Had said in interviews that he was supposed to direct the
now-beloved
Casablanca (1942) and
Michael Curtiz was
meant to direct
El sargento York (1941). However, the two directors
had lunch together and Curtiz complained that he knew nothing about the
"hill people", while Hawks was struggling to make this "musical
comedy", so they switched films. Hawks said that he always considered
"Casablanca" a musical comedy because of the number of
singing scenes in the café, namely the "La Marseillaise" scene. Later,
Hawks said that Curtiz shot the film "beautifully and the whole picture
came out different because of the two people in it
[
Humphrey Bogart and
Ingrid Bergman]. They made you
believe something. When I saw 'Casablanca' I liked it, but
I never had any faith in my doing anything like that".
