As Time Goes By. - Review - book reviews

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Jan, 1999 by Robert S. Rothenberg

As Time Goes By

by Michael Walsh / Warner Books, 1998, pp. 420, $25.00

Reviewed by ROBERT S. ROTHENBERG Managing Editor, USA Today

* When lists of the greatest movies ever made are compiled, there may be spirited debate among various films' supporters as to where their favorites rank. When it comes to choosing one whose characters almost universally engage the audience and make viewers care about them passionately, "Casablanca" arguably tops the charts. Therefore, resurrecting them on the printed page--and, almost invariably, with a blockbuster motion picture threatening to follow--may be regarded as downright sacrilegious.

Michael Walsh, a former music critic for Time, was handed the assignment by Time Warner, which owns the rights to the film. His approach is to present a combination prequel-sequel, picking up the adventures of Rick, lisa, Victor, Louis, and Sam from the moment the plane to Lisbon took off and flashing back to relate how they got to Casablanca in the first place. The results are a mixed bag at best.

The prequel sequences work most successfully, primarily concentrating on Rick Blaine. Once readers come to accept the startling decision by Walsh to introduce him as Yitzik Baline, a Jewish gangster/nightclub proprietor in Prohibition-era New York, the story moves interestingly, though Yitzik/ Rick tends to sound more like the film persona of Humphrey Bogart the street criminal than the worldweary, cynical owner of Rick's Cafe Americain. The sequel portion, alas, is hardly as successful, a muddled effort to project Rick, lisa, Victor, and Louis into the true-life wartime assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi official dubbed the Hangman of Prague. Every one of the beloved characters plays out of character; the dialogue is stilted and tends to sound more like high-minded speeches than conversation; and the action is barely worthy of a B-movie.

In the most famous--and misquoted--line from the film, Rick supposedly says, "Play it again, Sam" (actually, it's "Play it, Sam!"). The people who regarded this as an invitation to pick up the story should have resisted the impulse.