Casablanca (film) in 1942 to work on the "Why We Fight" series in Washington, D.C. While they were gone, the other credited writer, Howard Koch, was assigned; he produced thirty to forty pages. When the Epstein brothers returned after about a month, they were reassigned to "Casablanca" and—contrary to what Koch claimed in two published books—his work was not used. The Epstein brothers and Koch never worked in the same room at the same time during the writing of the script. Koch later commented, "When we began, we didn't have a finished script ... Ingrid Bergman came to me and said, 'Which
Casablanca (film) had turned down the lead role. Studio records make clear that Wallis was committed to Bogart from the start. Another well-known story is that the actors did not know until the last day of shooting how the film was to end. The original play (set entirely in the cafe) ended with Rick sending Ilsa and Laszlo to the airport. During scriptwriting, the possibility was discussed of Laszlo being killed in Casablanca, allowing Rick and Ilsa to leave together, but as Casey Robinson wrote to Hal Wallis before filming began, the ending of the film "set up for a swell twist