“Casablanca” was written in 1941 during the months preceding the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7. The film was released in 1942.
The original script of “Everybody Comes to Ricks” was picked up by a script reader on December 8, 1941. If he had read it the week before, it may have never been made.
We will always have Paris
Bogarts never says play it again Sam. He says
“Play it Sam, You played for her, you can play it for me.”
Bergman did say play “As Time Goes By” and Sam claimed he did not remember it.
Max Steiner who orchestrated the movie was planning to write a song for it. But because she used the line and had changed her hair style for her next picture, they had to leave it in. Herman Hupfeld became a very rich man because of this. He wrote “As Time Goes By” in 1931.
Bet you've never watched the movie, have you?
The original song the Germans sang in the script was the Horst Wessel Lied, but Warner was worried about copyright so they substituted a patriotic song from the 1840s.
By the time the movie was out the 8th Air Force was pounding the Reich copyright office to dust. They could have kept the original.