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47 S P R I N G Q 1 I S S U E B O O K R E V I E W dot boy. He'll break dair hearts." The f ilm for which Cur tiz is best known is, of course, "Casablanca," but his contribution to it is historically min- imized, despite the fact that it is one of the world's most honored and beloved movies. He won the Best Director Oscar for it, after not winning for four earlier nominations ("Captain Blood" [1935], "Four Daughters," "Angels with Dirty Faces" [both 1938] and "Yankee Doodle Dandy" [1942]). The story of making "Casablanca," with its many twists, turns, and cooks in the kitchen is well told by Rode, and should be read by anyone who wants to know why and how this cinematic icon came to be. Film histo- ry's lack of acknowledgement of Curtiz work, even for "Casablanca," might well be traced to critic Andrew Sarris' "The American Cinema: Directors and Direc- tions 1929-1968." With this 1968 book, Sarris brought the auteur theory from France's New Wave Cahiers du Cinema group to America and ranked Curtiz far from the Pantheon, placing him in the "Lightly Likeable" categor y. Sarris wrote, "The director's one enduring masterpiece is, of course, 'Casablanca,' the happiest of happy accidents, and the most decisive exception to the auteur theory." In a way that acknowledges it as Curtiz' best work, Rode replies, "To the contrary, 'Casablanca' and Michael Curtiz' career Warner at Brothers con- tradict the shopworn theorem of giving sole credit to a director. 'Casablanca' is better described as cinematic magic that occurred on purpose." ■ "Michael Curtiz" By Alan K. Rode 689 pages University Press of Kentucky 2021 (updated edition) HAVE A CIGAR: Edward G. Robinson with Curtiz, during filming of "Kid Galahad" (1937). P H O T O : W I K I P E D I A