Director William Wyler""s film was a retelling of the spectacular silent film of the same name (director Fred Niblo""s and MGM""sBen-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)).As he changed his clothes, he fondly recalled his past days as an adventuresome soldier in the French Foreign Legion.One of the mercenaries who was fighting with the French was American legionnaire Richard "Rick" O""Connell (Brendan Fraser), accompanied by cowardly weasel-like French assistant Beni Gabor (Kevin J.Rebelliously, she grabs the chair in front of her and then rises, her voice cracking with emotion:Mother?.More important details regarding the setting and characters are telescoped very precisely and economically - information about he theft of transit letters, the political and social situation in pro-Vichy Casablanca, the arrival of the Nazi commandant and his friendship with the self-satisfied Vichy policeman, the crucial daily flights to Lisbon, and the central importance of Rick""s Cafe.