In Casablanca Madeleine LeBeau, who just died at age 92, was only 19 when she played Rick's sometimes girlfriend, but she got her big moment during the scene where the patrons of Rick’s Café stand up and sing La Marseillaise in an attempt to drown out the singing being done by a group of German soldiers. The camera zooms in on LeBeau’s tearful eyes and as the song nears its close, LeBeau shouts “Vive la France!
shareBased on her obituary in the Washington Post, Madeline LeBeau's life looks like a real-life "Casablanca story:
Marie Madeleine Berthe LeBeau was born near Paris in the early 1920s — the dates fluctuate between 1921 and 1923. In her teens, she landed a tiny role in a play with Dalio, who was about 20 years her senior and struck by her beauty. They soon married, and Ms. LeBeau made her screen debut in a 1939 drama, “Young Girls in Trouble.”
The next year, they left Paris just hours ahead of the invading German army; Dalio’s image had been used in Nazi posters to identify Jewish-looking features. They made their way to Lisbon and, using what turned out to be forged Chilean visas, booked passage on a Portuguese cargo ship, the Quanza, that was taking more than 300 refugees to the west.
Many of the passengers were not allowed to disembark in New York or the next port-of-call, Veracruz, Mexico. However, Dalio and Ms. LeBeau secured temporary Canadian visas in Mexico and made their way to California. (The remaining passengers received visas through the U.S. State Department after the ship later stopped for coal in Norfolk, Va.)
Dalio, who had prominent roles in filmmaker Jean Renoir’s masterpieces “Grand Illusion” (1937) and “The Rules of the Game” (1939), helped secure work for the couple in Hollywood.
cinefreak
Vive la France and rest in peace
shareJust saw something about that on the local news. Here's a clip of the scene you mentioned, where she has tears in her eyes as they sing La Marseillaise:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbQpEPpCtnY
Don't mess with me, man! I know karate, judo, ju-jitsu..... and several other Japanese words.