It is a comic strip, a hotch-potch, low on psychological credibility, and with little continuity in its dramatic effects. So all those moments of inspired direction that wring bursts of applause for their unexpected boldness actually represent decisions taken out of desperation. There is a cast of formidable hams. But that is not enough. And Casablanca is not Stagecoach , another film periodically revived.
Stagecoach is a masterpiece in every respect.
So one is tempted to read Casablanca the way T. S. Eliot reread Hamlet . So critics and public alike find Hamlet beautiful because it is interesting, and believe it to be interesting because it is beautiful. On a smaller scale, the same thing happened to Casablanca . Forced to improvise a plot, the authors mixed in a little of everything, and everything they chose came from a repertoire of the tried and true. When the choice of the tried and true is limited, the result is a trite or mass-produced film, or simply kitsch.