Jack Warner:
Jack Leonard Warner was a businessman who worked alongside his brothers in the film industry in 1910. In 1917 he moved to L.A to open a film exchange and profit from the growing market there. He and his brother Sam struggled to make largely profitable or profitable films until 1927 (by which time Paramount, Universal and First National studios were Hollywood’s “Big Three”), when Sam also died from pneumonia. The Jazz Singer (1927, Alan Crosland) was the company’s first successful film, bringing in $3 million in profits despite only $500,000 being invested into it. It was also the first ever feature length “talky” film, as the other studios had been reluctant to incorporate sound in their films. Grieving at the loss of his brother, Jack ran the studio strictly, and gained the dislike of many of his employees. He also kept costs for film production low, and survived through the Great Depression relatively undamaged. He would often cast for the films, and in 1930 hired Joan Blondell, Frank McHugh and James Cagney, who went on to make 38 films with the studio.
Warner took credit ofr Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) by accepting the Oscar it received instead of the films producer Hal B. Wallis in 1943. During WW2, Warner Bros. Was one of the only studios to openly criticise the Nazis, whereas other did not for fear of losing a market in Europe. This culminated in his influence on Casablanca, which we wanted to be made to persuade the American public to be in support of joining the war in Europe. Rick is representative of America, at first reluctant to get involved but eventually dragged in because he knows that it is the right thing to do. It is lit, for example, to make Rick seem noble and Ilsa seem vulnerable. It is essentially a piece of propaganda. Around this period, he also fired many screenwriters, destroying their careers, for harbouring suspected communist sympathises. Despite being one of the first studios to introduce sound, Warner resisted the rise of TV in the post war era, tying to introduce things like 3-D films. These soon lost popularity, and Warner’s contempt for the new medium was made worse by TV actors increased freedom over film actors, and Warner perceived them as being ungrateful. Warner was said to be a ruthless business mogul and a decisive business man, also recognised amongst his employees for being unforgiving and cruel. He died in 1978 from heart inflammation.
Hal B. Wallis:
Hal B. Wallis joined the Warner Bros. production department in 1923, and eventually joined the production branch of the company and become the head of production. Over his 50 year career, he would produce over 400 feature length movies. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture in March 1944 for Casablanca, but the award was taken by Jack L. Warner who rushed on stage to take it instead. This caused Wallis to leave Warner Bros the next month. He went on to work as an independent worker for some time and gaining success, before eventually joining Universal Pictures. He received 16 academy award producer nominations, was twice honoured in their memorial award, nominated for 7 Golden Globe awards, winning awards for best picture twice, and in 1975 won the Golden Globe award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures. Wallis, like Warner, was a Republican in favour of preserving American values and ideals. Who supported Eisenhower’s election in 1952.
Michael Curtiz:
Michael Curtiz made a number of film in Europe, being Hungarian himself, before moving to America where he went on to work for Warner Bros. His sister, step-bother and their children were killed in Auschwitz after he left Europe. He considered the ‘human-side’ of films the most important aspect, alongside a plot that developed as the film went on. His characters often dealt with social issues like injustice, oppression exile. He would always place emphasis on the struggle of the beaten down and repressed members of society against the higher-ups and powerful, even when working across several different genres, and this is evident in Casablanca. He also claimed that each director’s “work is reflection of himself”.
Arthur Edeson:
Edeson utilised the skills he head learned from still and portrait photography for Casablanca. He would make modelling suggestions and be more careful in his placement of shadows, etc, whereas most lighting at the time was flat lighting. His methods produced a more soft, portrait like-image in the films he made.
Max Steiner:
Max Steiner was an influential and respected composer who found success in the film noir genre in particular. He was an auteur in his own right, using music to change or emphasise the tone or pace of a scene, the characters emotions or how they are presented to the audience, as is seen in Casablanca. He followed his own instincts, so if he saw a scene that he felt did not portray, for example, the emotion of a character well enough, he would add music to accompany it and highlight that characters emotions or thought process to the audience nice more, making the moment more impactful and meaningful to them. He would subordinate himself to the music and know when to start and stop, limiting himself on the extent he would show off his score, as he felt that if a composer showed off too much it would subtract from the emotion and meaning of a film. “If you get too decorative, you lose your appeal to the emotions. My theory is that the music should be felt rather than heard.” Although Steiner at first did not like the usage log As Time Goes By in Casablanca, Ingrid Bergman had cut her hair short for another film and so could not re-shoot the scenes with it in. Therefore, he embraced the song and centred his score around it, making it the main/centre score.
Finley Cairns A-Level Film Studies Blog 