Casablanca is one of the giants of cinema. Not only is the love triangle of bar owner Rick, resistance leader Laszlo and conflicted Ilsa one of the best (and most heart-breaking) love stories ever put on screen, more than any other film in existence it's fully immersed into popular culture. Whereas many classics have an iconic quote or two, Casablanca has then by the glass-full; "heres looking at you, kid", "of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine", "well always have Paris", "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship". It's enough to make us drop everything and watch the Blu-Ray right now. So really it's only natural they'd inspire some other films over time. "Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By" lent its misquote to Play It Again, Sam, Woody Allen's stageplay-cum-film that deals with a Casablanca-obsessed cinephille who uses the tragic romance as a prototype for his own emotions. But that's nothing compared to what's next. "Round up the usual suspects", voted the 32nd best quote from any American film by the AFI, was the inspiration for Bryan Singer's crime masterpiece. Thinking The Usual Suspects was a cool title and using the line's original intention as a jumping board, the director and writer Christopher McQuarrie imagined what would happen if five criminals were rounded up in a desperate attempt to pin a crime on one of them and ended up producing one of the greatest films of all time. Now that's a legacy. What's the strangest inspiration for a film you know? And what obscure thing do you think would make a great movie? Head to the comments and let us know.
