling include Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV), dengue type 2 virus (DEN-2) and viruses of the herpesvirus family, such as human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV or HHV8).[18][19] Viral proteins proven to affect IFN signaling include EBV nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1) and EBV nuclear antigen 2 (EBNA-2) from Epstein-Barr virus, the large T antigen of Polyomavirus, the E7 protein of Human papillomavirus (HPV), and the B18R protein of vaccinia virus.[19][20] Reducing IFN-α activity may prevent signaling via STAT1, STAT2, or IRF9 (as with JEV infection) or through the JAK-STAT pathway (as with DEN-2 infection).[18] Several poxviruses encode soluble IFN receptor homologs—like the B18R protein of the vaccinia virus—that bind to and prevent IFN interacting with its cellular receptor, impeding communication between this cytokine and its target cells.[20] Some viruses can encode proteins that bind to double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) to prevent the activity of RNA-dependent protein kinases; this is the mechanism reovirus adopts using its sigma 3 (σ3) protein, and vaccinia virus employs using the gene product of its E3L gene, p25.[21][22][23] The ability of interferon to induce protein production from interferon stimulated genes (ISGs) can also be affected. Production of protein kinase R, for example, can be disrupted in cells infected with JEV [18] Some viruses escape the anti-viral activities of interferons by gene (and thus protein) mutation. The H5N1 influenza virus, also known as bird flu, has resistance to interferon and other anti-viral cytokines that is attributed to a single amino acid change in its Non-Structural Protein 1 (NS1), although the precise mechanism of how this confers immunity is unclear.[24]

text: Interferon therapy[edit]

text: Diseases[edit]

text: Interferon beta-1a and interferon beta-1b are used to treat and control multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disorder. This treatment is effective for reducing attacks in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis and slowing disease progression and activity in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.[25]

text: Interferon therapy is used (in combination with chemotherapy and radiation) as a treatment for some cancers.[26] This treatment can be used in hematological malignancy; leukemia and lymphomas including hairy cell leukemia, chronic myeloid leukemia, nodular lymphoma, and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.[26] Patients with recurrent melanomas receive recombinant IFN-α2b.[27] Both hepatitis B and hepatitis C are treated with IFN-α, often in combination with other antiviral drugs.[28][29] Some of those treated with interferon have a sustained virological response and can eliminate hepatitis virus. The most harmful strain—hepatitis C genotype I virus—can be treated with a 60-80% success rate with the current standard-of-care treatment of interferon-α, ribavirin and recently approved protease inhibitors such as Telaprevir (Incivek) May 2011, Boceprevir (Victrelis) May 2011 or the nucleotide analog polymerase inhibitor Sofosbuvir (Sovaldi) December 2013.[30] Biopsies of patients given the treatment show reductions in liver damage and cirrhosis. Some evidence shows giving interferon immediately following infection can prevent chronic hepatitis C, although diagnosis early in infection is difficult since physical symptoms are sparse in early hepatitis C infection. Control of chronic hepatitis C by IFN is associated with reduced hepatocellular carcinoma.[31]

text: There is low-quality evidence suggesting that interferon eye drops may be an effective treatment for people who have herpes simplex virus epithelial keratitis, a type of eye infection.[32] There is no clear evidence to suggest that removing the infected tissue (debridement) followed by interferon drops is an effective treatment approach for these types of eye infections.[32] Low-quality evidence suggests that the combination of interferon and an antiviral agent may speed the healing process compared to antiviral therapy alone.[32]

text: When used in the systemic therapy, IFNs are mostly administered by an intramuscular injection. The injection of IFNs in the muscle or under the skin is generally well tolerated. The most frequent adverse effects are flu-like symptoms: increased body temperature, feeling ill, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, convulsion, dizziness, hair thinning, and depression. Erythema, pain, and hardness on the spot of injection are also frequently observed. IFN therapy causes immunosuppression, in particular through neutropenia and can result in some infections manifesting in unusual ways.[33]

text: Drug formulations[edit]

text:
Pharmaceutical forms of interferons

Generic name
Trade name

Interferon alpha 2a
Roferon A

Interferon alpha 2b
Intron A/Reliferon/Uniferon

Human leukocyte Interferon-alpha (HuIFN-alpha-Le)
Multiferon

Interferon beta 1a, liquid form
Rebif

Interferon beta 1a, lyophilized
Avonex

Interferon beta 1a, biogeneric (Iran)
Cinnovex

Interferon beta 1b
Betaseron / Betaferon

Interferon gamma 1b
Actimmune

PEGylated interferon alpha 2a
Pegasys

PEGylated interferon alpha 2a (Egypt)
Reiferon Retard

PEGylated interferon alpha 2b
PegIntron

PEGylated interferon alpha 2b plus ribavirin (Canada)
Pegetron

tag: table

text: Several different types of interferons are approved for use in humans. One was first approved for medical use in 1986.[34] For example, in January 2001, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of PEGylated interferon-alpha in the USA; in this formulation, PEGylated interferon-alpha-2b (Pegintron), polyethylene glycol is linked to the interferon molecule to make the interferon last longer in the body. Approval for PEGylated interferon-alpha-2a (Pegasys) followed in October 2002. These PEGylated drugs are injected once weekly, rather than administering two or three times per week, as is necessary for conventional interferon-alpha. When used with the antiviral drug ribavirin, PEGylated interferon is effective in treatment of hepatitis C; at least 75% of people with hepatitis C genotypes 2 or 3 benefit from interferon treatment, although this is effective in less than 50% of people infected with genotype 1 (the more common form of hepatitis C virus in both the U.S. and Western Europe).[35][36][37] Interferon-containing regimens may also include protease inhibitors such as boceprevir and telaprevir.

text: History[edit]

text: This article relies too much on references to primary sources. Please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources. (July 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: Interferons were first described in 1957 by Alick Isaacs and Jean Lindenmann at the National Institute for Medical Research in London;[38][39][40] the discovery was a result of their studies of viral interference. Viral interference refers to the inhibition of virus growth caused by previous exposure of cells to an active or a heat-inactivated virus. Isaacs and Lindenmann were working with a system that involved the inhibition of the growth of live influenza virus in chicken embryo chorioallantoic membranes by heat-inactivated influenza virus. Their experiments revealed that this interference was mediated by a protein released by cells in the heat-inactivated influenza virus-treated membranes. They published their results in 1957 naming the antiviral factor they had discovered interferon.[39] The findings of Isaacs and Lindenmann have been widely confirmed and corroborated in the literature.[41]

text: Furthermore, others may have made observations on interferons before the 1957 publication of Isaacs and Lindenmann. For example, during research to produce a more efficient vaccine for smallpox, Yasu-ichi Nagano and Yasuhiko Kojima—two Japanese virologists working at the Institute for Infectious Diseases at the University of Tokyo—noticed inhibition of viral growth in an area of rabbit-skin or testis previously inoculated with UV-inactivated virus. They hypothesised that some "viral inhibitory factor" was present in the tissues infected with virus and attempted to isolate and characterize this factor from tissue homogenates.[42] Independently, Monto Ho, in John Enders's lab, observed in 1957 that attenuated poliovirus conferred a species specific anti-viral effect in human amniotic cell cultures. They described these observations in a 1959 publication, naming the responsible factor viral inhibitory factor (VIF).[43] It took another fifteen to twenty years, using somatic cell genetics, to show that the interferon action gene and interferon gene reside in different human chromosomes.[44][45][46] The purification of human beta interferon did not occur until 1977. Chris Y.H. Tan and his co-workers purified and produced biologically active, radio-labeled human beta interferon by superinducing the interferon gene in fibroblast cells, and they showed its active site contains tyrosine residues.[47][48] Tan's laboratory isolated sufficient amounts of human beta interferon to perform the first amino acid, sugar composition and N-terminal analyses.[49] They showed that human beta interferon was an unusually hydrophobic glycoprotein. This explained the large loss of interferon activity when preparations were transferred from test tube to test tube or from vessel to vessel during purification. The analyses showed the reality of interferon activity by chemical verification.[49][50][51][52] The purification of human alpha interferon was not reported until 1978. A series of publications from the laboratories of Sidney Pestka and Alan Waldman between 1978 and 1981, describe the purification of the type I interferons IFN-α and IFN-β.[40] By the early 1980s, genes for these interferons had been cloned, adding further definitive proof that interferons were responsible for interfering with viral replication.[53][54] Gene cloning also confirmed that IFN-α was encoded by a family of many related genes.[55] The type II IFN (IFN-γ) gene was also isolated around this time.[56]

text: Interferon was scarce and expensive until 1980, when the interferon gene was inserted into bacteria using recombinant DNA technology, allowing mass cultivation and purification from bacterial cultures[57] or derived from yeasts. Interferon can also be produced by recombinant mammalian cells.[58] Before the early 1970s, large scale production of human interferon had been pioneered by Kari Cantell. He produced large amounts of human alpha interferon from large quantities of human white blood cells collected by the Finnish Blood Bank.[59] Large amounts of human beta interferon were made by superinducing the beta interferon gene in human fibroblast cells.[60][61]

text: Cantell's and Tan's methods of making large amounts of natural interferon were critical for chemical characterisation, clinical trials and the preparation of small amounts of interferon messenger RNA to clone the human alpha and beta interferon genes. The superinduced human beta interferon messenger RNA was prepared by Tan's lab for Cetus corp. to clone the human beta interferon gene in bacteria and the recombinant interferon was developed as 'betaseron' and approved for the treatment of MS. Superinduction of the human beta interferon gene was also used by Israeli scientists to manufacture human beta interferon.

text: Human interferons[edit]

text:
IFNA1
IFNA2
IFNA4
IFNA5
IFNA6
IFNA7
IFNA8
IFNA10
IFNA13
IFNA14
IFNA16
IFNA17
IFNA21
IFNB1
IFNW
IFNE1
IFNK


document_title: Casablanca (film)

question_text: who played the female lead in the 1942 film casablanca

question_tokens: who played the female lead in the 1942 film casablanca

text: Casablanca (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: In December 1941, American expatriate Rick Blaine owns an upscale nightclub and gambling den in Casablanca. "Rick's Café Américain" attracts a varied clientele, including Vichy French and German officials, refugees desperate to reach the still-neutral United States, and those who prey on them. Although Rick professes to be neutral in all matters, he ran guns to Ethiopia during its war with Italy and fought on the Loyalist side in the Spanish Civil War.

text: Petty crook Ugarte boasts to Rick of "letters of transit" obtained by murdering two German couriers. The papers allow the bearers to travel freely around German-controlled Europe and to neutral Portugal, and are priceless to the refugees stranded in Casablanca. Ugarte plans to sell them at the club, and asks Rick to hold them. Before he can meet his contact, Ugarte is arrested by the local police under the command of Captain Louis Renault, the unabashedly corrupt Vichy prefect of police. Ugarte dies in custody without revealing that he entrusted the letters to Rick.

text: Then the reason for Rick's bitterness—former lover Ilsa Lund—enters his establishment. Spotting Rick's friend and house pianist, Sam, Ilsa asks him to play "As Time Goes By." Rick storms over, furious that Sam disobeyed his order never to perform that song, and is stunned to see Ilsa. She is accompanied by her husband, Victor Laszlo, a renowned fugitive Czech Resistance leader. They need the letters to escape to America to continue his work. German Major Strasser has come to Casablanca to see that Laszlo fails.

text: When Laszlo makes inquiries, Ferrari, a major underworld figure and Rick's friendly business rival, divulges his suspicion that Rick has the letters. Privately, Rick refuses to sell at any price, telling Laszlo to ask his wife the reason. They are interrupted when Strasser leads a group of officers in singing "Die Wacht am Rhein" ("The Watch on the Rhine"). Laszlo orders the house band to play "La Marseillaise". When the band looks to Rick, he nods his head. Laszlo starts singing, alone at first, then patriotic fervor grips the crowd and everyone joins in, drowning out the Germans. Strasser has Renault close the club.

text: Ilsa confronts Rick in the deserted café. When he refuses to give her the letters, she threatens him with a gun, but then confesses that she still loves him. She explains that when they met and fell in love in Paris in 1940, she believed her husband had been killed attempting to escape from a concentration camp. While preparing to flee with Rick from the imminent fall of the city to the German army, she learned Laszlo was alive and in hiding. She left Rick without explanation to nurse her sick husband. Rick's bitterness dissolves. He agrees to help, letting her believe she will stay with him when Laszlo leaves. When Laszlo unexpectedly shows up, having narrowly escaped a police raid on a Resistance meeting, Rick has waiter Carl spirit Ilsa away. Laszlo, aware of Rick's love for Ilsa, tries to persuade him to use the letters to take her to safety.

text: When the police arrest Laszlo on a minor, trumped-up charge, Rick persuades Renault to release him by promising to set him up for a much more serious crime: possession of the letters. To allay Renault's suspicions, Rick explains that he and Ilsa will be leaving for America.

text: When Renault tries to arrest Laszlo as arranged, Rick forces him at gunpoint to assist in their escape. At the last moment, Rick makes Ilsa board the plane to Lisbon with Laszlo, telling her that she would regret it if she stayed—"Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life." Strasser, tipped off by Renault, drives up alone. Rick shoots him when he tries to intervene. When policemen arrive, Renault pauses, then orders them to "round up the usual suspects." He suggests to Rick that they join the Free French in Brazzaville. As they walk away into the fog, Rick says, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship".

text: Cast[edit]

text: The play's cast consisted of 16 speaking parts and several extras; the film script enlarged it to 22 speaking parts and hundreds of extras.[13] The cast is notably international: only three of the credited actors were born in the United States (Bogart, Dooley Wilson, and Joy Page). The top-billed actors are:[14]

text:
Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine. Rick was Bogart's first truly romantic role.
Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund. Bergman's official website calls Ilsa her "most famous and enduring role".[15] The Swedish actress's Hollywood debut in Intermezzo had been well received, but her subsequent films were not major successes until Casablanca. Film critic Roger Ebert called her "luminous", and commented on the chemistry between her and Bogart: "she paints his face with her eyes".[16] Other actresses considered for the role of Ilsa included Ann Sheridan, Hedy Lamarr, Luise Rainer and Michèle Morgan. Producer Hal Wallis obtained the services of Bergman, who was contracted to David O. Selznick, by lending Olivia de Havilland in exchange.[17]
Paul Henreid as Victor Laszlo. Henreid, an Austrian actor who had emigrated in 1935, was reluctant to take the role (it "set [him] as a stiff forever", according to Pauline Kael[18]), until he was promised top billing along with Bogart and Bergman. Henreid did not get on well with his fellow actors; he considered Bogart "a mediocre actor." Bergman called Henreid a "prima donna".[19]

text: The second-billed actors are:

text:
Claude Rains as Captain Louis Renault. Rains was an English actor born in London. He had previously worked with Michael Curtiz on The Adventures of Robin Hood. He later played the villain in Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious, reteaming with Ingrid Bergman.
Conrad Veidt as Major Heinrich Strasser. He was a refugee German actor who had appeared in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. He fled the Nazis, but was frequently cast as a Nazi in American films. A major star in German cinema before the Nazi era, he was the highest paid member of the cast despite his second billing.[20]
Sydney Greenstreet as Signor Ferrari. Another Englishman, Greenstreet had previously starred with Lorre and Bogart in his film debut in The Maltese Falcon.
Peter Lorre as Signor Ugarte. Born in Austria-Hungary, Lorre fled Nazi Germany in 1933 after starring in Fritz Lang's first sound movie, M (1931). Greenstreet and Lorre appeared in several films together over the next few years, although they did not share a scene in Casablanca.

text: Also credited are:

text:
Curt Bois as the pickpocket. Bois was a German-Jewish actor and refugee. He had one of the longest careers in film, making his first appearance in 1907 and his last in 1987.
Leonid Kinskey as Sascha, the Russian bartender infatuated with Yvonne. He was born into a Jewish family in Russia and had immigrated to the United States. He told Aljean Harmetz, author of Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of Casablanca, that he was cast because he was Bogart's drinking buddy.[21] He was not the first choice for the role; he replaced Leo Mostovoy, who was deemed not funny enough.[21]
Madeleine LeBeau as Yvonne, Rick's soon-discarded girlfriend. The French actress was married to fellow Casablanca performer Marcel Dalio until their divorce in 1942. She was the last surviving cast member at her death on May 1, 2016.[22]
Joy Page as Annina Brandel, the young Bulgarian refugee. The third credited American, she was the stepdaughter of Jack L. Warner, the studio head.
John Qualen as Berger, Laszlo's Resistance contact. He was born in Canada, but grew up in the United States. He appeared in many of John Ford's films.
S. Z. Sakall (credited as S. K. Sakall) as Carl, the waiter. The Jewish-Hungarian actor fled Germany in 1939. His three sisters and his niece later died in a concentration camp.
Dooley Wilson as Sam. He was one of the few American-born members of the cast. A drummer, he had to fake playing the piano. Even after shooting had been completed, producer Wallis considered dubbing over Wilson's voice for the songs.[23][24] He had originally considered changing the character to a woman and casting singers Hazel Scott, Lena Horne, or Ella Fitzgerald.

text: Notable uncredited actors are:

text:
Marcel Dalio as Emil the croupier. He had been a star in French cinema, appearing in Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion and La Règle du Jeu. After he fled the fall of France and went to America, he was reduced to bit parts in Hollywood. He had a key role as "Frenchy" in another of Bogart's films, To Have and Have Not.
Helmut Dantine as Jan Brandel, the Bulgarian roulette player married to Annina Brandel. Another Austrian, he had spent time in a concentration camp after the Anschluss, but left Europe after being freed.
Gregory Gaye as the German banker who is refused entry to the casino by Rick. Gaye was a Russian-born actor who went to the United States in 1917 after the Russian Revolution.
Torben Meyer as the Dutch banker who runs "the second largest banking house in Amsterdam". Meyer was a Danish actor.
Corinna Mura as the guitar player who sings "Tango Delle Rose" (or "Tango de la Rosa") while Laszlo is consulting with Berger, and later accompanies the crowd on "La Marseillaise".
Frank Puglia as Moroccan rug merchant.
Dan Seymour as Abdul the doorman. He was an American actor who often played villains, including the principal one in To Have and Have Not, and one of the secondary ones in Key Largo, both opposite Bogart.
Gerald Oliver Smith as the Englishman whose wallet is stolen. Smith was an English actor.
Norma Varden as the Englishwoman whose husband has his wallet stolen. She was a famous English character actress.

text: Much of the emotional impact of the film has been attributed to the large proportion of European exiles and refugees who were extras or played minor roles (in addition to leading actors Paul Henreid, Conrad Veidt and Peter Lorre): such as Louis V. Arco, Trude Berliner, Ilka Grünig, Lotte Palfi, Richard Ryen, Ludwig Stössel, Hans Twardowski, and Wolfgang Zilzer. A witness to the filming of the "duel of the anthems" sequence said he saw many of the actors crying and "realized that they were all real refugees".[25] Harmetz argues that they "brought to a dozen small roles in Casablanca an understanding and a desperation that could never have come from Central Casting".[26] They were frequently cast as Nazis in war films, even though many were Jewish.

text: The comedian Jack Benny may have had an unbilled cameo role, as was claimed by a contemporary newspaper advertisement[27] and in the Casablanca press book.[28][29] When asked in his column "Movie Answer Man", critic Roger Ebert first replied, "It looks something like him. That's all I can say."[28] In a later column, he responded to a follow-up commenter, "I think you're right. The Jack Benny Fan Club can feel vindicated."[30]

text: Production[edit]

text: The film was based on Murray Burnett and Joan Alison's then-unproduced play Everybody Comes to Rick's.[31] The Warner Bros. story analyst who read the play, Stephen Karnot, called it (approvingly) "sophisticated hokum",[32] and story editor Irene Diamond, who had discovered the unproduced play on a trip to New York in 1941, convinced producer Hal Wallis to buy the rights in January 1942 for $20,000,[33] the most anyone in Hollywood had ever paid for an unproduced play.[34] The project was renamed Casablanca, apparently in imitation of the 1938 hit Algiers.[35] Although an initial filming date was selected for April 10, 1942, delays led to a start of production on May 25.[36] Filming was completed on August 3, and the production cost $1,039,000 ($75,000 over budget),[37] above average for the time.[38] Unusually, the film was shot in sequence, mainly because only the first half of the script was ready when filming began.[39]

text: The entire picture was shot in the studio, except for the sequence showing Major Strasser's arrival, which was filmed at Van Nuys Airport, and a few short clips of stock footage views of Paris.[40] The street used for the exterior shots had recently been built for another film, The Desert Song,[41] and redressed for the Paris flashbacks.

text: The background of the final scene, which shows a Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior airplane with personnel walking around it, was staged using little person extras and a proportionate cardboard plane.[42] Fog was used to mask the model's unconvincing appearance.[43] Nevertheless, the Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park in Orlando, Florida purchased a Lockheed 12A for its Great Movie Ride attraction, and initially claimed that it was the actual plane used in the film.[44]

text: Film critic Roger Ebert called Hal Wallis the "key creative force" for his attention to the details of production (down to insisting on a real parrot in the Blue Parrot bar).[16]

text: The difference between Bergman's and Bogart's height caused some problems. She was two inches (5 cm) taller than Bogart, and claimed Curtiz had Bogart stand on blocks or sit on cushions in their scenes together.[45]

text: Later, there were plans for a further scene, showing Rick, Renault and a detachment of Free French soldiers on a ship, to incorporate the Allies' 1942 invasion of North Africa. It proved too difficult to get Claude Rains for the shoot, and the scene was finally abandoned after David O. Selznick judged "it would be a terrible mistake to change the ending."[46][20]

text: Writing[edit]

text: The original play was inspired by a trip to Europe made by Murray Burnett and his wife in 1938, during which they visited Vienna shortly after the Anschluss and were affected by the anti-Semitism they saw. In the south of France, they went to a nightclub that had a multinational clientele, among them many exiles and refugees, and the prototype of Sam.[47][48] In The Guardian, Paul Fairclough writes that Cinema Vox in Tangier "was Africa's biggest when it opened in 1935, with 2,000 seats and a retractable roof. As Tangier was in Spanish territory, the theatre's wartime bar heaved with spies, refugees and underworld hoods, securing its place in cinematic history as the inspiration for Rick's Cafe in Casablanca."[49][50]

text: The first writers assigned to the script were twins Julius and Philip Epstein who, against the wishes of Warner Brothers, left at Frank Capra's request early in 1942 to work on the Why We Fight series in Washington, D.C.[51][52] While they were gone, the other credited writer, Howard Koch, was assigned; he produced thirty to forty pages.[52] When the Epstein brothers returned after about a month, they were reassigned to Casablanca and—contrary to what Koch claimed in two published books—his work was not used.[52] The Epstein brothers and Koch never worked in the same room at the same time during the writing of the script. Koch later commented, "When we began, we didn't have a finished script ... Ingrid Bergman came to me and said, 'Which man should I love more...?' I said to her, 'I don't know ... play them both evenly.' You see we didn't have an ending, so we didn't know what was going to happen!"[53] In the final budget for the film, the Epsteins were paid $30,416, and Koch earned $4,200.[54]

text: In the play, the Ilsa character is an American named Lois Meredith; she does not meet Laszlo until after her relationship with Rick in Paris has ended. Rick is a lawyer. To make Rick's motivation more believable, Wallis, Curtiz, and the screenwriters decided to set the film before the attack on Pearl Harbor.[55]

text: The uncredited Casey Robinson assisted with three weeks of rewrites, including contributing the series of meetings between Rick and Ilsa in the cafe.[56][57] Koch highlighted the political and melodramatic elements,[58][59] and Curtiz seems to have favored the romantic parts, insisting on retaining the Paris flashbacks.[60] Wallis wrote the final line, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," after shooting had been completed. Bogart had to be called in a month after the end of filming to dub it.[60]

text: Despite the many writers, the film has what Ebert describes as a "wonderfully unified and consistent" script. Koch later claimed it was the tension between his own approach and Curtiz's which accounted for this: "Surprisingly, these disparate approaches somehow meshed, and perhaps it was partly this tug of war between Curtiz and me that gave the film a certain balance."[61] Julius Epstein would later note the screenplay contained "more corn than in the states of Kansas and Iowa combined. But when corn works, there's nothing better."[62]

text: The film ran into some trouble with Joseph Breen of the Production Code Administration (the Hollywood self-censorship body), who opposed the suggestions that Captain Renault extorted sexual favors from his supplicants, and that Rick and Ilsa had slept together.[63][64] Extensive changes were made, with several lines of dialogue removed or altered. All direct references to sex were deleted; Renault's selling of visas for sex, and Rick and Ilsa's previous sexual relationship were implied elliptically rather than referenced explicitly.[65] Also, in the original script, when Sam plays "As Time Goes By", Rick remarks, "What the —— are you playing?" This line was altered to: "Sam, I told you never to play..." to conform to Breen's objection to an implied swear word.[66]

text: The script has been subject to a significant amount of misquotation. One of the lines most closely associated with the film—"Play it again, Sam"—is inaccurate.[67][68] When Ilsa first enters the Café Americain, she spots Sam and asks him to "Play it once, Sam, for old times' sake." After he feigns ignorance, she responds, "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By'." Later that night, alone with Sam, Rick says, "You played it for her, you can play it for me," and "If she can stand it, I can! Play it!" Rick's toast to Ilsa, "Here's looking at you, kid", used four times, was not written into the draft screenplays, but has been attributed to a comment Bogart said to Bergman as he taught her poker between takes.[69] It was voted the fifth most memorable line in cinema in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes by the American Film Institute.[70]

text: Six lines from Casablanca appeared in the AFI list, the most of any film (Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz tied for second with three apiece). The other five are:

text:
"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."—20th
"Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By'."—28th
"Round up the usual suspects."—32nd
"We'll always have Paris."—43rd
"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."—67th

text: Additionally, the line "Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world" was nominated for the list.[71]

text: In the November/December 1982 issue of American Film, Chuck Ross claimed that he retyped the screenplay to Casablanca, changing the title back to Everybody Comes to Rick's and the name of the piano player to Dooley Wilson, and submitted it to 217 agencies. Eighty-five of them read it; of those, thirty-eight rejected it outright, thirty-three generally recognized it (but only eight specifically as Casablanca), three declared it commercially viable, and one suggested turning it into a novel.[72]

text: The Writers Guild of America, West, ranked the screenplay #1 on its list of the 101 greatest screenplays.[73]

text: Direction[edit]

text: Wallis's first choice for director was William Wyler, but he was unavailable, so Wallis turned to his close friend Michael Curtiz.[74][20] Curtiz was a Hungarian Jewish émigré; he had come to the U.S. in 1926, but some of his family were refugees from Nazi Europe.

text: Roger Ebert has commented that in Casablanca "very few shots ... are memorable as shots," as Curtiz wanted images to express the story rather than to stand alone.[16] He contributed relatively little to development of the plot. Casey Robinson said Curtiz "knew nothing whatever about story ... he saw it in pictures, and you supplied the stories."[75]

text: Critic Andrew Sarris called the film "the most decisive exception to the auteur theory",[76] of which Sarris was the most prominent proponent in the United States. Aljean Harmetz has responded, "nearly every Warner Bros. picture was an exception to the auteur theory".[74] Other critics give more credit to Curtiz. Sidney Rosenzweig, in his study of the director's work, sees the film as a typical example of Curtiz's highlighting of moral dilemmas.[77]

text: The second unit montages, such as the opening sequence of the refugee trail and the invasion of France, were directed by Don Siegel.[78]

text: Cinematography[edit]

text: The cinematographer was Arthur Edeson, a veteran who had previously shot The Maltese Falcon and Frankenstein. Particular attention was paid to photographing Bergman. She was shot mainly from her preferred left side, often with a softening gauze filter and with catch lights to make her eyes sparkle; the whole effect was designed to make her face seem "ineffably sad and tender and nostalgic".[16] Bars of shadow across the characters and in the background variously imply imprisonment, the crucifix, the symbol of the Free French Forces and emotional turmoil.[16] Dark film noir and expressionist lighting was used in several scenes, particularly towards the end of the picture. Rosenzweig argues these shadow and lighting effects are classic elements of the Curtiz style, along with the fluid camera work and the use of the environment as a framing device.[79]

text: Music[edit]

text: The music was written by Max Steiner, who was best known for the score for Gone with the Wind. The song "As Time Goes By" by Herman Hupfeld had been part of the story from the original play; Steiner wanted to write his own composition to replace it, but Bergman had already cut her hair short for her next role (María in For Whom the Bell Tolls) and could not re-shoot the scenes which incorporated the song,[80] so Steiner based the entire score on it and "La Marseillaise", the French national anthem, transforming them as leitmotifs to reflect changing moods.[81] Even though Steiner didn't like "As Time Goes By", he admitted in a 1943 interview that it "must have had something to attract so much attention."[82]

text: Particularly memorable is the "duel of the songs" between Strasser and Laszlo at Rick's cafe.[20] In the soundtrack, "La Marseillaise" is played by a full orchestra. Originally, the opposing piece for this iconic sequence was to be the "Horst Wessel Lied", a Nazi anthem, but this was still under international copyright in non-Allied countries. Instead "Die Wacht am Rhein" was used.[83] The "Deutschlandlied", the national anthem of Germany, features in the final scene, in which it gives way to "La Marseillaise" after Strasser is shot.[84][20]

text: Other songs include:

text:
"It Had to Be You", music by Isham Jones, lyrics by Gus Kahn
"Shine", music by Ford Dabney, lyrics by Cecil Mack and Lew Brown
"Avalon", music and lyrics by Al Jolson, Buddy DeSylva and Vincent Rose
"Perfidia", by Alberto Dominguez
"The Very Thought of You", by Ray Noble, and
"Knock on Wood", music by M. K. Jerome, lyrics by Jack Scholl, the only original song.

text: The piano featured in the Paris flashback sequences was sold in New York City on December 14, 2012, at Sotheby's for more than $600,000 to an anonymous bidder.[85] The piano Sam "plays" in Rick's Café Américain, put up for auction with other film memorabilia by Turner Classic Movies at Bonhams in New York in November 2014, sold for $3.4 million.[86][87] Dooley Wilson was not a trained pianist. The piano music for the film was played offscreen and dubbed.[88]

text: Release[edit]

text: Although an initial release date was anticipated for early 1943,[89] the film premiered at the Hollywood Theater in New York City on November 26, 1942, to coincide with the Allied invasion of North Africa and the capture of Casablanca.[6][90] It went into general release on January 23, 1943, to take advantage of the Casablanca Conference, a high-level meeting in the city between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Office of War Information prevented screening of the film to troops in North Africa, believing it would cause resentment among Vichy supporters in the region.[91]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Initial response[edit]

text: Casablanca received "consistently good reviews".[92] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote, "The Warners ... have a picture which makes the spine tingle and the heart take a leap." He applauded the combination of "sentiment, humor and pathos with taut melodrama and bristling intrigue". Crowther noted its "devious convolutions of the plot", and praised the screenplay quality as "of the best" and the cast's performances as "all of the first order".[93]

text: The trade paper Variety commended the film's "combination of fine performances, engrossing story and neat direction" and the "variety of moods, action, suspense, comedy and drama that makes Casablanca an A-1 entry at the b.o."[94] "Film is splendid anti-Axis propaganda, particularly inasmuch as the propaganda is strictly a by-product of the principal action and contributes to it instead of getting in the way."[94] The review also applauded the performances of Bergman and Henreid and note that "Bogart, as might be expected, is more at ease as the bitter and cynical operator of a joint than as a lover, but handles both assignments with superb finesse."[94]

text: Some other reviews were less enthusiastic. The New Yorker rated it only "pretty tolerable" and said it was "not quite up to Across the Pacific, Bogart's last spyfest".[95]

text: In the 1,500-seat Hollywood Theater, the film grossed $255,000 over ten weeks.[96] In its initial U.S. release, it was a substantial but not spectacular box-office success, taking in $3.7 million, making it the seventh highest-grossing film of 1943.[96][97]

text: Lasting influence[edit]

text: The film has grown in popularity. Murray Burnett called it "true yesterday, true today, true tomorrow".[98] By 1955, the film had brought in $6.8 million, making it the third most successful of Warners' wartime movies (behind Shine On, Harvest Moon and This Is the Army).[99] On April 21, 1957, the Brattle Theater of Cambridge, Massachusetts, showed the film as part of a season of old movies. It was so popular that it began a tradition of screening Casablanca during the week of final exams at Harvard University, which continues to the present day. Other colleges have adopted the tradition. Todd Gitlin, a professor of sociology who had attended one of these screenings, has said that the experience was "the acting out of my own personal rite of passage".[100] The tradition helped the movie remain popular while other films famous in the 1940s have faded from popular memory. By 1977, Casablanca was the most frequently broadcast film on American television.[101]

text: On the film's 50th anniversary, the Los Angeles Times called Casablanca's great strength "the purity of its Golden Age Hollywoodness [and] the enduring craftsmanship of its resonantly hokey dialogue". Bob Strauss wrote in the newspaper that the film achieved a "near-perfect entertainment balance" of comedy, romance, and suspense.[102]

text: According to Roger Ebert, Casablanca is "probably on more lists of the greatest films of all time than any other single title, including Citizen Kane" because of its wider appeal. Ebert opined that Citizen Kane is generally considered to be a "greater" film, but Casablanca is more loved.[16] In his opinion, the film is popular because "the people in it are all so good", and it is "a wonderful gem".[16] Ebert said that he has never heard of a negative review of the film, even though individual elements can be criticized, citing unrealistic special effects and the stiff character/portrayal of Laszlo.[75] Critic Leonard Maltin considers Casablanca to be "the best Hollywood movie of all time."[103]

text: Rick, according to Rudy Behlmer, is "not a hero ... not a bad guy": he does what is necessary to get along with the authorities and "sticks his neck out for nobody". The other characters, in Behlmer's words, are "not cut and dried" and come into their goodness over the course of the film. Renault begins as a collaborator with the Nazis who extorts sexual favors from refugees and has Ugarte killed. Even Ilsa, the least active of the main characters, is "caught in the emotional struggle" over which man she really loves. By the end, however, "everybody is sacrificing."[75] Behlmer also emphasized the variety in the picture: "it's a blend of drama, melodrama, comedy [and] intrigue".[75]

text: A few reviewers have had reservations. To Pauline Kael, "It's far from a great film, but it has a special appealingly schlocky romanticism ..."[104] Poet and critic Dan Schneider wrote that the work "does entertain, and is an interesting piece of Americana", but criticized it as a melodrama "driven by plot, not by character development. All the characters react to what the plot dictates to them; the plot does not organically flow from their personae."[105] Umberto Eco wrote that "by any strict critical standards ... Casablanca is a very mediocre film." He viewed the changes the characters undergo as inconsistent rather than complex: "It is a comic strip, a hotch-potch, low on psychological credibility, and with little continuity in its dramatic effects." However, he added that due to the presence of multiple archetypes which allow "the power of Narrative in its natural state without Art intervening to discipline it", it is a movie reaching "Homeric depths" as a "phenomenon worthy of awe."[106]

text: Influence on later works[edit]

text: Many subsequent films have drawn on elements of Casablanca. Passage to Marseille reunited actors Bogart, Rains, Greenstreet, Lorre and director Curtiz in 1944,[107] and there are similarities between Casablanca and another later Bogart film, To Have and Have Not (1944).[108]

text: Parodies have included the Marx Brothers' A Night in Casablanca (1946), Neil Simon's The Cheap Detective (1978), and Out Cold (2001). Indirectly, it provided the title for the 1995 neo-noir film The Usual Suspects.[109] Woody Allen's Play It Again, Sam (1972) appropriated Bogart's Casablanca persona as the fantasy mentor for Allen's character.[110]

text: The film Casablanca was a plot device in the science-fiction television movie Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (1983), based on John Varley's story. It was referred to in Terry Gilliam's dystopian Brazil (1985). Warner Bros. produced its own parody in the homage Carrotblanca, a 1995 Bugs Bunny cartoon.[111] In Casablanca, a novella by Argentine writer Edgar Brau, the protagonist somehow wanders into Rick's Café Américain and listens to a strange tale related by Sam.[112] The 2016 musical film La La Land contains multiple allusions to Casablanca in the imagery, dialogue, and plot.[113]

text: Director Robert Zemeckis of Allied (2016), which is also set in 1942 Casablanca, studied the film to capture the city's elegance.[114]

text: Interpretation[edit]

text: Casablanca has been subjected to many readings; Semioticians account for the film's popularity by claiming that its inclusion of stereotypes paradoxically strengthens the film.[115][116][117][118] Umberto Eco wrote

text: Thus Casablanca is not just one film. It is many films, an anthology. Made haphazardly, it probably made itself, if not actually against the will of its authors and actors, then at least beyond their control. And this is the reason it works, in spite of aesthetic theories and theories of film making. For in it there unfolds with almost telluric force the power of Narrative in its natural state, without Art intervening to discipline it ... When all the archetypes burst in shamelessly, we reach Homeric depths. Two clichés make us laugh. A hundred clichés move us. For we sense dimly that the clichés are talking among themselves, and celebrating a reunion.[119][120]

text: Eco also singled out sacrifice as a theme, "the myth of sacrifice runs through the whole film".[121] It was this theme which resonated with a wartime audience that was reassured by the idea that painful sacrifice and going off to war could be romantic gestures done for the greater good.[122]

text: Koch also considered the film a political allegory. Rick is compared to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who gambled "on the odds of going to war until circumstance and his own submerged nobility force him to close his casino (partisan politics) and commit himself—first by financing the Side of Right and then by fighting for it".[123] The connection is reinforced by the film's title, which means "white house".[123]

text: Harvey Greenberg presents a Freudian reading in his The Movies on Your Mind, in which the transgressions which prevent Rick from returning to the United States constitute an Oedipus complex, which is resolved only when Rick begins to identify with the father figure of Laszlo and the cause which he represents.[124] Sidney Rosenzweig argues that such readings are reductive and that the most important aspect of the film is its ambiguity, above all in the central character of Rick; he cites the different names which each character gives Rick (Richard, Ricky, Mr. Rick, Herr Rick and boss) as evidence of the different meanings which he has for each person.[125]

text: Awards and honors[edit]

text: Because of its November 1942 release, the New York Film Critics decided to include the film in its 1942 award season for best picture. Casablanca lost to In Which We Serve.[96] However, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences stated that since the film went into national release in the beginning of 1943, it would be included in that year's nominations.[126] Casablanca was nominated for eight Academy Awards, and won three. As Bogart stepped out of his car at the Academy Awards ceremony, "the crowd surged forward, almost engulfing him and his wife, Mayo Methot. It took 12 police officers to rescue the two, and a red-faced, startled, yet smiling Bogart heard a chorus of cries of 'good luck' and 'here's looking at you, kid' as he was rushed into the theater."[127]

text: When the award for Best Picture was announced, producer Hal B. Wallis got up to accept, but studio head Jack L. Warner rushed up to the stage "with a broad, flashing smile and a look of great self-satisfaction," Wallis later recalled. "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."[127] This incident would lead Wallis to leave Warner Bros. in April.[128]

text:
Award
Category
Nominee
Result

16th Academy Awards
Outstanding Motion Picture
Warner Bros. (Hal B. Wallis, Producer)
Won

Best Director
Michael Curtiz
Won

Best Actor
Humphrey Bogart
Nominated

Best Supporting Actor
Claude Rains
Nominated

Best Writing, Screenplay
Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch
Won

Best Cinematography
Arthur Edeson
Nominated

Best Film Editing
Owen Marks
Nominated

Best Music (Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture)
Max Steiner
Nominated

text: In 1989, the film was one of the first 25 films selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[129] In 2005, it was named one of the 100 greatest films of the last 80 years by Time magazine (the selected films were not ranked). Screenwriting teacher Robert McKee maintains that the script is "the greatest screenplay of all time".[17] In 2006, the Writers Guild of America, West agreed, voting it the best ever in its list of the 101 greatest screenplays.[130] The film has been selected by the American Film Institute for many of their lists.

text:
Year
Category
Rank

1998
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies
2

2001
AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills
37

2002
AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions
1

2003
AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains
4: Rick Blaine (hero)

2004
AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs
2: "As Time Goes By"

2005
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes
5, 20, 28, 32, 43, and 67: See "Writing" above.

2006
AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers
32

2007
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)
3

text: Home media releases[edit]

text: Casablanca was initially released on Betamax and VHS by Magnetic Video and later by CBS/Fox Video (as United Artists owned the rights at the time). It was next released on laserdisc in 1991, and on VHS in 1992—both from MGM/UA Home Entertainment (distributing for Turner Entertainment Co.), which at the time was distributed by Warner Home Video. It was first released on DVD in 1997 by MGM, containing the trailer and a making-of featurette (Warner Home Video reissued the DVD in 2000). A subsequent two-disc special edition, containing audio commentaries, documentaries, and a newly remastered visual and audio presentation, was released in 2003.[131]

text: An HD DVD was released on November 14, 2006, containing the same special features as the 2003 DVD.[132] Reviewers were impressed with the new high-definition transfer of the film.[133]

text: A Blu-ray release with new special features came out on December 2, 2008; it is also available on DVD.[134] The Blu-ray was initially only released as an expensive gift set with a booklet, a luggage tag and other assorted gift-type items. It was eventually released as a stand-alone Blu-ray in September 2009. On March 27, 2012, Warner released a new 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition Blu-ray/DVD combo set. It includes a brand-new 4K restoration and new bonus material.[135][136]

text: Sequels and other versions[edit]

text: Almost from the moment Casablanca became a hit, talk began of producing a sequel. One titled Brazzaville (in the final scene, Renault recommends fleeing to that Free French-held city) was planned, but never produced.[137] Since then, no studio has seriously considered filming a sequel or outright remake. François Truffaut refused an invitation to remake the film in 1974, citing its cult status among American students as his reason.[138] Attempts to recapture the magic of Casablanca in other settings, such as Caboblanco (1980), "a South American-set retooling of Casablanca",[139] and Havana (1990)[140] have been poorly received.

text: Stories of a Casablanca remake or sequel nonetheless persist. In 2008, the Daily Mail reported that Madonna was pursuing a remake set in modern-day Iraq.[141] In 2012, both The Daily Telegraph and Entertainment Weekly reported on efforts by Cass Warner, granddaughter of Harry Warner and friend of the late Howard Koch, to produce a sequel featuring the search by Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund's illegitimate son for the whereabouts of his biological father.[142][143]

text: The novel As Time Goes By, written by Michael Walsh and published in 1998, was authorized by Warner.[144][145] The novel picks up where the film leaves off, and also tells of Rick's mysterious past in America. The book met with little success.[146] David Thomson provided an unofficial sequel in his 1985 novel Suspects.[147]

text: There have been two short-lived television series based upon Casablanca, both sharing the title. The first, a Cold War espionage program set during the production's present day, aired on ABC as part of the wheel series Warner Bros. Presents in hour-long episodes from 1955 to 1956, with Charles McGraw as Rick and Marcel Dalio, who played Emil the croupier in the movie, as the police chief.[148] The second series, briefly broadcast on NBC in April 1983, starred David Soul as Rick and was cancelled after 3 weeks.[138]

text: There were several radio adaptations of the film. The two best-known were a thirty-minute adaptation on The Screen Guild Theater on April 26, 1943, starring Bogart, Bergman, and Henreid, and an hour-long version on the Lux Radio Theater on January 24, 1944, featuring Alan Ladd as Rick, Hedy Lamarr as Ilsa, and John Loder as Victor Laszlo. Two other thirty-minute adaptations were aired: on Philip Morris Playhouse on September 3, 1943, and on Theater of Romance on December 19, 1944, in which Dooley Wilson reprised his role as Sam.[149]

text: Julius Epstein made two attempts to turn the film into a Broadway musical, in 1951 and 1967, but neither made it to the stage.[150] The original play, Everybody Comes to Rick's, was produced in Newport, Rhode Island, in August 1946, and again in London in April 1991, but met with no success.[151] The film was adapted into a musical by the Takarazuka Revue, an all-female Japanese musical theater company, and ran from November 2009 through February 2010.[152]

text: Colorization[edit]

text: Casablanca was part of the film colorization controversy of the 1980s,[153] when a colorized version aired on the television network WTBS. In 1984, MGM/UA hired Color Systems Technology to colorize the film for $180,000.[154] When Ted Turner of Turner Broadcasting System purchased MGM/UA's film library two years later, he canceled the request, before contracting American Film Technologies (AFT) in 1988. AFT completed the colorization in two months at a cost of $450,000.[154] Turner later reacted to the criticism of the colorization, saying, "[Casablanca] is one of a handful of films that really doesn't have to be colorized. I did it because I wanted to. All I'm trying to do is protect my investment."[154]

text: The Library of Congress deemed that the color change differed so much from the original film that it gave a new copyright to Turner Entertainment. When the colorized film debuted on WTBS, it was watched by three million viewers, not making the top-ten viewed cable shows for the week. Although Jack Matthews of the Los Angeles Times called the finished product "state of the art", it was mostly met with negative critical reception.[154] It was briefly available on home video. Gary Edgerton, writing for the Journal of Popular Film & Television criticized the colorization, "... Casablanca in color ended up being much blander in appearance and, overall, much less visually interesting than its 1942 predecessor."[154] Bogart's son Stephen said, "if you're going to colorize Casablanca, why not put arms on the Venus de Milo?"[138]

text: Anecdotes and inaccuracies[edit]

text: Several rumors and misconceptions have grown up around the film, one being that Ronald Reagan was originally chosen to play Rick. This originated in a press release issued by the studio early on in the film's development, but by that time the studio already knew that he was going into the Army, and he was never seriously considered.[155] George Raft claimed that he had turned down the lead role. Studio records make clear that Wallis was committed to Bogart from the start.[156]

text: Another well-known story is that the actors did not know until the last day of shooting how the film was to end. The original play (set entirely in the cafe) ended with Rick sending Ilsa and Laszlo to the airport. During scriptwriting, the possibility was discussed of Laszlo being killed in Casablanca, allowing Rick and Ilsa to leave together, but as Casey Robinson wrote to Hal Wallis before filming began, the ending of the film "set up for a swell twist when Rick sends her away on the plane with Laszlo. For now, in doing so, he is not just solving a love triangle. He is forcing the girl to live up to the idealism of her nature, forcing her to carry on with the work that in these days is far more important than the love of two little people."[157] It was certainly impossible for Ilsa to leave Laszlo for Rick, as the production code forbade showing a woman leaving her husband for another man. The concern was not whether Ilsa would leave with Laszlo, but how this result could be engineered.[158] The problem was solved when the Epstein brothers, Julius and Philip, were driving down Sunset Boulevard and stopped for the light at Beverly Glen. At that instant the identical twins turned to each other and simultaneously cried out, "Round up the usual suspects!"[159] By the time they had driven past Fairfax and the Cahuenga Pass and through the Warner Brothers studio's portals at Burbank, in the words of Julius Epstein, "the idea for the farewell scene between a tearful Bergman and a suddenly noble Bogart" had been formed and all the problems of the ending had been solved.[160] The confusion was probably caused by Bergman's later statement that she did not know which man she was meant to be in love with. Rewrites did occur during the filming, but Aljean Harmetz's examination of the scripts has shown that many of the key scenes were shot after Bergman knew how the film would end; any confusion was, in critic Roger Ebert's words, "emotional", not "factual".[16]

text: The film has several logical flaws, the foremost being the two "letters of transit" that enable their bearers to leave Vichy French territory. According to the  audio (help·info), Ugarte says the letters had been signed by (depending on the listener) either Free French General Charles de Gaulle or Vichy General Maxime Weygand. The English subtitles on the official DVD read de Gaulle; the French ones specify Weygand. Weygand had been the Vichy Delegate-General for the North African colonies until November 1941, a month before the film is set. De Gaulle was the head of the Free French government in exile, so a letter signed by him would have provided no benefit.[37] A classic MacGuffin, the letters were invented by Joan Alison for the original play and never questioned.[161]

text: In the same vein, though Laszlo asserts that the Nazis cannot arrest him, saying, "This is still unoccupied France; any violation of neutrality would reflect on Captain Renault," Ebert points out, "It makes no sense that he could walk around freely. ... He would be arrested on sight."[16]

text: In addition, no uniformed German troops were stationed in Casablanca during World War II, and neither American nor French troops occupied Berlin in 1918.[37]

text: According to Harmetz, the usual route out of Germany, at least for people in the film industry, was not via Morocco and Lisbon but via Vienna, Prague, Paris and England. Only the film's technical adviser, Robert Aisner, traced the path to Morocco shown in the film's opening scene.[162]