The best ever

Rating: 10/10 (10 October 2002)

Not much can be said about one of the most glorious accidental triumphs in movie history. The right stars, the right supporting cast, the right director and particularly the right script came together magically for the best movie in Hollywood history.
I often say that this movie is like Stairway to Heaven - it has been ripped off so many times, that to watch it now for the first time can make it seem full of cliches - as long as you were aware that it was this creation that started all the cliches.
Briefly, the plot concerns the coming together of half-a-dozen main players in Casablanca during the middle of the second World War. Humphrey Bogart is the archetypical softie with the hard, cynical shell, Paul Heinreid is a wonderfully noble leader of men, Ingrid Bergman truly makes you believe that a man could obsess about her for years. Claude Rains is wonderfully devillish as the corrupt prefect of police, Sidney Greenstreet positively Machiavellian as a business rival and Peter Lorre incredible as a cheap hood.
Watch this movie, and for the love of all that's holy, make sure it is in the original black and white!