It’s amazing how little it takes to fool us movie audiences. On July 10, 1942, the cast and crew working on Warner Brothers’ “Casablanca” decamped to what was then called Los Angeles Metropolitan Airport (later renamed Van Nuys Airport) to film the arrival of Major Heinrich Strasser played by Conrad Veidt (who in reality was one of Hollywood’s staunchest enemies of the Nazi movement.) That tower we can see in the background was the Metropolitan Airport’s tower, but put an exotically shaped archway between it and the camera, add a sign that says CASABLANCA AÉRO-GARE and hey presto, we’re in Northern Africa.
This production shot taken a few feet back shows us how just a few well-chosen props can make a world of difference:
@ForeverHollywo3 says: “Big points for putting it at Van Nuys, so many have claimed Burbank Airport, however Burbank was the principle Lockheed Plant at the time and was shut down to civilian traffic in 1940. It bedeviled Warner Bros until the end of the war because departing P-38 and C-79 (Constellation) would halt sound recording. Sadly the old Moorish tower was demolished in the 1950s.”
It’s amazing how little it takes to fool us movie audiences. On July 10, 1942, the cast and crew working on Warner Brothers’ “Casablanca” decamped to what was then called Los Angeles Metropolitan Airport (later renamed Van Nuys Airport) to film the arrival of Major Heinrich Strasser played by Conrad Veidt (who in reality was one of Hollywood’s staunchest enemies of the Nazi movement.) That tower we can see in the background was the Metropolitan Airport’s tower, but put an exotically shaped archway between it and the camera, add a sign that says CASABLANCA AÉRO-GARE and hey presto, we’re in Northern Africa.
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