Who Says, “Play It Again, Sam” in the Movie “Casablanca”?

And the answer is: nobody. That line isn’t in the movie. We get the full scoop from the website The Phrase Finder:

This is well-known as one of the most widely misquoted lines from films. The actual line in the film is ‘Play it, Sam’. Something approaching ‘Play it again, Sam’ is first said in the film by Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) in an exchange with the piano player ‘Sam’ (Dooley Wilson):

The line is usually associated with Humphrey Bogart and later in the film his character Rick Blaine has a similar exchange, although his line is simply ‘Play it’:

Rick: You know what I want to hear.
Sam: No, I don’t.
Rick: You played it for her, you can play it for me!
Sam: Well, I don’t think I can remember…
Rick: If she can stand it, I can! Play it!
(http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/284700.html)

So there you have it. It’s almost like hearing that Bugs Bunny never said, “What’s up, Doc?”

The plot of the movie is quite nuanced and complex, taking place during 1942 in the city of Casablanca, Morocco, which is a magnet for refugees and shady agents on both sides of WWII because of its location on the coastline of Africa down from Gibraltar. I won’t try to summarize the whole thing here, but it has a nice setup and a fascinating moral issue. The setup is that Rick, the owner of Rick’s Cafè, a gambling den and general meeting place for those in the know, had been madly in love with a woman named Ilse in 1940. He’d  met her in Paris right at the start of the war. Okay. She’d thought at the time that her husband, a Czech resistance fighter named Victor Laszlo, had died in a concentration camp. When the husband showed up, alive and well, she’d gone off with him without a word to Rick. Now, in the film’s present, she’s in Casablanca with said husband and runs into Rick there. The moral issue? Should Rick help Ilsa and her husband to escape the Nazis by giving them false letters of transit, or should he just help the husband get away and keep Ilse with him? (I’m oversimplifying madly here.) The husband actually knows that Ilse loves Rick and is willing to leave by himself. So what should Rick do? (I get a little irritated with the idea that it’s up to the two men to make the decision.) 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”. Well, then!

In the story “As Time Goes By” was Rick and Ilse’s song–you know, “their” song. It was written by the American songwriter Herman Hupfeld and was basically his only big hit, although I must mention that he was also the author of the immortal “When Yuba Plays The Rhumba On The Tuba.” The song wasn’t even written originally for the famous movie but for a flopped Broadway show titled Everybody’s Welcome that ran for 139 performances in 1931. It was then re-used in a never-produced play called Everybody Goes to Rick’s which follows the same basic story line as the movie. In 1942 a story editor at Warner Brothers persuaded the producer Hall B. Wallis to buy the film rights to the play, but no one at the studio expected much from it. They were certainly proven wrong!

I can’t resist including here the actual first verse of the song which was omitted in the movie and is almost unknown. I think it sets up the ideas of the rest of the song very well, and am sorry that Albert Einstein missed out on being associated so strongly with romance.

This day and age we’re living in
Gives cause for apprehension
With speed and new invention
And things like fourth dimension
Yet we grow a trifle weary
With Mr. Einstein’s theory
So we must get down to earth
At times relax, relieve the tension
No matter what the progress
Or what may yet be proved
The simple facts of life are such
They cannot be removed.

Here’s the clip from the movie which includes the song but also the context around it:

And, because I just can’t resist, here’s Hupfeld’s other hit:

Here are the lyrics as they appear in the film:

You must remember this
A kiss is just a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by.

And when two lovers woo
They still say “I love you”
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by.

Moonlight and love songs
Never out of date
Hearts full of passion
Jealousy and hate
Woman needs man, and man must have his mate
That no one can deny.

It’s still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by.

© Debi Simons