Song of the Day 7/14: Paul Henreid and the cast of “Casablanca,” “La Marseillaise”
It’s not just a great national anthem, it’s a great Nazi-fighting anthem. And Paul Henreid, forever to be known as “Casablanca” Nazi-fighter Victor Laszlo, was the right man to sing it — the Austrian was so ardently anti-Nazi he was declared an official enemy of the Third Reich.
Born in Trieste and trained in Vienna, he was discovered by Otto Preminger and acted in films in Germany before he left for England in 1937, where he ended up playing Nazis on-screen. He reached America in 1940 and again played mostly ethnic roles before his breakthrough in “Casablanca.”
He became a U.S. citizen in 1941 and was among a group of Hollywood actors who went to Washington in 1947 to speak against the House Committee on Un-American Activities (Henreid is the tall one in back). He made a second career as a television director after Alfred Hitchcock hired him in 1955 to direct his “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” He went on to direct more than 80 episodes, along with episodes of early-TV classics such as “Maverick” and “Bonanza.” He died, age 84, in 1992.
Happy Bastille Day! Viva la France!
That scene is so fucking well directed. Watch it again. The story passes from character to character with glances and looks ending upon a tearful Madeleine Lebeau, who in real life, fled Paris ahead of the invading Germans.
Let’s go children of the homeland,
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us tyranny’s
Bloody flag is raised!
Those tears were real.
Most of the actors in the film are European exiles. Major Strasser is played by Conrad Veidt, a German silent-film star and Nazi-hater who left in 1933 after he married a Jewish woman. On employment forms he would write his race as “Jude” even though he wasn’t.
Back when the Playhouse in Wilmington was on the circuit for Broadway shows opening out of town (1973?), I saw this there:
DON JUAN IN HELL, a play by George Bernard Shaw. Directed by John Houseman.
Commander – Paul Henreid
Don Juan – Ricardo Montalban
Devil – Edward Mulhare
Dona Ana – Agnes Moorehead
Wow. Did they have rich Corinthian leather back in Don Juan’s day?
This is my favorite movie and have always weep when that song played. Out of Africa is very close in my ratings. Thanks for bring tears and pointing out the times we face here in America.