In Casablanca the plot revolves around the two exit visas that Ilsa and her husband are trying to get their hands on, so as to secure safe passage out of Africa, whereas in Star Wars the Mos Eisley sequence’s plot revolves around the search for the two droids and our heroes’s attempt at gaining passage off of Tatooine.

There’s always been rotund, evil sultans who sit on their beds while others are tortured in front of them.” “All that I needed to do was put a fez on Jabba, and he would’ve been Sydney Greenstreet,” Tippett would say, referring to the actor most famous for his role in The Maltese Falcon (1941).” “I guess Sydney Greenstreet would be a good example and Marlon Brando in the Godfather would be a good example. From The Making of Return of the Jedi by Rinzler: “Jabba is based on evil sultan-like characters,” Lucas says. And when it came time to roll cameras on Return of the Jedi, Greenstreet’s likeness can still be seen underneath the grotesqueness of the slug-like concept art and maquettes one of which even has a fez, just like Signor Ferrari. Not only are both Jabba and Ferrari played by weighty men, but their sinister friendliness are very similar. Jabba, who at the time was a human character, was based in large part off of Signor Ferrari played by Sidney Greenstreet, the local crime baron of Casablanca, who early in the film tries to convince Sam the piano man to come over to his bar and play. While it was excised from the theatrical release of Star Wars, the Jabba scene that was reintroduced to the Special Edition was originally shot with Drew Mulholland, an obese looking fellow who tries in the nicest possible way to scare Han Solo into submission. And in the end, both Han and Rick turn out to have hearts of gold. While the characters are hardly carbon copies of one another, Harrison Ford brings much of the same cool demeanor and cynicism to Han Solo. He even adopted Rick’s use of the word ‘kid’. Prior to owning the Café Américain, Rick smuggled guns, and was well paid, just as Solo smuggles whatever it is he dumps at the first sign of imperial trouble. Much in the way that Han Solo is ready to take off with his reward as the rebel alliance launches their desperate attack on the looming Deathstar. Moreover much of Han Solo’s character, who isn’t in this for your revolution, comes straight out of Rick Blaine as played by Humphrey Bogart, who sticks his neck out for nobody. And the city is teeming with police and military patrols, exactly like Mos Eisley.

Likewise Casablanca itself, aside from being a Mediterranean city, a style which naturally shares much in the way of style with Mos Eisley, which was filmed in Tunisia, also in North Africa. Both even have their own swing orchestra, water pipe smoking patrons and a strikingly similar architecture.

He has to meet his contact at the marina, whereas Luke and Obi-wan are told to go to the docking bay even the terminology is similar. 15.000 just happens to be the price one of the stranded men in Rick’s has to pay for his trip out of Casablanca. Luke and Obi-Wan haggle with Han Solo to have him ferry them out of Mos Eisley for the initial price of 10.000 credits, which is countered with 2.000 now, and 15.000 when they reach their destination. Both are places where shady deals go down in amongst the stormtroopers in Star Wars and the corrupt French police and German officers in Casablanca. In place of Rick’s Café Americain, we have the cantina.

Yojimbo haggle