Of course, its parts did come together successfully—magnificently—but a few happy accidents are also responsible for the film's tremendous popularity and classic status. For example, composer Max Steiner created an original song to replace "As Time Goes By," a song he hated, but the scenes were not re-filmed because Bergman had already had her hair cut for her role in For Whom the Bell Tolls<span>. Likewise, the screenplay for </span>Casablanca<span> evolved out of a play entitled </span>Everybody Comes to Rick's<span>, which was written in </span>1941<span>, before the United States entered World War II. The play has a clear anti-Nazi slant, just as </span><span>Casablanca </span><span>does, but prior to Pearl Harbor, a movie studio in the neutral United States would probably not have made such a political movie. In this respect, the timing was perfect. </span><span>Casablanca </span><span>is an unusual World War II movie in that it isn't overly propagandist—in other words, it doesn't go overboard in preaching about the justness of the cause and the certainty of victory. In </span>1942<span>, the U.S. was suffering in the Pacific, and Allied victory seemed far from certain. </span>Casablanca<span> captures this unique moment in America's part in the conflict, when the nation was fully at war but not yet fully indoctrinated in a war ideology. Throughout the film, the war's outcome is uncertain, and Casablanca is a place of anxiety and uncertainty. This uncertainty lends the movie a genuine tension and renders the political activities of Lasso and Rick all the more heroic.</span>
The double arch allows for ample air.
