Casablanca (1942)
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An American expatriate in Vichy-controlled Morocco must decide whether to help a woman he loves escape with her husband, a resistance leader.
The story
In December 1941, Rick Blaine, an American expatriate, runs a nightclub and gambling den in Casablanca, French Morocco. The establishment serves a diverse clientele, including refugees seeking to reach the United States and officials from the Vichy French and German regimes. Rick maintains a stance of neutrality until the arrival of his former lover, Ilsa Lund, who appears in the club with her husband, Victor Laszlo, a prominent Czechoslovak Resistance leader. The presence of the couple forces Rick to confront his past and his feelings, while the threat of German intervention in the city heightens the stakes for those seeking escape to safety.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In 1941, Rick Blaine runs a nightclub in Casablanca, a city under Vichy French control. When his former lover, Ilsa Lund, arrives with her husband, Victor Laszlo, a resistance leader, Rick is forced to confront his past. Laszlo needs 'letters of transit' to escape to neutral territory, and it is revealed that Rick is holding them. Amidst the tension of the war, Rick must decide whether to help the couple escape or remain neutral. After a series of confrontations with the German Major Strasser and the local police, Rick ultimately chooses to help them. In a final act of sacrifice, he allows Ilsa to board a plane with Laszlo, while he remains behind to face the consequences, ending his period of isolation with a new friendship with the local police chief.
- First release year
- 1942
- Runtime (minutes)
- 102
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Michael Curtiz
- Writers
- Julius J. Epstein · screenplay; Philip G. Epstein · screenplay; Howard Koch · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Humphrey Bogart · Rick Blaine; Ingrid Bergman · Ilsa Lund; Paul Henreid · Victor Laszlo; Claude Rains · Captain Louis Renault; Conrad Veidt · Major Heinrich Strasser; Sydney Greenstreet · Signor Ferrari; Peter Lorre · Signor Ugarte
- Genres
- romantic drama; war drama
- Themes
- sacrifice; romance; war
- Tone and mood
- cynical; melodramatic; tense
- Premise and plot tags
- historical; romance; war; espionage
- Source material / true-story basis
- Everybody Comes to Rick's
- Reception
- The film received consistently good reviews and has grown in reputation to become an iconic classic, often cited as one of the greatest films in history.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 100 · scale: 100 · review count: 18
- Awards and nominations
- Academy Award · Best Director · win; Academy Award · Best Adapted Screenplay · win
- Production trivia
- The film was shot entirely at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, except for one sequence at Van Nuys Airport.; The line 'Play it again, Sam' is not actually spoken in the film.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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