Who is man refused entry?
9 minutes into the film, a well-dressed man is refused entry to Ricks. What's the story?
shareHe's refused entry in to the casino at the back of Ricks because he has a reputation as a cheat or at least someone who doesn't honour his debts.
shareThanks
share"he has a reputation as a cheat or at least someone who doesn't honour his debts"
Sounds like an interesting backstory, but there is nothing in the film to indicate it. All we really know about him is Ugarte's reference to "Deutsche Bank". Evidently he works for Deutsche Bank. I'm not sure why that makes him persona non grata (there are plenty of German's who frequent Rick's).
I would suggest a different theory. After his heartbreak in Paris and his relocating to Casablanca, Rick swore off what he called the "expensive hobby" of "fighting on the side of the underdog", but also politics generally. He just wanted to run a saloon, heal his broken heart, and mind his own business ("I stick my neck out for nobody" or "I'm the only 'cause' I'm interested in"). Presumably that would mean not showing disgust for Germans, which we can assume he had (why else would he have to flee from Paris when they arrived), as he had a history of being an anti-fascist fighter (his "expensive hobby"). Thematically, Rick's neutrality in this regard was meant to reflect American Isolationism. As an example, when Major Strasser comes to Rick's Cafe americain, he treats him as any other customer, and what asked his views on the WWII expresses complete lack of interest. Also when a fight breaks out between Yvonne's new German beau and a local regular (we don't really know who he was), Rick tells them to "lay off politics or get out".
Of course we know that, by the end of the story, he will become once again the fighter for the right who risks his own life and freedom to help Laszlo get away and shoots Major Strasser towards that end. So I believe it makes sense to throw in little hints there that Rick still harbors disgust for Germans. Hence, his decision not to let "Deutsche Bank" into his gambling room. Now his comment as to why he was excluding him (Deutsche Bank: "Do you know who I am?" Rick: "I do. You're lucky the bar's open to you.") suggests there is something more to it, but, unless I've missed something over at least 20 viewings of this film, I have no idea what that is (perhaps it was taken out of the script or ended up on the cutting room floor). From Rick's perspective he is on safer ground to exclude a private person (banker) than an officer in the Wehrmacht like Strasser. In any case, I think we are just meant to understand that beneath Rick's cynical exterior, as Louis keeps suggesting, he is at heart a fighter for the right, and his disgust towards Deutsche Bank is one small hint at that.
That's a particularly long-winded way to completely miss the point.
The previous poster is, of course, correct. . .he has a bad reputation, and Rick is protecting his establishment. To suggest that he's making some sort of sterile distinction between spending his money at the bar, or spending it at the illegal backroom gambling spot, is quite simply incorrect. The intent of the scene is clear.
Lovely theory, but the fact is... we're given no backstory.
All we know is that Rick doesn't want that guy in his club, and that could be for any reason on Earth. It could be that he's cheated at cards, played the street preacher indoors, insulted Rick's mother, broken crockery, who knows. Or maybe he won a lot of money off of Louis, and Rick banned him as a favor to a useful ally, we just don't know.
I think the only reason that scene is there, is to establish that Rick takes advantage of his authority as club owner to ban people if he wants to, and that's actually necessary to the story. If Victor Laszlo enters the clubs and finds the local Nazi authorities there, this scene tells us it's because Rick is willing to have them there! If that scene hadn't been there, we might think that the Nazis are there because Rick is forced to have them there or that he's too fearful or sunk in self-pity to give them the boot. But no, Rick is actively deciding who gets to come in as the story opens, and if he is welcoming in both Resistance heroes and Nazi officers... it's because he's really, genuinely, politically neutral. And at a time when no decent person should be.