I watched Casablanca last night.
One of the pure joys of this movie, at least for me, is how well dressed the refugees are. Yes, they are running from the Nazis, but is that any reason to let themselves go? No, my friends. These people fled with formal dinner attire.
The best example of this, is, of course, Victor Laszlo, leader of the Czechoslavakian Resistance and Concentration Camp Escapee (he's got the scar over his eyebrow to prove it). He's been sick, he's been imprisoned, he's been on the run all across Europe, and yet he's got a white dinner jacket and a silver cigarette case. When he sidles up to the bar in his white tuxedo, lights a cigarette and orders himself a "champaigne cocktail", well, the Bee Charmer just has to take a minute to say "go on ahead with your bad self, Mr. Laszlo".
Please do not take this post to be an endorsement of the Bee Charmer's belief that Ilsa made the right decision. Victor Laszlo could dress for dinner, but in the end, no woman in her right mind would have picked him over Humphrey Bogart. After all, Humphrey had his own white dinner jacket.
