First Rate in every way

Rating: 9/10 (10 July 2006)

The film revolves around the lives of WWII refugees who use Casablanca as means of getting out of war torn Europe and into the United States. Humphrey Bogart is excellent as the cafe owner Rick and Ingrid Bergman superb as Ilsa, Rick's old lover who abandoned him in Paris without explanation, and then shows up in Casablanca with her husband. The script is well written and the dialogue flows effortlessly and believably between characters. Ingrid Bergman brings a fantastic amount of complexity to her character's emotions and the mystery surrounding her true feelings for Rick is smartly never fully resolved. Even when Ilsa claims she thought her husband was dead and that's why she had an romance with Rick, I'm not sure I believe her. Ilsa, whether its out of guilt or love, desperately wants to get her husband Victor Laszlo out of Casblanca and on his way to the USA. The Germans are trying to keep Laszlo in Casablanca indefinitely due to his anti-war activities. Claude Rains as Captain Renault is wonderful and leaves a indelible mark in cinema history for his witty retorts throughout the film. The movie was the birth of the often repeated movie lines "here's looking at you kid" and "this looks like the start of a beautiful friendship." I highly recommend this film.