Casablanca (film) somehow wanders into Rick's Café Américain and listens to a strange tale related by Sam. The 2016 musical film "La La Land" contains multiple allusions to "Casablanca" in the imagery, dialogue, and plot. Director Robert Zemeckis of "Allied" (2016), which is also set in 1942 Casablanca, studied the film to capture the city's elegance. "Casablanca" has been subjected to many readings; Semioticians account for the film's popularity by claiming that its inclusion of stereotypes paradoxically strengthens the film. Umberto Eco wrote: Eco also singled out sacrifice as a theme, "the myth of sacrifice runs through the whole film". It was
Casablanca (film) up where the film leaves off, and also tells of Rick's mysterious past in America. The book met with little success. David Thomson provided an unofficial sequel in his 1985 novel "Suspects". There have been two short-lived television series based upon "Casablanca", both sharing the title. The first, which aired on ABC as part of the wheel series "Warner Bros. Presents" in hour-long episodes from 1955 to 1956, is a Cold War espionage program set contemporaneously with its production, and starred Charles McGraw as Rick and Marcel Dalio, who played Emil the croupier in the movie, as the police chief.