The Greatest Movie Ever

Rating: 10/10 (18 May 2008)

This is it. There is no movie I've ever seen I love like this one. My all-time favorite.
In the first place, it is not a huge, earth-shattering epic. It is a tiny little story, about a small handful of people. It doesn't have a life-changing moral. It is merely the most perfectly cut, perfectly polished gem Hollywood has ever produced.
Humphrey Bogart is Rick Blaine, the burnt-out American who has found a place to die after his heart has died in Paris. He runs a saloon, living more from force of habit than anything else, and his granite cynicism makes him irresistible to others, men and women. When the love whose loss drove him to such despair returns, his mask cracks, and his agony is so wondrous to see. We get to watch his struggle, and he gives no hints as to his final decision until he announces it at the very end.
Ingrid Bergman, as Ilsa, is, clichéd as it is, luminous. She so loves Rick, she so loves her husband. The scene where Victor, her husband, leads that stirring demonstration in Rick's, shows her face full of unadulterated adoration for him. What wouldn't I give to have any woman look at me like that! Her agony is beautiful. We all want her, and all wish we could be either of her heroes.
Paul Henreid, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Conrad Veidt, all gave such performances that they have become stereotypes.
But I must pay worshipful tribute to Claude Rains. I think he has the very best lines in the movie. His cheerful cynicism, his unbridled lust, his proud greed, never bowing to the embarrassment of even acknowledging his naked hypocrisy, make him my favorite part of this great movie.
This is the only movie I've ever seen I love more each time I see it. There are no great depths to plumb here, no hidden pieces of trivia for aficianadoes to find. Just a very nearly perfect story that is enjoyable time and again.
"Who's On First" is the only comedy routine that is just as funny every time you hear it. "Casablanca" is the equally-miraculous movie, just as golden every time you see it, and maybe increasing in value with every viewing.
You don't have to know a thing about the time. You don't have to remind yourself, as you do with "Citizen Kane", that this is the movie that started all these things. It shines like a star. The perfectly cut, perfectly polished gem of Hollywood.