The Woman Crying in Casablanca Was a Real Refugee

In Casablanca (1942), a crowd of exiles drowns out a German song with La Marseillaise, and a young woman sings through tears. Her name was Madeleine LeBeau. Two years before filming, she had fled Paris just ahead of the German army, along with her husband, Marcel Dalio. She wasn't the only one. Of the 14 actors with screen credit, only three were born in America. The pickpocket, the croupier, even the Nazi major had left Hitler's Europe. This video walks back into Rick's Café, follows what happened to the cast, and checks the legends: who wrote the famous last line, why nobody says "Play it again, Sam," and how a movie about refugees opened in the middle of a real war. Casablanca, Marseillaise scene, Madeleine LeBeau, Conrad Veidt, WWII film history. #Casablanca #FilmHistory #ClassicMovies