This captivating wartime adventure of romance and intrigue from director Michael Curtiz defies standard categorization.

Rating: 10/10 (18 July 2010)

Rick Blaine's (Humphrey Bogart) cafe in Casablanca is a centre for war refugees awaiting visas for America. Rick abandons his cynicism to help an old flame (Ingrid Bergman) escape the Nazis with her husband (Paul Henreid), a heroic Resistance leader.
Casablanca is cinema par excellence: a studio-bound Hollywood melodrama which after various chances just fell together impeccably into one of the outstanding entertainment experiences of cinema history, with romance, intrigue, excitement, suspense and humour cunningly deployed by master technicians and a perfect cast. Its characters, dialogue, and music have become iconic, and the film has grown in popularity to the point that it now consistently ranks near the top of lists of the greatest films of all time.