Casablanca  (1942)
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman
Director: Michael Curtiz
Synopsis: Much-loved, WWII-flavored story of intrigue and love teaming Bogart and Bergman as ill-fated lovers. Critically acclaimed, it's considered the ultimate classic. A must-see for fans of drama, romance, and suspense.
Runtime: 102 Minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Genre: Suspense, Drama, Romance, Classic
 

This is one of my all-time favorite films.  The song, As Time Goes By, IS my Favorite Song.  This is one movie which I have watched over and over again.  Pure Romance!

 

Humphrey Bogart might not have been the world’s greatest actor, but it’s hard to imagine anyone else playing Rick Blaine, the outwardly cynical and inwardly hurting hero of Casablanca. Every word Bogart utters, and every glance he takes, drips with pain, regret, yet fortitude to continue on the painful path he has chosen.

Casablanca is a classic tale of lost love found again and then put at risk of being lost once and for all. Rick is our hero, and his lost love is the stunningly beautiful Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman).

It’s the Second World War, and the Nazis dominate Europe. Tens of thousands of refugees have fled the German onslaught, many passing through Casablanca, Morocco, on their way to America. Casablanca is halfway between two worlds – controlled by Occupied France, but frequented by enemies of the Third Reich.

Rick is one of the few refugees who has voluntarily stayed put in Casablanca, to run a bar and proclaim his loyalty to no one but himself. While he has a shady past, and there are hints that he hasn’t always been as self-interested as he now proclaims himself, the Rick we meet is a world-weary fellow who only does favours to those who might offer him a benefit. It’s only when Ilsa and her husband, a Czech resistance leader, arrive at Rick’s Café that Rick’s vulnerability – and his true loyalties – become obvious.

Bergman is understated, yet overwhelming, as the beautiful and terribly sad Ilsa. Paul Henreid is convincing as her heroic but distant husband – a high profile, and highly principled, Czech resistance leader. The supporting cast is superb, especially Claude Rains, as Louie Renault, the self-serving French cop, and Dooley Wilson as Sam, who sings the classic song, ‘As Time Goes By.’ Other memorable supporting performers include Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre.

It’s a great ensemble, but it’s the heat between Rick and Ilsa that makes Casablanca work so very well. Rick has been terribly wounded, and has built a life to avoid repeated injury. Ilsa has buried their shared past and resigned herself to loyal support of her husband. We all know that their love is submerged, but still very much alive. And as the pressure builds for Ilsa’s husband to get out of Casablanca and continue his work in America, she and Rick face terrible decisions.

Casablanca is a film for anyone who has ever had a heartbreaking choice to make. It’s a movie for film lovers who enjoy unpredictable endings. It’s a film for anyone who has lost a love. Loaded with lines that have become part of our cultural lexicon, this is one of the great movies of all time.

Movie News

"CASABLANCA"
Academy Award Winning Best Picture of 1943
Release Date: 1942
Distributor:Warner Bros.
Genre: Drama/Romance
Time: 102 mins.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, S.Z. Sakall, Madeleine LeBeau, Dooley Wilson
Director: Michael Curtiz
Writer: Murray Burnett (play), Joan Alison (play), Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch, Casey Robinson (uncredited)

SYNOPSIS: It's still the same old story: boy wins girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back. The rub is if boy will lose girl a second time. The year is 1941 and Nazis are everywhere in the technically un-occupied city of Casablanca, Morocco. Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) is an American expatriate living in Casablanca and the owner of Rick's Cafi Americain. Running a nightclub and casino does have its advantages, especially when a patron leaves two exit visas in Rick's care. However, the rewards are spare when his former lover Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) returns to his life seeking his assistance on behalf of her husband, Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), an escaped leader of the Czech resistance.

AWARDS: Nominated for eight Academy Awards, "Casablanca" won three for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. In 1989, the National Film Preservation Board named "Casablanca" to the National Film Registry, an honor given to "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant films."

OSCAR. ANALYSIS:
Of the 10 Best Picture nominees, four were war films: "Casablanca," "In Which We Serve," "Watch on the Rhine," "For Whom the Bell Tolls."

• Believe it or not, Ingrid Bergman wasn't nominated for Best Actress in her role as the sultry Ilsa, but was nominated for her role in "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and lost to her close friend Jennifer Jones for "The Song of Bernadette." It was also newcomer Jones' 25th birthday, and after winning when Bergman congratulated her, Jones apologized, saying "Ingrid, you should have won." Then, Bergman said, "No, Jennifer, your Bernadette was better than my Maria."
   

  • Following Bette Davis' suggestion, the Academy Awards weren't given out at a dinner, as they usually are, but in a theater (this time the Chinese Theatre) and 200 seats went to men and women in the armed services. She also suggested the proceeds of the show be donated to the war relief -- that didn't happen.

  • Greer Garson's five-and-a-half minute speech the year before (and a lot of political boring speeches) led to the rule prohibiting outside speeches, and winners get only 30 seconds on stage.

  False nominating ballots were passed around on college campuses throughout the country, but Price-Waterhouse tossed those out.

  • The Academy Awards campaign grew so heated, RKO held screenings at two theaters named Academy in Pasadena and then ran ads just before voting time saying "Academy reaction: It's the finest picture of the year" for their "Tender Comrade" film. It didn't get the hoped-for nomination, and one critic quipped at the time, "Why not give a statuette for the best 'we want an Oscar' publicity campaign?" More than half a century later, not much has changed.

   

  • NOTABLE OMISSIONS:None of the cast of the Best Picture-nominee "The Ox-Bow Incident" were nominated for best performances, including Henry Fonda.

  • Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt" was one of his greatest thrillers, yet it only received an Original Story nomination.

  

   

  

  BEST QUOTE: The dialogue contains some of the most memorable, yet equally misquoted, lines in film history. Although "Casablanca" was released 50 years ago, Rick's lines such as: "Here's lookin' at you, kid." and "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine," can be still be heard in contemporary film and television.

   

  

   

  • The film's best known lines are also its most inaccurately quoted. No one says: "Play it again, Sam"; however Rick and Ilsa do offer variations of that directive to Sam the pianist at different times in the movie: Rick Blaine: "You played it for her, you can play it for me!--If she can stand it, I can! Play it!" Ilsa Lund: "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.'"

  •  

  

   

  • But perhaps the most famous (and paraphrased) of quotes is the last line of the film where Rick says to Captain Louis Renault: "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

  

   

  

  BEST MOMENTS:
   

  • During a flashback of his and Ilsa's halcyon days in Paris, Rick gazes at Ilsa's turned-away form with adoration. This scene provides nice contrast to and a context for the embittered Rick the audience is introduced to at the beginning of the film.

  • Rick, Ilsa and an airport. It doesn't get better than that "hill of beans" speech.

  

  BUZZ:

• Although it was a fictional story with an ending that kept getting rewritten, the classic "Casablanca" foretold world events. In fact, studio mogul Jack Warner pushed up the release of film just after the real-life Nazi invasion of the city no one ever heard of before this film -- and Dwight Eisenhower led the Allied invasion during the release of the movie in November 1942 -- assuring better box office.
   

  • With the script being rewritten daily, no one, including Ingrid Bergman, knew which man Ilsa would choose. When asked by the actress, which man does Ilsa love, director Michael Curtiz replied: play it in between."

  • The ending of the film was plagued with indecision. When filming began it hadn't been determined who Ilsa would end up with, Rick or Victor. The unresolved love triangle led to confusion and constant rewrites throughout the production of the movie. Even after the story was nailed down, it wasn't until weeks after filming ended that Humphrey Bogart was asked to come back and record his famous last line, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

  • Budget constraints prohibited the use of a real airplane in the airport scenes, so a cardboard cut-out was used instead. To solve the problems of scale, the crew preparing the plane for take-off, were played by little people.

• Meet Me In St. L---er--the Congo? Plans for a sequel to be called "Brazzaville" were scrapped when Ingrid Bergman was unavailable to resume the role of Ilsa.

• The studio paid the outstanding sum of $20,000 for the rights to "Everybody Comes to Rick's" which, at the time, was an unpublished play structured to be performed using one set.

  • Ronald Reagan and George Raft were considered for the Humphrey Bogart role in "Casablanca" while Ann Sheridan, Heddy Lamar and Michele Morgan were both considered before Ingrid Bergman to play Ilsa.

  • The role of Sam was almost modified for a woman actor. Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and Hazel Scott were all considered for the role that was eventually given to Dooley Wilson, who was a professional drummer, not a pianist.

 

Additional reporting by Carrie Wheeler.

 

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Leonard Maltin's 2002 Movie & Video Guide: Our candidate for the best Hollywood movie of all time.

ZAP2IT REVIEW by Mike Szymanski:
Rating: out of
This ranks as one of my all-time favorite films. It's one of the three I'd take to a desert island with me to watch over and over again. The romance between all three of the main characters jumps out at the screen, and each time you wonder if it could end a different way -- or if only. Each of the scenarios are just as believable, and that's why perhaps it wasn't decided until the last minute just how the story was going to end. One of the most luminous female performances ever is Ingrid Bergman in this simple girl who's caught up with the world swirling around her. Bogart is the hapless bum who can't admit his true feelings and plays it as close to the vest as the high rollers in his casino. All of the supporting characters, Greenstreet, Lorre, all of them, are memorable. The chilling moments: such as the singing at Rick's of the patriotic song, the flashbacks to Paris, the secret meeting, the "Play it Sam" and all the misunderstandings and intrigue, make this worth looking at this kid again and again.

 

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PAST COVERAGE

 

Click here for our ACADEMY AWARDS SHOWCASE to see our coverage of past Best Picture winners.

'Gone With the Wind' Wins in 1939 - One of the Best Movie Years Ever

'You Can't Take it With You' Took 11th Oscar With Them

 

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ACADEMY RELEASE

ACADEMY'S DIAMOND ANNIVERSARY SCREENING SERIES TO FEATURE "CASABLANCA"

BEVERLY HILLS, CA - A 1943 Columbia Pictures newsreel, titled "Hollywood in Uniform," featuring actors such as Desi Arnaz, Jimmy Stewart and Robert Stack in the military will precede a screening of "Casablanca" on Monday, August 19, at 7:30 p.m. in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Samuel Goldwyn Theater. The 16th film to win the Oscar. for Best Picture, "Casablanca" is the next film in the 75th anniversary screening series, "Facets of the Diamond: 75 Years of Best Picture Winners."

Footage from the 16th Academy Awards. will be shown during the evening as will the Oscar-winning Cartoon Short Subject of 1943, "Yankee Doodle Mouse." Behind-the-scenes footage of 1943 Best Picture nominee "The More the Merrier" also will be featured during the program. "You'll Never Know," the Best Song of 1943 from the film "Hello Frisco, Hello," will serve as the evening's curtain music.



 

 

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