The most famous sentence in film history was never actually said, we are all | Movies | Entertainment

May the Force be with you as you try to figure out which Hollywood quote we've been saying wrong this whole time. You could have been a candidate, and maybe ET could call home to find out the answer, but buckle up because it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Frankly, my dears, you may not care, but the words on the screen are the stuff dreams are made of. One thing is clear: we are no longer in Kansas when we cross the sea to a certain piano bar in Morocco.

The 1942 World War II classic “Casablanca” has six unforgettable entries in the AFI countdown of the 100 greatest lines in film history, far more than any other entry.

Ironic, considering that stars Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, who played Rick and Ilsa, both “found the dialogue ridiculous and the situations unbelievable,” according to fellow star Geraldine Fitzgerald, who recalls one occasion when “the whole topic at lunch was how they could get out of this movie.”

It seems extraordinary today when you look back at a Hollywood film that has become a timeless classic, but even screenwriter Julius J. Epstein gave up describing the plot to Gone with the Wind producer David O. Selznick and said, “Oh, what the hell! This is a load of crap!”

Howard Koch, who also co-wrote the screenplay, described the chaos that ensued during the filming of the first scenes of Rick's Café Americaine between Rick, Ilsa and her husband Lazlo, played by Paul Henreid – who also wanted to drop out of the film.

Koch said in 2017: “When we started, we didn't have a finished script. Ingrid Bergman came to me and asked: 'Which man should I love more?' I said to her: 'I don't know if I should play them both equally.' Because we had no ending, so we didn't know what was going to happen!”

Fitzgerald made another extraordinary revelation: “Ingrid was terribly upset because she said she had to portray the most beautiful woman in Europe and no one would ever believe it.”

Nevertheless, the finished script became a classic, containing iconic lines such as “I'm looking at you, boy,” improvised by Bogart, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” “Round up the usual suspects,” “We've always got Paris,” and “Of all the bars in all the cities in the world, she comes to mine.”

But there's one more quote we all love to imitate, complete with Bogart's inimitable accent. It's, of course, the classic “As Time Goes By,” which holds a special place in Ilsa and Rick's hearts.

However, at no point in the film does he say, “Play it again, Sam,” as you can see in the clip below.

Ilsa tells the musician Sam, played by Dooley Wilson: “Play it, Sam… play it again. For old times' sake.” A little later, Rick also says: “You played it for her, you can play it for me. If she can take it, I can. Play it!”

Even more remarkable is the fact that although Dooley was a well-known drummer and singer, he could not actually play the piano and so on screen he only pretends to hit the keys.

Of course, what you see and hear in the film is not always believable. Out of the camera's view, Bogart often stood on boxes or had three-inch thick blocks attached to his soles because he was shorter than Bergman.

And as for the famous on-screen chemistry between two stars playing one of the greatest tragic love stories in film history, Bergman later said of Bogey, “I kissed him, but I didn't know him.”