Much of the Casablanca crew regrouped for Rope of Sand (1949). While the magic (and Humphrey Bogart) were missing, it’s a well-made effort in classic Hollywood style. Claude Rains is suavely duplicitous and Peter Lorre a louche schemer, but Paul Henreid plays the villain this time—a sadistic commandant of a South African diamond mine. Alas, Burt Lancaster is no Bogart. Apartheid critiques are smuggled into this love-lust-vengeance drama as Hollywood began to cautiously address racism.
