Casablanca (film)

Casablanca, a 1942 American romantic drama, was directed by Michael Curtiz. Its leads were Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid.

Writing

The story, set during World War II, follows an American expatriate (Bogart) torn between his love for a woman (Bergman) and aiding her husband (Henreid), a Czechoslovak resistance leader, in escaping Vichy-controlled Casablanca to fight the Nazis. The screenplay came from Everybody Comes to Rick's, an unproduced stage play by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison. Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Dooley Wilson rounded out the supporting cast.

Warner Bros. story editor Irene Diamond convinced producer Hal B. Wallis to buy the play’s film rights in January 1942. Brothers Julius and Philip G. Epstein were initially hired to write the script, but despite studio objections, they left early in 1942 to work on Frank Capra’s Why We Fight series.

Howard Koch then took over the screenplay until the Epsteins returned a month later. Principal photography ran from May 25 to August 3, 1942, shot entirely at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, except for one sequence at Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles.

Release

Though an A-list production with established stars and top writers, no one involved expected it to stand out among Hollywood’s yearly output. It was rushed into release to capitalize on publicity from the Allied invasion of North Africa weeks earlier. The film premiered in New York City on November 26, 1942, and went nationwide in the U.S. on January 23, 1943. Its initial run was solid but unspectacular.

Exceeding expectations, it won the Academy Award for Best Picture; Curtiz was named Best Director, and the Epsteins and Koch won for Best Adapted Screenplay. Its reputation has steadily grown, making its lead characters, memorable lines, and theme song iconic. It consistently ranks near the top of lists of the greatest films ever.

Awards and honors

In 1989, the U.S. Library of Congress selected it as one of the first films for preservation in the National Film Registry, citing its cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance. Its copyright was renewed in 1970; it will enter the public domain in the U.S. and countries with the rule of the shorter term on January 1, 2038. Roger Ebert wrote: “If there is ever a time when they decide that some movies should be spelled with an upper-case M, Casablanca should be voted first on the list of Movies.”

The plot begins in December 1941. American expatriate Rick Blaine runs a nightclub and gambling den in Casablanca, French Morocco. “Rick’s Café Américain” draws a mixed crowd: Vichy French and German officials, desperate refugees hoping to reach neutral America, and those who prey on them. Rick claims neutrality, but he ran guns to Ethiopia in 1935 and fought for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War.

Plot

Petty crook Ugarte boasts to Rick of letters of transit obtained by murdering two German couriers. These papers allow free travel through German-occupied Europe to neutral Portugal. Ugarte plans to sell them at the club and persuades Rick to hold them. Ugarte is then arrested by local police under Captain Louis Renault, the corrupt prefect of police, and killed in custody without revealing Rick has the letters.

The reason for Rick’s cynicism—former lover Ilsa Lund—then enters his establishment. Spotting Sam, Rick’s friend and house pianist, Ilsa asks him to play “As Time Goes By.” Rick storms over, furious Sam disobeyed his order to never play that song, and is stunned to see Ilsa. She is with her husband, Victor Laszlo, a renowned fugitive Czechoslovak Resistance leader. A flashback shows Ilsa left Rick without explanation when they planned to flee as the German army neared Paris in 1940, embittering him.

Laszlo and Ilsa need the letters to escape, while German Major Strasser arrives to prevent that. When Laszlo makes inquiries, Signor Ferrari, an underworld figure and Rick’s friendly rival, suggests Rick has the letters. Laszlo returns to Rick’s café that night and tries to buy them.

Rick refuses, telling Laszlo to ask his wife why. They are interrupted when Strasser leads German officers in singing “Die Wacht am Rhein.” Laszlo orders the house band to play “La Marseillaise,” and Rick allows it. Patriotism grips the crowd, drowning out the Germans. Strasser then has Renault close the club on a flimsy pretext.

Later, Ilsa confronts Rick in the deserted café. When he refuses to give her the letters, she threatens him with a gun but confesses she still loves him. She explains that when they met and fell in love in Paris, she believed her husband had been killed trying to escape a concentration camp.

When she learned Laszlo was alive and in hiding, she left Rick without explanation to nurse her sick husband. Rick’s bitterness dissolves. He agrees to help.