In Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942), the first sight we get of Rick (Humphrey Bogart) is his arm, his hand, signing a cheque (sign of power), playing chess (a game of power, calculation), before we see his face. This suggests that, Humphrey Bogart having all the charisma that he had in Hollywood and in the cinema, that Curtiz wanted to give his lead an image o being powerful outside of Bogie’s famous persona. As they say, human beings are Casablanca’s primary commodity. But Casablanca is going to be a great film even without Bogart, Curtiz tells us, although we know it would not nearly be the same without him. Of course he made everything that he touched amazing. Even the way he smokes his cigarettes – or the way he picked up his cigarette, before we saw that it was him.
‘What is your nationality?’
‘I’m a drunkard’
‘And that makes Rick a citizen of the world.’
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