Major Heinrich Strasser

In 1941, he moved to Hollywood.

where he appeared as Major Strasser in Casablanca.

And he's not the only actor from this to appear in Casablanca.

So when we cover that for the podcast, we'll definitely be talking about Conrad Veidt again.

Which movie am I talking about? This was an easy one.

He went on to be yet another German who kills innocent people when he was Major Strasser in Casablanca.

Okay then, Der Cabinet, Der Dr. Caligari was released in Germany by Decla Film at the end of February 1920, but Goldwyn Distributing Company brought it over to this part of the world the following spring.

So if I go by the 1921 domestic release date, then this sucker is a hundred and five years old, which is still far too young to be an effective member of the U.S. Senate.

Yeah.

And of course, Conrad Veidt is the same actor who, a decade later, becomes the single most famous cinematic Nazi of all time, playing Major Strasser in Casablanca, a role he reportedly took great satisfaction in precisely because of everything he'd personally lost to that regime.

There's a straight line from Obererz to Strasser, even though the movies are 10 years apart and one entirely different war apart as well.

Yeah, here's one last theme I think that's worth flagging.

I think it's really interesting.

We have the Claude Rains character, Louis, and his relationship going between Rick and Major Strasser, who is the German in charge.

And so you have this very interesting dynamic of the German in charge, who is just kind of evil.

I mean, we don't see him doing the most horrific war crimes, but we get the sense.

Like it's going to be an action sequence with us trying to like physically get away when really it's just like, oh, here are the letters.

Oh, here are the names that are put on it.

Like it's, it's a pretty, I mean, he does shoot Strasser, but it's, it's, it's a very talky kind of ending.

Yeah.