Casablanca: The Real Story

"Anything?" asks Rick.

"Yes. For instance, if you will not give me the letters of transit, you should use them yourself and take her with you."

"You'd do that for her?"

"Oh yes. I love her very much, Mr. Blaine. I would do that for her."

Soon after Rick has a plan that he's fairly sure will work. He goes to Captain Renault and tells him he's got the letters.

"I'm going to use them myself," he tells Renault, "and take Ilsa with me."

"Why are you telling me this? Those letters can never be rescinded or even questioned."

"I know, Louie, but suppose I make it look like Laszlo has the letters and you barge in. You could arrest him and chuck him in a concentration camp for a long time. I wouldn't have to worry about him ever again, and it would be quite a feather in your cap."

"I'm going to miss you, Ricky. You are apparently the only person in Casablanca even less scrupulous than I," says Renault.

They work out the details. Rick tells Laszlo and Ilsa to meet him at his strip club that evening, and from there they'll go to the airport.

In the afternoon, Rick goes to see Ferrari at the Blue Parrot and sells him his strip club.

"I'm really being suckered here," he says, "but there isn't much I can do about it. But Sam stays and you promise to buy him a Cole Porter songbook so he doesn't have to play those old goddam country blues tunes anymore. What Ilsa saw in those fucking things I'll never know." Ferrari agrees and promises to throw in a Rodgers and Hart one, too.

Ilsa and Laszlo show up at the club as planned. "Here's the money we agreed on, Mr. Blaine," says Laszlo, handing Rick a pile of francs.

"That's okay, you keep it. You're going to need it."

Ilsa whispers to Rick, "Rick, what's going on. Victor thinks he and I are getting on that plane."

"Don't worry, darling, I've got it all figured out. Trust me."

Just then, right on schedule, Renault shows up to arrest Laszlo.

Suddenly Rick pulls out a gun and says, "Not so fast, Louie. We're all going to the airport first. Call the airport and tell them two more people will be on that plane to Lisbon."

Renault gets on the phone, but instead of calling the airport he secretly phones Major Strasser, the German high official in Casablanca. Strasser, now warned, heads for the airport in his car.

Rick, Ilsa, Laszlo, and Renault all reach the airport before Strasser. Laszlo takes luggage to the plane and is thus out of earshot.

Still holding the gun on Renault, Rick says, "Here are the letters, Louie. Fill in the names of... Mr. and Mrs. Victor Laszlo."

Ilsa gasps, "Rick, what are you doing! I thought I, we... Last night after that unbelievable fuck we had you said..."

"Last night we said a lot of things, but you're getting on that plane with him where you belong, Ilsa, or you'll regret it, maybe not today or tomorrow, but for the rest of your life. We both know you belong with him, you're part of his work, you're what keeps him going. Do you know what you'll face here with me? We'd both likely end up in a concentration camp, isn't that right, Louie?"

"I'm afraid Major Strasser would insist."

"What about us?" she asks.

"We'll always have Paris. We lost it for a while, but we got it back last night. All those nights in Paris, I'll never forget what it was like fucking you, tasting your pussy, feeling my cock in your mouth."

"And I said I would never leave you..."

"And you never will. Here's looking at you, kid."

She and Laszlo head for the plane.

"Just as I thought," says Renault, "you're a rank sentimentalist. You know I'm going to have to arrest you."

"After the plane leaves, Louie."

Strasser finally speeds into the airport in his open car.

"Victor Laszlo is on that plane," Renault tells him.

"Why are you just standing here?" Strasser asks. "Why aren't you trying to stop him?"

"Ask Rick," he says, pointing to the gun he's holding.

"I was willing to shoot Captain Renault and I'm willing to shoot you," barks Rick.

Strasser reaches for the telephone in order to call the control tower to stop the plane. Rick fires two shots and Strasser falls, dead. A police car arrives and Renault tells them to "Round up the usual assholes."

The plane is just now taking off and Rick and Renault walk a few steps to better watch it climb into the sky. Suddenly there's a huge flash and an ear-piercing explosion, and pieces of the plane to Lisbon begin raining down onto the ground.

"That'll teach that fucking bitch to ever leave me," says Rick.