Casablanca, the Unique

Rating: 10/10 (12 February 2018)

This, now iconic, old film owes much of its character to the number of actual refugees from Hitler's Third Reich in the non-starring roles, (Bogart, Bergman, and Henreid aside).
A brief appearance by Peter Lorre is a case in point and even more so is S.Z. ("Cuddles") Sakall much of whose family was actually wiped out in the holocaust and who has a sizable role in this film as Carl the Waiter.
The inevitable Sydney Greenstreet plays a friendly rival of Rick Blaine's American Cafe and, of course, Dooley Wilson as the pianist and singer Sam of "play it again" fame. No Hoagy Carmichael (Bogie's later pianist) he, and so his piano playing had to be dubbed as his voice was not. And Claude Rains as the corrupt Captain Louis Renault ("I'm shocked, shocked" and "Round up the usual suspects")
The Song, "as Time Goes By" by Herman Hupfeld was basically the theme song of "Casablanca" and was used throughout as part of the complete score.
The villainous Nazi Major Strasser was, of course, played by Conrad Veidt who was not Jewish but whose third wife was. Mr. Veidt, however, told the nazis that he was himself Jewish making it certain that he would have to leave Germany.

The now-cliched lines have become part of the lore of filmdom but, of course, this film is where they originated!
This is a film that, with all its faults and its occasional historical inaccuracies, still richly deserves its present reputation.