'Casablanca' - Popular film of the century

It seems in many ways appropriate to dedicate this issue of the Journal of Popular Film and Television to Murray Burnett–appropriate but also a bit sad. Fans and scholars who can recite nearly every line of dialogue from Casablanca, who worship Bogart and Bergman, and who could watch and rewatch the film have never heard of Burnett. In 1981, I was asked to serve on a panel, “From Stage to Screen, ” for a Modern Language Association conference. It was while I was teaching Casablanca that the thesis of my paper became clear: Every film contains the foundation of its source, so that simply by watching the film an alert viewer could recognize whether it had been adapted from an original screenplay, from a novel, or from a stageplay. © 2000 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.