Book review by Diana Saenger 

Casablanca Film Trivia: Here’s Looking At You Kid is a great triva book about the classic movie that will offer film fans hours of fun. Anyone who thinks they're an obsessed fan of the movie Casablanca hasn't met author Tom Barnes. Although he was born two weeks before Casablanca came out, he eventually became a fan of older movies, especially Casablanca.

After Barnes became a teacher he started showing Casablanca to his classes and developed a 100-question worksheet for his students to fill out as they watched the film. That exercise is on its way to becoming a board game and in the meantime became a fun trivia book.

Did you know that, "The entire film except for the opening airport scene filmed at the Van Nuys municipal airport was filmed at the Warner Bros. sound stage in Burbank, California?" That's only one of the surprising facts Barnes informs readers about.

The book is divided into 33 chapters with titles such as "Actors as Refugees," "Behind the Scenes," "Music, Lyrics, and Songs," "Drinks of Casablanca, " and "Minor Cast Members." Barnes really did his homework as each chapter has 30 questions and gives the answers at the end of the chapter. How much does Victor Laszlo offer someone for a visa and what game is Rick playing the first night in Casablanca are samples of the questions.

Also included at the end of each chapter are what Barnes calls "Factoids" and are interesting facts concerning the movie. Some are as short as to explain what café Rick's Café was modeled after and others can be a lengthy piece dispelling the myths of who was asked to play Rick.

Casablanca Film Trivia is a must-own for anyone who loves the film. With more than 1100 questions, the book also makes a great party addition to have contests and pit contestants against each other. One of the great things about the book is that it can be read all in one setting or in snippets when the reader has time.

Casablanca Film Trivia can be ordered at www.casablancatrivia.com

Listen to Betty Jo Tucker's Blog Talk Radio show Movie Addict Headquarters co-hosted by myself and our interview with Tom Barnes about this book.

Book Data

 * Published by Papyrus Publishing

* Softcover

* ISBN 978-0-615-21579-2

* 175 pages

* $14.95