Who created, "Here's looking at you, kid?"

[Naphtali]

The dialogue, "Here's looking at you, kid," that entered the lexicon in "Casablanca" - who among the screenwriters created it? I believe the Epstein brothers, Casey Robinson, and Howard Koch contributed to the screenplay (with Hal Wallis contributing the last line of the film??). I like to believe it was the Epsteins, but I don't know this.

 

[davidraphael]

Legend has it that this line was not written by any of the screenwriters - it doesn't appear in the drafts of the screenplay. The original scripted line was "Here's good luck to you, Kid". The version we know was in fact improvised/adapted by Bogart.

 

[Tomasso]

The version we know was in fact improvised/adapted by Bogart.

Really!? Details?

 

[davidraphael]

Apparently, Bogart used to say 'Here's looking at you, kid' when he was teaching poker to Bergman and the phrase just kind of stuck, so they decided to use it instead of the official script line. The 'looking at you' part may refer to a hand in poker where there are several face cards 'looking at you'.
That's all I know really.

 

[Mr Vim]

I like it, it had such a natural ease, even for Bogey and his character.

I'm sure everyone has heard of Bogart's wife being jealous of Bergman, Baby probably hated that line then.

I cannot imagine the film anyone other way than with that line... "here's good luck to you, Kid" it just doesn't fit, not with the movie or the plot, I don't know, like my signature says.