Everybody Comes to Rick's

Everybody Comes to Rick's
Name	Everybody Comes to Rick's
Author	Murray Burnett and Joan Alison
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Drama
Publisher	Unpublished (play); adapted into film
Media type	Stage play; film screenplay

Everybody Comes to Rick's is a 1940s American stage play by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison that became the basis for the classic 1942 film Casablanca. The work inspired collaborations and disputes involving figures from Warner Bros., Hollywood studios, and the American theatre community, intersecting with personalities linked to World War II, Vichy France, and wartime exile narratives. Its themes and legal history connect to authors, screenwriters, producers, and institutions central to mid‑twentieth century American culture.

Background and Creation

Burnett, a former radio writer associated with NBC and CBS, and Alison, who worked in New York City theatrical circles, conceived the play against the backdrop of World War II and the fall of France to Nazi Germany. Their manuscript, influenced by refugee accounts from Lisbon, Marseilles, and Casablanca, Morocco, drew on contemporary events such as the Battle of France and the establishment of Vichy France. Early drafts referenced émigré communities connected to figures like Victor Laszlo archetypes and settings resonant with the diplomatic environment of the United States Department of State and the French Resistance. The play circulated among Broadway producers, including contacts with representatives of Orson Welles's circle and theatrical agents tied to The Group Theatre, while rights negotiations involved intermediaries linked to Samuel Goldwyn, David O. Selznick, and executives at Warner Bros. Pictures.

The authors sold the material amid discussions with prominent Hollywood writers such as Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch, and Peter Viertel, whose screenwriting work for studios like RKO Radio Pictures and Paramount Pictures paralleled industry practices. Production decisions connected to producers like Hal B. Wallis and composers from Max Steiner's milieu influenced adaptation choices, even as contract disputes invoked United States copyright law precedents and litigation involving the United States District Court system.

Plot Summary

Set primarily in a cosmopolitan nightclub in Casablanca, Morocco under French control during the early years of World War II, the narrative focuses on the intersecting lives of refugees, expatriates, and officials seeking transit to Lisbon and then to the United States. Central plot elements involve an American expatriate who owns a popular establishment frequented by characters tied to French colonial administration, German officers representing the Third Reich, and resistance sympathizers allied with figures analogized to Czech activists. The action escalates around letters of transit, a critical MacGuffin that allows characters to escape to neutral ports like Lisbon and onward to destinations such as New York City and London.

Romantic tension arises from past relationships rekindled amid political stakes involving espionage, detention by authorities similar to the Gestapo, and negotiations with officials reminiscent of figures from Vichy administration. The climax hinges on moral choices reflecting allegiances to the anti‑Nazi cause and loyalty to loved ones, culminating in departures that mirror wartime diaspora routes through Marseilles and Lisbon.

Characters

Principal characters created by Burnett and Alison include an American nightclub owner modeled on expatriate entrepreneurs, a displaced European resistance leader resembling Victor Laszlo‑type figures, and a former lover with ties to pre‑war European cosmopolitan life. Supporting roles populate the establishment: refugees from Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland; military figures representing elements of the Wehrmacht and Vichy French administration; and bureaucrats connected to consular services similar to those of the United States Embassy and French consulate in Casablanca. Other stock characters evoke archetypes found in contemporary wartime narratives by writers associated with The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and radio dramas on ABC.

Actors who later became linked to adaptations include stars from Warner Bros. rosters and performers who had worked with companies such as MGM, 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, and the Royal Dramatic Theatre. Directors with reputations in both theatre and film, comparable to Michael Curtiz in film history, shaped portrayals of these roles during adaptation.

Stage and Film Adaptations

Although the original manuscript circulated in New York theatrical circles and was optioned in Hollywood, it did not see a major Broadway production prior to its cinematic adaptation. Studio acquisition involved negotiations with legal teams reflecting practices at Warner Bros. and disputes over screen credit adjudicated by bodies like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and mediated through guilds such as the Writers Guild of America. Screenwriters including the Epstein brothers and Koch contributed to the screenplay that became Casablanca (film), while producers and directors from studios known for wartime films shaped the final script.

Post‑release, theatrical stagings and revivals have been mounted by regional companies associated with institutions like the American Conservatory Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and university drama departments at Yale Repertory Theatre and Juilliard School. The work’s adaptation history intersects with international productions in cities such as London, Paris, and Rome, involving translators and dramaturgs tied to organizations like the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Reception and Legacy

The adaptation achieved critical and commercial success, earning recognition in awards circuits including the Academy Awards and cementing status in cinematic canons alongside films like Gone with the Wind and Citizen Kane. The play and its adaptations prompted ongoing scholarly debate in journals connected to Film Studies, Theatre Journal, and institutions like the British Film Institute and Library of Congress regarding authorship, credit, and cultural representation of wartime refugee experiences.

Legal disputes over credit and compensation linked the authors to notable cases in Los Angeles County and federal courts, influencing later copyright practice and writers’ guild arbitration protocols. The narrative's tropes informed subsequent works about exile and resistance, resonating with novels and films by authors and filmmakers such as Ernest Hemingway, John Huston, Billy Wilder, and critics from The New York Times and Sight & Sound.

Category:1940s plays