Casablanca may be, at this point, the most popular movie ever made in old Hollywood. It has everything — a great story, stars, script — and one of the most memorable scores of the period. The dueling national anthems scene is burned in the memory of every film buff in the world, but Max Steiner’s score goes way beyond that in contributing to the power of the final product. Steiner used Herman Hupfield’s song, As Time Goes By, appropriated by the play on which the film was based, and La Marseillaise as the main leitmotivs of his score, twisting them and remaking them to suit the psychology of each character and scene.
Given how much of the movie is set in Rick’s Café Americain, Steiner’s decision was perfectly suited to the film. This Friday, the San Francisco Symphony performs the magical score at Davies Symphony Hall, synched to the film itself. Round up the usual suspects and go.