Flawed Classic

Rating: 8/10 (27 May 2008)

Firstly the plot. The story of Rick, a man who is ravaged by despair and regret running a bar in Casablanca, a city run by occupied France. Enter a resistance hero, Victor Laszlo, needing two letters of transit to escape to America to carry out a propaganda war against the Nazi's after fighting and resisting them as they marched through Europe unopposed. As Rick winds up with the letters and has fought for noble causes in the past it should be relatively easy to get out for the hero. But as the resistance fighter's escort is Rick's long lost love, Ilsa Lund, nothing is going to go smoothly.
Let's get one thing straight about this film, while the plot is fantastic, The cast do make it better. If you take some of the moments of bad dialogue in this movie and look at it on face value, then what you've got on paper is a contender for one of the hammiest films of all time, and sadly Ingrid Bergman gets landed with all of the crap lines.
However, the classic moments thankfully outweigh the bad ones, Peter Lorry and Bogies chat at the chess table and subsequent arrest "I stick my neck out for nobody" the superb moment with Captain Renault as Rick looks after the plane leaving with longing etched into every line on his face, the incredible scene at the roulette table which makes my stomach do somersaults every time I see it "Have you tried 22?" and my personal favourite, the underrated Victor Laszlo's impassive response when informed that the man that would save him and Ilsa has been killed in custody "Is that all?" is a great response when you consider what he has just heard.
Overall, for me, this is not in the league of "The Big Sleep" which matches Casablanca for classic moments and arguably has the better lines, but it still does not take away the fact that this is a classic, albeit a flawed one.