Rent Casablanca (1942)

Classic Romance. - Casablanca review by Steve

Perhaps the ultimate triumph of the Hollywood studio system. It wasn't a prestige project. No one knew they were making a classic. But because Warner Brothers had great salaried talent to call on, they transformed an unproduced one act play set in Casablanca during WWII, into something enduring and universal.  

It lacks realism, but it feels true. During the cathartic scene when the refugees of many countries sing La Marseillaise in Rick's cafe to drown out the Germans' anthem, the cast and extras were in tears for real. Many of them really were fugitives from the Nazis. Humphrey Bogart and Dooley Wilson are the only American actors.  

What gives the work cohesion is Max Steiner's famous score and Julius and Philip Epstein's legendary script. What exalts the film is the compelling romance between Rick (Bogart) and Ilsa (Ingrid Berman). She gives the film so much of its emotional intensity, he delivers the sassy humour and famous epigrams with immortal cool.

Maybe the well known production complications contributed to the impression of a precarious world. Casablanca could have been just another film on the Warner's roster. But it is loved, because it captures a sensation of the uncertainty of exile at crossroads in history while touching our hearts and giving us faith in a greater good.

Classical Hollywood Masterpiece - Casablanca review by GI

One of the great classical Hollywood romance dramas with Humphrey Bogart the epitome of the American anti-hero here as a cynical bar owner in French Morocco, still under French rule following their European defeat by the Germans in the early years of the Second World War. This is a story ripe with melodrama and intrigue and made Bogart into a megastar. He really is a most unusual star too when you watch him today, not a classically handsome man and prone to having a sneering look which made him quite menacing. As a bad guy he fitted perfectly, as the romantic hero he's a strange choice but he hits every note just right in this wonderful film. He's Rick, an American, who owns the most popular bar in Casablanca. An uneasy truce exists between the French authorities in the form of the police commissioner (Claude Rains) and the Gestapo, who are on the look out for enemies attempting to flee occupied Europe via Casablanca en route to the USA. Corruption is rife and Rick has a hand in most of it. He has come into possession of some blank exit passports that are worth a fortune on the black market. When an anti-nazi fugitive, Laszlo (Paul Henreid) arrives in town hoping for passage to America Rick couldn't care less until he discovers he's accompanied by his wife, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman). Rick and Ilsa once had an affair in Paris and he's still very much in love with her. He's faced with a choice of helping Laszlo and Ilsa escape or betraying Laszlo to the gestapo so Ilsa and he can be together. Full of very famous film quotable lines (often wrongly I may add, for example "Play It Again, Sam" is never said in the film) and with a superb cast of support actors and the famous song 'As Time Goes By'. This is a film noir full of dark shadows, betrayals, and double cross with a beautiful love story at its heart. A film that is essential for any true film fan, a real classic and one that its worth seeking out if you've never seen it. It is a real classic from the classical period of American cinema.