Goodeknight said:
...the tour guides always said the Lockheed in their Casablanca set was the actual Lockheed from the film. But it wasn't. The one in the film is really a half or three quarter scale replica.
Stoo said:
As far as I'm aware, the plane in "Casablanca" was a small-scaled, 2 dimensional mock-up with midgets/little people used for the ground crew.
Let me steer you both away from the Abyss and back towards Coolsville, because you're not wrong, but you're not correct either.
Re: The Planes of Casablanca
I’ve had this conversation before. It wasn’t Disney related at the time, but the merits of it still stand; there
was a genuine Lockheed Electra 12A used on the set of
Casablanca. It’s just not where you’re expecting it to be, however, and The Midget Perspective is a great story.
A couple of fixed wing aircraft appear in the opening sequence as Major Strasser & Co. arrive in Casablanca, but they’re ultimately generic. One’s a two-seater racing plane as evidenced by the wing braces, and the other is… well, I don’t know. Some sort of small cargo/passenger plane is the likely guess, but it could also be a mail plane. In short, it’s non-descript.
Major Strasser’s plane on the other hand is a Fokker Super Universal. A scale model was used in the landing sequence, but they’re very clearly alighting from a genuine plane @ the 5:28 mark. Back it up a few seconds and you can see it taxi before making a right turn and stopping.
The middle third features stock footage and at least one composite shot of the “Lisbon Plane” when Bogart and Rains are having a smoke in front of the
Café Americaine. There might be a second one, but the placement eludes me at the moment.
With around four minutes to spare, there are two very quick close-up shots of said Lockheed. The first shows the starboard motor firing up, and the second shows the cockpit and the port motor. The pilot can very clearly be scene prepping for flight in the second shot, and to my eyes and ears* that’s a real plane with real engines turning over.
* - I used to live on Fightertown USA. I spent a lot of time around jets and planes.
There’s a chance it could be a model, but why spend that much money creating functioning propellers and engines for about five seconds of screen time? Plus, during the takeoff it behaves like a real plane. Gravity, drag, and all that jazz are visibly at work.
From the book
Casablanca: Behind the Scenes:
Harlan Lebo said:
The filming of the airport scenes on Stage 1—with on-set arguments, eleventh-hour arrivals of dialogue, and directorial script manipulations—marked a turning point in the production. The shooting had passed its toughest obstacles; as the most difficult filming was completed, the production rolled toward its conclusion.
With sighs of relief all around, Curtiz wrapped up the last of the airport sequences on July 22—the most arduous five shooting days of the picture. The day before, the Curtiz Show passed its planned completion date; the production was by this time officially over schedule.
The next day, a Warner second unit directed by Ross Lederman filmed the on-location night shots of the “Lisbon plane”—a two-engine Lockheed Electra—at the Los Angeles Metropolitan Airport. The night shooting had indeed been arranged; in the midst of world war, Alleborn’s influence with the Fourth Interceptor Command had prevailed.
From a 1986 article in the Los Angeles Times:
T.W.McGARRY said:
A second unit later filmed runways and an airplane at Van Nuys Airport to blend with scenes shot on the sound stage.
On the night of July 23, ("50th shooting day, company 8 days behind" schedule), assistant director Ross Lederman took a second unit to Metropolitan Airport--as Van Nuys Airport was known until 1956--and "set fog effect," Alleborn reported. The crew then spent midnight to 3:30 a.m. on July 24 "shooting the EXT(erior) AIRPORT with the plane, night sequence," he wrote. Lederman filed a concurring report.
There is a column on the report form to indicate which actors were on the set. None are listed.
Full article:
'Casablanca' Filmed Elsewhere: At Burbank Airport, a Myth is Just a Myth
Werner Weiss @ Yesterland reached
the same conclusion albeit much, much later. Since I'm away from my computer though, enjoy his more in depth article. He's provided pictures too!
Ultimately, Disney isn't incorrect in stating that their plane was the actual Lockheed Electra used in
Casablanca. None of the principle actors interacted with the plane because they never actually left the sound stage for that scene. Well, that functionary Capt. Renault instructs to take Ilsa's bags appears to be sealing the luggage compartment before takeoff, but he doesn't count. Nobody remembers the actual ending anyway.
Two turnin', two burnin' and flak so thick you can walk on it!
