Bogart Says 'Play It Again, Sam' in Casablanca

Bogart never says this line in the film. The closest dialogue is when Ilsa asks the piano player Sam to play 'As Time Goes By,' and there are references to 'play it again' in context, but the exact phrase 'play it again, Sam' does not appear in Bogart's dialogue. The misquotation became so culturally dominant that Woody Allen titled his 1972 film 'Play It Again, Sam,' further cementing the false attribution. The false memory likely arose from the combination of Bogart's iconic status, the film's emotional resonance, and the phrase's perfect fit with the narrative. Additionally, the phrase is so perfect and quotable that it feels like something Bogart 'should' have said, leading to confabulation. This demonstrates how culturally salient films can be subject to massive misquotation through decades of cultural references, parodies, and secondhand exposure rather than direct film viewing.