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Cosc / Banned – Casablanca TX: December 30 th 1930
“Here’s looking at you, kid”… “I wish I didn’t love you so much.”… “Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.”
Who could ever forget the elegance and timeless beauty of Ingrid Bergman, the charisma of swashbuckling Humphrey Bogart and an achingly poignant love story set against the backdrop of the brutality of the second world war in Nazi-occupied Morocco? Casablanca one of cinema’s most romantic films engaged and intrigued cinema-going audiences all over the world back in 1942, but unfortunately not Irish audiences, they got a different version. For more than three decades, Irish movie fans were denied the full story of Rick and Ilsa’s ill-fated wartime love affair.
Ireland’s film censors, who in the early days admitted taking guidance from the ten commandments, were determined to safeguard and uphold traditional Catholic values. The film was banned outright under the Emergency Powers Order (EPO) when first submitted in 1942, as it was deemed to infringe on Irish neutrality. When resubmitted again in 1945, it was morality and not politics that concerned the devout catholic censor, Richard Hayes.
Determined to suppress the affair between Rick and Ilsa, a married woman, in Paris, the key dialogue was cut from the movie, dialogue that has gone on to become the most memorable and most quoted in the history of cinema. These cuts had a profound impact on the storyline for 30 years before Irish audiences could see the complete movie.
In this episode of Cosc, Casablanca devotees discuss the enduring magic and message of the movie and looked at how the censor changed the story of the film. We look at the nature of the State’s film censorship process, the social, historical, political and most importantly, religious context. We discuss the rationale and mindset behind the decisions made by the film censors and the cultural and social damage inflicted as a result.
“When the first Irish film censor was appointed a man called James Montgomery .. he said he knew nothing about cinema but took the 10 commandments as his guide.
The censorship of Casablanca illustrated a pattern that had been in Ireland for 20 years and that was to make sure that a married woman would not have an affair with a person other than her husband.”
(Kevin Rockett , academic and author)
“B’é an rud ba mhoa bhi ag deanamh buarhta doibh ná an caidreamh idir fir agus mná , cursai gneis lena e a chur mar sin” (The main thing that bothered them was the activity between men and women, in essence sex,)
nuair a fheacaimid anois ar feacaimid air le homós de shaghas éigean , omós nach raibh na cinsiir ag smaoinead ar nuair a thainigh se amach ar dtús.”
(when we look at the film now, we do so with respect, a respect the censor never envisaged when the film was first released)
(Alan Titley, historian and broadcaster)
An cheéd uair gur chonaic me Casablanca thit me I ngrá leis mar bhi sé chomh epic “ ( I fell in love wih the film the first time I saw it, it was epic)
“Fós sa lá atá inniu ann feicimid na scealta tragoideach seo, ar an bru ar refugees morthimpeall an domhain ….tá mná fost ag déanamh na deals lofa seo chun todchaí deas a fháil dá clann” ( Even today you see the tragic stories of refugees and the pressure they are under, women are still making desperate deals to try and secure a better future for their families)
(Evelyn O Rourke, Broadcaster and Casblanca fan